GRRR!

Artist: Rolling Stones, The
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2012
Rating: 5/5

What is there even to say about a band that myth and legend have been built around? A new compilation celebrating 50 years of The Rolling Stones. A triple compilation with all the most famous hits and, guess what else? Two brand-new songs. So the old nags are still showing artistic signs of life.

A chronological run from the primal beginnings, where you can clearly see where this legendary band’s love of music comes from. Delta blues. The first four tracks on this compilation are covers of classic originals, from Chuck Berry to Willie Dixon, and they serve as a mini guide to the very heart of the band’s roots. Of course, even these show plainly that the early The Rolling Stones bent those originals to their own unique understanding of music through the prism of rock ‘n’ roll excess. From Mick Jagger’s extravagant strutting and mugging, shaping a distinctive melos and the echo of the vocal lines’ verses, to the peculiar drone of the deliberately loud guitar jangle of the Richards / Jones duo. The first CD couldn’t capture the original sin of this band in a more authentic imprint. Everything played in the first take, everything primal, honest and above all with the character of pioneering, revolutionary defiance. Stripped-down, naked, barefoot rock ‘n’ roll, armed to the teeth with the original chemistry of the Jagger/Richards creative nucleus, forging a musical legacy whose greatness nobody in this galaxy dares to undermine with doubts. It’s all preserved. Alongside the band’s brilliant courage, there are also the »screw-ups«, both in performance and in production, that have to be exactly where they are! Precisely these elemental spices give the story of The Rolling Stones an extra authentic core, and the compilation »Grrr!« doesn’t dodge that either.

The first CD leads the listener on to one of the most original riffs of the rock era in Satisfaction, where, despite its primal simplicity, you can pick out a whole bunch of little details in the tunes of Richards’ guitar playing (combined with the use of his »fuzz box«), all the way to the bass line in counterpoint.  But without songs like 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint It Black (a gauntlet thrown down to George Harrison – read: the integration of the sitar), and  Have You Seen Your Mother (Standing In the Shadow)?, the early The Rolling  Stones vision of rock ‘n’ roll could hardly be defined! Then there are Ruby Tuesday and We Love You, cut »in a Beatles haircut«, and As Tears Go By, which stress the band’s innate sense, already there in the early era, for delicate sophistication and melodicity, which could open the door to symphonic arrangements too. All the while in a shameless dialogue with hedonistic excess, a veil of anxiety inherited from the legacy of the blues, in a rush of finely placed rebelliousness that sucked generations of teenagers into its wheels.

CD number »2« opens with Jumping Jack Flash. What defines the second CD is greater precision in the guitar playing (thanks to Mick Taylor’s virtuosity), growth in the arrangements, even more defined compositions. The songs get beefed up with extra percussion, the use of tambourine and Mick Jagger’s host of »shakers« becomes more and more active, and the contrast between faces of sophistication (You Can’t Get Always What You Want) and a roughness that isn’t necessarily defined by growling guitars, as in Sympathy For The Devil with its combination of piano, Mick Jagger’s infectious vocal excess and the baboon-like howl of the backing vocals, is even more pronounced. Here come arrangements for horns, piano, organ, backing-vocal harmonies. Brian Jones was drinking like a fish at the time, so he missed most of the important recordings that make up the cult hit standards of the second CD, despite his primordial, explosive brilliance when it comes to nimble guitar playing. Tracks like Wild Horses, Brown Sugar and Heartbreaker bring the band’s adventurous forays into funk and country, which juicily fill out the group’s proven rock ‘n’ roll mold. Ron Wood adds a new qualitative component to the band in It’s Only Rock N’ Roll. As far as sound production goes, it’s the band’s work with Jimmy Miller that takes the winning spot in the history of The Rolling Stones. With him, The Rolling Stones put their elements of possessive eroticism, dark blues forces and predatory rebellious excess front and center, while also growing in songwriting and arrangements. Of course, the monumental Gimme Shelter (read: »Altamont«) doesn’t escape this either, and it had a towering influence on masters like Grand Funk Railroad.

The third CD opens with the sophisticated, funk-disco-rhythm-backed erotic »screwdriver« Miss You, and the triumphant highlights of the eighties era include Start Me Up with its killer riff, Beast Of Burden, Respectable, Emotional Rescue, plus the gigantic Undercover Of The Night and Mixed Emotions. In terms of production, the band’s career continued less convincingly through the eighties, which even the excellent memory of a coffee-shop fling in Hawaii in the song Waiting On A Friend doesn’t hide. Still, the third CD reflects the band’s natural process of maturing into its fifth decade of existence, which, despite a lack of sonic warmth, doesn’t lose that true The Rolling Stones charge and charisma, wrapped up by the hit Don’t Stop.

The third disc is rounded off by the new songs Doom And Gloom and, right after it, One More Shot. Interestingly, behind the producer’s baton on both new tracks sits Don Was, who is the »culprit« for the excessive polishing of the sound on the band’s later work, and who did a superb job on both new numbers. Both new songs are guitar-driven. In both, Richards’ riffs hit with an intensity you rarely hear, almost provoking an AC/DC riff, which is a great omen for the next The Rolling Stones album (if it ever happens at all). But it all depends, of course, on which producer The Rolling Stones turn to. The new songs prove that The Rolling Stones haven’t lost their charge, and the magical chemistry between Richards and Jagger  keeps the magazines fully loaded. So the prospects are good.

You can’t add anything to this compilation. You can’t take anything away from it. Across the band’s five decades, the greatest moments of the one-and-only The Rolling Stones are gathered here, a band that marked generations, marked the development of rock, established standards embodied by pretty much every incarnation of a rock band in later generations and in the new millennium too.

What is there even to say about a band that myth and legend have been built around? A new compilation celebrating 50 years of The Rolling Stones. A triple compilation with all the most famous hits and, guess what else? Two brand-new songs. So the old nags are still showing artistic signs of life.

A chronological run from the primal beginnings, where you can clearly see where this legendary band’s love of music comes from. Delta blues. The first four tracks on this compilation are covers of classic originals, from Chuck Berry to Willie Dixon, and they serve as a mini guide to the very heart of the band’s roots. Of course, even these show plainly that the early The Rolling Stones bent those originals to their own unique understanding of music through the prism of rock ‘n’ roll excess. From Mick Jagger’s extravagant strutting and mugging, shaping a distinctive melos and the echo of the vocal lines’ verses, to the peculiar drone of the deliberately loud guitar jangle of the Richards / Jones duo. The first CD couldn’t capture the original sin of this band in a more authentic imprint. Everything played in the first take, everything primal, honest and above all with the character of pioneering, revolutionary defiance. Stripped-down, naked, barefoot rock ‘n’ roll, armed to the teeth with the original chemistry of the Jagger/Richards creative nucleus, forging a musical legacy whose greatness nobody in this galaxy dares to undermine with doubts. It’s all preserved. Alongside the band’s brilliant courage, there are also the »screw-ups«, both in performance and in production, that have to be exactly where they are! Precisely these elemental spices give the story of The Rolling Stones an extra authentic core, and the compilation »Grrr!« doesn’t dodge that either.

The first CD leads the listener on to one of the most original riffs of the rock era in Satisfaction, where, despite its primal simplicity, you can pick out a whole bunch of little details in the tunes of Richards’ guitar playing (combined with the use of his »fuzz box«), all the way to the bass line in counterpoint.  But without songs like 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint It Black (a gauntlet thrown down to George Harrison – read: the integration of the sitar), and  Have You Seen Your Mother (Standing In the Shadow)?, the early The Rolling  Stones vision of rock ‘n’ roll could hardly be defined! Then there are Ruby Tuesday and We Love You, cut »in a Beatles haircut«, alongside As Tears Go By, which stress the band’s innate sense, already there in the early era, for delicate sophistication and melodicity, which could open the door to symphonic arrangements too. All the while in a shameless dialogue with hedonistic excess, a veil of anxiety inherited from the legacy of the blues, in a rush of finely placed rebelliousness that sucked generations of teenagers into its wheels.

CD number »2« opens with Jumping Jack Flash. What defines the second CD is greater precision in the guitar playing (thanks to Mick Taylor’s virtuosity), growth in the arrangements, even more defined compositions. On top of that, the songs get beefed up with extra percussion, the use of tambourine and Mick Jagger’s host of »shakers« becomes more and more active. The contrast between faces of sophistication (You Can’t Get Always What You Want) and a roughness that isn’t necessarily defined by growling guitars, as in Sympathy For The Devil with its combination of piano, Mick Jagger’s infectious vocal excess and the baboon-like howl of the backing vocals, is even more pronounced. Here come arrangements for horns, piano, organ, backing-vocal harmonies. Brian Jones was drinking like a fish at the time, so he missed most of the important recordings that make up the cult hit standards of the second CD, despite his primordial, explosive brilliance when it comes to nimble guitar playing. Tracks like Wild Horses, Brown Sugar and Heartbreaker bring the band’s adventurous forays into funk and country, which juicily fill out the group’s proven rock ‘n’ roll mold. Ron Wood’s unconscious punk sentiment adds a new qualitative component to the band in It’s Only Rock N’ Roll.

As far as sound production goes, it’s the band’s work with Jimmy Miller that takes the winning spot in the history of The Rolling Stones. With him, The Rolling Stones put their elements of possessive eroticism, dark blues forces and predatory rebellious excess front and center, while also growing in songwriting and arrangements. Of course, the monumental Gimme Shelter (read: »Altamont«) doesn’t escape this on the second CD of this compilation either, and it had a towering influence on masters like Grand Funk Railroad.

The third CD opens with the sophisticated, funk-disco-rhythm-backed erotic »screwdriver« Miss You, and the triumphant highlights of the eighties era include Start Me Up with its killer riff, Beast Of Burden, Respectable, Emotional Rescue, plus the gigantic Undercover Of The Night and Mixed Emotions. In terms of production, the band’s career continued less convincingly through the eighties, which even the excellent memory of a coffee-shop fling in Hawaii in the song Waiting On A Friend doesn’t hide. Still, the third CD reflects the band’s natural process of maturing into its fifth decade of existence, and even with a lack of sonic warmth thanks to the sound being sterilized, the third disc doesn’t lose that true The Rolling Stones charge and charisma either, wrapped up by the hit Don’t Stop.

The third disc is rounded off by the new songs Doom And Gloom and, right after it, One More Shot. Interestingly, behind the producer’s baton on both new tracks sits Don Was, who is the »culprit« for the excessive polishing of the sound on the band’s later work. Still, he did a superb job on both new numbers. Both new songs are guitar-driven. In both, Richards’ riffs hit with an intensity you rarely hear, almost provoking an AC/DC riff, which is a great omen for the next The Rolling Stones album (if it ever happens at all). But it all depends, of course, on which producer The Rolling Stones turn to. The new songs prove that The Rolling Stones haven’t lost their charge, and the magical chemistry between Richards and Jagger  keeps the magazines fully loaded. So the prospects are good.

You can’t add anything to this compilation. You can’t take anything away from it. Across the band’s five decades, the greatest moments of the one-and-only The Rolling Stones are gathered here, a band that marked generations, marked the development of rock, established standards embodied by pretty much every incarnation of a rock band in later generations and in the new millennium too. You’ve got a triple dose of hearty gnawing on rock n’ roll’s huge legacy ahead of you, plus a great chance to upgrade your collection of The Rolling Stones compilations, which spans releases from »Made In The Shade« (1975) to »Forty Licks« (2002).

Lineup

Mick Jagger – vocals
Keith Richards – guitar
Ron Wood – guitar
Brian Jones – guitar
Mick Taylor – guitar
Bill Wyman – bass
Charlie Watts – drums

Tracklist