 "Stones as product." | 2009-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A27UWBI2R985CM |
| If nothing else, this 2-CD set collects most of the necessary Stones singles together and offers stunning remastered sound. A few tracks are curious inclusions ('Have You Seen Your Mother Baby', 'Anybody Seen My Baby'), a few exclusions are puzzling ('Waiting on a Friend', 'Let it Bleed'), and the 4 new tracks are serviceable but underwhelming. Still, overall this collection will satisfy casual fans and longtime Stoners. Packaging is stark, and designed for maximum store display impact. Probably a necessary release, and yet a cynical marketing ploy at the same time, 'Forty Licks' is both the definitive and redundant Stones collection. |
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| "Back When The Stones Earth Was Young" | 2009-11-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: AGEIT17HENDIS |
I will repeat here what I have mentioned in other reviews of the early work of The Rolling Stones.... "Hey, in 2009 no one, including this reviewer, NEEDS to comment on the fact that The Rolling Stones, pound for pound, have over forty plus years earned their place as the number one band in the rock `n' roll pantheon. Still, it is interesting to listen once again to the guys when they were at the height of their musical powers (and as high, most of the time, as Georgia pines)". This "greatest hits" compilation takes us back to the days, before the heavier rock sound but right up their in competition with the Beatles for the `soul' of the youthful rock fans of the 1960's. Some of these songs are classic of the rock `n' roll song book others are just faded memories. The cover of "Not Fade Away",their own "Satisfaction", "The Last Time", "Gimme Shelter", Sympathy For The Devil" and "19th Nervous Breakdown" will endure as long as people need rock `n' roll to get through the day. "Street Fighting","Tell Me" and "Play With Fire" are more for youthful memories. The new stuff added for this tour promotion is rather same old-same old. It's the old stuff you want this for, especially for beginners.
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 "Forty Licks licked The Hell out of me" | 2009-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: A4QNSWNKSYG66 |
| Considering that I was born in 1981, I am not a music geek, and I do not find Mick Jagger remotely attractive, I love this collection of hits from the Rolling Stones because it encompasses all of the great hits. Some of the hits are: have you seen my baby, start me up, angie, jumping jack flash, gimme shelter, you can't always get what you want, under my thumb, sympathy for the devil, and many more. I love to sing along to this collect and it is a shame that it is being discontinued because this is the perfect collect for someone on a budget! Hope the old guys keep on rockin' it because their music makes me shake my booty! The Rolling Stones are to me what the Beatles would be to everyone else. |
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 "Nice collection, but..." | 2009-09-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1QEYHV5EYUSPI |
| This is a nice low-budget collection of old (and some new) Rolling Stones classics. Nothing more said about the songs that most people interested in music knows very well. But I have some complains about the remastering, and the sound quality in general. I know that I can`t expect takes from the 60`s and early 70`s to sound like a pre 2000 publication (especially not early Stones..), but with todays remastering technologies, I still expect the sound to be less harsh and hollow than which is the case here, of course without losing the "soul and mood" in the songs. |
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| "Great Songs, Poorly Compiled" | 2009-09-05 |
| - Reviewed By rpfelton |
| When I first got this album I hated it. I actually considered throwing it away. The song sequencing is atrocious, too many important songs are excluded, and three of the four new songs are extremely weak. ("Don't Stop" is nice, but "Losing My Touch" is terrible.) Upon reconsideration, this album does have a large number of essential songs, and, taken on its own, is undeniably very good. However, due to the aforementioned (less than critical) problems, the Stones career is much better summarized by the terrific 2-disc Rolled Gold+, which summarizes their sixties career, and the very good Jump Back, which summarizes their career from 1971 through 1989. Rolled Gold+ is mostly sequenced chronologically, flowing beautifully from their first UK single, "Come On", through their 1971 classic "Brown Sugar". Every song from their Hot Rocks album is included, plus all their other major hits and several album tracks which were included on More Hot Rocks. The superb #1 UK single, "Little Red Rooster", is included on Rolled Gold+, but not on Hot Rocks or Forty Licks. Jump Back duplicates "Wild Horses" and "Brown Sugar", which are also on Hot Rocks and Forty Licks, is not chronologically sequenced, fails to include several minor hits from the seventies and eighties (e.g. "Going to a Go Go"), and doesn't include anything later than 1989. However, it does contain every post-sixties top 24 song, and every essential (except maybe "Shattered") post-sixties Stones song on a single disc. The music flows along nicely, with absolutely no mediocre tracks. I would highly recommend getting Rolled Gold+ and Jump Back if possible. Forty Licks should be purchased only as a last resort. |
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| "Get your licks in" | 2009-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By tbrough |
Boil away all the antics, mythology, drugs and girls, and inevitably, there is the music. The Rolling Stones made incredible music. There are those who call them the world's greatest rock and roll band. "Forty Licks" argues that, maybe, once upon a time, they were exactly that. When you listen to the first disc in this double set, you could give a good argument to that effect.
What started of as RnB with street dirt rubbed in became one of rock's great tag teams. Only to songs on the set are not credited to Jagger/Richards, and one of them is Buddy Holly...who I have argued with friends was the greatest rocker of all time. (Usually after a few too many, if ya know what I mean.) Bobby Womack is here, too, and The Stones rip his "It's All Over Now" to bits. Mick snarls, Keith snarls right back. They were the essence of rock band as street gang, with songs like "Street Fighting Man" and "Paint It Black" to scare the properly indignant. Their answer was to push back harder and through "Sympathy For The Devil" right back at 'em.
Even with the sense of shock, the band knew what a good guitar lick can do. "Forty Licks" is loaded with licks of the gods, be it the early brilliance of "Satisfaction" or such late comers as "Start Me Up." The bands was also well aware of the sense of humor that music could sneak in; "19th Nervous Breakdown" always struck me as a good laugh, and years later, so does the much derided "Emotional Rescue." They could also get serious, with "Wild Horses" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." The entire band, from Jagger/Richards to rock steady Bill Wyman to the rotating cast of characters that now includes Ron Wood.
The faltering - in my opinion - starts on disc two. Once Tattoo You was done, The Stones fell into the classic rock pattern of record, tour, live album, break, repeat. Songs like "Undercover of the Night" or "Mixed Emotions" were good representations of the albums, but are the sound of a band deep into competency but not mad inspiration. Rolling Stones Inc. But listen to the bulk of this set and you'll get it. These are The Rolling Stones. They always will be. |
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