The Rolling Stones Album: “Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! [Remaster]”

There was only one version of Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! This is it. It was released simultaneously in the UK and US on Sep 4, 1970. Although the album was supposed to have been recorded at Madison Square Garden during the 1969 tour, most of the tracks were overdubed later and there are questions about what songs were recorded which nights and where. Karnbach and Bernson are fairly sure that Love in Vain was recorded on Nov 26th at the Baltimore Civic Center with the other tracks recorded during one show Nov 27 and two shows Nov 28 at Madison Square Garden and during the Nov 29 show at the Boston Garden.

This is the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material. ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog after Allen Klein became their manager in 1965. The resulting legal battles produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With these remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had these 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the World.

Many serious Stones fans consider this the best of the live albums they have done over the years. It was the 2nd live album but it caught them at their peak as a driving band with their own megahits first peaking....Honky Tonk Woman, Jumpin' Jack Flash, & Street Fighting Man are all delivered hot and fresh with blazing licks by Keith on everything......Sympathy For The Devil has a great delivery by Mick, but my favorites on this one remain Carol, Little Queenie, and Midnight Rambler. The incredible drive of the rhythm section on Carol and the opening chords of Midnight Rambler are historic....are part of the basic fabric of rock......no matter how you look at it, this is one album you must have if you want a live Stones piece in your collection.

The album has several notable facts connected with it:

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection.

I have to echo the thoughts of the other reviewers: This is a fine album, but it needs to be expanded and re-released with the rest of the material from the '69 tour. The standard setlist for this tour also included Prodigal Son, You've Got to Move, Under My Thumb, Satisfaction, and occasionally I'm Free and Gimme Shelter. The tapes should still exist, and if they've been lost the material is available on a number of "unauthorized" recordings that could be cleaned up. As those recordings demonstrate, all this material would fit comfortably on one CD. If they'd like to make this a two-disc set, they could add a second disc with the original live versions, minus the studio over-dubs included in the current release.

When so many classic albums are being expanded and reissued, there's no excuse for leaving this one in its truncated state.

It's hard to keep the superlatives from taking over when reviewing this classic 1970 album, the Stones' best live album bar none, and one of the greatest items in their entire catalogue. I loved it when I first heard it, and if anything I rate it even higher now.

"Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" was recorded over two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden in November, 1969 (with the exception of one song from a Baltimore gig the night before). Mick Taylor had just joined the band, but he and Keith Richards play like they have shared a stage for years, and while some overdubbing was undertaken on the vocals, no instruments were overdubbed...the Stones actually sounded this good!

And they do sound good. Amazingly good, actually. The sound on this 2002 ABKCO remaster is magnificent, clean and crisp and realistic, and the band is as tight as anything you'll ever hear, powerful, edgy and completely focused performances all the way through.

This is the ultimate Stones album, really. Everything the Stones can do is right here on this ten-track CD: Hard rock, blues rock, rock n' roll, blues and a little bit country & western, and absolutely everything is right on the money. And no, this isn't hyperbole. A lot of live albums suffer from one or more flaws, like bad mixing, bad fidelity, too much crowd noise, the lead singer sounding like he really can't be bothered to sing that damn song properly for the 1,000th time...but "Ya-Ya's" has none of them. The Stones tear through potent, gritty renditions of Chuck Berry's "Carol" and "Little Queenie", Robert Johnson's mournful Delta blues "Love in Vain", and some of their best original compositions, like the satanic samba "Sympathy for the Devil", the swaggering "Honky Tonk Women", and the tough-as-nails hard rock of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Street Fighting Man".

This is one of the absolute high points of the Stones' career. Never again did they manage to assemble a live album with this much power, and very few of records manage to pack so much fire and energy into a ten song track list. A must-have if ever there was one!

In the fall of 1969, the Stones were touring the US for the first time in three years. Much had changed, most importantly Brian Jones was dead and the Stones were playing with modern PA systems so real rock fans not teeny boppers were actually LISTENING to the music. And what music it was....right smack dab in the middle of their untouchable period, touring in support of albums 'Beggars' Banquet' and 'Let It Bleed'. 'Ya-Ya's' has all the makings of a great live album, and let's be honest, it was their first "real" live record (not counting that atrocity from 1966 'Got Live'....please!!!!). Released in the the fall of 1970 to coincide with the feature film 'Gimme Shelter', the Stones were never better. I don't understand people saying that the live versions of these songs can't compare to the originals. Being a longtime Stones fan and having heard the classics countless times I often surprise people when I tell them that my desert island Stones disc is this one. "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Street Fighting Man", "Sympathy", "Midnight Rambler", "Honky Tonk", "Live With Me"....aw hell, all of them send shivers down my spine. This was Mick Taylor's coming out party and he doesn't disappoint (the greatest lead guitarist the Stones ever had!). His answer solo to Keith on "Sympathy" is absurdly good. This has always been my favorite Stones song, this version from this album! (Hearing the girl "request"-"Paint it, Black" kills me) "Queenie" and "Love in Vain" are spotlights for Keith and Mick T. respectively. Jagger is at his swaggering showman best even giving Charlie a hand before "Honky Tonk". The band is stripped down totally for this tour as only Ian Stewart is there to lend some honky tonk piano to the proceedings. I'll stop now before I continue rambling but its hard to stop talking about an album that has given me so much joy for so many years (too bad I was about 5 months old when this show was taped). A few short weeks before the tragedy at Altamont, the Stones could lay their audacious claim as the 'Greatest Rock n'Roll Band in the World'. On 'Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!', there's the proof.

I was elated to see record company's begin release remastered and extended versions of classic albums from their catalogues. I loved picking up the new remastered and extended releases from the Allman Brothers "Fillmore Concerts" and Derek & the Dominos "Live at the Fillmore" to name a few.

The Stones were my first favorite band growing up and this was one of the first albums I purchased in the early 70's. After finally seeing their movie Gimme Shelter and hearing some of the other material that was played during this tour, I was looking forward to this remastered release. I was disappointed it only contained material from the original 1970 album. Where is the balance of the material played at the MSG shows: You Gotta Move, Prodigal Son, Under My Thumb and Satisfaction?

I will echo the sediments of other reviewers, the sound quality here is excellent. This is the band at the height of their creative and energetic best. If you are going to buy only one live Stones album, buy this one, but this classic album deserves the to be reissued with the extra material and then it would easily rate 5 stars.