Disco de The Rolling Stones: “Live Licks”

While I agree with some of the criticim regarding the editing of this double disk, the sound is excellent and the performances are very solid. This CD is very representative of the Stones live sound and is a good listen. I've been a Stones fan all my life, I have every one of their albums, and I'm happy to add this CD to my collection. The first disk covers a lot of ground that's already been covered on other Stones live disks but the second disk especially will make a nice addition to any Stones/music collection.

Not a criticism, since you can't play the DVD's on your CD player, but for those wondering, if you already have the "Four Flicks" DVD set, you have all the songs represented here.

Love the music, BUT here's where I get really mad. By their own stats included in the CD booklet, the Stones played 116 shows and performed 2301 songs. Do the maths: an average of 4 mins per song and you have 9,204 minutes of recordings but, on 2 CDs that are capable of 150 mins of music, we get only 49 mins on CD1 and 60 minutes on CD2, a total of 109 minutes. Like the other reviewer, I reckon I feel cheated as well but for a totally different reason. I was so lucky to see a "Let It Bleed" show in Melbourne Australia which included a blistering "Midnight Rambler" and one of the best performances of "Tumbling Dice" I have ever seen or heard. Where are they? Where is "Jumping Jack Flash?" I cannot believe that out of all the performances, enough songs to fill 2 CD's could not be found......NOT GOOD ENOUGH, EMI/Virgin!!!! In an era when you are fighting off the downloaders and P2P sites around the world, you end up treating your legitimate long-standing purchasers (40 yrs of record & CD buying here) in such a cynical fashion. I still love the music, but call me greedy, I do believe you could have delivered more.

On the plus side, this rocks hard. The second cd with the rarities is great, a lot of fun. I have been playing the second cd turned way up while painting a bedroom and it definitely enhances the project.

On the minus side, just as you are really cranked up, grooving to Rocks Off, the stupid edit stops you dead in your tracks and ruins a superb version of this Exile classic. Also, they played several more great rarities on that tour and had plenty of room for them on these CD's, their omission is disappointing.

Lots of fun but flawed.

The fact that there are two versions of this CD, one with a bikini-clad cover girl and the original sans bikini, makes you wonder about the priorities of the Western world, doesn't it?

Anyway...this is a pretty good live album. I've seen some people complain about the sound, but it's not that bad, it's just not truly great, and that goes for the album itself as well I suppose.

If you don't own any live Stones, you won't mind the fact that songs like "Start Me Up", "Street Fighting Man", "Honky Tonk Women" and "Satisfaction" have been available live for a long time and on several different albums. And if you do, well, then you're probably considering to buy this album because of disc two, which features a dozen rarely heard songs which have never appeared live before.

Now, I don't know why these rarities have to be compiled on a disc of their own...I would have preferred them to be mixed in with the old warhorses on disc one. But that's the way things are, and it's nice to have them.

Disc one is highlighted by powerful renditions of "Paint It Black" and "Street Fighting Man", and disc two features a really good, bluesy "Monkey Man" and a wonderful take on the classic blues "Rock Me Baby". "Brown Sugar" is alright, too, and I'm sure it was very provocative and exciting thirty years ago when Jagger first changed the line "like a young girl should" into "like a young man should". I've gotten kinda tired of it by now, though.

Sir Michael Jagger is actually the main reason why I've given this album only three stars. His vocals are frequently sloppy and unfocused, and while I expect that from Keith Richards, Jagger used to be a better singer than this. Perhaps he still is, but "Live Licks" is not his finest hour. He is not terrible, but he is also very rarely great, and I hate that annoying faux-country slur of his.

Still, it's good to hear the 60s soul cover "That's How Strong My Love Is" and the driving (if slightly ragged) "Rocks Off". And of course one of my personal "cult" favorites, Keith Richards' swinging reggae-number "You Don't Have To Mean It".

The band is really good, too, as tight as a 13-man combo can be. "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" and "Love You Live" remain the best live Stones albums in my book, but dedicated fans should find something to like here as well. One hour and fifty minutes of music on a double live album from a 43-year-old band is a bit stingy, though...they could've found room for another ten songs.

"Live Licks" is a decent album, but if you really want the taste of the Stones' "Licks" tour, go for the DVD set "Four Flicks". Yeah, it's kinda expensive, but it is so much better...and it has Keith Richards' wonderful performance of "Slipping Away" from London's Twickenham Sadium, one of the absolute highlights of the tour.