At this point in my life, every Rolling Stones record sounds like a greatest hits record. The younger, stupider me might go off on how the hits aren't as good as the more obscure album cuts that nobody has heard, but let's get real. Everybody has heard that stuff, just like everybody knows all the Beatles and Dylan songs on every album. Who are we trying to impress anymore? This is not private press psyche or hardcore. It's the Stones, and when I want to listen to the Stones I want to hear Jumping Jack Flash go into Street Fighting Man go into Sympathy for the Devil, skip Honky Tonk Woman, then finish the side with Gimme Shelter (hot rocks record two, side one) At some point, you just got to pick up a worn copy of something that's worth nothing just for the simple pleasure of rocking out. It's a healthy reminder of why you listen to records in the first place. –Alex
One of the first Stones albums I ever got, I love the whole package - the cover, the costumes they're wearing on the back with that old castle and overgrown grass (and Charlie placed front and center looking as menacing as he can). Just an A+ compilation in every way.
ReplyDelete'Hot Rocks' is one of my favorites too and I totally agree that the whole package was cool. The Stones have always had a way of making their hits packages look just as cool as their regular releases. I like the point of your review -- dropping the pretensions and rocking out to what we all know and love -- even though there are some Stones LP's I really love to play wire to wire. We had this one on 8-track in my buddies '69 Mach 1 with Jensen 'Mind Blowers', possibly the first amped up loud ass car speaker system that set the course to what would eventually grow to become the 'boom car' revolution. Ahhh, the good times...
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct in assessing that everyone knows all the songs now and also on your "skip HTW" on side 3
ReplyDeletefantastic and true. This record has always kicked ass