The latest Rolling Stones albums given away with Sunday's Real News is a live album from 1991. I would probably not have bought it otherwise, since I already have a bunch of those ("Get Your Ya Ya's Out" from 1969, "Live Licks" 2004. the acoustic "Stripped" from 1995, plus DVD's "Some Girls Live '78" and "Shine A Light" from 2007). As great as "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar" are, how many versions does one need? At the time, the album worked well as a souvenir of the record breaking Steel Wheels Tour. Thanks to the hit-laden tracklist, it can also function as a live Best-Of album. More than that, it is an irrefutable document of a great (maybe the greatest?) rock'n'roll band in its natural habitat: the stage. From the opening notes of "Start Me Up", it's evident that the band's 80's slump is behind them and that they've rediscovered their chemistry: Jagger sings with passion rather than just prancing up and down the stage as he sometimes did, Watts hits the drums harder than any time in memory and Wymann propels the band forward flawlessly (albeit for the last time) with his bass. Best of all, Richards' and Wood's intertwined guitars weave an amazing guitar tapestry - even on the disco "Miss You", which Richards claims to hate. It is, of course, Mick's tune and he really rips through it, improvising on spot and interacting with the audience as he goes. More good news: The Steel Wheels tracks "Sad Sad Sad", "Rock and a Hard Place" and "Can't Be Seen" really come alive in a live setting, surpassing their studio counterparts. Then they up the ante by skipping two decades and facing off against their younger selves: Can they match their Sixties heyday? Well, not quite. But, let's be fair: who the fuck can? The inclusion of "Ruby Tuesday" and "Factory Girl" are a nice surprise, as they're not often performed live. But the former's 60's whimsy and latter's sympathy-to-the working-class sentiment seem far removed from today's Stones. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" sounds a bit anaemic but gives Jagger the chance to sing along with the audience and adds to the overall live feel. Which leads us to an amazing sequence of 60's classics, beginning with "Little Red Rooster", a song they originally cut at the fabled Chicago Chess studios in 1965. It's played as it's meant to be played, in a real downhome blues style. Midway through the song, God (Remember the graffitis in London walls back in 1965?) just appears and puts in an amazing blues solo. And yet, the next song beats even that! A Spanish guitar intro gives way to galloping drums and all-time favourite "Paint It Black". After that, who should make an appearance but Lucifer himself? "Please allow me to introduce myself..." Jagger sings and he takes us back to 1968 with "Sympathy for the Devil" - It's as if not a single day has passed! "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" also rock as hard as they ever did and "Satisfaction" is transformed into a soul dynamite with the horns playing the main riff instead of the guitar. Otis Redding's version springs to mind. Adding a couple of new studio recordings after a song sequence as strong as this was a bad idea, but someone must have thought he can hook in fans by including new, previously unreleased songs. Not that they're bad, per se: "High Wire" is The Stones' first political song since the 60's, a competent rocker against the (first) Gulf War, a sentiment I wholeheartedly applaud. If only it was recorded live and placed somewhere in the middle of the album... As it stands now, it sounds like an afterthought and completely out of place. "Sex Drive" is a funky dance number that would sound right at home in "Dirty Work". Hell, it'd be one of the album's highlights. But "Flashpoint" is a pure rock'n'roll record, so if you make a playlist of it, I'd urge you to leave "Sex Drive" out. Generally, this CD left me satisfied beyond my expectations. Still...Am I going to play it often? Don't think so. As good as these versions are, anytime I feel like listening to "Paint It Black" or "Jumping Jack Flash", I'll choose the studio version instead...
**** for Start Me Up, Miss You, Rock and a Hard Place, Little Red Rooster, Paint It Black Sympathy for the Devil, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction
*** for Sad Sad Sad, Ruby Tuesday, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Factory Girl, Can't Be Seen, Highwire, Sex Drive
** for (Intro) Continental Drift (0:27)
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