Forty Licks

I would have preferred the tracks be presented in chronological order, but at least the 1960s-vintage tracks are on disc one, 1970s-present on disc two. If I counted correctly, FORTY LICKS manages to include 16 of 21 tracks on the HOT ROCKS collection, 15 of 23 out of the two THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY sets, and 12 of 18 from the JUMP BACK 1971-1993 anthology...and still squeezes in 7 recent-to-new cuts. While such key cuts as AS TEARS GO BY, MIDNIGHT RAMBLER, WAITING ON A FRIEND, HOT STUFF, 2000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME, LADY JANE, and TIME IS ON MY SIDE are missed, there just isn't enough room. In other words, it's impressive that most of the key tracks from past anthologies are now collected in one place.


Need 65 Licks +   October 19, 2002
Richard R. Carlton (Ada, MI United States)
37 out of 43 found this review helpful

40 Licks was released worldwide on October 1, 2002. Obviously, there are 40 tracks including 4 new ones (the single Don't Stop, Stealing My Heart, Keys To Your Love, and Keith's Losing My Touch). This one is the 22nd compilation album the Stones have released. It is the 19th compilation in the UK and the 9th in the US. There are lots of opinions about what should and should have been included/left off (there are *25* single releases that were not included). Remember, if anyone ever releases the entire Stones catalog as a box set it will have to be packaged in a trunk that comes with a dolly to get it out of the store. Since everybody knows the songs anyway, how about if I list what is on it from when for you?

These songs are the most popular from the Rolling Stones Records releases. Here are the original US and UK release dates of each song (US release and re-release dates were often different during this period):

3-6-64 Not Fade Away
7-24-64 It's All Over Now
3-12-65 The Last Time
6-4-65 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
9-24-65 Get Off Of My Cloud
2-11-66 19th Nervous Breakdown
5-6-66 Paint It, Black
7-1-66 Mother's Little Helper
7-1-66 Under My Thumb (not a single, from album Aftermath)
9-23-66 Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
1-13-67 Let's Spend The Night Together
1-13-67 Ruby Tuesday
12-22-67 She's A Rainbow
5-31-68 Jumpin' Jack Flash
8-30-68 Street Fighting Man
12-6-68 Sympathy For The Devil (not a single, from album Beggar's Banquet)
7-3-69 Honky Tonk Woman
12-5-69 Gimme Shelter (not a single, from album Let It Bleed)
12-5-69 You Can't Always Get What You Want (not a single, from album Let It Bleed)
4-16-71, 5-7-71, & 6-29-84 Brown Sugar
4-23-71 & 6-11-71 Wild Horses (on Sticky Fingers - not released as a single)
4-14-72 Tumbling Dice
5-12-72 Happy (on Exile On Main Street - not released as a single)
8-21-73 Angie
7-26-74 It's Only Rock `n' Roll
4-16-78 Fool To Cry
11-28-78 Shattered
5-19-78 Miss You
8-29-78 & 6-1-82 Beast Of Burden
6-20-80 Emotional Rescue
8-14-81 & 2-11-83 Start Me Up
11-1-83 Undercover Of The Night
8-17-89 Mixed Emotions
7-5-94 Love Is Strong
9-94 You Got Me Rocking
97 Anybody Seen My Baby?
10-1-02 Don't Stop (new)
10-1-02 Stealing My Heart (new)
10-1-02 Keys To Your Love (new)
10-1-02 Losing My Touch (new)

Here are the *25* single releases that are NOT on the album: Saint Of Me, Out Of Contol, Like A Rolling Stone, I Go Wild, Out Of Tears, Sex Drive, Highwire, Terrifying, Almost Hear You Sigh,, One Hit (To The Body), She Was Hot, Time Is On My Side, Going To A Go Go, If I Was A Dancer, Out Of Time, I Don't Know Why, Sad Day, Hot Stuff, Respectable, Waiting On A Friend, Harlem Shuffle, Rock And A Hard Place, Heart Of Stone, As Tears Go By, Tell Me, Dandelion

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.


Buyer beware   October 15, 2002
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

Between the mono versions on disc one and the edited versions on disc two, think twice before you buy this cd. The song selection is ok, but why not use the stereo versions of Paint It Black and Satisfaction, for example? If there was something mentioned on the packaging, ok... but the record companies continue to play their unfortunate little games. We need consumer protection laws passed to stop this ongoing non-information-labeling scam.


Try as you might, you still can't lick 'em   January 8, 2003
Karl (Lansing, NY United States)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

At long last it's here. Fans have been crying out for a proper Stones retrospective for aeons and, finally, the price is right for the respective record companies and 'Forty Licks' is the result. A double set, with the 60s Decca/ABKCO material on one album (plus 1971's 'Wild Horses') and everything post-'71 on the other, although the tracks aren't sequenced chronologically. All told 40 songs from four decades, including four new tracks.

Any an album that can boast 'Street Fighting Man', 'Gimme Shelter' and 'Satisfaction' as its opening three tracks is certainly onto a winner. Even though Mick Jagger's familiar pouting, snarling voice hurtles out from another place and another time, part of tracks that are now an integral part of our culture, it still sends shivers down the spine. Same goes for the opening chords, from 'Street Fighting Man's insistent, ringing acoustic opening to 'Gimme Shelter's menacing, serpent-like notes and, of course, the all-too familiar calling card of 'Satisfaction'.

The first album is as bulletproof a selection as you could want. From the breakneck cover of Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away', through the classic string of self-penned singles ('The Last Time', 'Satisfaction', 'Get Off Of My Cloud', '19th Nervous Breakdown', 'Paint It, Black') to the meltdown of 'Have You Seen Your Mother Baby?', this is the mid-60s documented in all its incense-scented, scandal-ridden, narcissistic glory.

That's the signal for the trip to get darker, though the provocative 'Let's Spend The Night Together' and the wistful beauty of 'Ruby Tuesday' proved that the band could still churn out incredible four-minute pop songs. Unsurprisingly, the nervous breakdown of a single that was 'We Love You', which documented their paranoid incarcerated summer of love, is omitted in favour of the light and airy 'She's A Rainbow'.

The second album also races out of the blocks, with the legendary riffs of 'Start Me Up' and 'Brown Sugar' followed by the disco shuffle of 'Miss You'. It's no secret what the Stones themselves consider their best albums of the later period, with 1978's 'Some Girls' getting three tracks, 1972's magnum opus 'Exile On Main Street' and 1994's semi-return to form 'Voodoo Lounge' two apiece.

Of the new tracks, 'Don't Stop' is a solid mid-paced rocker with a memorable chorus, the kind of single the Stones still seem able to churn out at will. But 'Keys To Your Love' and 'Stealing My Heart' are merely slight versions of what's gone before, the former with Jagger's falsetto vocal circa 1980-81 and the latter a countryfied ditty of the sort Sir Mick usually saves for his solo albums. Keith's 'Losing My Touch' is much better, though, the latest in a long line of slow-burning album closers he does so well.

As ever with compilations covering such a huge body of work, there are omissions - 'Little Red Rooster', 'Time Is On My Side', 'Rocks Off', 'All Down The Line' could have easily slotted in instead of the album tracks or a couple of the new ones. But to criticise a collection containing so many incredible songs would be churlish.

On the contrary, 'Forty Licks' exists as ample evidence that, away from the drugs, the women, the media manipulation, the huge stages filling one end of stadiums the world over, the Stones have got where they are because they've made music that has been, and will continue to be listened to and revered by generation after generation.