Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 68
 The Spotlight Is On The Music April 4, 2008
Mr. Richard D. Coreno (Berea, Ohio USA)
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Turn up the volume on the blues-drenched Champagne & Reefer - featuring an incredible performance by Buddy Guy - and watch the roof explode off the home.
That song alone makes the soundtrack an absolute must purchase. But the other 21 tracks are classic Stones in venues where substance merges with style to deliver material not cluttered with overt posturing and post-production overdubs. Got live if you want it, indeed.
Mick Jagger is at his satirical best on Some Girls and Faraway Eyes. Tears Go By and Paint It Black provide some of the most powerful/poignant moments. And the rhythm is driven by the sharp drumming of Charlie Watts, who remains the key musician in the mix.
The Rolling Stones wrote the book on concerts as extravaganzas. The soundtrack proves the band can still deliver the goods without the glitz and glamor of grandiose stadium settings.
Still Rolling After 46 Years! April 5, 2008
Jonathan M. Lampley (Nashville, TN United States)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a hardcore Stones fan, nothing delights me more than another movie and live album. SHINE A LIGHT is great stuff, containing excellent versions of big hits ("Sympathy for the Devil") and less familiar green grass ("She Was Hot," which has rarely been done live). My favorite moments are Keef's two tunes, "You Got the Silver" and "Connection," and a truly resonant take on "As Tears Go By." I am also taken by the guests: Jack White on "Loving Cup," Buddy Guy on "Champagne and Reefer," and especially Christina Aguilara on "Live With Me." I'm not really a fan of the Spears generation of girl singers, but CA does herself proud on this track. Be sure to pick up the deluxe version, as you get the whole show and some neat bonus tracks. Rock on, Stones!
 SHINING A LIGHT ON THE OLD GODS April 13, 2008
PUBLIUS
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Stones release another live album in a series of live albums that a few are real Gems (Get yer ya-yas out!, Still Life and Live Licks). Shine a Light is another one of those gems. Despite this movie and album many just state tho' that the Stones are dinosaurs...they've been doin' it since Kennedy and no longer "popular". We know that. There may be some legitimate facts in those criticisms. But what many don't know is that there are a bunch of critics who just love to slam whatever this band does.
I am not talking about the people who just aren't into the Stones. I understand that not all of us share the same tastes. Some people like Jazz others hip hop and so on. However there is a group (you can find them here on Amazon and even reviewing this album) who seek to slam the Stones any chance they get. 'They haven't done anything (good) since `67 or 'Exile on Main Street'' so on and so forth. To those persons I just again ask as I have asked in my other reviews concerning the Stones...why do you even bother? You're not fans and apparently if you were you haven't been since, oh, `67?!
The Stones have contributed immensely to music/rock genre. However since 1984 when Springsteen released the last great real rock and roll album 'Born in the USA'...rock and roll has left the center of attention of the commercial interests. Music changes, tastes change and thus rap/hip hop/pop (today's pop) and other music forms have dominated the supposed 'media' attention...the Stones are now grand fathers and possibly even great grand fathers...Jagger still moves and is in great shape but he isn't 38 or 28 or 18. He doesn't run and jump like he used to. He's pushing 68 and they haven't released an amazingly popular album since say `81...but what band of the 60s/70s has? McCartney's last studio album from what I've read was a major snooze. When Steely Dan won best album at the Grammys several years ago, many in the audience (the youth of that year) quietly mumbled, no doubt commented 'who is that?' and barely applauded when it was announced on the televised Grammy show Steely Dan had one the nomination. Same goes for Herby Hancock this last year.
This is just life folks...people get older, get old die, and time moves on...Tastes change. Didn't the Stones grow up to parents who listened to Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby plus all the famous (probably since gone) old acts native to England? The Stones grow up listening to them no doubt but set them aside and eventually embraced something newer. And speaking of Frank Sinatra, his last glory days were the sixties...did he stop recording or performing? no. Was Sinatra in `88 the same as Sinatra in 56? No. Yet he was the chairman he could still belt them out and was much appreciated even by those who didn't find Sinatra their cup of tee.
If the Stones are not your cup of tee, fine. They are nonetheless the chairmen of Rock. True, the Stones aren't the Beatles who made records containing 14 songs, 10 of which were gems and the other 4 "throwaway" songs" were still brilliant (an amazing body of work no doubt unparalleled to this day). However the Beatles were a phenomenon. The Stones are just a band who plays fun rock and roll and got rich & famous doing it. So what? The Stones did many albums and had great singles come from those albums. However as in this album there are some songs the Stones wrote and recorded that aren't well known or well known 'singles', (like Loving Cup) which are nonetheless 'true gems'. I disagree with some reviews here that state that Jack White killed the song. White is young, held a good sustain on his voice....Jagger can't (or won't out of selfishness or laziness) hit the high notes anymore....it's a fact...but that fact doesn't kill Jagger's greatness. That's what makes this band special. They're fallible, they're music, they're rock and roll, tho' they're old they embod(ied) youth, and I agree, they're an acquired taste. They don't need to be slammed just appreciated.
I am no Stones apologist. The last album in my opinion was a mess. It was an excuse to go on the road (something they love artistically and financially (what's wrong with that??)). They do need to come back with some new rock and rock/blues stuff. This album's gems beg the question "when's the next new/great album coming out?". Those gems are Live with me, Start me up, She was hot, All down the line, Loving Cup, Some Girls, Faraway Eyes, You got the silver, & Champagne and Reefer. Keep listening Rock on.
Possibly, the best (official) Rolling Stones Live Album April 15, 2008
D. Christen (Rushville, IN United States)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Over the past 40 years, the Stones have released many live recordings. Unfortunately, they hardly ever were able to capture the excitement of a Rolling Stones show. That's where bootlegs came in. "Get Yer Ya Ya's out" was a pretty good collection of a 1969 Stones concert, but the bootleg "Live'r Than you'll ever be" truly captured the rough performance of the Stones at the time.
Following their masterpiece "Exile on Main Street", the Stones embarked on a fantastic US-Tour. Their sound was dark and (in parts) sloppy, but no official document was released. The excellent "Philadelphia Special" bootleg is a good substitute for anybody, who didn't get to see the Stones back then. Their next official Live release was 'Love you Live', a patch work of their 1976 Tour. The only interesting material on this double album, came from their Paris show (side 3 of the record).
Again, bootlegs like 'Hot August Night' captured the now slower, funkyer Stones sound much better.
In 1978 the Stones released 'Some Girls', which was followed by a fantastic tour, which featured a shorter live set,. Again, no official live album was released, but the excellent 'King Biscuit Flower Hour' captures the dirty sound of a 1978 Stones show in all its glory.
The next official live release was 'Still Life' of their '81 American tour. Again, being a single album, it only captures a small part of the Stones supporting their excellent "Tattoo You" album. Generally, they played most of their songs twice as fast on this tour, and the bootleg 'Hampton 1981' captures a complete show in brilliant sound quality.
After releasing one more decent album ('Undercover'), the Stones' studio work kind of went down hill. There were a couple of additional live recordings in the 90's and in the new millennium ('No Security' which showcases a very polished live sound, but again, a very standard set list - or 'Live Licks', which features edited versions of live recordings), but by now, the Stones released complete concerts on DVDs, so there is no need to buy any of these abbreviated concert documents.
The best live recording from their 90's period is, again, a bootleg called 'Atlantic City 1991'. 3 CDs full of clean, powerful stones material. The outstanding track here is `Salt of the Earth', featuring Axl Rose.
Which finally gets me to this new live double CD : "Shine a Light". Finally, the Rolling Stones ditched their standards in the set list (how many live versions of 'Honky Tonk Woman' do I really need) and they also realized, that none of their studio work after 'Undercover' can compare to the quality of their late 60's, throughout the 70's and early 80's material. They heavily showcase the "Some Girls" album here (now with a politically correct version of the title track) and of course, there are several gems from "Exile on Main St." as well.
They slow down most of their songs a bit, but the sound is dirty, just the way we love it. Keith is in excellent form (both, guitar and singing) and Mick is still one of the most charismatic lead singers and his vocals are still brilliant and cocky at the same time.
Definitely buy the double CD. To summarize you will get :
An excellent set list, brilliant live sound, and an overall outstanding performance. Thank you Mick, Ronnie, Charlie and Keith, for giving us finally a Rolling Stones worthy, official live release.
 Make it stop-- April 16, 2008
D.Bellus (Bartlett, Illinois)
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Well, another live album and with it comes more dissapoinment. I had such high hopes for this cd when I saw the track listing and thought, wow, this might actualy be good. But the sad truth is, it's not good and here's why--
Keith Richards has never been what you would call a great "lead" guitarist and that is painfully obvious on this disc. Every solo sounds like the one before it. It's embarassing. You would think after 50 plus years of playing guitar, you would actually get better, not worse. Yeah sure, "You Got the Silver" is fine, but the playing is all Ronnie, and it's just ok. It's Keith's vocal style that makes it worth hearing.
Speaking of Ronnie, why doesn't he play more lead guitar, and when he does, why can't it be better. Have both these guy's stopped caring? "It's good to see ya', it's good to see anybody" blah, blah, blah. The term "going through the motions" comes to mind while listening to this cd, Mick sounds pretty good, so does Charlie but some of the songs I looked forward to hearing just aren't that good. "Far Away Eye's" has lost it's country feel-- it's more like a polka. "Sympathy for the Devil"-- ugh, enough with this song already. The biggest crime of all is having to listen to the hack Jack White butcher what could have been a true gem in "Loving Cup".
I know people will read this and call me all sorts of names, and question whether I'm really a fan. I am a fan, I love these guy's but this disc is not very good. Keith and Ronnie both sound terrible and if this soundtrack was supposed to get me to go see "Shine a Light", it failed. Do yourself a favor, put down the Rolling Stones Kool-Aid for an hour or so, put on this disc and listen, really listen. You'll hear what I'm talking about, you may not want to, but you'll hear it.
|
