Post Description

Another decade has passed in the career of the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band, and they're celebrating the 50th anniversary of their founding in 1962. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Company are pushing 70, but the group has decided to go out with a bang: five live arena shows on both sides of the Atlantic, a new HBO documentary feature film called "Crossfire Hurricane," the reconstruction and restoration of the first-ever Rolling Stones documentary, "Charlie Is My Darling," filmed in Ireland in 1965, a 352-page "photographic biography" entitled "The Rolling Stones 50," and five (count 'em, five!) chronological greatest hits albums: a budget two-CD, a standard three-CD, a deluxe three-CD, a vinyl five-LP, and a super deluxe five-CD/one-EP collection. Each set offers the same two new studio recordings -- good ones, dammit! If you have money to burn and don't mind making some of the richest men in the world just a bit richer, there's almost no limit to what you can spend on the Stones' music and memorabilia this year.

The best-of compilations are expertly remastered, albeit selectively edited for length, so while newer listeners probably won't notice anything amiss, nostalgic fans might. The first two discs of the standard version (33 out of 50 tracks) cover the Stones' early career, revisiting most of the required hits from the 60s to the mid-70s. Starting with their very first single, a 1963 cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On," the band includes music from their singles and studio albums up to "Black and Blue" in 1976. The third disc contains 17 recordings from the 1978 album "Some Girls" (though not the title track) to their final studio album in 2005, "A Bigger Bang," plus the aforementioned new songs, "Doom and Gloom" and "One More Shot," both of which harken back to the rough classic sound of the Stones. A 12-page booklet is enclosed.

How does the three-CD set compare to "Forty Licks," the two-disc, 40-track, 40th-anniversary collection? It's far better. Of the four new tunes that appeared on that non-chronological 2002 album, only "Don't Stop" is recycled; 33 of the 36 remaining cuts are included on "GRRR!" (absent are "Mother's Little Helper," "Shattered," and "You Got Me Rocking"). These 33 are supplemented with a couple of mid-60s covers, Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" and Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster," and enough important songs from the Glimmer Twins to make a more satisfying package: "Time Is on My Side," "Heart of Stone," "As Tears Go By," "Rocks Off," "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," "Respectable," "Waiting on a Friend," "Harlem Shuffle," "Streets of Love," and others. As wonderful as the music is, though, it's not perfect; several relatively weak choices ("We Love You," "She Was Hot," "Highwire") take the place of terrific songs like "Let It Bleed," "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," and "Dead Flowers," which are nowhere to be found.

Compilations will never take the place of individual albums from the Rolling Stones' peak years, and they'll never please longtime fans who have no need for obvious radio fodder and want the rare stuff and the live stuff instead. There aren't a lot of surprises in these boxes, and the editing and inevitable omissions also reduce their value (where are "Live with Me" and "Some Girls" and "Hang Fire" and a dozen more?). The two-CD set is even skimpier, dropping 10 songs from the three-CD set: "Time Is on My Side," "Heart of Stone," "Under My Thumb," "We Love You," "She's a Rainbow," "Highwire," "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," "She Was Hot," "Streets of Love," and "Rocks Off." But if you're in the market for greatest hits, something to remind you of the Stones' awesome talent and staying power over the years, then these boxes are the best you're going to do for now -- though of course you could assemble your own list of fave mp3s and burn a set of CDs for yourself.

Track Listing CD1:
01. Come On
02. I Wanna Be Your Man
03. Not Fade Away
04. That's How Strong My Love Is
05. It's All Over Now
06. Little Red Rooster
07. The Last Time
08. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
09. Heart Of Stone
10. Get Off Of My Cloud
11. She Said Yeah
12. I'm Free
13. Play With Fire
14. Time Is On My Side
15. 19th Nervous Breakdown
16. Paint It, Black
17. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
18. She's A Rainbow (edited)
19. Under My Thumb
20. Out Of Time
21. As Tears Go By

Track Listing CD 2:
01. Let's Spend The Night Together
02. Mother's Little Helper
03. We Love You
04. Dandelion
05. Lady Jane
06. Flight 505
07. 2,000 Light Years From Home
08. Ruby Tuesday
09. Jumpin' Jack Flash
10. Sympathy For The Devil
11. Child Of The Moon (remake)
12. Salt Of The Earth
13. Honky Tonk Women
14. Midnight Rambler
15. Gimme Shelter
16. You Got The Silver
17. You Can't Always Get What You Want
18. Street Fighting Man
19. Wild Horses

Track Listing CD 3:
01. Brown Sugar
02. Bitch
03. Tumbling Dice
04. Rocks Off
05. Happy
06. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
07. Angie
08. It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (edited)
09. Dance Little Sister
10. Fool To Cry (edited)
11. Respectable
12. Miss You (edited)
13. Shattered
14. Far Away Eyes
15. Beast Of Burden (edited)
16. Emotional Rescue (edited)
17. Dance (Part 1)
18. She's So Cold
19. Waiting On A Friend
20. Neighbours

Track Listing CD 4:
01. Start Me Up
02. Undercover Of The Night (edited)
03. She Was Hot
04. The Harlem Shuffle
05. Mixed Emotions (edited)
06. Highwire (edited)
07. Almost Hear You Sigh
08. You Got Me Rocking
09. Love Is Strong
10. I Go Wild
11. Like A Rolling Stone
12. Anybody Seen My Baby? (edited)
13. Saint Of Me (edited)
14. Don't Stop (edited)
15. Rough Justice
16. Rain Fall Down (edited)
17. Streets Of Love
18. Plundered My Soul
19. Doom And Gloom
20. One More Shot

Track Listing Bonus CD (1963 IBC demos):
01. Diddley Daddy
02. Road Runner
03. Bright Lights Big City
04. Honey What's Wrong
05. I Want To Be Loved

Extra Informatie:
Aantal Discs: 5xCD
Genre: Rock
Format: MP3 @ 320kbit
CD Release Year: 15 November 2012
Speelduur:  316 minuten
Covers: Front en Back zijn in de RARs verwerkt