Customer Reviews

The Best of the Rolling Stones: Jump Back - '71 - '93

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jump Back: The Best Of The Rolling Stones: `71-`93 was released only in the UK on November 22, 1993. It was the *18th* compilation album released in the UK. It was also the first release of the Stones new contract with Virgin Records. None of the songs appear on either Hot Rocks or More Hot Rocks. The album seems mis-titled because it does not include any of the single releases from 1989-1993 and in fact does not include *16* UK single releases from this time period. It was an attempt to release the most the most popular of the Stones hits since they left Decca (London in the US) in 1971. A better title would have been "Some Stones Hits '71-`89", but then who would have bought an album with an ambiguous title and the last hit 4 years earlier....other than those rabid Stones fans, anyway? Well, this is what happens when you have such a huge catalog of hits and you try to do a greatest hits album. Look at all the stuff that had to be left off of the 2002 release 40 Licks. If they ever release the entire Stones catalog as a box set it will have to come in a trunk that comes with a dolly to get it out of the store.

These songs are the most popular from the Rolling Stones Records releases. Here are the original UK release dates of each song (US release and re-release dates were often different during this period):
4-16-71 & 6-29-84 Brown Sugar
4-16-71 Bitch
4-23-71 Wild Horses (on Sticky Fingers - not released as a single)
4-14-72 Tumbling Dice
8-21-73 Angie
7-26-74 It's Only Rock `n' Roll
4-16-78 Hot Stuff
4-16-78 Fool To Cry
5-19-78 Miss You
8-29-78 & 6-1-82 Beast Of Burden
9-14-78 Respectable
6-20-80 Emotional Rescue
8-14-81 & 2-11-83 Start Me Up
12-1-81 Waiting On A Friend
11-1-83 Undercover Of The Night
3-4-86 Harlem Shuffle
8-17-89 Mixed Emotions
10-24-89 Rock And A Hard Place

Here are the *16* UK single releases that were NOT on the album. Ruby Tuesday, Highwire, Terrifying, Almost Hear You Sigh, Jumpin' Jack Flash, One Hit (To The Body), She Was Hot, Let's Spend The Night Together, Time Is On My Side, Going To A Go Go, If I Was A Dancer, Honky Tonk Women, Out Of Time, I Don't Know Why, Sad Day, Street Fighting Man

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.

So, why release ANOTHER greatest hits collection right after 40 Licks? Well, it's one disc and focuses on the post-60s (re:post-London) Stones.

Twelve of the eighteen songs on this CD appear on 40 Licks; all but one are on the second disc of 40 Licks.

So here's whatcha do. If you've already bought 40 Licks, buy this CD, throw away the second disc of 40 Licks, throw away the packaging for Jump Back, insert the Jump Back disc into the 40 Licks case. Now you don't have to suffer throught the 4 "new" songs on the 40 Licks second disc or those lame 90s singles - Love Is Strong and Anybody Seen My Baby.

Because this is a much, much better representation of this period in the Stones catalog. Even better would be to start with the 17 songs from Jump Back (minus Wild Horses which is on disc 1 of 40 Licks). Add You Got Me Rocking, Shattered, and Out Of Control (the live version from No Security). Now you have 20 tracks to make your 40 Licks Disc 2.

"Jump Back" is a well assembled and reasonably well annotated overview of the Stones' 70s and 80s output. The sound is excellent, and almost everything that the casual fan could want is here. 74 minutes of tough, raunchy rock n' roll, from the gritty "Bitch" and the swaggering "Brown Sugar" to the soulful "Waiting On A Friend" and the ballad "Angie".

This is a quite reasonably priced compilation which really shows the depth of the Stones' collective talents and the variety of their music, blending rock n' roll, blues, R&B, and a little bit of country into a distinctive "Stones" sound, anchored by the greatest rhythm guitarist in the business, Keith Richards.
And this is a CD, right? So you can just program out the hideous disco-experimentalism of "Emotional Rescue" and the forgettable "Undercover Of The Night".

Compare this compilation with disc two of "Forty Licks" and you'll find that "Jump Back" blows "Licks" out of the water.
Coupled with "Hot Rocks: 1964-1971" (or the magnificent box set "The London Years"), this album provides the best career overview currently available.
If you don't want to spring for the Stones' original albums, this is the way to go.

If you want to listen to the best Mick Jagger & company had to offer from the early 70s to the early 90s then this is the CD for you.
Not all the big numbers are here but there are enough to make this a "must have" Stones album, especially for those who don't want to buy all the individual albums these tunes came from.
The digital remastering sounds great and there is a good liner notes booklet too.

I have Mixed Emotions about this CD compilation. Most of the Stones best songs are here during that era, although I would have liked to have seen "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?", "Monkey Man", "Shattered", "She's So Cold", or "Dance Little Sister" on it. But the biggest letdown in this CD was the editted version of the Monster Hit: "Miss You" by one minute and sixteen seconds. (the singles version) Also, "Beast of Burden","Hot Stuff", and "Fool to Cry" were each cut by almost a full minute! "Rock and A Hard Place" was also editted too. (You can hear the eight minute dance version of 'Miss You' on the "Rarities '71 to '03" CD, but that was more amusing than fantastic listening.) Overall the 'Jump Back' CD is good, but You Can't Always Get What You Want. If you did, you got me Rocking!

Compared to what they did in the sixties, everything the Rolling Stones did subsequently seems (at least to me) modest by comparison - yet, judged on its own merit, this collection of their later music is easily worth five stars. In fact, Brown sugar and Wild horses (the first two tracks here) were actually recorded in 1969 but not released at the time. The extensive liner notes are taken from an interview with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Although less successful than their sixties music, they continued to have plenty of hits. They didn't reach number one in the UK but they had two American number ones - Angie and Miss you. In the UK, Brown sugar, Tumbling dice, Angie, It's only rock'n'roll but I like it, Fool to cry, Miss you, Emotional rescue and Start me up all made the top ten, while Undercover of the night and a cover of Harlem shuffle both came close. All those hits are here although there is one serious omission, Far away eyes - it was released as the B-side of Miss you but the single was later credited as a double-A side. Although other hits from the seventies and eighties are missing, some were re-issues of sixties recordings while the rest are not essential except to dedicated Stones fans, who will buy the original albums anyway.

My favorite tracks from this album are Tumbling dice (later covered by Linda Ronstadt on her classic album, Simple dreams), Miss you, Brown sugar and Wild horses.

This compilation is (as I write this) the only compilation of Rolling Stones music covering the seventies and beyond that does not also cover the sixties. (Note that the double CD, Forty licks, covers their whole career.) As such, this is an ideal companion to a collection of their early work (in my case, the triple CD London years). --This text refers to the Audio CD edition

JUMP BACK * THE BEST OF THE ROLLING STONES has tracks that span the years 1971 to 1989. Taken direct from masters, and using what was then the latest technology (20 bit), sound quality of these 18 tunes is excellent. Included is a nicely illustrated 12-page booklet, that has comments about each song by band members-- the sort of details fans and trivia buffs go for. Some examples: "Brown Sugar" was written by Mick while he was filming NED KELLY in Australia, the demo of "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)" featured Jagger and David Bowie, "Undercover Of The Night" was inspired by a William Borroughs novel called CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT, and so on.

JUMP BACK is a solid collection of later-career Rolling Stones tracks, recorded while they were still at the top of their game.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME -- 74:19

I prefer this compilation over Disk 2 from "Forty Licks" for a couple of reasons. First, there are fewer edited versions of songs. "Beast of Burden" is the same edited version on both disks but "It's Only Rock 'N Roll", "Emotional Rescue", and "Undercover of the Night" are not edited here, unlike on Disk 2 of "Forty Licks". Second, this collection includes the excellent "Waiting On A Friend" and the solid "Rock And A Hard Place" (though an edited version here). Other songs included here but not on "Forty Licks" include "Harlem Shuffle", "Respectable", "Bitch", and "Hot Stuff". The first song is a pretty decent cover, the next 2 are just okay, and the 4th song stinks. This collection would have benefitted from having "Shattered", "She's So Cold", and perhaps one or two songs from "Voodoo Lounge" (you would have to change the '93 to '94 in the title, of course). Overall, this is still a solid collection of 70's and 80's Stones Hits.

So does anyone really need an additional compilation of the Rolling Stones? The only reason I bought this disc was in search of great sound quality for a CD instead of a SACD. I am satisfied with this. I was too cheap to buy the import that has been available for many years. It's good to hear Mick, the young man's voice on some of the tracks. The sound quality is not as great as on the hybrid SACD's from the 60's. On the other hand, the sound quality is much better than on the overpriced "Forty Licks".

First of all, this set should have started at '72. "Brown Sugar", "Wild Horses" are repeats from several other compilations and singles collections; and take up space of songs they left off from this era (such as "She's So Cold" and "Shattered"). Second, the disc has a really harsh copy protection on it. This means that you can't listen to it on your computer or MP3 player. Every time I put the disc in my laptop, it crashes. It is really annoying that I paid for this CD, and can't even listen to it while working or while at the gym.