Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As good as any Stones compiliation is likely to get., March 25, 2003
If I was looking to point a casual fan toward a Rolling Stones retrospective, I'd completely pass on Forty Licks and tell them to go for Hot Rocks, without question. Everybody knows that 1964-1971 were the golden years for the Stones, and this compilation, which deftly selected the hits from that era, is damn good stuff. All the landmark material is accounted for--Get Off Of My Cloud, Paint It Black, Let's Spend The Night Together, Gimme Shelter, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man, Sympathy For The Devil, a live cut of Midnight Rambler, and of course, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Although this will not satisfy diehard fans and I wish a few other songs were included (Stray Cat Blues, the Ya-Ya version of Carol, Sister Morphine, She's A Rainbow, 2000 Man) everything here is grade-A gritty blues rock. The second disc could very well stand alone, it's that good. As far as the SACD remasters are concerned, they are a massive improvement over the original remasters in every conceivable way. And don't believe the naysayers who claim the new versions are not compatible with PCs--they are. If you have this and Exile On Main Street, you're set as a casual fan. Completists will want the individual albums, but Hot Rocks does a damn good job of capturing the Stones at their finest before old age and drug abuse set in. Recommended.
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41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Collection, great sound but..., August 27, 2002
I owned this excellent package in vinyl the very first day it came out (wow!) 30 years ago. The music is, with no question, an exceptional bunch of songs in one place: no dispute there and therefore recommended as essential. I do disagree with ABCKO about their research for the best masters for this proyect: the lack of stereo Masters in Satisfaction, Mother's Little Helper, Off of my cloud is dissapointing. I do have these in my analog Hot Rocks CD I obtained while stationed in Germany in 1989. With less resolution, but in stereo, they do sound great.
Aside from my misgivings for being a definitive project with full utilization of stereo with the SACD format, I would still recommend it.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest stones album ever... REMASTERED!, August 28, 2002
Whenever an album is newly remastered, a reviewer has to take in both the customers who are buying the album for the first time, and those who are buying their third or fourth copy.I'll start with the former. This is one of those few, special, greatest hits sets that is, in every way, perfect! Most best of's always leave off important tracks and have moments of worthless filler. Others are made obsolete by better, more complete sets. Not Hot Rocks. Merely because it covers only the best, most famous, and most influential songs of the 7 years when the Stones were at their peak, mountains above the rest of rock and roll. (except the Beatles, Dylan, and Hendrix). Sure Not Fade Away, The Last Time, and 2000 Light Years (among others) were fine, but how can you say they aren't dwarfed by the looming presence of every song on this album? (Which includes Time is on my Side, Satisfaction, Paint it Black, Let's Spend the Night Together, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sympathy for the Devil, and Brown sugar) In conclusion this is a perfect sampler of everything that was great and magical about the Rolling Stones, and remains great and magical today. Words can not describe the greatness of the songs in this album, so I can only say this, I can only say that you are not a rock and roll fan until you are Stones fan. So for everybody who wishes to sink their teeth into the glory days of the Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks is the place to begin. (Note: While you're at it, get Exile on Main Street and Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out as well.) Now for those who already who need a reason to buy this again. Most everyone who collects music knows how badly one can be screwed out of well-earned money by remasters. (i.e the Ozzy Osbourne "remasters" released this year) Not this time around. You will never Rolling Stones recordings that sound so fresh and clear. New musical bits are brought to the surface for the first time in years. (Most notably on Honky Tonk Woman where horns and new guitar licks can be heard for the first time) And all those classic old songs now sound sharper and more distinct than ever. You can hear those wonderful guitar riffs, drums, and bass licks (oh those wonderful Bill Wyman bass licks) like never before. (i.e. Brian Jones' sitar on Paint it Black is at last brought to the front of the mix, and you can actually hear two different guitars on Midnight Rambler). It gets even better for those that have bought SACD players, for on the SACD layer it sounds even more incredible. It almost sounds as if you are sitting there in the studio watching the Stones make the master takes. And for those that think this isn't worth buying, because all these songs are on other discs, think about this; you won't be hearing the original Brown Sugar and Wild Horses sounding so good for a while. So in conclusion anybody who is anybody owes it to themselves to buy the new version of Hot Rocks. New fans get a sampler of some of the greatest music ever made, and the older fans get the best sounding glory-day Stones you'll ever hear. The Rolling Stones Remasters is one of the best (if not the best) of its kind. It is definetely worth checking out. And Hot Rocks ain't a bad place to start. Get it today!
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