Forty Licks [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

The Rolling Stones

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 1, 2002)
• Original Release Date: October 1, 2002
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B00006IR69
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (361 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,041 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The band that proclaimed itself "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World" has long since represented rock's most overarching confluence of art and commerce--with a distinct emphasis on the latter in recent decades--a notion this 40-track, five-decade-spanning anthology can't completely escape. While this is the first anthology to gather hits from the band's entire career, it's the early tunes that highlight one of the Stones' central ironies: virtually their entire "bad boy" reputation was built working for The Man. That original '60s musical arc bounded from '50s rock and R&B revivalism ("Not Fade Away," "The Last Time") to anti-Mop Top aggression ("Satisfaction," "Get Off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown") to proto-goth cynicism ("Paint It Black," "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby") and psychedelic minstrelsy ("She's a Rainbow," "Ruby Tuesday") to the epitome of blues-based cock rock ("Street Fighting Man," "Jumpin' Jack Flash") in quick succession. Wresting control of their own destinies--and future copyrights--at the end of the '60s, they'd spend the next 30 years largely recycling their earlier incarnation ad infinitum--their music sprinkled with occasionally successful forays into contemporary club and disco fodder ("Some Girls," "Shattered")--and resting on their well-paid laurels. Unfortunately, the listless quartet of new tracks that flesh out this collection seems little more than another business deal to hype their 2002-03 world tour, with "Don't Stop" arguably the weakest in a long string of post-'80s Stones McSingles. If Jagger seems typically detached here, Keith Richards injects some welcome, craggy warmth into the closing barroom lament, "Losing My Touch." But it's also a performance that suggests his legendary band has become little more to him than "The Greatest Day Job in the World." --Jerry McCulley

Product Description
Limited 'tour edition' reissue of 2002 compilation is repackaged & includes one bonus track 'Sympathy For The Devil' (Neptunes Remix). Virgin. 2003. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

280 of 307 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars EDITED VERSIONS!, October 2, 2002

By	The Gut-Man! (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

I've been a die-hard Stones fan for many years and was excited to have all these great songs in one collection. But be advised, many songs on the second disc are EDITED VERSIONS!!!! Call me a ... music geek, but when I listen the the world's greatest Rock & Roll band, I wanna hear the songs the way they were intended to be heard!!! The WHOLE song, not some EDITED version!!!! The new songs are real good and maybe "Dont Stop" will come out as a single; Keith's ballad is great, too! But it's hard for me to listen to songs that I know have more to them! I hate when they EDIT songs just so they can cram a bunch onto one disc!!!! Forty Licks shoulda been 3 discs, it's that simple. And even if someone is new to the Stones, they should hear the REAL, ORIGANINAL versions!!! Disc one is okay, but disc two, not so much!! Just wanna let people know; fair warning . . . . . .

95 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it all over yet? Forty years and still counting..., October 1, 2002

By	J. Lund "jazzbrat" (SoCal, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

FORTY LICKS is by far the recommended choice for those who only want one Stones set in their collection. Fans and collectors will only need the four new tracks (which are solid albeit non-essential cuts), but they may appreciate the novelty of having a career-spanning collection, all with upgraded sound quality. Taken as a whole, FORTY LICKS shows that the Stones absorbed a lot of influences, both inside and outside of the rock genre. The Stones manage the rare feat of maintaining a consistent albeit evolving group sound, usually without slipping into a predictable formula. Few artists with four decade-long careers have maintained this level of vitality for so long: as recently as 1997 they still could cut an outstanding, contemporary-sounding track (ANYBODY SEEN MY BABY?)

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.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Try as you might, you still can't lick 'em, January 8, 2003

By	Karl (Lansing, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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.