Talking with friends, and we all kind of felt that "Greatest Hits" usually means songs with chart success, while "Best of" was a more interpretative look at a band's work. Things like "Emotional Rescue" and "Rock and a Hard Place" got higher on the charts than "Sympathy for the Devil" or "Under My Thumb" right?

And so, I wonder how the Stones come at it. Example: I found an old magazine from around 2002 or so, some guitar mag, and in it, they're asking Keith about what will be on "40 Licks" Keith says something like, "Well, Undercover sure wont be on it!" And then of course it was...So Keith doesnt like really love it, but it was a Top Ten hit, so it got on 40 Licks, but then where was Waiting on a Friend?", or "Harlem Shuffle"? They were higher on the charts than say"Anybody Seen My Baby"..

If the Stones wanted to put out a disc of what THEY thought was there best stuff,(not necessarily what got near the top of the charts), what do you think would be on it? Keith doesnt seem to like ER, Dont Stop, Anybody Seen My Baby, Undercover..Mick would probably want Miss You, Shattered..any thoughts?

It's difficult to say as Mick and Keith are bound to have differing views. Personally i really like Emotional Rescue(the song) i'd put that on a best of compilation along with Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Hot Stuff, Fool To Cry, Waiting On A Friend,Backstreet Girl, Lady Jane and Yesterday's Papers. There's some variety there and some less than typical Stones songs.
I wouldn't include anything post Tattoo You - the quality just isn't there. Maybe Undercover Of The Night is a borderline case but i just wouldn't include it.
My favourite compilation which only really covers the sixties Stones is Rolled Gold.It's a well balanced compilatiom which gives a taste of all aspects of the Stones music. It's certainly superior to the Hot Rock's compilations. It's a pity it's no longer available.
It's a matter of pride i feel with the Stones that they have to include more recent music to prove they are still relevant but the later songs really spoil the quality. A compilation picked on merit alone wouldn't include any Stones release after 1981.

Well maybe the Stones are not the best judges of their own material. Keith would not have done Satisfaction if he had had his way. Beast of Burden almost did not make the cut. Mick has said before he would remix EOMS.It might really surprise us to see which songs the guys are really most personally proud of, and which that they snicker at as money making cheap toss offs.

I really think the Stones have nothing to do with these Best Of releases. It's part of the contract, and it is fully compiled and released by the record company. ABKCO releases whatever they want, they don't even need to ask the Stones, and the Stones themselves aren't interested in these packages at all. 40 Licks was the first time the Stones had to be involved, as they needed an album to tour on, and weren't cutting anything valuable in the studio. That's when the contacts with Klein were reinstated.

Mathijs

These albums are almost completely
marketing decisions, sometimes the mix
works, sometimes it doesn't. The one you
grow up with may very well be the one
you like most, For me it was, still is,
always will be Hot Rocks.

About 40 Licks and the 'missing' songs: I remember "Waitin' On A friend" being first included but it was another of the songs that were exluded to have room for two extra new songs in it ("Keys To Your Love" and what was the other called?). Well, it was nice to have original cuts but the decision really didn't make the quality of the 'best of' kind of album much better.. The problem of their second or third biggest hit of the 80's, "Harlem Shuffle" was that it wasn't a Jagger-Richards composition. That is also argued for the reason why number one UK hit "Little Red Rooster" was not included nor their first American hit "Time Is On my Side".

I am with Edward that the quality of their post-Tattoo You stuff is not the same rank as their older material. 40 Licks really shows that. The first disc is absolutely first quality, nothing but classics, and also the beginning of the other disc is superb: "Start Me Up", "Brown Sugar", "Beast Of Burden"; "Miss You", "Happy", "Angie" (don't remember the exact order but the songs sound very great and fit very nicely together), but then the standard decreaces quite dramatically and the result is just a sequence not very catchy, inspiring or original sounding songs. A song I loved very much at the time of its release and thought 'this going to be a new Stones classic', "Love Is Strong" sounds very a mediocre and boring there and not to mention 'gems' like "Mixed Emotions", "Undercover of The Night", "Anybody Seen My Baby", "You Got Me Rocking" - the songs that only seem to make the album by reflecting their career in the last 20 years. Well, older hits "Emotional Rescue" and "Fool To Cry" don't much help either to make post-classical period Stones sound much more genious or great. Self-parodical "Losing My Touch" sounds unintentionally (?) reflecting the case.

Well, by looking the material of 40 Licks ALONE one can not help but to make the conclusion that after since the early 70's ("Angie" or "It's Only Rock'n'Roll"), the Stones have been, despite the occasional peak of one album, Some Girls, and one single, "Start Me Up", in a creative crisis (compared to their own standards of writting excellent songs). 30 years of their career!

- Doxa





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-02-28 12:16 by Rorty.

You Got Me Rockin' has no business on either Best or Greatest.

Younger fans are going to want
trax that were on their first
new Stones album, so for
commercial reasons they
will of course be included,
especially if the Stones also
included them in their live sets.