How Angus and Malcolm would have been proud !

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Chris Fountain

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tomcasagranda
I'm always perturbed about Live Licks; why did they edit Rocks Off, badly ? Secondly, why wasn't Rock Me Baby with Angus & Malcolm Young not on it ? Better that than Dave Matthews on Memory Motel from No Security.

The absolute truth.

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie

Good lord. I streamed "Live Licks" this weekend, after years of disregarding it (never having bought it) and it seems my initial instinct was right, for my taste anyway. That edit on "Rocks Off" is pure garbage, and the rarities on Disc 2, which by all accounts should have made this album indispensable, often sound uninspired. I saw all three Chicago shows on the Licks tour, and whether it was the Comiskey Park show, the UC or the almighty Aragon Ballroom, those shows were great and full of spirit. This collection does not do that spirit justice. Getting back to "Rocks Off", honestly what is gained by editing such a small section like that? Wow. In my opinion, this is easily the worst live release in their discography. This adds to a relative rough patch around that time, with the release of "Rarities" and the ridiculous historical inaccuracies in the liner notes...not to mention the airbrushed cover. There are plenty of shots they could have used that reflect the band as a foursome, no need to pick a fivesome shot and change it.

Short of these two releases, the rest of the Stones original body of work (i.e. minus compilations) is truly indispensable...to me anyway.

I had a long drive today, so I listened to Live Licks during the commute.

I don't think I've ever listened to the first disc more than once. There's enough warhorses in the live concert videos I like to watch that I'm not that eager to hear them too often on live albums.

Brown Sugar was a surprisingly good opener and was nice and short compared to the times it's used as a closer and seems to go on and on. But there was nothing really special about the performance. Same with Satisfaction. (The Steel Wheels tour version is still the most interesting live version of Satisfaction for me.)

The rest of disc one is good, even if there's nothing really amazing and feels too short. Start Me Up sounded good coming in almost midway through instead of being an opener. Street Fighting Man was solidly enjoyable. Mick sang especially well on Angie, and Gimmie Shelter overcomes a bit of a slow start to end up cooking nicely near the end. Sheryl Crow was good on one verse of Honky Tonk Women.

Disc Two is where Live Licks really shines, as it's a dream set of rarities. I'd go nuts if I saw a setlist like this. I don't hear much that's not to like. Neighbors is one of my favorites, and it rocks out. Monkey Man is one of the great Rolling Stones songs of all time, so it's awesome to hear. I enjoy the arrangement and production of Rocks Off when the vocal effects kick in, and there's a nice version of Beast Of Burden here too. It feels fully lived in and confident.

I think there's a better live version of That's How Strong My Love out there somewhere. The encores on this one seem a little forced compared to the one I might be thinking of.

Mick is in good voice for Worried About You, which swings nicely. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love is a good closer and you can hear that they enjoy playing it.

My main beef with disk 2 is the omissions of "Can't Turn You Loose" and " Love Train" (yes, I know they're on FF DVD).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-04-17 03:13 by Glam Descendant.

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Glam Descendant
My main beef with disk 2 is the omissions of "Can't Turn You Loose" and " Love Train" (yes, I know they're on FF DVD).

Oh man, those would have been GREAT to have on there.

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floodonthepage
Good lord. I streamed "Live Licks" this weekend, after years of disregarding it (never having bought it) and it seems my initial instinct was right, for my taste anyway. That edit on "Rocks Off" is pure garbage, and the rarities on Disc 2, which by all accounts should have made this album indispensable, often sound uninspired. I saw all three Chicago shows on the Licks tour, and whether it was the Comiskey Park show, the UC or the almighty Aragon Ballroom, those shows were great and full of spirit. This collection does not do that spirit justice. Getting back to "Rocks Off", honestly what is gained by editing such a small section like that? Wow. In my opinion, this is easily the worst live release in their discography. This adds to a relative rough patch around that time, with the release of "Rarities" and the ridiculous historical inaccuracies in the liner notes...not to mention the airbrushed cover. There are plenty of shots they could have used that reflect the band as a foursome, no need to pick a fivesome shot and change it.

Short of these two releases, the rest of the Stones original body of work (i.e. minus compilations) is truly indispensable...to me anyway.

I was happy to get LIVE LICKS due to the majority of songs on disc 2 but after listening to disc 2 with the horrendous edit of Rocks Off and the pedestrian Neighbours with the awful guitar overdub, the album turned into a bloated EP - the only tracks I listen to from it to this day are Brown Sugar, Paint It Black, Street Fighting Man, Monkey Man, The Nearness Of You and You Don't Have To Mean It.

Gimme Shelter is a snore compared to the version on NO SECURITY. Honky Tonk Women is pointless. YCAGWYW is nice but I really have no interest in listening to that song ever again, really.

So I have been working out a lot lately and listening to one of God's great creations (Apple Music). I literally have all the music in the world at my fingertips for 9.99 a month. But I decided to dust off "Live Licks" afters years of neglecting it. The Licks Tour was my first tour (15 yrs old) and i had the opportunity to see 3 shows. IMO the tour was the last great Stones tour, although i have seen plenty of good shows since. But the Album that is supposed to capture the essence of the tour failed miserably for any true Stones fan. I can pick apart the selective editing of the songs because i know each one by heart and how they were played during the tour. This CD mixes multiple performances in different venues and attempts to present as a single show (to the virgin ear of course). Some of my many problems:

Opening track Brown Sugar: This is from the B'Stage at madison square garden. Of all the MONSTER opening Brown Sugars on the tour, why in the f**k would they choose to go with the B-Stage version and present it like they are flying out on stage with lights blaring and fans going nuts? They also CUT THE LAST OF 3 opening RIFFS THAT KEITH PLAYS. What in the the F**K??

Street Fighting MAN- Second song takes place on the B-Stage at Twickenham Stadium and THEY CUT OFF SOME OF THE OPENING RIFFS WHICH IS ONE OF THE GREATEST LIVE SONGS IN THE HISTORY OF LIVE MUSIC. The opening part could go on forever and people would freakin love it. They CUT IT SHORT!! OMFG. And THEY CUT OFF THE ENDING BY ABOUT A MINUTE. In the show, they jam out the ending for a good minute longer than they do on the CD. They actually selectively cut out different parts of the ending jam too. It is a clusterf**k of selective editing.

Rocks Off- Stadium show, they CUT OUT THE PART OF "The sunshine bores the daylights out of me!". This supposed to be the start of climax of the song and then go into a 1-2 minute jam to finish the song. Why would they CHEAT US OUT OF GETTING THE FULL PLEASURE OF THIS SONG.

Other songs are edited too, included cutting off the endings of the songs which, as a live Stones fan, are the greatest parts of the concert experience; when they JAM OUT THE SONG TO NO END AND TAKE THE SHOW TO A DIFFERENT LEVEL. This part of the live experience is what differentiates the STONES FROM EVERY OTHER LIVE BAND AND IS THE REASON THEY ARE THE GREATEST LIVE BAND OF ALL TIME> THIS ALBUM CAPUTURES ZERO OF THAT MAGIC AND I AM BOYCOTTED THIS ALBUM FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE> IT IS UNFORGIVABLE THE LEVEL AT WHICH THEY BOTCHED THIS POTENTIAL GREATEST LIVE ALBUM. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

This will probably be moved here:

[iorr.org]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-04 14:23 by Deltics.

Thanks. I see I am not the only one with this on the mind lately. I was just blown away by how awful it was when i listened to it yesterday. I literally almost dropped my phone while running trying to change it to another album so quickly. It is that bad IMO. So many great show on that tour and this is what they produced...

Quote
muncy23
So I have been working out a lot lately and listening to one of God's great creations (Apple Music). I literally have all the music in the world at my fingertips for 9.99 a month. But I decided to dust off "Live Licks" afters years of neglecting it. The Licks Tour was my first tour (15 yrs old) and i had the opportunity to see 3 shows. IMO the tour was the last great Stones tour, although i have seen plenty of good shows since. But the Album that is supposed to capture the essence of the tour failed miserably for any true Stones fan. I can pick apart the selective editing of the songs because i know each one by heart and how they were played during the tour. This CD mixes multiple performances in different venues and attempts to present as a single show (to the virgin ear of course). Some of my many problems:

Opening track Brown Sugar: This is from the B'Stage at madison square garden. Of all the MONSTER opening Brown Sugars on the tour, why in the f**k would they choose to go with the B-Stage version and present it like they are flying out on stage with lights blaring and fans going nuts? They also CUT THE LAST OF 3 opening RIFFS THAT KEITH PLAYS. What in the the F**K??

Street Fighting MAN- Second song takes place on the B-Stage at Twickenham Stadium and THEY CUT OFF SOME OF THE OPENING RIFFS WHICH IS ONE OF THE GREATEST LIVE SONGS IN THE HISTORY OF LIVE MUSIC. The opening part could go on forever and people would freakin love it. They CUT IT SHORT!! OMFG. And THEY CUT OFF THE ENDING BY ABOUT A MINUTE. In the show, they jam out the ending for a good minute longer than they do on the CD. They actually selectively cut out different parts of the ending jam too. It is a clusterf**k of selective editing.

Rocks Off- Stadium show, they CUT OUT THE PART OF "The sunshine bores the daylights out of me!". This supposed to be the start of climax of the song and then go into a 1-2 minute jam to finish the song. Why would they CHEAT US OUT OF GETTING THE FULL PLEASURE OF THIS SONG.

Other songs are edited too, included cutting off the endings of the songs which, as a live Stones fan, are the greatest parts of the concert experience; when they JAM OUT THE SONG TO NO END AND TAKE THE SHOW TO A DIFFERENT LEVEL. This part of the live experience is what differentiates the STONES FROM EVERY OTHER LIVE BAND AND IS THE REASON THEY ARE THE GREATEST LIVE BAND OF ALL TIME> THIS ALBUM CAPUTURES ZERO OF THAT MAGIC AND I AM BOYCOTTED THIS ALBUM FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE> IT IS UNFORGIVABLE THE LEVEL AT WHICH THEY BOTCHED THIS POTENTIAL GREATEST LIVE ALBUM. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

For good versions of most of these songs dust off Four Flicks instead

For more info on this live album try the Album Talk.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-03 18:10 by DandelionPowderman.

Yes i agree. I have 4 flicks somewhere. Havent seen that in years. That is a great documentary of the tour and very enjoyable to watch. Ive had many laughs and learned a lot from those disks.

they certainly tried to ruin it.

But for my money, they didn't quite manage that, and it remains an enjoyable listen...with disc 2 being the interesting one.


I just wish you could get it on vinyl.

[ I do agree that Four Flicks has more to offer than the audio only Live Licks album .]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-03 18:16 by Spud.

< do agree that Four Flicks has more to offer than the audio only Live Licks album>

Way better sound, no horrible editing and more songs. Oh, and the video!

I haven´t been listening to the Live-Licks-album for years, but I remember the last time I did I enjoyed it very much, I was surprised how fresh and powerful most of the songs sounded.
It´s a nice compilation pairing the hits with rather obscure material.

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DandelionPowderman
< do agree that Four Flicks has more to offer than the audio only Live Licks album>

Way better sound, no horrible editing and more songs. Oh, and the video!

The only complaint I had w/ Four Flicks was the editing of the "club" show - it was cut-cut-cut-cut-cut and the footage bounced/jumped around WAY too fast....I felt it didn't capture the intimacy of those small venues very well.

Otherwise, I agree.

The 2nd disc is great (except Rocks Off, of course).

This album always had a bad mix to me - Brown Sugar, for example, isn't too exciting.

I never listen to it.

The Four Licks DVD is awesome - I watch a lot - CD 1 - The midnight rambler rehersal number sounds so good, Jagger singing Worried About You during the outside rehersal is awesome, and Keith plugging in and playing that first suspended chord sounds awesome.

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OpenG
The Four Licks DVD is awesome - I watch a lot - CD 1 - The midnight rambler rehersal number sounds so good, Jagger singing Worried About You during the outside rehersal is awesome, and Keith plugging in and playing that first suspended chord sounds awesome.

That is nice to see, but very fabricated....

I agree 100% muncy. Always thought the Rocks Off cut was a disgrace. Great tour though.

Funnily, it was my first Stones concert aged 15 as well (Vienna)

The Live album does suck, the DVD box set is fantastic



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-03 20:18 by mnewman505.

If you have Four Flicks you don't need Live Licks (unless you want to play that particular recording in your car).

great cover though...

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SomeGuy
If you have Four Flicks you don't need Live Licks (unless you want to play that particular recording in your car).

Or perhaps if you really want to hear the different CYHMK-version from The Wiltern and BOB.

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DandelionPowderman

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SomeGuy
If you have Four Flicks you don't need Live Licks (unless you want to play that particular recording in your car).

Or perhaps if you really want to hear the different CYHMK-version from The Wiltern and BOB.

Yes, and Street fighting man is better, The Nearness of you is better mixed, you get the Everybody needs...- version mit Salomon Burke and so on...

20 of the 23 songs (the actual recordings that is) on Live Licks are on Four Flicks also. The rest, 3 songs, are on Four Flicks also (albeit 1 incomplete, if I remember correctly) but they are different recordings.
To release a live 'double album' that has only 3 'new' recordings, which are just different takes of the same songs, played on the actual same dates as Four Flicks, a full year after the DVD was released and to pretend its a 'new' live album? Sorry, no.
I did buy Honk though, that's the real new live album, by comparison

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SomeGuy
20 of the 23 songs (the actual recordings that is) on Live Licks are on Four Flicks also. The rest, 3 songs, are on Four Flicks also (albeit 1 incomplete, if I remember correctly) but they are different recordings.
To release a live 'double album' that has only 3 'new' recordings, which are just different takes of the same songs, played on the actual same dates as Four Flicks, a full year after the DVD was released and to pretend its a 'new' live album? Sorry, no.

Most people found it quite hard to play the four DVD´s in their portable CD-Players, car-players, stand-alone-CD-player and so on... Some people were not able to rip the audio from DVD´s. The content of the CDs wasn´t new but you finally could play the music outside your living-room. That´s why I welcomed the Live-Licks-release.

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HMS


Most people found it quite hard to play the four DVD´s in their portable CD-Players, car-players, stand-alone-CD-player and so on... Some people were not able to rip the audio from DVD´s. The content of the CDs wasn´t new but you finally could play the music outside your living-room. That´s why I welcomed the Live-Licks-release.

That was my point, when I said "unless you want to play it in your car".

Live licks is ok, but not great.

Four flicks was very good.

Their live albums in general have been on a long slide downward. For one thing it's mostly the same songs, and there's no change in the band's lineup to change the sound. As they're growing older, it's bound to sound worse. Four Flicks, and Bigger Bang are better to listen to/watch. I have Forty Licks currently in the car and I laughed at how bad the new cuts were.

Flashpoint had its moments, as did the No Security CD. (Yes, I know it's actually from the BTB tour). But what would be the point of getting any live album after that? Maybe Fonda because of the novelty.