Hot Rocks 1964-1971

Not a duff track on it, this is a cracking selection of the Stones at the apex of their ideas, drive and musicianship. The rawness of the guitars and vocal clarity with all it's original distotions is a true delight to hear even on my crappy CD player of 10 watts. As they evolve their own sound and musical shape the hits keep coming, and the smile on the listeners face just gets bigger. The live 'Midnight Rambler' track is a case in point that delivers a pumping version of a song in all it's live glory! The second disc for me is just class all the way with the last three tracks bringing us home, and giving you all you want from a Stones selection. A must for all music loving humans!!

Fabulous album 👍

Unless I am mistaken, I have not read any specific comment about the sound quality of this issue on a double album released on sacd format. I am not necessarily a rock music fan but having grown up in the 60s and 70s as a teenager to the sound of Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Beatles, the Stones and many others , I was intrigued to find out by what magnitude the sound had been be improved years later, using the latest digital technology. I grew up to embrace the classical music cause in the intervening years and started buying classical records almost exclusively. So, why buy this now you may ask. Nostalgia and my taste for remastered music in the best possible sound made me go ahead with the purchase of these sacds.. I was just curious to hear what differences I could possibly hear compared to the original recordings I was familiar with.Well, I was in for a pleasant shock. I remember how fuzzy and trebly, the sound used to be on my record player and I put this down to the poor recording and reproduction of the sound. I could not have been any more wrong because now, many years later, I can report that I am absolutely bowled over by the quality of the sound reproduction on my high end system set up for optimum reproduction where any slight change however small can be detected immediately.Not only has the fuzziness and trebly sound gone completely but the clarity of the recording is simply amazing. Suddenly, you are transported into the recording studio, to witness the recording session taking place. I can now hear details I had never heard before, low level details as well as the acoustics of the recording venue with the greatest ease. Suddenly the Stones are performing even better and I would go as far as saying that the recording in its remastered format can be considered to be in the hi fi demo league good enough to be played to showcase your hi fi system. I am now more than happy to play Maria Callas and the Rolling Stones in sacd format!So, if you are a Rolling Stones fan or an audiophile like me, buy this without any further ado. You will not regret it, I promise you.PS : I understand that concern has been expressed by a reviewer over the fact that these sacds will not play as sacds on his sacd player. This is very odd as it should. I had no problem at all with my sacd player.A final thought. I have now just bought Hot rocks vol 2 on the strength of what I heard on the first volume with the knowledge that it will play happily on my standard cd player and on my sacd player.

Decent compilation of 21 tracks with 12 (1964-67) on CD1 and 9 (1968-1971) on CD2. Given that the 2nd disc is about 6 minutes longer than the 1st, my view is that a couple of the superb singles from the mid-60s (such as 'It's All Over Now' and 'The Last Time') could easily have been included on Disc 1. Even so, many early classics are here including 'Satisfaction', 'Get off Of My Cloud', 'Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown', 'Paint It Black', 'Let's Spend The Night Together' and the lovely 'Ruby Tuesday as well as superb non-single releases such as 'Play With Fire' and 'As Tears Go By'.CD2 covers the big hitters from 1968-1971 including 'Jumping Jack Flash', 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Brown Sugar' and the glorious 'Street Fighting Man. In addition, there are a number of classy album tracks including the primal 'Sympathy for The Devil', 'Gimme Shelter' and the pretty country ballad 'Wild Horses'; the only thing that doesn't really impress me is the 9 minute live version of 'Midnight Rambler' which is heavy going in this form. However, if you're looking for a really good compilation of early Stones material then this should serve as a great introduction to their extensive back catalogue. Highly recommended.