Love You Live

This is a truly great live stones cd.

There are scores of Rolling Stones live albums, but apparently only some of them are official, presumably meaning the others aren't, whatever that means. But amongst the nine "official" live albums is the Stones mid-seventies double CD offering "Love You Live" which features tracks from their Tour of the Americas in 1975 and the Tour of Europe in 1976 as well as four tracks from their low-key performances at the El Mocambo nightclub concert venue in Toronto in March 1977 [all of the latter can now also be found on the recently released "Live at the El Mocambo" album]. With just the five stones (including then new-boy Ronnie Wood) and help from Billy Preston, Ian Stewart and Ollie Brown on keyboards, piano and percussion respectively "Love You Live" is a record of the Rolling Stones touring act before it became the juggernaut of keyboards, horns, and backing vocalists that it is today.After an introduction featuring an excerpt from Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" [before it was appropriated by Emerson Lake Palmer] the first disc contains a mix of greatest hits and album tracks kicking off for real with a hard-core sleazy "Honky Tonk Women", followed by a rocking medley of "If You Can't Rock Me"/"Get Off of My Cloud" with Keith Richards and Ron Wood reminding listeners that at the core of the Stones there's a solid twin guitar attack, and then a fast and furious "Happy" with Keith Richards on vocals, this is brilliant and IMO far better than the original Exile on Main Street version. Black and Blue's "Hot Stuff" follows with Ollie Brown's percussion giving it a touch of latin-flavouring before the original first of the four vinyl sides closed with a singalong "Star Star" [I remember a school friend telling me about the "Star Star" lyrics after his sister received a copy of Goats Head Soup for Christmas, we were an impressionable 13 at the time!]The second vinyl side continues the greatest hits/album tracks theme opening with Billy Preston's keyboard introduction to the bluesy boogie-woogie of "Tumbling Dice" [still a stalwart of the Stones' live set today] before the jazz-funk brilliance of "Fingerprint File" from the Its Only Rock and Roll album here reduced to just over five minutes from the original six and a half. With an abrupt change of style the African-American spiritual blues-rocker "You Gotta Move" follows before the first disc [and original second side] closes with an extended "You Can't Always Get What You Want", another that's still a stalwart of the Stones live set, and this version with its guitar solo and Jagger encouraging the Parisian audience in French to start a singalong is superb.But it's the original third side, here the first part of the second disc, that makes such a good live album with four tracks from the Stones' two nights at the El Mocambo nightclub in Toronto in March 1977; this is the most interesting section of the set, although perhaps not as interesting now that these and other tracks from those shows are now available on the 2022 release "Live at the El Mocambo". The aim of the El Mocambo concerts was to recreate the Stones' early performances at the Crawdaddy Club with a set of classic blues and R&B covers and to that end they kick-off with a cover of the Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Mel London co-write, the blues standard "Mannish Boy" with Jagger giving his all on harmonica before the blues cod-reggae sound of Bo Diddley's "Crackin' Up". After band introductions third up is Willie Dixon's blues hit "Little Red Rooster" that was first recorded by the Stones in 1964, before the side closes with a run through of Chuck Berry's "Around and Around", another from the Stones 1964 recordings. Together these are a real treat.Side four is then a run through of greatest hits starting with "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)" followed by a cracking rendition of "Brown Sugar" and then "Jumpin' Jack Flash" before closing with nearly eight minutes of "Sympathy for the Devil", all of these still appearing in the Stones' set-lists today with the exception of "Brown Sugar" that in these woke times has been dropped for its political incorrectness [as though it was the Stones' only politically incorrect song!]. Of course all of these pop-up on other Stones live albums but here with just the five Stones and their three supporting musicians they are raw and tightAnd that's it. If you're looking for a Stones live record then this is the place to start because "Love You Live" is probably the best of the Stones official live albums. This is a fantastic record of the Stones in their prime as they were in the seventies when they were the undisputed kings of rock 'n' roll, huge but not yet mega.

The Stones compositions are good but theBlues tracks are better by the original artists like Muddy Waters etc

Strange that I'm only just getting into The Rolling Stones in a big way, but I'm enjoying catching up. I did have this on vinyl years ago and was so pleased to hear it again on CD. This album shows the Stones at their live best. Absolutely brilliant!

Another great live Stones album.

The best live act ever,recorded over two shows.

A great live Stones album including tracks you don't usually get on their life offerings a great live star star from the Goats Head Soup album. And some great slide guitar on you gotta move. I used to have this album on vinyl and almost wore it out. If you like the track listing then it's definitely worth adding to your collection.

A great album this, with all the atmosphere of a live concert. As well as some punchy tracks like 'Hot Stuff' and 'Mannish Boy' performed for a receptive audience, there's a jokey introduction to the band members by Mick, and Ronnie grabs the mike to tell everyone about the 'new boy in the band' - Mick. A must-have for Stones' camp-followers and long-time (as well as long-in-the-tooth) fans like yours truly.