Got Live If You Want It!
Released
December 10, 1966
But recorded all over the place
This album has a lot going against it. Enough going against
it that I’ll have to separate my anger into a number of areas.
First: The name of the album has already been used. By them.
Nineteen months ago. Any relation to the previous album, a live EP, is just in
name and the idea of “live.” This is not a case of small differences between a
UK and a US release; both are different albums, with somewhat similar album
art. It’s a serious case of laziness on the part of the US side of Stones
record releases. Let’s not get hasty though; it’s not the Rolling Stones’
fault, it’s their record company.
Second: Overdubs. There’s enough here to split into two.
One:
Studio overdubs. They fix the problems and make a live album seem pointless. At
least for me. In my opinion, a live album only works if it’s, you know, live.
Fixing a live album is to ruin its raw magic, and create a sort of pseudo-music.
If you really want perfection, we have studio albums for that.
Two:
Audience overdubs on studio tracks. No. No, that’s wrong in so many levels.
Trickery is wrong. Passing these tracks as live, to the unsuspecting buyer, is
very wrong. Those are tracks that could be used on a real album. Instead, you’re
going to go ahead and put crowd noise over it and ruin the magic that could be
an album track. The worst part is that at least one of those songs that are
studio tracks sound pretty good. It’s a shame they had to ruin it just to put out
a “live” album. They said they had live, and they aren't even delivering.
Third: Even The Rolling Stones don’t agree with this album.
They didn't want it, and have since disowned the album. When even the band
themselves hate an album, what does that say about it? Nothing good at all.
Fourth: Not a big problem, and maybe not a problem at all,
but the large jumps of time between recording of the songs. Ranging from mid-1965
to late 1966, and even 1963 for the songs recorded in studio. The problem with
this is that it doesn't properly represent the Stones’ live repertoire. Some of
the songs have since been dropped from the live setlist. This is easily looked
past, as the album didn't promise a full live concert of live songs in any sort
of chronological order. They also promised live songs and they only partly succeeded
on that promise.
I think I've pushed out enough anger into these paragraphs
to actually listen to this album now. I feel like I wrote more here than I
could about the songs themselves.
Under My Thumb
· Recorded: October 1, 1966 (or October 7, 1966,
as the re-release states)
· Overdubs: Possibly Lead vocal.
This songs turned into a hard rocker, instead of the soft,
beautiful songs I used to know. However, it somehow works live. They did a very
good job with this, with Charlie Watts giving 110%.
8.75 / 10
Get Off of My Cloud
· Recorded: October 1, 1966
· Overdubs: Lead vocals, and Backing vocals by
Jagger & Richards.
Average performance, nothing too flashy. Comparable to the
studio version, just faster. However, I’ll stick to the vocals at the studio
version.
7.5 / 10
Lady Jane
·
Recorded: October 7, 1966
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal, and guitar by Richards.
Unlike Under My Thumb, this stays quiet, which is very rare
for rock concerts of this time. Luckily, Jagger was able to hold off his
signature crazy energy to stay soft with this song. Also, they overdubbed both lead vocals and guitar,
which pretty much makes this pointless, but I promised myself I wouldn’t talk
about stuff like that here.
8.5 / 10
Not Fade Away
·
Recorded: October 7, 1966
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal
A very weird transition from the last song. A quick song and
quick performance, which just makes this song sound like a time killer. But, it
was a fast performance and everyone stayed in line, and for that I thank them.
8/10
I've Been Loving You Too Long
·
Recorded: May 11-12, 1965
·
Overdubs: It’s a studio track, so audience.
When The Stones gets blues right, they hit it dead on. This is
a beautiful blues rock ballad with touches of electric, which sounds like a Bob
Dylan fan’s nightmare. I’m going to ignore the fact that this isn’t even live.
9/10
Fortune Teller
·
Recorded: July 9, 1963 + 1966 overdubs
·
Overdubs: It’s a studio track, so audience.
I probably could care less about this “performance” of the
song. Maybe it’s the audience. Maybe not. I’ve always been pretty hard on early
Stones for some reason.
6/10
The Last Time
·
Recorded: October 1, 1966
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal, backing vocals by Jagger
& Richards, and possibly a tambourine.
They kinda did satisfaction before this song, or maybe it
was Valleri by The Monkees. You know, two years before it was released by The
Monkees. Then it randomly cut into The Last Time. I really life the feel of
this song. It’s rushed, but it adds some extra power to it.
7.5/10
19th Nervous Breakdown
·
October 1, 1966
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal ON TOP OF the original
vocals, backing vocal by Jagger & Richards.
Well, the rhythm started out pretty shaky. Their fast speed
is finally catching up to them. It does go back to normal, though, so the whole
song isn’t ruined and awkward. You can’t blame them, it’s hard to hear certain
instruments right now, so it was impossible to hear anything when you’re there.
Some fancy bass work, and hard rocking drums. However, even disregarding the
rhythm mistake, the extra speed added onto this song hurts it in my opinion.
Also, the volume of drums really hurts this song the most, as although I like
drums, I also like to hear other instruments.
6/10
Time Is on My Side
·
Recorded: March 5 – 7, 1965
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal over the original.
Unfortunately, the guitar is soft in the mix, even during
the guitar solo. It’s not lost, just I’d prefer it louder. I’ll be fair with
this; I didn't like the performance, but they kept themselves well.
7/10
I’m Alright
·
Recorded: March 5 – 7, 1965
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal over the original
A screeching guitar that tries to reach the surface of the
mix. Good performance, although Jagger is a bit lacking in my opinion.
7/10
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
·
Recorded: October 7, 1966
·
Overdubs: According to the Internet, this is
most likely another studio track. We’ll keep that in mind.
It’s loud. It’s an average performance, nothing bad about
it, but I can’t really pick out anything. I can say that there’s a nice bass on
this song.
7.25/10
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
·
Recorded: October 7, 1966
·
Overdubs: Lead vocal, Backing vocal by Richards
It’s a hard rocking song, and I’m surprised they didn't rush
this song too much. It’s straight ahead, and a very good closer. However, a fade
out? Really?
8/10
The
album is full of fixing up. If the album’s goal was to make money, then maybe
it succeeded. If the production’s goal was to fix an album up out of scraps,
they succeeded. More than likely, this album sounded better than the raw
concert. What I heard sounded pretty good.
But it’s
anything but a live album. An overdub to fix sound issues? I can look past
that. Editing to create a Frankenstein of an album? You keep your hands off. Back
then, maybe all the fans didn't care, but everything here is just plain wrong.
The worst is the usage of studio recordings, with audience overdubs to fool us.
That’s not right.
A live album is supposed to bring the live experience into
your home. This is not that. In case you didn't realize by now, I hate
everything behind this album.
However, the performances themselves sound really good. The
mix has the drums dominating, which works well until about halfway through,
where they even start to drown out the guitar. Vocals range from average and uninspired
to very good. In my opinion, the b-side of the album is the weak point.
Everything
was performed at a faster pace, which brings a new spin to some and hurt
others. It’s a hit or miss. Even through this, the band keeps together (except
for the beginning of 19th Nervous Breakdown), despite the odds being
stacked against them.
Finally,
despite the editing attempts to make this album as perfect as possible, there
are random cuts that sound unnatural, and as I said, the drums dominate too
much.
And
finally, if you’re going to promote this as a pure live album, don’t have Mick
Jagger overdub his vocals on top of himself. Having two Jagger’s is not live.
I will
hate this album for the foreseeable future. A pity, because the performances
themselves are very nice and rose far above my expectations at times.
Suddenly the songs’ individual ratings don’t matter, because
I’m giving the album a 30/100.
The performances themselves I give an 86/100.
And finally, if you do count the songs’ ratings, It would be
75%, which is just a little too low for me.
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