Rolling Stones 1971 2016

Once simply viewed as a ramshackle overview of the Rolling Stones' decidedly uneven career throughout the '70s and into the early '80s, Rewind (1971-1984), ironically enough, is now also considered something of a collector's item since going out of print. And let's not forget that a Stones collection, however imperfect, is still bound to showcase some of the greatest rock & roll tunes ever recorded, and in this case the offerings include everything from "Brown Sugar" to "Angie" to "Miss You" to "Start Me Up," etc., etc. Of course, all of these and many, many more are now represented in the 2002 Forty Licks set, consigning Rewind to its bizarre afterlife as a rarity – go figure.

Leon Russell's accolades are monumental in a number of categories, from songwriting (he wrote Joe Cocker's "Delta Lady") to session playing (with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, just to name a few) to his solo work. Unfortunately, it's the last category that never really attracted as much attention as it should have, despite a multitude of blues-based gospel recordings and piano-led, Southern-styled rock albums released throughout the 1970s. Leon Russell and the Shelter People is a prime example of Russell's instrumental dexterity and ability to produce some energetic rock & roll. Poignant and expressive tracks such as "Of Thee I Sing," "Home Sweet Oklahoma," and "She Smiles Like a River" all lay claim to Russell's soulful style and are clear-cut examples of the power that he musters through his spirited piano playing and his voice. His Dylan covers are just as strong, especially "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh," while "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "It's a Hard Rain Gonna Fall" have him sounding so forceful, they could have been Russell's own.

If the final installment of ABKCO's series of box sets containing CD replicas of the Rolling Stones' original singles for Decca and London during the '60s seems not quite as impressive as the first two, there's a reason for it: it's not. But that has little to do with either the music – some of the Stones' very best is here, including "Street Fighting Man," "Honky Tonk Women," and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," all viable contenders for the greatest rock & roll single ever – or the packaging, which is every bit as lavish and loving as the first two installments. Instead, the problem is that the nine singles collected here are a bit of a hodgepodge…

Pieced together from outtakes and much-labored-over songs, Sticky Fingers manages to have a loose, ramshackle ambience that belies both its origins and the dark undercurrents of the songs. It's a weary, drug-laden album – well over half the songs explicitly mention drug use, while the others merely allude to it – that never fades away, but it barely keeps afloat…

When The Rolling Stones’ former manager Allen Klein assembled one of the band’s earliest compilation series in 1971 and 1972 (Hot Rocks 1964-1971 and More Hot Rocks), he was surveying an entirely different group than the one we know today. Four and a half decades later, there’s a whole lot more catalog to consider than what that original, unassailable run of ’60s albums offered at the time. Honk essentially picks up where Hot Rocks left off, plucking 36 tunes from a range of LPs starting with 1971’s Sticky Fingers and ending with 2016’s Blue & Lonesome. But while that timeframe is broad, the focus is stylistically tight. Aside from a few classic ballads (“Wild Horses,” “Angie”), Honk serves as a reminder of what the band built their name on: strutting rockers and barroom stompers.

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano). Stewart was removed from the official line-up in 1963 but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985…

There's a certain part of the collectors market that has a fondness for box sets that recreate the original singles and EPs British Invasion bands released during the '60s. These, to put it mildly, are not designed for practical listening – very few listeners like to load up their multi-disc player with CDs running two tracks – but that's kind of the point of these boxes: they're archival releases, targeted at collectors who relish recreations of these singles and EPs, as exercises in both history and nostalgia. In other words, these are replicas of artifacts, not the genuine thing, but since these singles and EPs are hard to come by (and often too expensive for fans on a budget), this is the next best thing to the actual item…

The Rolling Stones have announced a new entry in their From the Vault series: No Security - San Jose 1999 collects the closing date of the band's 1999 American tour on DVD, Blu-ray, DVD and two CDs, three LPs and digital formats. Japanese edition features two bonus tracks: "Gimme Shelter" and "Moonlight Mile"

Drenched in red, with a plain black and white cover photo of the band, Refugee had the distinction of being produced by the late, great Jimmy Miller and his protégé, the late Joe Zagarino, engineer from Exile on Main Street. This was a most prolific time for the legendary producer, Refugee having been released around the time of Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones, two albums by the Knack's Doug Fieger after Miller discovered Fieger and his band, Sky, signing them to RCA (where this album found distribution), and perhaps the most important parallel for Savage Rose, a release date for Refugee close to that of Delaney & Bonnie on Tour With Eric Clapton, considered by many one of Jimmy Miller's most significant recordings…