Rolling Stones Five by Five

The first hits compilation of the Rolling Stones is still one of the most potent collections of singles that one can find. Listening to it in 1966 or today, one can understand how, almost prematurely for the 1960s – as most of the material here dates from 1964 or 1965 – the Stones set themselves up as the decade's most visible rock & roll rebels…

To be indelicate about the matter: what exactly makes Big Cocksucker Blues different than plain old Cocksucker Blues, the legendary rarely-seen film of the Rolling Stones' 1972 tour? Well, while the original Cocksucker Blues has frequently been bootlegged since the pre-DVD era, this Big Cocksucker Blues has that 95-minute film and well over an hour of extras. The extra footage, you should know, does not contain Cocksucker Blues outtakes, but does offer a good amount of rare clips from 1967-1974 that should interest any hardcore fan of the Stones during this era…

"From The Vault" is a new series of live concerts from The Rolling Stones archive which are getting their first official release. L.A. Forum Live In 1975 is the second title in this series. The Rolling Stones Tour Of The Americas '75 was the band's first tour with new guitarist Ronnie Wood…

Graced with cover art of a grotesque gorilla sporting the Stones' trademark leering lips, GRRR! doesn't quite have the classy veneer usually associated with a 50th anniversary collection. Frankly, that's a good sign for the Rolling Stones: they're celebrating their half-century together but refusing to take themselves too seriously, even when they're assembling a mammoth retrospective that's available in three different incarnations. Each chronicles the Stones' story beginning with their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On," to a pair of good new recordings (a loose-limbed rocker called "Doom and Gloom" and the poppier "One More Shot"). Neither the standard triple-disc version, a budget two-disc version, or the super deluxe four-disc set - which has the added bonus of a disc of the band's Chess Records-heavy demos for IBC in 1963, a significant enticement to make the investment…

Sweet Summer Sun – Hyde Park Live chronicles the Rolling Stones’ historic and triumphant return to London’s Hyde Park with a 2-hour live concert and highlights package including new and unseen backstage footage.This summer, over 100,000 delirious fans packed into Hyde Park for two spectacular outdoor concerts to see Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood do what they do best. The Stones delivered a five star performance packed full of hits such as ‘Start Me Up’, ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, ‘Miss You’, ‘It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll’, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Doom And Gloom’ and ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, as well as one or two surprises.

Sucking In the Seventies - This is an odd compilation that deserves recognition above most others due to it’s unique qualities. With the exception of Shattered and Mannish Boy (live), not one of the eight (8) remaining selections are found in their original form. There are a total of five previously-released selections that were edited by almost as much as two minutes, including Time Waits for No One [running at 4:25] and Hot Stuff [3:30.] The set does offer the b-side Everything Is Turning to Gold, the 12-inch promo-only b-side If I Was A Dancer (Dance pt. 2), as well as a song completely unique to this title, When the Whip Comes Down (live.) By the time compact discs came into play, this album already had it’s run and most consumers were no longer interested until Virgin Records announced that it would discontinue production in 1992. Virgin would finally lay plans to re-introduce this particular title into the market in April of 2005. Providing some solace to collectors for over a decade, three of the edited song versions did re-appear in the 1993 CD compilation Jump Back as well as the 2002 set Forty Licks. It offers radio-friendly versions of some otherwise long selections but the editing was broad and unnecessary offering nothing new or exciting to them.

If it feels as if Honk treads familiar ground, it's because it does. Arriving seven years after the career-spanning Grrr! – a compilation available in a variety of iterations, all spanning from the earliest years to the 2010s – Honk focuses squarely on the music the Rolling Stones made after leaving London/Decca, a catalog that now resides with Abkco. In other words, its ground zero is "Brown Sugar," a staple that arrives just after "Start Me Up" kicks off the double-disc set. Such sequencing indicates how Honk bounces through the years, letting the '70s sit next to the '80s, finding space for latter-day songs that only showed up on previous greatest-hits albums (there have been five since 1984), and shining the spotlight on such excellent latter-day cuts as "Rough Justice."…