Product Description

By the time the Rolling Stones got around to issuing the third live album of their career, 1977's LOVE YOU LIVE, the legendary band had reinvented itself from a dangerous and sleazy rock & roll group to a more polished arena rock outfit. That said, the group was going through one of the rockiest and most uncertain periods of its lengthy career; Keith Richards had just been busted for heroin possession in Canada withthe threat of a long prison sentence hanging over his head,new member Ron Wood was still finding his niche in the band, and Mick Jagger appeared more concerned with jet-setting.
So it's a pretty impressive accomplishment that the Stones could present such a fun and spirited performance as the one featured on LOVE YOU LIVE (taped at a rare club appearance at Toronto's famed El Macombo). Though not exactly in league with one of rock's all-time great live sets, 1969's GET YER YA YA'S OUT, LOVE YOU LIVE contains many highlights, suchas the funky "Hot Stuff", the Richards-sung "Happy", several blues covers that kick off disc two ("Mannish Boy", Chuck Berry's "Around and Around", etc.) and an awesome, album-closing triple punch of "Brown Sugar", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and "Sympathy for the Devil".

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Fanfare From The Common Man
2. Honky Tonk Woman
3. If You Can't Rock Me/Get Off Of My Cloud
4. Happy
5. Hot Stuff
6. Star Star
7. Tumbling Dice
8. Fingerprint File
9. You Gotta Move
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want
11. Mannish Boy
12. Crackin' Up
13. Little Red Rooster
14. Around And Around
15. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
16. Brown Sugar
17. Jumpin' Jack Flash
18. Sympathy For The Devil

Disc 2:

1. Mannish Boy
2. Crackin' Up
3. Little Red Rooster
4. Around And Around
5. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
6. Brown Sugar
7. Jumpin' Jack Flash
8. Sympathy For The Devil

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33802 in Music
• Released on: 1998-04-27
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Double CD

Customer Reviews

The most down and dirty of The Stones' live offerings
Recorded in 1977, at the height of The Stones drug-addled seventies hedonism, "Love You Live" is, in my opinion, the most rough and ready of The Stones' live albums. The most "down and dirty" if you like. There are two cracking blues cuts in "Little Red Rooster", "You Gotta Move" and "Mannish Boy"; funky versions of "Hot Stuff" and "Fingerprint File"; a great "Tumbling Dice" with Billy Preston's organ well to the fore; and gutsy rockouts in "Star Star", "Honky Tonk Women" and Chuck Berry's "Around and Around". There's also the novelty of a Bo Diddley b side cover in the reggae-influenced "Crackin' Up" to enjoy. Keith delivers "Happy" in surprisingly upbeat style considering his turbulent personal life at the time and Jagger slurs his way through a delightfully sleazy "Sympathy For The Devil" as the album's closer.

At the time, The Stones were the bete noires of the punk movement - stadium rocker donosaurs to be dismissed out of hand, unconditionally. Contrary to opinions at the time, this was not a "stadium" live album. Most of the cuts are from smaller intimate venues and the album has a almost "punky" attitude to it - drenched in heat, sweat and the glory of the blues. It lacks the slickness and well-oiled organisation of the later live albums such as "Flashpoint" and "No Security" and breathes through nicotine-wrecked lungs. Not particularly well received at the time (it was considered to be a piece of money-making indulgence from old rockers who should be thinking about quitting), retrospectively one listens to this album and realises that this is still a top notch live offering, and one very much in keeping with the times, despite what the punks at the time (of which I was one) would have you believe. Good stuff all round.

A greatly underated live album!
The Rolling Stones have been around for a VERY long time... so there are very few ideas they haven't tried several times. The concept of a live recording capturing the Stones not only in a stadium but also in a small club is a great one and was used in the excellent 2003 'Four Flicks' dvd.However, this idea was actually first used in nearly thirty years earlier in the now forgotten 'Love You Live'!
At the the time there was a very real feeling that the band were about to end; Keith Richards seemed bound for jail following the infamous Toronto bust and and by popular consensus the Stones had lost their way in an excesses of the rock n' roll lifestyle - producing substandard music after their creative peak between 1968 and 1972.
The idea that this- to quote an old Stones song- is the 'last time' you'll hear the Stones is a marketing ploy they have endlessly reused to promote every tour they undertake! But in 1977, there was a very real sense that this was a swansong, that the Stones were redeeming themselves just before their demise. Of course, NOW the popular story is that the 'Some Girls' album of 1978 was the band's return to form and 'Love You Live' is mistakenly viewed as part of the Stones' dodgy mid seventies period.
There is something heroic about success at the brink of failure, more heroic than simply being good when all is well. In these terms 'Love You Live' is the ultimate Stones album. Three sides of the album are from a 1976 concert at Les Abattoirs in Paris. This show took place shortly after the death of Keith Richards's newborn child. That the show took place at all is, incredible, that its so good is amazing. In the first track, 'Honky Tonk Women', Keith's guitar sounds ragged, he badly misses a chord and Mick says "C'mon baby!" However the rest of the song is note perfect with a solo by Keith that is jaw dropping; this recovery is really something to hear!
The sides from Les Abattoirs stand as a reminder of just how long the Stones have played their 'greatest hits' live show, with only a few later written favourites like 'Miss You' and 'Start Me Up' absent from the track list. However there are also some great seventies tracks like 'Hot Stuff' and 'Fingerprint File' that really groove. The band's energy level is top notch, Jagger's singing largely excellent (though a bit out of puff on an otherwise brilliantly played 'Jumping Jack Flash'). The guitar interplay between Keith and -then-new boy Ronnie Wood is more akin to the lead/rhythm model used by Keith and Mick Taylor then the 'ancient art of weaving' that evolved in later years but it works well and Ronnie has some great solos.
The club recording on side three -at least on my old vinyl copy! - from El Mocambo in Toronto in March 1977 is REALLY impressive. Remember this concert was recorded as Keith was awaiting his legal verdict. This is the sound of a band staring down the barrel of a gun and playing their socks off! Old blues standard 'Mannish Boy' is slightly marred by Jagger's mannered singing but his harmonica part is great and the music really cooks with inspired guitar interplay between Keith and Ronnie (noticeably better than on the Les Abattoirs tracks the year before). `Crackin' Up' is a rare reggae track that is brilliant in a very sexist way! `Little Red Rooster' evokes the original Stones sound to a degree that Brian Jones would've been proud of and the closing Chuck Berry cover `Round and Round' features an electrifying solo from Keith -that noticeably excites Mick's singing - and CAN'T be played too loud!
Listened to in 2007, this album reminds you just how GOOD the Stones were in their -comparative- youth. The music is played with conviction and energy long since lost to them (not that they don't excite these days though!) and is a reminder that even as late as 1977 they really were a truly great band. Get a copy of this forgotten classic and turn up the volume!

power & glory
Keith Richards takes this album where it's going - all the rest is commentary.

The commentary is of course all-out brilliant, the perfect setting for a man intent on wresting salvation from his music. Woody is a fine foil for Keith, and the whole band (as well as the mix, praise be) defers to the guitarists' "ancient form of weaving" as they shimmer and prowl and snarl and roar through some of the most ferocious and sensuous renditions ever of this exceptionally well-chosen material.

In other words: Here are the Stones getting right down into the thick of the rock & roll soup where they belong. Even if you don't know what was going on in the band's, and especially Keith's, offstage life on the dates these recordings were made, it's impossible not to be riveted.