Review of The Rolling Stones - Love You Live

The 70's were the golden age for the Rolling Stones as a concert act, so perhaps it is fitting that the best Stones album of that decade was a live album. The band never sounded better than it does on Love You Live, a vivid document of the Stones live power during their wildly successful Black and Blue Tour in 1976. The Stones' line-up on this double live disc, retains the core of Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman, but is augmented by Ron Wood on guitar and Billy Preston on keyboards. This tour served as an audition for Wood, who officially joined the Stones the following year. 

Tracks such as "Happy" and "Hot Stuff" shine brightly on Disc One, while a passionate rendition of "Sympathy For the Devil" concludes Disc Two. But the highlights of this package are the set of Muddy Waters' covers "Mannish Boy" and "Crackin' Up" that prove the Stones were always exceptional interpreters of delta blues music. 

Although this album finds the Stones in a period of transition - i.e. drug problems and an unstable line up - this album is a true testament to their ability to rock. With their hard-rockin', don't-give-a-damn attitude and their mastery of contemporary blues, the Stones are not only unrivaled in the field of pop-rock, but they truly define it. 

Released Date: 1998
Virgin Records
United Kingdom

Disc One:
Intro: Excerpt From "Fanfare for the Common Man"
Honky Tonk Women
If You Can't Rock Me / Get Off of My Cloud
Happy
Hot Stuff
Star Star
Tumbling Dice
Fingerprint File 
You Gotta Move
You Can't Always Get What You Want

Disc Two:
Mannish Boy
Crackin' Up
Little Red Rooster
Around And Around
It's Only Rock 'n Roll
Brown Sugar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Sympath

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