Your 2 lp Stones Best-Of...Voodoo Lounge to Present

I'm of the opinion that the Stones can and should force a critical and public reevaluation of this era, in advance of their next original release (which should not be brickwalled, Dear God please).

Any thoughts on the Hot Rocks of these older gentlemen?

 

Do you have any?

 

I don't know this era well at all but Losing My Touch and Doom and Gloom would have to make it for me.

I'd definitely buy a good compilation of this era.

 

Love Is Strong
You Got Me Rocking
Sparks Will Fly
Out of Tears

I Go Wild
Flip the Switch
Anybody Seen My Baby?
Already Over Me

Out of Control
Saint of Me
Rough Justice
Rain Fall Down

Streets of Love
Biggest Mistake
This Place Is Empty
Doom and Gloom

 

Im not gonna try to sequence a 2 lp set, but lets say this would be my 20 track best of since VL:

Love Is Strong
You Got Me Rocking
Out of Tears
Blinded By Rainbows
Thru and Thru
Out of Control
Already Over Me
Saint of Me
Low Down
You Don't Have to Mean It
How Can I Stop
Don't Stop
Rough Justice
Streets of Love
Oh No Not You Again
Rain Fall Down
Doom and Gloom
One More Shot
+2 songs from Blue and Lonesome

 

Some are going to ask for Thru and Thru and maybe some more.

 

Well that was about as depressing an exercise as could be on a Friday night. I’m a life long die hard Stones fan and surprised myself by how little of their output from the past three decades speaks to me in any measurable way. I came up with only

Love Is Strong
Moon Is Up
Brand New Car
Little Baby
Flip The Switch
Saint Of Me
Too Tight
Losing My Touch
Blue And Lonesome

beyond that, I couldn’t come up with any others that I would mind never hearing again.

 

Moon Is Up
Sparks Will Fly

Those two are essential tunes for any Stones best-of comp CD, regardless of era. Just my humble, non-expert opinion, of course.

 

A few but I'm far more interested in hearing from others who might have more expertise. I have trouble cutting Voodoo Lounge down to size (though I agree it would have been better if someone had) and the others didn't speak to me strongly enough for me to listen enough to have much of an opinion. But I did like some of all of them.

 

I was happy with VL, the other albums not so much.

 

I'm going to do some playlists with your responses and might even report back - thanks!

 

Your list I liked the best, just for my personal use I could edit it down to a single lp.

 

I love the '86-'05 era much more than most people (though I confess it's been a long time since I've listened to Bridges all the way through, and I can't remember how most of it goes). Blue And Lonesome is a pretty good album, but none of the songs work out of context for me, so I won't include any of those songs here. Not in a sequence, but these are the songs I always go back to:

• "Love Is Strong" - This is a killer opening tune. I believe at one point, when they did a "vote for the songs you want us to play" thing, this one got so many votes that they got sick of playing it and took it off the poll! Well-deserved entry on the list.
• "You Got Me Rocking" - This is just a fantastic tune. Not much more to say.
• "The Worst" - One of my favorite Keef tunes. It's been a long time since I've been on a Stones binge, so I re-created my old favorites playlist, and when this one came on, I actually thought it was from Exile until he started singing! (Maybe I was confusing the intro with "Sweet Black Angel"?)
• "Moon Is Up" - The drums on this song sound horrible, but maybe that was the point. Great melody on this one.
• "Out Of Tears" - It's maybe a little over-dramatic, but this is a great ballad. For being the kings of rocking and rolling, they can still do a mean piano ballad!
• "Blinded By Rainbows" - The title is so stupid, but the verses and the second half of the chorus are great - maybe in the top five Stones ballads. But, oof... "You're blinded by rainbows and faces in windows" - they should have come up with something so much better than that.
• "Flip The Switch" - Not the fastest song they've ever done, as they claim (most people point to "Rip This Joint", but "Dirty Work" is another contender), but this is still a great little tune. Fantastic way to kick off Bridges To Babylon.
• "Out Of Control" - Love this one! Spooky atmosphere, killer hook, and the lyrics are pretty good too. (There's a lot of cliches they could have fallen for and opted not to.) I only wish it didn't cross-fade into the next one.
• "Saint Of Me" - Yeah, this one's kinda cheesy, but it's got some cool licks in it, and the chorus rocks.
• "Let Me Down Slow" - Pretty much all of A Bigger Bang has horrible production and awful lyrics matched to some of the best tunes they'd written in a long time. The riffs, guitar licks, and especially melodies on this album are all top-notch, but Charlie plays a set of garbage cans throughout and the lyrics are consistently bad. I still rate it in my top ten Stones albums, though!
• "Streets Of Love" - Like "Out Of Tears", cheesy and over-dramatic, but still melodic and memorable. The lyrics are a bit worse, the hooks are a bit better. Well, maybe not better - "Out Of Tears" had some pretty unique chord changes and this one is kinda simple. But I love it anyway.
• "She Saw Me Coming" - Probably my favorite tune from A Bigger Bang. Stupid as hell, but in a good way. Mick's not too shabby on bass, either!
• "This Place Is Empty" - Another nice Keef ballad. Production's a little better than the rest of the album (but not by a ton).

That averages out to 51 minutes - maybe a bit long to be a single LP (I'd drop "Blinded By Rainbows" if forced to cut it down). To flesh it out to a double, there's a few songs I have some minor reservations about but these ones would be decent additions:

• "Sparks Will Fly" - A couple of moments that make me shake my head ("sharks will cry" is a pretty glaring one), but overall, just a fun little rocker.
• "Mean Disposition" - Another song that's not really anything special, but just fun to listen to.
• "Rough Justice" - More horrible lyrics and production matched to great riffs and hooks. I didn't put this in the initial list because there's already two fantastic opening tracks in there, and this falls below a few Bigger Bang tunes for me - but this is still a good one. Apart from, y'know, the horrible lyrics and production.
• "Rain Fall Down" - I'm not a huge fan of this tune, but it will bring some variety to this rocker-rocker-rocker-ballad-rocker-rocker-rocker-ballad compilation.
  
• "Back Of My Hand" - Again, not a personal favorite, but it adds variety. I could have included a Blue And Lonesome track here, but those songs don't hold up very well outside the context of the album for me, and I can't pick any one that stands out among the others. I let that album stand on its own.
  
• "Biggest Mistake" - Some of the better lyrics this album has to offer, and another nice hook. It definitely doesn't hit as hard as some of the other songs, though.

That puts it to about 76 minutes total - single CD, double LP. Before I put it in sequence, I've got to re-listen to Bridges To Babylon. It's been a few years since I last played that, and I think I only played it once! I know what I'll be listening to at work tomorrow. I may decide to re-work this list - maybe not.

Oh yeah - I also haven't heard the Forty Licks and GRRR! tracks. I'm pretty sure they're all on Honk though, which is one I've been meaning to pick up.

 

I would dump Anybody Seen My Baby but otherwise, ace.

 

In terms of addressing the OP's assignment, this track listing is so perfect that we could pretty much close the thread at this point. Are there some of my favorites missing? Sure, there are a few I'd love to see ("I Go Wild," "Low Down," and "She Saw Me Coming"). But for the neophyte or lapsed fan - which is the point of a collection like this - I can't really argue with this playlist. This could actually move some copies, especially if it was promoted as Hot Rocks 1992-2015, or something to that effect.

One question, though: Why are we starting with 1992? It would seem that 1989 would be the more natural beginning for a comp like this, as that was the beginning of this era (the "comeback years") of their career, in the minds of most people. And while Steel Wheels is a mediocre album, it did have a clutch of tracks ("Mixed Emotions," "Rock & a Hard Place," "Can't Be Seen," "Almost Hear You Sigh") that would slot in nicely among the others here. JMO.

 

Well, “The Worst” has to be on there.

 

I don’t think there’s enough material for a double album, but I could go for something like this 14 song set:

Love Is Strong
You Got Me Rocking
The Worst
Blinded By Rainbows
Anybody Seen My Baby
Out of Control
Saint of Me
Already Over Me
Don’t Stop
Rough Justice
Back Of My Hand
Plundered My Soul
Doom and Gloom
This Place Is Empty

 

"The Worst" is a fantastic Keith song for fans. But for the casual listener, it's not going to have the same pop appeal as the others. See also "Thru and Thru."

 

The Worst was an immediate favorite for me, though I guess I'm a fan. It's a pretty unusual and great hook, though, and his voice carries it in such a way that I don't think you'd have to know who it was or anything about them to "get" the character singing it.

Forgive my ignorance...are the overdubs on this significant enough to call it a song from 2010?

 

I almost did it that way...in the end I used Bill Wyman's departure as the marker. I agree that Steel Wheels had some good tunes as well. I've put the selections mentioned into a pandora playlist and it numbers 33 songs (a 34th is unavailable to stream for some reason) so Steel Wheels certainly wouldn't be needed, material-wise, to make a tasty 2lp comp. Obviously, if anyone has ideas that include them feel free to post here.

 

Here is the playlist I mentioned, I'm curious if it works for anyone:

https://pandora.app.link/JU92PRNjw4

It starts with

followed by the other songs mentioned except Losing My Touch, which is unavailable.

 

Creating a double-LP from this productive period severely detracts from this late, limited musical output from the Rolling Stones.

To put in proper perspective, Elton John’s Greatest Hits album—one of the greatest-selling and highly-reviewed compilations—covers a ten-album period of eight studio records, one soundtrack, and one live album. It’s ten songs. One LP. And it’s flawless.

This Stones period covers only four studio records, with just a handful of contemporary live albums and singles to complement them. Clearly, this unproductive era doesn’t merit a compilation album more than the length of Elton John’s Greatest Hits and certainly not the four sides of Hot Rocks.

Having read many previous entries in this thread, it seems like there’s more excuse-making and apologies for many of these late-era songs’ inclusions than any actual greatest hits.

It would seem that a ten-song, 45-50 minute LP would do this era of the Rolling Stones much better than the, ahem, rough justice of a longer comp.

 

Don't know about that. Sheryl Crow just covered "The Worst" on her last record. It must have some appeal.

 

I don't think this era suffers from a lack of good songs, but choosing between them is tough, and GREAT songs like they made earlier?? Not sure how many get there. Breakingglass posted a 9 song version. I'm of the opinion that producing 9 truly valuable tracks in your retirement years is more impressive than the Stones generally get credit for. Hot Rocks is well-stocked with hits of a defining generational and stylistic (rock and roll) status which makes it unrepeatable. But I do think a good vol 2 could change the accepted narrative of their career, thus paving the way for the next album.

 

I didn't say it didn't have appeal. Just that the appeal was mainly within the fanbase. Pretty sure Sheryl Crow is a Stones fan. She also covered Bob Dylan's "Mississippi," which is a similar fan-favorite deep cut. But neither of these covers charted, which kind of proves my point.