Hot Rocks 1964-1971

iTunes Review

Need proof that the Rolling Stones were once the “World’s Greatest Rock n’ Roll Band”? Originally issued as a 2-LP set, Hot Rocks makes an open and shut case, beginning with “Time is On My Side” and plowing through instant ‘60s classics as “Satisfaction,” “Get Off Of My Cloud,” “19th Nervous Breakdown,” “Ruby Tuesday,’ “Jumping Jack Flash,” “Honky Tonk Women,” and “Gimme Shelter,” several of which were never previously available on LP. There isn’t a bum track to be heard. From the band’s early British Invasion singles through their transformation as rock’s “bad boys,” chronicling the era’s ups and downs (“Mother’s Little Helper”), its sexism (“Under My Thumb”), its sexual liberation (“Let Spend the Night Together”), its undercurrents of violence (“Jumping Jack Flash,” “Street Fightin’ Man,”  “Brown Sugar”) and its suspicion of hope (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”), the Rolling Stones were nearly larger than life. It’s almost inconceivable that they accomplished so much in so few years. And this is only an introduction. Their studio albums from Aftermath to Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street alone deserve to be heard in their brilliant entirety as well.