Forty Licks

Amazon.com
The band that proclaimed itself The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World has long since represented rocks most overarching confluence of art and commerce–with a distinct emphasis on the latter in recent decades–a notion this 40-track, five-decade-spanning anthology cant completely escape. While this is the first anthology to gather hits from the bands entire career, its the early tunes that highlight one of the Stones central ironies: virtually their entire bad boy reputation was built working for The Man. That original 60s musical arc bounded from 50s rock and R&B revivalism (Not Fade Away, The Last Time) to anti-Mop Top aggression (Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown) to proto-goth cynicism (Paint It Black, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby) and psychedelic minstrelsy (Shes a Rainbow, Ruby Tuesday) to the epitome of blues-based cock rock (Street Fighting Man, Jumpin Jack Flash) in quick succession. Wresting control of their own destinies–and future copyrights–at the end of the 60s, theyd spend the next 30 years largely recycling their earlier incarnation ad infinitum–their music sprinkled with occasionally successful forays into contemporary club and disco fodder (Some Girls, Shattered)–and resting on their well-paid laurels. Unfortunately, the listless quartet of new tracks that flesh out this collection seems little more than another business deal to hype their 2002-03 world tour, with Dont Stop arguably the weakest in a long string of post-80s Stones McSingles. If Jagger seems typically detached here, Keith Richards injects some welcome, craggy warmth into the closing barroom lament, Losing My Touch. But its also a performance that suggests his legendary band has become little more to him than The Greatest Day Job in the World. –Jerry McCulley

Why Buy A Forty Licks?
The band that proclaimed itself The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World has long since represented rocks most overarching confluence of art and commerce–with a distinct emphasis on the latter in recent decades–a notion this 40-track, five-decade-spanning anthology cant completely escape. While this is the first anthology to gather hits from the bands entire career, its the early tunes that highlight one of the Stones central ironies: virtually their entire bad boy reputation was built working for The Man. That original 60s musical arc bounded from 50s rock and R&B revivalism (Not Fade Away, The Last Time) to anti-Mop Top aggression (Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown) to proto-goth cynicism (Paint It Black, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby) and psychedelic minstrelsy (Shes a Rainbow, Ruby Tuesday) to the epitome of blues-based cock rock (Street Fighting Man, Jumpin Jack Flash) in quick succession. Wresting control of their own destinies–and future copyrights–at the end of the 60s, theyd spend the next 30 years largely recycling their earlier incarnation ad infinitum–their music sprinkled with occasionally successful forays into contemporary club and disco fodder (Some Girls, Shattered)–and resting on their well-paid laurels. Unfortunately, the listless quartet of new tracks that flesh out this collection seems little more than another business deal to hype their 2002-03 world tour, with Dont Stop arguably the weakest in a long string of post-80s Stones McSingles. If Jagger seems typically detached here, Keith Richards injects some welcome, craggy warmth into the closing barroom lament, Losing My Touch. But its also a performance that suggests his legendary band has become little more to him than The Greatest Day Job in the World. –Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews & Opinions

THE BEST COMPILATION OF THE ROLLING STONES SO FAR
This is an awesome greatest hits album , it features on disc 1 there hits from 1964-1971 and on disc 2 there hits from 1973-2002. The sound is great and so is the package. Highly recommended.

FAVORITE STONES CD FOR TRAVEL!
Forty Licks just has so many of my favorite Stones songs that the two cd’s are among my must-haves for tunes for a road trip!

For my Baby Boomer Hippie!
My husband’s first CD of 40 Licks bit the dust. He literally wore it out. Needless to say, he was lost without it and didn’t think I’d ever find a replacement for it. I knew Amazon.Com wouldn’t fail me! Thanks for making my old air-guitar playing husband happy!

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All Things Must Pass [DIGI-PAK EDITION]

Amazon.com
Its hard to imagine, but . It remains Harrisons unequaled masterpiece. The devolved My Sweet Lord aside, the bonus tracks here offer new insight: the unreleased I Live for You further highlights the albums oft overlooked country facet; spare takes of Beware of Darkness and Let It Down underscore the strength of Harrisons songwriting; an alternate backing track of What Is Life demonstrates the meticulousness of Spectors production. And then theres the projects truly stellar session lineup, which included –Jerry McCulley

Why Buy A All Things Must Pass [DIGI-PAK EDITION]?
Its hard to imagine, but Beatles resident mystic George Harrison has arguably become the bands most curmudgeonly cynic. We offer as evidence this splendidly remastered 30th-anniversary edition of his 1970 multidisc solo epic. If the mini-boxed sets booklet and twin inner CD sleeves wont convince you (the albums familiar cover is colorized and altered to include backdrops of a freeway-tangled cityscape and nuclear reactor cooling towers, respectively), then maybe his liner-note apology for Phil Spectors big production (kind of like Da Vinci grousing about Monas crooked smile) or his laconic, stripped-down, 2000 rethink of My Sweet Lord will. With such a mindset, its unsurprising Harrison has allowed a nearly decade-and-a-half gap to grow between recordings. Still, no amount of grumpy auto-revisionism can subtract from the admittedly overwrought majesty of these tracks, which were the logical sonic extension of Abbey Road. It remains Harrisons unequaled masterpiece. The devolved My Sweet Lord aside, the bonus tracks here offer new insight: the unreleased I Live for You further highlights the albums oft overlooked country facet; spare takes of Beware of Darkness and Let It Down underscore the strength of Harrisons songwriting; an alternate backing track of What Is Life demonstrates the meticulousness of Spectors production. And then theres the projects truly stellar session lineup, which included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voorman, Jim Gordon, Dave Mason, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Ginger Baker, Carl Radle, Gary Brooker, Jim Price, Bobby Keys, Pete Drake and, it turns out, even Phil Collins! –Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews & Opinions

All Things Must Pass [DIGI-PAK EDITION
All Things Must Pass [DIGI-PAK EDITION was Harrison's first solo album after the Beatles broke up 1970 and it is a dandy of a record. One wonders why so little of Harrison's tallent was used during his days with the Beatles. Harrison was a surprisingly adept lyricist and a much better vocalist then I was aware of. Yes, the book-let is a strange one. Harrison in purple boots, big brown hat surrounded by gnomes. Harrison has also written a very well-written and thought worthy essay regarding the recording. I love the photographs and one can see that he was a very pensive and cerebral man. This is a recording not to be missed.

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The Complete Greatest Hits

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Falling in Between

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Still Going Strong
Falling In Between is an excellent collection of songs that had me hooked for weeks when I bought it. I had the CD on heavy rotation on my car CD player for over a month.

The reason: amazing songs, great musicianship and a nice balance of vocals.

Although I can hear FIB complete from start to finish, Bottom of your Soul, King Of the World, Spiritual Man and No End In Sight are my favorites and I consider them TOTO classics (IMHO).

One of the strongest points of FIB is the perfect blend of the vocals in several songs. Kimball, Paich, Lukather, Phillinganes and even Joseph Williams blend/overlap their voices to great effect.

There’s also a greater emphasis on production, and you can tell from the arrangements that, great passion, musicianship and inspiration are undeniably uncredited members of TOTO this time around.

I have been a fan of TOTO since their first album and have seen them live both times they have come to Panama, and thanks to FIB I plan to be a fan until the day they decide to quit, which I hope will not happen anytime soon.

Pure Toto Classic…
To me this album is one of Toto’s best since Toto IV and Fahrenheit. I love all their albuns and stuff they played in. Anyway, the album is awesome from top to bottom. I highly recommend this album.

Studio Swan Song - Going Out On Top
What a shame that after 31 years Toto is no more. Still a greater shame belongs to the American rock music listeners that never “got” Toto. Toto was a massive success in every country, selling out huge arenas, except here in their native America. No matter - they got the kudos they deserved from loving crowds all over the world, and many fans here.

It’s so difficult for great bands like Ambrosia and Toto, who early-on strike pop hit gold and are forever labeled so (I once had to write a letter to a chain music seller to tell them to take Toto out of the Easy Listening section!) But this is, in fact, a wonderfully produced, performed, and written album that shows the incredible talent and hard rocking ingenuity and creativity of this band, sounding fresher and more professional than ever. Indeed, in many ways, they saved the best for last. This CD, Falling In Between, has a title that is synonymous with their popularity in the U.S. - falling between the cracks.

Still very vital !
Toto is still a very vital band and this is a great news for old fans of the band like myself. Toto is a band that I return to from time to time since the eighties in between a lot of Jazz =)). “The Seventh One” has been one of the albums I listened the most when I was a kid. Still I consider that album a masterpiece in the arena rock, adult rock genre if you want. But frankly after “Kingdom of desire” (that I still considered a fantastic album) I couldn’t find in the band the same sparkle of genial creativity they had in the past. They still mantained an incredible level of musicianship of course, but the albums that came later (from Tambu on) didn’t impress me that much. It seemed to me as the ideas, the strongest melodical ideas were in the past of the band. So I was a little perplexed when a friend of mine gave me this last effort from the band that, to add something more dangerous, came out on a small italian label (my compliments to this label which is giving to a lot of bands from the eighties freedom, support and new opportunities to record albums as the bands, and we listeners, want to). I thought “ok, for this band the decline is begun, now they are old stars that have to prey for a contract by a small “local” label” … How was I wrong guys! This album is a kick in the face! A fantastic album with no weak points! The band is very vital, the compositions fantastic under any point of view. The songs are exceptional really, they are technical and flamboyant at times, but the band still managed to put in there the melodic hooks (very beautiful this time!) we want from them. Among the ten tunes there are no boring moments for me, every one has its strong personality and the interest is mantained always very high throughout the album. As a matter of personal taste I’d say that the only tune I could work a little bit more on could be “Spiritual man” which in my ears sounds a little predictable, but again it’s only my taste. Among the tunes I love the most I can name “Hooked” an exceptional funky dirty groove that grows every minute to become an incredible anthem, and surely the opener “Falling in Between” which is a fantastic statement of the health of the band and of its composers. I absolutly loooooove the r’n'r rollercoaster ride of “Taint your World” too! The album is very consistent from the beginning to the end, really. There are some melodic ideas in this album that are trademarks of the band such as the chorus for “The bottom of your soul” and even for “King of the world” … even “Let it go” maybe. Those ideas have been with band ever since, but it’s not a complaint, just an obvious consideration. They are part of the personality of this band, and if you love the band, you’ll recognize them for sure (and you’ll love them!). Luke guitar sounds hungrier than ever, and it’s another good news, … his lead sound is more similar to the killer one he had in the eighties (the Soldano era … or, fellow guitarists, the one he had in the instructional video, just a little less wet maybe) that I still absolutly love. It’s not that half dirty sound (more crunch than lead) he chose in later effort (the Rivera period) that was not so distinctive to me. I love Luke’s pure eighties “take no prisoners” solos! Here he makes me happy! The band sounds to me tighter than ever. It’s wonderful the fact that every singer of the band finds his place, Luke, David, Bobby. It adds more variety to the album and it’s a sort of recap of their history. So in the end I’d say its great to have Toto in perfect shape after all these years. Because they are unbelievable musicians, music writers, … in the end they’re musical icons! I REALLY hope they’ll continue to release albums as strong as this one! Long live Toto!

Toto roar back into town
This is music for adults who like to crank it up. Toto apparently spent a year on this recording and it was time well spent. It’s one of their very best albums. The title track opens the disc and you could be forgiven for thinking it was Metallica you were listening to, not Toto. The album changes gears effortlessly throughout as we get son-of-Africa in Bottom of Your Soul, funk on Let it Go, christian rock on Spiritual Man, soft ballad with Simple Life, and straight out rockers with Taint my World, No End in Sight and Dying on my Feet.

Not for people waiting breathlessly for the new James Blunt album.

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Second Hand Life

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