Live At The Wiltern
My Perspective on the New Album by The Rolling Stones
On March 8, 2024, The Rolling Stones announced the release of a new live album, The Rolling Stones Live at the Wiltern.
Live at the Wiltern is a superbly produced showcase of how great a band The Rolling Stones were—and still are! Taken from a 22-year-old recording and supported by an outstanding horn section, Live at the Wiltern is a record of their already extraordinary longevity.
Given that it is the band's 40th anniversary, I suspect they only released it now in support of their upcoming tour to galvanize their younger fans, who will undoubtedly flock to their concerts. This would undoubtedly set new attendance records, despite the fantastic prices such hugely expensive outings command.
For those who have never seen them live, the appeal will indeed be: This could be the last time! Although I know for a fact that as long as Keith Richards draws breath, he will go on playing till he drops, in those uncertain times at our ages (yes, Mick Jagger is 15 months younger than me, while Keith Richards is 17 months younger than me), the last time could be any day. So I would recommend this record to all those who haven't had the privilege I've had of being friends with everyone in the band since the Easter weekend of 1965. I was with Vince Taylor's band when we dared to challenge The Rolling Stones' supremacy in a series of concerts, a challenge that successfully allowed us to woo their fans! On that occasion, my close friendship with their founder, the late Brian Jones, began.
In that context, listening to the tracks from the current album, despite their undeniable merits, I still prefer the original mono versions of the early tracks featuring Brian. For instance, the Stones magnificently covered the splendid O.V. Wright's original tune on their 1965 album Out of Our Heads, and the beauty of this version remains supreme in my mind, in contrast to the present one. The excellent rendition of that song on the present recording cannot supplant it for me. It is also worthy to note that on the Live at the Wiltern album, Mick credits the tune to Otis Redding, whose sensational live performance at the Monterey Pop Festival has forever immortalized the song.
But then again, so many of the tracks on Live at the Wiltern were part and parcel of the soundtrack of my life. So, I am compelled to state that despite Ron Wood’s stellar slide work on “No Expectations,” it cannot surpass the poignancy of my beloved Brian Jones’s exquisite slide guitar, which etched each and every beautiful note into my heart as if it were the last gorgeous flame of a splendid fire. I always think of Brian’s version of “No Expectations” as the musical counterpart of Albrecht Dürer’s Melancholia etching.
On the same note, Beggars Banquet LP, "Stray Cat Blues," is far more transgressive and wonderfully provocative in the original version than it is in this live arrangement.
Despite my highly personal reservations, I can only strongly praise this testimony to the lasting greatness of The Rolling Stones, and I encourage you to have a listen.
