In Defense of Still Life

“The Stones hold the record for releasing the most ‘worst’ live albums:  five, excluding 1970’s worth entry, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out.  What makes Still Life so abysmally still-born is that it will forever mark the moment when the Stones transmuted from rock band to Las Vegas music review.  U2, beware.” - “Not So Essential Live Albums”, Guitar, September 1997

While the author of the above piece certainly makes a point about the number of bad Rolling Stones live albums (and more bad ones yet to come), I’ve never felt that Still Life was never a bad live album although I wouldn’t put it on my best-of list.  The album starts off with an incredible version of “Under My Thumb” that rocks harder than the original ever did and continues on with some Stones classics (”Shattered”, “Let’s Spend the Night Together”) and some surprising covers for a live album (”Twenty Flight Rock”, “Going to a Go-Go”).  Things start to peter out toward the end which keeps this from being - in my eyes at least - a classic live album.

Reading the above article made me think about the number of bad and just boring Rolling Stones live albums that have come out over the years.  By comparison, a fair amount of live movies/videos have come from the same tours (Let’s Spend the Night Together showcased the same tour as Still Life) and they blow the recordings out of the water.  Despite the huge stadiums the Stones are shown playing in, their live show comes across incredibly well on Let’s Spend the Night Together.  While they’re obviously known for their live shows it never occurred to me before that the visual portion of the performance was so important to it.

On a similar note, I saw that a box set of Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out came out last week that includes five Rolling Stones songs not found on the original as well as the opening sets by B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.  I’m torn about whether or not to get this.  Five extra songs isn’t a lot and part of me wonders if the money would be better spent on B.B. King’s Live at the Apollo.