''Got Live If You Want It!'' is a
live album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...
by the English
rock band
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...
. It was released on 3 December 1966 by
London Records
London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...
in the United States. With its release, the label attempted to fill a marketing gap between the Stones' studio albums and capitalise on their popularity in the US market, which was heightened that year by a famously successful
North American concert tour supporting their hit album ''
Aftermath
Aftermath may refer to:
Companies
* Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing
* Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre
* Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company
* Aftermath Services, an America ...
'' (1966).
Discouraged by the fan hysteria accompanying the band in concert at the time, their producer-manager
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style.
Early life
Loog Oldha ...
abandoned the original idea of having the album capture the Stones in a single live performance at London's
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
. Instead, he selected ten concert recordings from other sources alongside two older studio tracks, which were
overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
with crowd noise to give the impression of an entirely live albumall the tracks were credited on the original LP to the Royal Albert Hall performance. The album takes its title from the Stones'
1965 UK-only live EP, whose own name had been inspired by the 1957
Slim Harpo
Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore; January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970) was an American blues musician, a leading exponent of the swamp blues style, and "one of the most commercially successful blues artists of his day". He played guitar and w ...
recording "I've Got Love If You Want It".
The LP sold well, reaching the number six position on the American
''Billboard'' albums chart, although the Stones later disavowed the release. Critics of the album note the poor audibility of the band amid the audience noise, but appreciate its historical and documentary value as well as the intense, high-energy quality of the performances. Rare copies of the LPpressed in limited quantities for the European marketbecame highly valued by
record collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide.
History The early years
The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...
s. ''Got Live If You Want It!'' has been reissued twice by
ABKCO Records
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. (Allen & Betty Klein Company) is a major American independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and/or administers the rights to music by Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the A ...
, in 1986 on CD and in 2002 on
SACD
Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips, Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format.
The SACD format allows mul ...
.
Background
![Kungliga Tennishallen Stones 1966a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Kungliga_Tennishallen_Stones_1966a.jpg)
In 1966,
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...
' popularity increased dramatically with the success of their ''
Aftermath
Aftermath may refer to:
Companies
* Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing
* Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre
* Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company
* Aftermath Services, an America ...
'' LP and the singles "
Paint It, Black
"Paint It Black" is a song recorded in 1966 by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it is a raga rock song with Indian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European infl ...
" and "
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was recorded in the late summer of 1966 during early sessions for what would become t ...
". Coupled with the music's commercial impact, the band's high-energy concerts during
their North American tour in June and July proved highly successful with young people while alienating local police, who were tasked with
controlling the often rebellious and physically exhausting crowds. According to the Stones historians Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, the band's notoriety "among the authorities and
the establishment
''The Establishment'' is a term used to describe a dominant social group , group or elite that controls a polity or an organization. It may comprise a closed social group that selects its own members, or entrenched elite structures in specific ...
seems to have been inversely proportional to their popularity among young people".
"Just two and a half years since releasing
their self-titled debut album, the Rolling Stones had gone from being 'England's newest hitmakers' to rock 'n' roll's most notorious bad boys", as the music journalist Jason Draper chronicles.
The Stones' American record distributor,
London Records
London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...
, wanted to capitalise on the Stones' growing popularity by marketing a new album, but were several months behind the scheduled release of their next original album, ''
Between the Buttons
''Between the Buttons'' is the fifth British and seventh American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 20 January 1967 in the UK and on 11 February in the US as the follow-up to ''Aftermath''. It reflected the St ...
'' (1967). A live album release was then planned for the end of 1966.
Recording and production
The original plan for the recording was to capture the Stones live on 23 September 1966 at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
their first concert in the United Kingdom in a year.
Several minutes into the show, however, the band's lead singer
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
was mobbed onstage by screaming girls from the audience, temporarily stopping the performancethe event was captured on film and featured in a documentary movie. As a consequence,
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
acts were subsequently banned from performing at the Hall. According to the music journalist
Fred Bronson
Fredric M. "Fred" Bronson (born January 10, 1949) is an American journalist, author and writer. He is the author of books related to #1 songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and other books related to various music charts as well. He is also k ...
, "the concert drove home the Stones' unpopularity with members of the
ruling class
In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the capitalist social class who own the means of production and by exten ...
."
The Stones' producer-manager
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style.
Early life
Loog Oldha ...
abandoned the original idea in response to this "collective hysteria generated by the group, especially among teenagers, which threatened to degenerate into rioting", as Margotin and Guesdon describe. Instead, he decided to select concert recordings from other sources and two older studio tracks, later
overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
with crowd noise, to pass for an entirely live album that would still credit the Royal Albert Hall as the recorded venue.
The recordings of "
Under My Thumb
"Under My Thumb" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Under My Thumb" features a marimba played by Brian Jones. Although it was never released as a single in English-speakin ...
", "
Get Off of My Cloud
"Get Off of My Cloud" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for a single to follow the successful "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Recorded in Hollywood, California, in early Sep ...
", "
The Last Time" and "
19th Nervous Breakdown" were taken from the Stones' 1October 1966 live performance at City Hall in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
. Sequenced as the LP's opening track, "Under My Thumb" features a passionate introduction of the group by
Long John Baldry
John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including t ...
, who had sung in
Alexis Korner
Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major in ...
's London-based band
Blues Incorporated
Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, or simply Blues Incorporated, were an English blues band formed in London in 1961, led by Alexis Korner and including at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Davy Graham, Ginger Baker, Art Woo ...
alongside three members of the Rolling Stones in 1962Jagger, rhythm guitarist
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
and drummer
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021.
Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an i ...
.
In his description of the performance, Draper observes "Charlie belting at his kit to drive the band forward on 'Under My Thumb,' Keith and Brian's guitars jagged under Mick's snotty vocal", adding that, "They sound almost disdainful of the fans' reaction, as if sending a message to the hysterical hordes: the Stones have not come to hold your hand, they've come to plunder". The next sequenced track "Get Off of My Cloud" features a similarly aggressive attack.
The Rolling Stones' concert at
Colston Hall
Bristol Beacon, previously known as Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, management of the hall has been the direct responsibility of ...
in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
on 7October 1966 produced the recordings of "
Lady Jane", "
Not Fade Away", "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" and "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership, it features a guitar riff by Richards that opens and drives the song. The riff ...
".
While "Lady Jane" lowers the tempo on the album,
"Satisfaction" (with Wyman's bass "
super-miked") and "Have You Seen Your Mother" continue the Stones' frenzied and tense musical attack, according to the producer and journalist
Sandy Pearlman
Samuel Clarke "Sandy" Pearlman (August 5, 1943 – July 26, 2016) was an American music producer, artist manager, music journalist and critic, professor, poet, songwriter, and record company executive. He was best known for founding, writing for, ...
, who observes in the latter track "the
tones'instruments and Mick's voice densely organised into hard, sharp-edged planes of sound: a construction of aural surfaces and regular surfaced planes, a planar conception, the product of a mechanistic discipline, with an emphasis upon the geometrical organization of percussive sounds".
According to Margotin and Guesdon, "
Time Is on My Side" and "I'm Alright" were performed on 5and 7March 1965 at either Regal Theatre in London, the Palace Theatre in Manchester or the Empire Theatre in Liverpool.
In Pearlman's observation, the former track lacks the "mellow yellow"
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
of the original studio recording.
![Colston Hall (geograph 2599803)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Colston_Hall_%28geograph_2599803%29.jpg)
For the album's live recordings, the engineer
Glyn Johns
Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer.
Biography
Early history
Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
used the
IBC Mobile Unit, the technical function of which Margotin and Guesdon say was "not yet really suited to rock concerts". Johns captured each show by suspending microphones from the venue's balcony.
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
, the Stones' lead guitarist, remarked at the time on the difference in being recorded live: "We all knew that the sound that we were getting live and in the studio was not what we were getting on recordthe difference was light years apart."
In Draper's account, "touring equipment at the time didn't have the power required to overcome a rabid audience, and so the Stones, having whipped the crowd into a frenzy, then
oundthemselves trying to play louder than the screams that beset them."
According to Draper, the Stones only produced approximately 28 minutes of live recordings for ''Got Live If You Want It!'' because of the typically short concert sets that bands performed in the mid 1960s, which led to the use of studio recordings to complete the album.
The first of the album's two studio recordings, "
I've Been Loving You Too Long
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" (originally "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)") is a soul music ballad written by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler.
Considered by music critics and writers to be one of Redding's finest performances and a ...
", was cut between 11 May and 12 May 1965 at RCA Studios in Hollywood. The second, "
Fortune Teller
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
", was taken from a 9July 1963 session at Decca Studios in West Hampstead. According to the band's bassist
Bill Wyman
William George Wyman (né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who achieved international fame as the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member ...
, both studio tracks had "crowd atmosphere added", while even the live recordings of "Lady Jane", "I'm Alright", "Have You Seen Your Mother", and "Satisfaction" "all benefited from various amounts of overdubs at Olympic Studios in mid-October".
Title and packaging
The Rolling Stones conceived ''Got Live If You Want It!''s name from the song "I've Got Love If You Want It", recorded in 1957 by
Slim Harpo
Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore; January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970) was an American blues musician, a leading exponent of the swamp blues style, and "one of the most commercially successful blues artists of his day". He played guitar and w ...
, one of the band's favourite
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
musicians.
The name was first used for
a live EP of five songs, released on 11 June 1965 in the UK by the group's British label
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
and marketed as capturing "the unadulterated in-person excitement of a Stones stage show".
The album's front cover arrays several photos of the group performing live, shot by the photographer
Gered Mankowitz
Gered Mankowitz (born 3 August 1946) is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry. He has worked with a range of artists from The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and in other divisions of the photography industry, i ...
, who had accompanied the band for two 1965 North American tours at their request.
The original LP was issued with
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are desce ...
saying it had been recorded at the Royal Albert Hall during the Stones'
Autumn 1966 tour of the UK with
the Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...
and
Ike and Tina Turner
Ike or IKE may refer to:
People
* Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname
...
.
Marketing and sales
London Records released ''Got Live If You Want It!'' on 3December 1966 in the US
on both
mono
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanese b ...
and
stereo
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
LPs. In a 17 December issue, ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' predicted the album would be a "blockbuster" and "much in demand", highlighting its inclusion of recent
hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...
s and a "powerhouse" performance of "Under My Thumb". It peaked at number six on the
''Billboard'' albums chart,
and on 19 January 1967, it was certified
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) for sales of at least at wholesale value.
According to the music historian Richard Havers, the album "stayed on the best-seller list for close to a year".
![Decca Records](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Decca_Records.svg)
''Got Live If You Want It!'' was meant to be released only for the North American marketMargotin and Guesdon suggest this is because Decca had already released an EP of the same name in the UK,
while Bronson connects it to the aftermath of the Royal Albert Hall debacle.
However, Decca still
pressed copies of the LP for European countries outside of the UK, including a limited shipment of copies sold in Germany and Scandinavia. According to Margotin and Guesdon, "because of the modest volume of sales", the LP became among the most coveted of the Stones' records for
collectors
Collector(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Collector (character), a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe
* ''Collector'' (2011 film), a 2011 Indian Malayalam film
* ''Collector'' (2016 film), a 2016 Russian film
* ''Collec ...
.
The band, however, disapproved of ''Got Live If You Want It!''s release and have since disowned it publicly, referring to ''
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
Get or GET may refer to:
* Get (animal), the offspring of an animal
* Get (divorce document), in Jewish religious law
* GET (HTTP), a type of HTTP request
* "Get" (song), by the Groggers
* Georgia Time, used in the Republic of Georgia
* Get AS, a ...
'' (1970) instead as their first live album.
In 1986,
ABKCO Records
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. (Allen & Betty Klein Company) is a major American independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and/or administers the rights to music by Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the A ...
remastered the Stones' catalog on CD under the supervision of
Allen Klein
Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...
, the label's founder and the Stones' former manager. ''Got Live If You Want It!''s reissue was delayed at first when Klein had trouble locating original
multi-track tapes. In August 2002, it was rereleased again by ABKCO, this time as a new remastered CD and
SACD
Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips, Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format.
The SACD format allows mul ...
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
.
On this edition, "Under My Thumb" appears with a different introduction and
take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
than the original LP.
Critical reception and legacy
Reviewing for ''
Crawdaddy!
''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine ...
'' in February 1967, Pearlman believed the Stones' had mastered their relationship with a live audience, rendering the crowd screams a conceptual element and "an added instrumental dimensionan integral part of the music". Overall, he found the performances "sloppy" but full of force and tension, translating well with the sounds of a wild concert atmosphere.
According to the rock scholar
Deena Weinstein
Deena Weinstein (born March 15, 1943) is a professor of sociology at DePaul University whose research focuses on popular culture. She is particularly well known for her research on heavy metal culture, on which subject she wrote a ground-breaking ...
, Pearlman's review is notable for employing one of the earliest uses of the term "metal" in
rock criticism
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
, albeit as a descriptor of the album's sound rather than as
a genre. "On this album the Stones go metal," Pearlman claimed, while citing side two and "Have You Seen Your Mother" in particular as exemplifying this aesthetic. "Technology is in the saddleas an ideal and as a method. A mechanically hysterical audience is matched to a mechanically hysterical sound."
Also in 1967, ''
HiFi'' magazine's Peter Reilly was indifferent to the merits of the music and merely found the audio quality fair but "echo-y". The majority of his review focused instead on the moral implications of the Stones performing sleazily, as he described, for an audience presumed to be mostly adolescent and preadolescent girls, leading him to condemn the band on "
puritanical
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
" grounds. "I can imagine how unpleasant a thing it would be to watch; hearing it is only slightly less so," he concluded.
David Dalton, in his 1972 biography on the band, considers ''Got Live If You Want It!'' in a series of Stones albumsincluding ''
December's Children'' (1965), ''Aftermath'' and ''Between the Buttons''to follow their American experiences and feature "an acceleration of R&B and rock". He calls this recording in particular "incredibly speeded up" and "so out of time and out of tune but so filled with Stoned energy that it just transcended criticism". However, according to ''
Stereo Review
''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...
''s Steve Simels in 1977, the LP "had the distinction of being the most poorly recorded live album in history", until Jamaican musician
Jimmy Cliff
James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...
's 1976 ''In Concert'', also produced by Oldham. In regards to the 1986 ABKCO CD, Mark Moses of ''
High Fidelity'' observes that "considerable cleanup" had been done to what "has always been an embarrassment" in the Stones' reputation as a live act, although this is not necessarily a good thing, as Jagger is further revealed to be "annoyingly out-of-tune with the rest of the band" on several cuts.
![Alo bio 2010 Small](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Alo_bio_2010_Small.jpg)
Later reappraisals are also mixed. Reviewing for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
,
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Life and writing
Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...
approves of the album's concept but finds the resulting release to be disappointing for reasons that may or may not have been the fault of the production teamhe cites the poor sound quality and the dubbing of
artificial crowd noise
Artificial crowd noise is pre-recorded audio that simulates the live sounds of spectators, particularly during sporting events.
Sports teams have used artificial crowd noise to simulate stadium sounds during practices to acclimate themselves to ...
onto a few studio recordings as
filler. Unterberger concedes, however, that "the album has its virtues as a historical document, with some extremely important caveats for anyone not old enough to recognise the inherent limitations in a live album of this vintage."
Havers echoes his observation of "the limitations" as well as the "fascinating glimpse" offered into hearing the Stones live at the time.
In ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'',
David Browne writes of the 2002 ABKCO CD, "We fight to hear the band amid a barrage of crowd screamsyes, the Stones as teen idolsbut the band still manages a biting 'Under My Thumb'."
Margotin and Guesdon, in ''The Rolling Stones All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track'' (2016), acknowledge "the screaming that blocked out the music", but still consider the album "a terrific document of the times, of the extraordinary, adrenaline-fueled, and often erotically charged relationship between the Stones and their fans".
Greg Kot
Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...
is more critical in ''
MusicHound Rock
MusicHound (sometimes stylized as musicHound) was a compiler of genre-specific music guides published in the United States by Visible Ink Press between 1996 and 2002. After publishing eleven album guides, the MusicHound series was sold to London-ba ...
'' (1999), feeling that none of the Stones' live albums are worth hearing because they offer no improvements over the original studio recordings.
Some critics have less reserved praise for the album. Draper says that "the results fully justify the Stones' reputation as one of the
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...
's finest" and serve as excellent recordings of
proto-punk
Proto-punk (or protopunk) is rock music played mostly by garage bands from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. The phrase is a retrospective label; the musicians involved were generally not originally associated wit ...
: "The seeds of
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
lay in the '60s and, at its best, ''Got Live If You Want It!'' has moments that sit alongside ''
Nuggets
Nuggets may refer to:
Music
* ''Nuggets'' (series), a series of compilation albums by Elektra Records, continued by Rhino
* '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968''
* '' Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from ...
'' and
Love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
's '
7 and 7 Is
"7 and 7 Is" is a song written by Arthur Lee and recorded by his band Love on June 17 and 20, 1966, at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood. It was produced by Jac Holzman and engineered by Bruce Botnick.
The song was released as the A-side of ...
' in pointing the way towards the following decade's notoriously gobby uprising."
Tom Hull says of the record: "All but their change-of-pace hit 'Lady Jane' are hard and sharp, including a couple of my favourites from the day. Lots of audience noise to remind you how popular they were."
''Got Live If You Want It!'' is included in ''All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock'' (2007), as part of the book's list of key live albums from the
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
era. In a 2017 list for ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'' ranking the Stones' best songs, David Marchese includes three from this album"Fortune Teller" at number 339, "I've Been Loving You Too Long" at 271 and "I'm Alright" at 148and says of the latter, "The rowdy
garage-rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
energy that the Stones generate on this
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
cover, from 1965, can still jurgle your nurgles."
Track listing
Personnel
Credits are adapted from contributions listed in Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon's book ''All the Songs''.
The Rolling Stones
*
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
– vocals, tambourine
*
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
– lead guitars, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
*
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
– rhythm guitar
*
Bill Wyman
William George Wyman (né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who achieved international fame as the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member ...
– bass
*
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021.
Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an i ...
– drums
Additional musicians
*
Ian Stewart – organ
*
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...
– piano
Technical team
*
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style.
Early life
Loog Oldha ...
– production
*
Dave Hassinger
Walter David "Dave" Hassinger (March 31, 1927 – August 15, 2007) was an American Grammy award-winning recording engineer and record producer.
Biography Early years
Born in Los Angeles, California, he joined the U.S. Navy aged 17, and was ...
– sound engineering
*
Glyn Johns
Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer.
Biography
Early history
Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
– sound engineering
*Michael Barclay – sound engineering
Sales records
, -
, United States (
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
)
, , Gold , , $1,000,000
, -
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{good article
1966 live albums
Albums produced by Andrew Loog Oldham
ABKCO Records live albums
London Records live albums
Proto-punk
The Rolling Stones live albums