Classic Album Review - 02 - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out - The Rolling Stones Live in Concert

"Everything appears to be ready - are you ready?. . . is everybody ready? . . . I think I better fasten up my trousers so they don't fall down - you don't want my trousers to fall down now do ya?. . . . . . paint it black..paint it black....paint it black you Devil. . . . . . Charlie's good tonight innit he? . . . . . . We're gonna do one more, and we gotta go. . . The Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World -- The Rolling Stones -- The Rolling Stones !"

By the time I was 12 years old, I was a full-on believer in Rock n Roll, and I had my first guitar -- a little acoustic number that my Dad had found for sale somewhere. I don't remember the make or the model - I think it was a fairly no-name type of affair. A school friend of mine had gotten one about the same time, and we started hanging out on the weekends, trying to teach ourselves how to play. He figured out a thing here and showed me, and I figured out a thing there and showed him. We both know older kids who played and we got tips and lessons that way. In retrospect, a lot of what we thought we had "figured out" was way off in terms of melody, but we had a good sense of relative pitch and good rhythm -- I have always had a good sense of rhythm.

Mostly how we learned was to do what most every other self-taught musician does - play along with records. We each had our favorites. He was fond of Black Sabbath as I recall, and I tried to cop a lot of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Beatles, and whatever was on the radio. For a period of about 2 years, the majority of my lessons came from my turntable in the form of "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out - The Rolling Stones in Concert."

Released in the fall of 1970, GYYYO has long been considered one of the best live albums ever - certainly the best live album by the Rolling Stones. It is drenched in Rhythm and Blues, features the excellent lead guitar playing of Mick Taylor, some of Jagger's best singing, and nary a beat is dropped by the duo of Watts and Wyman. This live recording represents the Stones at their absolute peak of potency -- they were coming off the "Beggar's Banquet" and "Let it Bleed" albums, and a few days after these concerts, they entered the studio at Muscle Shoals and put down the first tracks of "Sticky Fingers."

For a kid learning to play guitar, "Ya-Ya's" is a blues-inspired garden of earthly delights. Heavy riffs in the lower registers on Jumpin' Jack Flash and Live With Me. Two shots at working out "that Chuck Berry thing," on Carol and Little Queenie. A very soulful lesson in arpeggiation on the Robert Johnson classic, Love in Vain. Bo Diddley lessons from Keith himself on Sympathy for the Devil, as well as monster chord mashing on Street Fighting Man. And the creme de la creme of rhythm workouts -- the ultimate live version of Midnight Rambler. After the breakdown section in Rambler, the band locks into a 6/8 triplet groove that builds in intensity on a slow grind, until finally busting out -- up-shifting the tempo into the original riff in 4/4 meter. I didn't know how to describe that moment when I was 12, but it knocked my socks off! It still does.

And if you were lucky enough to have had an older kid teach you the magic "blues scale," then GYYYO gave you an entire album to work out your solo technique. Remember - above all else, and throughout all of their various permutations - the Stones have always been about the blues. When I got older, I arrived at the source of this - "discovering" Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and many other blues men. The Rolling Stones got this great music from America, ingested it, made it their own, and then brought it back to us. "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" bears the finest fruits of that endeavor.

Title: Get Yer Ya Ya's Out - The Rolling Stones in Concert
Release: September, 1970

Track Listing - Side One:
1. Jumpin' Jack Flash (3:13)
2. Carol (3:35)
3. Stray Cat Blues (3:35)
4. Love in Vain (4:50)
5. Midnight Rambler (8:32)

Side Two:
1. Sympathy for the Devil (5:45)
2. Live With Me (2:58)
3. Little Queenie (4:10)
4. Honky Tonk Women (3:00)
5. Street Fighting Man (3:47)

Classic Album Review - 01 - Meet the Beatles

"Meet the Beatles" seems an ideal choice for our first classic album review. My introduction to rock n roll could not have been better if it had been hand-picked by God. Sure, everyone knows who the Beatles are, and everyone loves Sgt. Pepper and the White Album and Revolver. I love all of those albums too. But, MTB never fails to evoke an onrush of nostalgia that makes my big toe shoot right up in my shoe. Everything about this record is so polished. From the dark Bauhaus-ian cover shot to the four young toughs pictured on the back in their matching razor-sharp suits and square-toed, black leather, mod-kicker boots. These are not sensible shoes.

Knowing all of the history that we do, when we look at them now, we know that even though the oldest was only 23 at the time, The Beatles were already seasoned veterans, with years of relentless performing under their belts - at Liverpool's Cavern, and in der Kaiserkeller of Hamburg Germany. They had taught themselves chords and vocal harmony and here was their first album, comprised of 91.6% original material -- they were already accomplished songwriters (the exception being Meredith Wilson's "'Til There was You" - a great vehicle for the smooth croonings of young McCartney)!

Mostly, though, when I listen to this record, the one word that comes to mind is - Testosterone. The vocals are powerful - occasionally breaking into full-on banshee screams. Even the slow numbers seem to have a metronomic tightness and full force vocalization. For me the standout track is I Saw Her Standing There -- it just plain ROCKS! "One Two Three FOW-ER! Play that bass line at that tempo while singing those vocals - go ahead, I dare you. And the harmonies - on this track and the hit single I Wanna Hold Your Hand - nothing in pop music had ever sounded like that. Open fourths and fifths below the main melody - Mean. Exciting. Stimulating. Scores of teenage girls were impregnated just by listening to the thing. Seriously - look it up on Wikipedia.

Also featured is the Ringo-sung, head-pummeling I Wanna Be Your Man, which the lads had earlier given to the Rolling Stones for one of their first singles. The legend is that the two groups were hanging out and the Stones began talking about how they needed a single and they really weren't songwriters yet. So John and Paul sat down on the spot and whipped this little ditty out for Mick and the boys. If you can find the Stones' version, it's worth a listen for a piece of rock n roll history.

A big tip of my hat goes to the Smithereens who put out an album a few years back, entitled "Meet the Smithereens," wherein they cover the entire MTB album track by track. Obviously, MTB had the same effect on them that it did on me, and that makes us related somehow. They do a damn fine job with it too. Some of the fast rockin' tunes lack the same punch and tightness, but overall the Smithereens do a stand-up performance here. Plus, you gotta remember, the members of the Smithereens were probably all over twice as old as the Beatles were when they made the original - so give the old geezers a break!

Kids - do yourselves a favor - if you're not intimately familiar with this album, then go buy a copy today and give it a spin. It'll only take 26 minutes of your time and you won't be sorry. Get a CD or a set of mp3's if you must, but if you can find a vinyl recording in your mom's (or your grandmom's) record collection, then that is definitely the way to go. I can't explain this, but it just isn't the same without audible pops, crackles, and hiss. For maximum pleasure, play it as loud as possible and sing along at the top of your lungs. Maybe even give a banshee scream now and then.

Meet the Beatles
Released: January 1964
Track Listing:

Side One
1. I Want to Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won't Be Long
5. All I've Got to Do
6. All my Loving

Side Two
1. Don't Bother Me
2. Little Child
3. Till There was You
4. Hold me Tight
5. I Wanna Be Your Man
6. Not a Second Time

This review is dedicated to the memory of my mother who passed away a few years ago. I miss her terribly and thank her for having hung on to a few old records from her youth. Peace.