Live Licks (2004)


 

Disc One
  1.Brown Sugar
  2.Street Fighting Man
  3.Paint it Black
  4.You Can't Always Get What You Want
  5.Start Me Up
  6.It's Only Rock 'N Roll (But I Like It)
  7.Angie
  8.Honky Tonk Woman
  9.Happy
 10.Gimme Shelter
 11.(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Disc Two
  1.Neigbours
  2.Monkey Man
  3.Rocks Off
  4.Can't You Hear Me Knocking
  5.That's How Strong My Love Is
  6.The Nearness of You
  7.Beast of Burden
  8.When the Whip Comes Down
  9.Rock Me, Baby
 10.You Don't Have To Mean It
 11.Worried About You
 12.Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

 

Given the title, you’d be forgiven for assuming Live Licks was just another cash-in compilation. After all, their previous release, Forty Licks, was a sprawling retrospective—and with no new studio album in the interim, the expectation was for a live “best of” cobbled together from the usual suspects. So it came as a pleasant surprise to discover that this was, in fact, something much better: a proper double album of newly recorded live material.

By this point, the Stones had already issued more than their fair share of concert records—seven, to be precise—so the idea of yet another could easily have felt redundant. But credit where it’s due: they took a familiar formula and injected it with enough variety, energy, and raw finesse to make it not only palatable, but downright essential.

The first disc plays largely like a crowd-pleasing setlist. Yes, you’ve heard many of these songs before—and often—but there’s something about this particular performance that elevates them. The band sounds tighter, sharper, and more engaged than they had in years. If the first disc is familiar ground, it’s ground worth revisiting.

Disc two, however, is where the real treasures lie. This is where they dig deep into the catalog, dusting off lesser-known gems and rarities that had rarely—if ever—been committed to tape in a live setting. And rather than come off as self-indulgent, the selections feel curated, thoughtful, even generous. There’s a real sense of the band playing for the diehards here, rather than the fair-weather fans.

One of the most unexpected—and oddly perfect—moments arrives with Keith Richards’ rendition of The Nearness of You, the old Hoagy Carmichael standard. It shouldn’t work, and yet it does. Delivered in that trademark ragged croon, it feels entirely his own, as though he'd written it in some smoky corner of a hotel bar decades ago.

That said, not everything hits the mark. Honky Tonk Women—normally a guaranteed showstopper—is inexplicably marred by the addition of a female guest vocalist (presumably Sheryl Crow). Whatever the intent, it backfires spectacularly. When a band like this has been doing it better than just about anyone for over four decades, there's simply no reason to let someone else take the mic. A rare misstep on an otherwise outstanding release.

In the end, Live Licks might not reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t need to. It stands as one of the most satisfying live offerings in the Stones’ catalog—balanced, varied, and alive with the spirit that made them great in the first place.


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