Stripped (1995)
1.Street Fighting Man
2.Like a Rolling Stone
3.Not Fade Away
4.Shine A Light
5.The Spider and the Fly
6.I'm Free
7.Wild Horses
8.Let it Bleed
9.Dead Flowers
10.Slipping Away
11.Angie
12.Love in Vain
13.Sweet Virginia
14.Little Baby
At some point, it only made sense for The Rolling Stones to attempt something like this—bringing it all back home, so to speak. By the mid-1990s, the stadiums had become their natural habitat, but this record finds them stepping off the massive stage and into a far more intimate setting. In theory, the idea was simple: capture the band in a stripped-down, small club environment and rediscover some of the rawness that made them so compelling in the first place.
Of course, this wasn't the first time they’d tried it. Back in the late '70s, side three of Love You Live attempted a similar stunt. That one, though, felt like more of a gimmick—Ragged blues covers and an indifferent audience. Here, it’s different. Stripped isn’t just a live album. It’s part concert, part studio, part jam session. In fact, the mix is almost jarring at first. One moment you're in front of a crowd with the punchy swagger of Street Fighting Man, the next you're back in a studio space with no applause in earshot. The stop-start nature is a bit disorienting.
Still, once you adjust, the whole thing starts to come into focus. Not everything hits. I'm Free and Not Fade Away don't quite take off, and their cover of Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone feels more like respectful mimicry than reinvention—it’s a little too close to the original for a band as dangerous and distinctive as this one.
But the real takeaway here is that they’re still capable of surprise. This doesn’t feel like a museum piece or an exercise in nostalgia. It feels like a band, even in their fifties, trying to say something new with their oldest tricks. It’s a refreshing listen. Imperfect, yes, but far more alive than anyone had any right to expect.
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