Rolling Stones Martin Scorsese Shine A Light/The Soundtrack CD

Available today … buy the deluxe version … cost me $21.19, tax included. The album is the soundtrack for the pending Martin Scorsese docu-concert that debuts nationwide this Friday (I’ll see it Saturday). The flic chronicles a couple of Stones shows on their A Bigger Bang Tour (06-07). When you pop the CD in here is what you hear:

Same ol’ same ol’ but what kind of same ol’ same ol’; gimmee it over agin and agin … JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH is the opener and how many different ways can you present it … as you listen you’ll notice it is slick; it is highly produced, unlike any live album I ever heard … you wouldn’t expect less from the new Glimmer Twins – Scorsese & Jagger … actually production credits go to the old Glimmer Twins – Keith & Mick; with Co-Production (i.e. the heavy lifting) to Bob Clearmountain.

Listening to JJF and perusing the songlist one realizes that the biggies – Sympathy, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar, and Satisfaction - will sound all too familiar … however such expectations only whet the appetite for the many nuggets that the songlist contains and it doesn’t take long as Keith (or Ronnie how would I know) hits the opening chords of SHATTERED … followed by SHE WAS HOT (captured live for the first time I think) … then the oft Theotis Christ covered ALL DOWN THE LINE … like Bitch; this is a perfect showcase for the sax man Bobby Keys … next Mick reaches into the modern alternative rock crop and pulls Detroit guitarist Jack White III to duet with him on LOVING CUP … deftly moving into the melancholy AS TEARS GO BY and then the four guitar (inc. Mick, at least when I’ve seen them perform it) SOME GIRLS (sadly politically corrected best I can tell/hear) … Mick keeps the breastplate for the next song, a classic Motown cover, JUST MY IMAGINATION … FARAWAY EYES …. A Muddy Waters cum Buddy Guy blues tune called CHAMPAGNE & REEFER … Guy plays his mean Chicago blues guitar and sings …when inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, Guy gave the following acceptance speech: “If you don’t think you have the blues, just keep living.” … the Stones wrap up the halfway point with TUMBLING DICE … and then Mick introduces the band beginning with his longstanding backup singer – over twenty years now! – the leggy Lisa Fischer … culminating with his longer standing guitar player – Keef – who does two for the good of the order …YOU’VE GOT THE SILVER and, with a nod to the Winos, CONNECTION… Whew! And that’s jes disk one!!!

Disk Two opens with the satanic masterpiece, perhaps most creative, darkest lyrics > please allow me to introduce myself … SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL … blood curdling, goose bump raising … “Anastasia screamed in VAIN” … Ronnie & Keef dueling … if there is a Stones formula, a hook, it is a driving guitar lick followed by a Phil Spector-like wall of sound and few songs exemplify the sound better than LIVE WITH ME which is a nod to themselves for it appears first on a live album, on the live album of live album’s (perhaps up to this one), called Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out (1969) … this version Mick duets with a resounding (though no Lisa) Christina Aguilera and Bobby Keys is once again left unrestrained … no sooner does the dust settle when another guitar more familiar guitar lick is struck … START ME UP … the old lid lifter which in recent years signals the beginning of the end launching a 30 minute windup of rockers that culminates in Satisfaction or JJF … but always includes BROWN SUGAR (more pure Bobby Keys) … just a quick liner note: Keys has performed with the Stones since their first Amerikan tour over 40 years ago … the finale, of course, is the anthem Jagger did not want to still be singing at thirty (he’ll be 65 in June) … SATISFACTION … unlike the finale of a concert … there is more (at least on the soundtrack; as four of the soundtrack’s songs do not appear in the movie) … after Satisfaction comes: PAINT IT BLACK, LITTLE T & A (a 3rd Keith vehicle!!!, even more horns - Ya Ya), I’M FREE and the title song: SHINE A LIGHT … Scorsese, I don’t believe, has never made a movie without a Stones song and, to hear Jagger describe it, “this is the first movie Mary ever made without Gimmee Shelter in it.” Well, as much as I love Ms. Fischer on that song; I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t miss it on the soundtrack; I look forward to the movie and hope I don’t miss it there also … although, if I do maybe there will be a sequel.