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Reviews The Rolling Stones - Shine A Light Wednesday, May 21, 2008 The soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film is like the steak without the sizzle! By Brian Wise
THE ROLLING STONES
SHINE A LIGHT: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
POLYDOR
The Rolling Stones seem to have adopted a simple approach to their marketing strategy: put out a studio album, tour behind it, then release a DVD of the subsequent tour (or in this case a film and later a DVD). Just two years ago we heard A Bigger Bang and then saw The Biggest Bang concert DVD. This followed the Forty Licks compilation and the Four Licks DVD concert set, which followed Bridges To Babylon and Voodoo Lounge DVDs. You get the picture (so to speak)?
Smart enough to know that their studio albums are never going to sell in the quantities of their heyday, the Stones have long anticipated the change in the music industry by broadening their approach and capitalising on the devotion of their fans.
While other musicians are bemoaning the state of the industry - how they cannot sell records anymore and must rely on touring - the Stones have been out there as the heavyweight touring band of the past five years. Rather than decry the plight of music Jagger &Co. got out on the road and made some serious money for their retirement or dotage, which ever comes first. (It would be nice to think that they were sharing that with the other band members too).
A rough count reveals that this must be at least the tenth live album from The Stones (eleven if you count Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus). The difference here is that it s also the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese documentary, Shine a Light, which is already being hailed as one of the best documentaries ever made about a rock ‘n’ roll concert. Having made No Direction Home about Dylan, Scorsese (who also made the brilliant The Last Waltz) takes a different approach with The Stones, preferring to film several of their shows and intersperse the footage with interviews.
Recorded at The Beacon Theatre in New York on October 29 and November 1, 2006, the concert sees the Rolling Stones heading towards the final leg of a two-year world tour that would take another ten months to complete! This was to become the highest grossing tour of all time and probably deserves documentation because of that.
The fact that this is a soundtrack makes acceptable the inclusion of yet more live versions of classic songs which have possibly already been done to death, or seen even better incarnations. After all, how many times do you really need to hear concert footage of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ ‘Start Me Up,’ ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ or ‘Tumbling Dice’?
It is also this fact which means that this double-disc set can probably only truly be appreciated after you have seen the film. So, while that Keith Richards’ voice is sometimes excruciatingly flat on ‘Connection’ (a nice choice), if you were there at the time or watching the film you probably would not notice. This ‘warts and all’ soundtrack, seems to make no attempt to cover the occasional flat spots from Keef of Mick in the vocal department.
No such problem with the band that by this stage was a tightly honed unit, able to provide the solid and consistent backing to its stars. With bassist Darryl Jones and keyboard master Chuck Leavell (who has his own new live CD out) laying down the rhythm with the inimitable Charlie Watts pounding out the beat this is like the Rolls Royce of rock ‘n’ roll bands. Add Bobby keys on sax, along with Tim Ries (also on keys) and Michael Davis on trumpet and you have a band that can play anything from the Stones catalogue. Vocalists Bernard Fowler, Lisa Fischer and Blondie Chaplin (who has a recent solo album out) complete the impressive credits.
The song choice veers from the predictable to the adventurous. There are the pleasing inclusions of ‘Connecton,’ ‘Faraway Eyes,’ ‘Little T&A’ and ‘I’m Free’ as well as ‘Loving Cup’ and ‘Champagne And Reefer.’ The latter two songs feature Jack White and Buddy Guy respectively and are undoubtedly the highlights of the set. White fits in perfectly and sounds as if he wrote ‘Loving Cup’, while Guy blazes away and adds some fire to the blues classic. In fact, Jagger seems to lift to the challenge and his vocals on ‘Champagne And Reefer’ almost match Guy’s own growl.
A guest spot from Christine Aguilera on ‘Live With Me’ is hardly as successful and, to put it kindly, Lisa Fischer would have done a far better job. Aguilera, for all her good intentions, is completely outclassed and superfluous. It is this that best exemplifies perhaps Jagger’s worst tendencies (and I’m blaming him here).
It seems obvious to me that given the right guests, the right song choice and the right producer (T Bone Burnett, anyone?), the band could still make an absolute killer live or studio album. Jack White and Buddy Guy’s appearances here make that abundantly clear. My crusade for them to make a blues album continues. You just know that, cut loose, Keith could easily do it. Perhaps the best thing that could happen is for Jagger to suffer a knee injury, then deprived of his ability to strut around he might consider a different musical context!
There are definitely hints that the Stones are still the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band. But Shine A Light will probably be seen more as a nice souvenir of a concert film than a live album in its own right.
Brian Wise
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