Light was never so heavy

Thu, May 22 01:15 AM

I know what you're thinking. Oh god, here he goes about the Stones again! Well, tough.

If Martin Scorcese has come up with a movie on the Grand Lizards of Rock'n'Roll, then you shut your trap and listen to the soundtrack. I still haven't seen the movie, but the Shine A Light soundtrack brings me as close to the Beacon Theatre shows in New York on October 29 and November 1, 2006 as sonically possible.

The set starts understandably with Jumpin' Jack Flash - but not before Marty scamperingly mutters, 'Checklist. Ok.

First song'. Jagger howls, guitars do their moon-thing too.

The hickory-dickory riffs of Shattered announce that energy is being generated in quicktime. Jagger's voice doesn't reach the high notes as they used to.

But as the words have it, "Doesn't ma-tter". Rock'n'roll lies at the core of these gentle folks.

So they showcase She Was Hot, that frenetic number from their 1983 album, Undercover. Strangely, it sounds so much better on this album in 2008 than it did 25 years ago.

The version of All Down the Line sounds a bit anaemic (my goosebumps didn't bump up the way they do when I play the nugget from Exile on Main Street). But then comes Mick'n'Jack (White) doing another Exile classic, Loving Cup.

The nasal frontman of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs slides into the stage with Jagger to demand, "Gimme a little drink/ from your loving cup". Oh, we should give Mr White a pint for his courage and his guitar-plucking.

Shine A Light is a 22-track double CD that clearly shows why the Stones are not classic rock cut-outs. Listen to Jagger singing As Tears Go By, a happy hill-billyness infusing the original sung some million years ago by Marianne Faithful and you'll know what I mean.

In the Muddy Waters classic Champagne and amp; Reefer, Jagger is (con)joined by Buddy Guy. The house becomes ultramarine when Guy's guitar and Mick's harmonica melt, producing some squidgy incense thing that smells the Blues all over.

This is live rock'n'roll from the rafters. Keith sings You Got the Silver - that love song-cum-devastation from the divine Let It Bleed.

As Ron Wood plays the slide, stringing the strings, playing cat's cradle with the notes, we realise that Keith's voice, gravelly and corrupted by a Dorian Gray-like power and beauty, is a hidden country-blues weapon in the Stones' 21st century arsenal. It's impossible not to be moved - especially as Keef craggily rolls into that open-buttoned rocker, Connection, from that vintage Between the Buttons album.

How's this for 1967 Brit pop in a 2006 bottle of an Xpensive Wino? Isn't it obvious that (a piano-rolled) Sympathy for the Devil - incantory and Mephistophelian as ever - should be followed by a caramba-flavoured duet with Christina Aguilera on Live With Me? "Come on now baby, don't you want to live with me?" Jagger and Aguilera fight for an answer until the sax temporarily solves the dispute. Distort-friendly Satisfaction, the rough and tumble of Brown Sugar and the rough and shamble of Little T and amp;A end this marathon sonic jungle that is a treat even for deaf people.

Shine A Light is no nostalgia-shaker to be plucked out during an annual post-event party among folks who grew up with the Stones. It is the kind of live album - tight and audience-connected even through the living room sound system - that people talk about the next painful morning even if they didn't know who or what was playing.

Just for the record, you could always say that that was the Rolling Stones.

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