Guide to British Music of the 1960s

June 2000

CD Review

The Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya'Ya's Out

• Home
• Artists
• Indexes
• Books
• Search

• About Making Time

• Advertising

• Add url

Get Your Ya-Ya's Out was the final album of the Rolling Stones' Decca contract. This was largely aimed at preventing bootleg copies of the tour's concerts from entering the market. It was released in 1970 but had been recorded at Madison Square Garden in New York at the end of November 1969 so it does quality for Making Time. This was the Stones' sixth US tour and was 17 dates. The final gig at Boston followed the two that were taped for Get Your Ya-Ya's Out. However the band remained in the USA for a couple of extra dates including a free festival Altamont speedway track in California at the beginning of December. This was a gig that has gone down in rock history. Hell's Angels were hired to run the security and they proved less effective than their British counterparts who has "policed" the free gig in Hyde Park. In a highly charged atmosphere a teenager Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death half-way through the Stones' set. For many this represented the end of the '60s and the time of peace and love.

This all gives the album a different context. The album features primarily songs from the second half of the Stones' sixties set such as Honky Tonk Women and Midnight Rambler but there are also two Chuck Berry cover versions, Carol and Little Queenie. Mick Taylor has replaced Brian Jones by now and the album shows the band as close to their rocking blues roots as ever. Taylor stands out particularly well as Beggar's Banquet tracks Stray Cat Blues and Love in Vain. I personally find the latter two a small bit tedious but any brief disappointment is gone when Midnight Rambler comes and belts you between the eyes or even between the buttons!

The excellent Sympathy for the Devil is very different from the studio version as featured in the Jean-Luc Goddard film. It does not have the hypnotic drums and build up but, instead, fits neatly into the 1969 Stones R&B style. While this version sounds very different, it remains one of the band's greatest songs and features Jaggar's vocals and the guitar of Keith Richards at their height of potency. 

There is no "baggage" on this album. It is pure, uncomplicated R&B that continues to hit you right in the face. A previous live album Got Live If You Want It was closer to a live greatest hits package. This one is very different.

Jagger is given the ultimate platform by the four behind him and "camps it up" as only he can in his mid-Atlantic drawl that had developed by now. This is the beginning of bands moving from clubs to stadia and the Stones are hitting this at the right time in their career too.

Essential Tracks:

• Jumpin' Jack Flash

• Sympathy for the Devil

• Midnight Rambler

Track Listing:

• Jumpin' Jack Flash
• Carol
• Stray Cat Blues
• Love in Vain
• Midnight Rambler
• Sympathy for the Devil
• Live With Me
• Little Queenie
• Honky Tonk Women
• Street Fighting Man