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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: Virgin Records Us
Salesrank: 13928
Released: October 1, 2002 |
| Our Price: $75.15 |
| Used Price: $22.39 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
this box set is in mint condition and has original poster and photo scrapbook of the band. Great gift for any rolling stones fan.
Description of Forty Licks (Spec):
The band that proclaimed itself "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World" has long since represented rock's most overarching confluence of art and commerce--with a distinct emphasis on the latter in recent decades--a notion this 40-track, five-decade-spanning anthology can't completely escape. While this is the first anthology to gather hits from the band's entire career, it's the early tunes that highlight one of the Stones' central ironies: virtually their entire "bad boy" reputation was built working for The Man. That original '60s musical arc bounded from '50s rock and R&B revivalism ("Not Fade Away," "The Last Time") to anti-Mop Top aggression ("Satisfaction," "Get Off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown") to proto-goth cynicism ("Paint It Black," "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby") and psychedelic minstrelsy ("She's a Rainbow," "Ruby Tuesday") to the epitome of blues-based cock rock ("Street Fighting Man," "Jumpin' Jack Flash") in quick succession. Wresting control of their own destinies--and future copyrights--at the end of the '60s, they'd spend the next 30 years largely recycling their earlier incarnation ad infinitum--their music sprinkled with occasionally successful forays into contemporary club and disco fodder ("Some Girls," "Shattered")--and resting on their well-paid laurels. Unfortunately, the listless quartet of new tracks that flesh out this collection seems little more than another business deal to hype their 2002-03 world tour, with "Don't Stop" arguably the weakest in a long string of post-'80s Stones McSingles. If Jagger seems typically detached here, Keith Richards injects some welcome, craggy warmth into the closing barroom lament, "Losing My Touch." But it's also a performance that suggests his legendary band has become little more to him than "The Greatest Day Job in the World." --Jerry McCulley
Forty Licks (Spec) Reviews:
***1/2. Great music. Mostly, anyway. But a so-so compilation 
2004-12-29 - There is no denying the quality of this material...unless you're a devout Stones hater, in which case you probably aren't a prospective buyer anyway.
The Stones recorded four new songs to be included on "Licks", which they needn't have done since none of them are particularly memorable, but I suppose they (or their record company) wanted to lure as many people as possible into buying this set.
And there is an awful lot of tremendous, gritty rock n' roll on this 150-minute collection, from the Stones' early 60s R&B to their raunchy 70s singles and latter-day arena rock.
Disc one is mostly devoted to the 60s (well, 64 to 70 or something like that), and it includes almost every one of the Rolling Stones' best-known songs from that period. "Honky Tonk Women" is here, one of my favorites, "Satisfaction", of course, "Paint It Black", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and the driving "Not Fade Away" set to the Bo Diddley beat.
And disc two is, well, the rest. "Start Me Up", "Brown Sugar", "Angie", "You Got Me Rocking"...the works. Well, almost. Where the hell is "Waiting On A Friend" and "Dead Flowers"?
But I'm still not completely in love with "Forty Licks".
It's hard to really put a finger on it, but I think the song selection is part of the problem. The period from 1970-1990 is only represented by about a dozen songs, and that's just wrong! The mediocre new songs disturb the flow of disc two, and the song sequencing on disc one is not very good either. A few minor songs have been included, and some better ones have not, and together that makes the Stones seem less great than they actually are.
If someone was to ask me which should be their first Stones purchase, I wouldn't advise them to buy "Licks", I don't think. It's good, and most of the music is great, but it could have been presented better. And it has been, actually, on the excellent compilations "Hot Rocks" (which covers 1964-1971) and "Jump Back: Best Of The Rolling Stones 1971-1993".
Those two together provide the very best overview of the Stones' career currently available, even without the tracks from the two fine latter-day albums "Voodoo Lounge" and "Bridges To Babylon".
Or pick up a couple of their live albums, some of those would make a great introduction as well. But don't rush out and buy "Forty Licks" because of the four new songs.
No Jewel Case?!
2004-03-04 - Well guys, I guess it's my fault for not reading these reviews first. You see, I didn't even know that a Collector's Set of Forty Licks was availible until last night, when I was comparing the regular jewel-cased set with this box set. I thought to myself "For five dollars more, I can get this Collector's Set, and it's probably worth it." It was DEFINITELY worth it for the music, but I was very dismayed to learn that this box doesn't include a jewel case to house these discs. Now what do I do if I want to travel with them? I can't carry a huge cardboard box to Myrtle Beach with me! Oh well, live and learn. I'm STILL glad I got this set, and I'll probably buy the jewel cased edition as well so that I can have my Stones and pass them too! Figuratively speaking, of course.
will not be buying this set! 
2004-01-09 - I am a relatively new Stones fan, and a friend of mine burned forty licks for me. but having burned isn't the same as having the actual thing, so I was planning on saving up some money to buy this box set thing. Well, I will not be doing that now. According to the other reviewers, the discs aren't even in a jewel case, which is what I really wanted. This is a bad thing to me. I will be buying the regular version and sticking with that. No thank you Virgin and Abkco. I do congratulate Abkco for releasing the other albums in SACD, I don't have SACD but have heard it is amazing!
Old Is Icky
2003-04-09 - These men are wrinkly and icky. The yoplatica of grotantilousness is appalling and wrong. They sing too. BUT THEY ARE ICKY!
Great music, cheap packaging 
2003-01-31 - Boy, was I disappointed with the "Special Box Set" packaging! The poster comes folded so there are creases on it, and the CDs don't have jewel cases or even a plastic slot; they are in cardboard slots at the bottom of the box. I'm amazed that the Stones would approve such shoddy presentation. The CDs are great, so I would recommend just buying the "Forty Licks" CDs -- paying an extra 12 bucks for the "Box Set" is definitely not worth it.
