Mick Jagger

Ok, this album is not for everyone, it is only for those who truly appreciate music and know how to reconize truly good sounding music. It isn't exactly what I would cruise down the road with the windows down and turned up loud - but it is superb for relaxing at home, chilling, working and not wanting some loud screaming of lyrics or talking in general to interrupt your workflow (if you are like me and don't like dead silence when working, this is PERFECT!) As a matter-in-fact I have it playing right now as I type this.....give it a shot, but only if you are a true music lover!

This is a good CD for background music for just hanging around or having a party of any sort.

Once upon a time (at the end of the 70s) the London Symphony Orchestra had the idea of producing "classic" or rather orchestral versions of classic rock and pop songs. They made five essential albums from 1977 to 1984. A huge success.

Alas, the label "classic rock" or "rock classics" or "symphonic rock" is all over the place these days. It had started after the LSO's initial success: Everybody suddenly recorded similar albums which quickly deteriorated into easy listening. While the first five albums interpreted true classic songs from the Beatles or the Who or Pink Floyd or even Rock'n'Roll or some traditional songs ("House of the Rising Sun", for instance) the "new" symphonic rockers just took songs from the top of the pops of the day.

But worst of all was the dumbing down of the arrangements. It shows with this recording here. These are just instrumentals, faithful replays of the original songs, same rythm, same sound (complete with synthesizers), even same length. It's just plainly boring and most of the time much worse than the original pop songs.

And it's not what the original idea was all about: to discover the symphonic quality of modern pieces - how would the classical composers have dealt with the same musical material? In the first LSO arrangements were hints of Ravel and Gershwin and Elgar and Holst, even some avantgarde techniques. Ever compared the Boomtown Rats' "I don't like mondays" with the wonderful and disturbing 10-minute-monster the LSO made of it? Or heard the all-strings-version of "Whole lotta love"? Or the Bolero-version of "You really got me"?

And then everybody, including the LSO, started to make some sort of James Last meets Lloyd Webber. The temptation to make a quick buck was just to much, I guess. So skip this one, look for the true classic Classic Rock. They are not hard to find.

I was a bit disappointed with this CD. There are some songs on this playlist that should have blown away the listener but that was not the case. The music, at best, is background music, certainly nothing to savor and play and play again. If anything, this CD makes one listen to the true classics of Beethoven, Dvorak, Vivaldi, Mozart and others.

If you buy no other classical music, buy this collection. CD 1 (Relax) is perfect for dinner, quiet entertaining or just soft music while you're working. From "Come Away With Me", to "Whiter Shade of Pale" to "Knights in White Satin"... each piece is it's own movement - and moved you will be... Perfect for a romantic evening. CD2 is more robust, but equally entertaining. "Layla", "Livin On A Prayer", Stairway to Heaven", "Run to You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" - you owe it to yourself to hear these licks performed by the RPO.

Even when I consider myself a very selective Rock Music listener, I cannot say that I got specially seduced for the music of the Rolling Stones. Sure, they're also from England, appeared publcily as part of the massive Rock'n'Roll phenomenon almost at the same time the Beatles did, have been going around for more than forty years, have recorded a lot of albums (studio/live), appeared on lot of TV shows... Now, even the great movie director Martin Scorcese has released "Shine A Light", a documentary based on their mega-tour "A Bigger Bang".

Okay, sure all that gives lumber enough to consider them as another "Big Brit Music Creature". But certainly, I must admit that the Stones would have mean nothing in the R'n'R universe, without having such a real good Rock'n'Roll singer/frontman like Mick Jagger.

Get this CD, and you'll discover why. Ah, but previously please clean up from your mind, the general idea that MJ's hits are limited to a funny cover of "Dancing in the Street" he performed with David Bowie. MJ is by himself, really, a GOOD Rock singer.
After listening to this album, I regret myself for not having followed Mick's musical career more thoroughly.
The sound quality is really good, as it happens with most of WEA recordings.

OK, maybe "filler" is too strong a word, as none of these tracks are really bad. But considering Jagger really hasn't had a whole albums' worth of solo hits, it's inexcusable to leave off two of the best: "Hard Woman" is probably his best solo record, and it had that cool computer-animated video that probably helped make it a HIT. And 1987's "Throwaway" didn't make quite such a splash, but it was a charting single and certainly doesn't deserve (sorry) to be thrown away.

The title song to the film "Ruthless People" was never a single, but it was a great, funny song, and I would easily rank it higher than half the songs here. But apparently Jagger himself hand-picked the songs for this album. So I guess he doesn't really care for these songs that I really like (and I'm sure I'm not alone here).

Just buy the solo albums...it's not like there's that many of them.

Mick Jagger is a legend as lead singer of The Rolling Stones, but as a solo artist he is totally forgettable. The dreadful duet with David Bowie was probably the worst teaming of two singers ever. Nothing else on here amounts to much either. Buy a Rolling Stones album, any one from the 1960s, and you will be far more entertained. These tracks are lousy.

I burned my own copy of what I felt was the very best of Mick Jagger years ago and found that the actual collection leaves off a lot of stuff that's in some cases superior to what's on the album. Where's "Use Me", "Turn the Girl Loose", "Lonely at the Top", "Running Out of Luck", "She's the Boss", "Goddess in the Doorway", "Radio Control", "Shoot Off Your Mouth", "Throwaway", "Ruthless People" or even "I'm Ringing" (rare b-side unreleased to CD)?

Strange that the only compilation does not include two of the most relevant singles made by Mick Jagger:
a) "State of Shock", the duet with Michael Jackson which was a huge hit in the summer of 1984;
b) "Hard Woman", taken from his 1st solo album, the 7" single superior version was remixed and it's never released on CD, also had a beautiful promo video, one of the first using computer generated images!

The last really GREAT Stones album (Tattoo You) was put out the same year that the Camaro got square headlights. Then it all went down hill from there. Nerdy Stones bloggers are not arguing about the merits of Dirty Work vs. Steel Wheels (quick - name the singles), and I'd guess no one in America is even playing Voodoo Lounge. But in the midst of all that stuff, Jagger's early 90's solo efforts produced a really great album, Wandering Spirit. Like all Stones music, there's no dated political message or humanitarian statement in here (e.g., Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Tumbling Dice, etc.). If there is a message at all, it is usually about, say, "relationships" (more e.g., Star Star, Wild Horses, Some Girls, etc.). Oh well. Most of the songs here fall into that vainglorious category, and so be it (but not really that naughty). Jagger provided the range of his talent, with cuts like "Sweet Thing" (falsetto in imitation of "Miss You"), a minstrel ballad "Angel In My Heart" (almost a copy of "Lady Jane"), and the rockers like "Wired All Night" and "Out of Focus." "Hang On To Me Tonight" is performed about as well as anything I've heard him do. Buying a Jagger/Richards solo work is a little like settling for second best (ordering a Coke and getting a Sam's Choice), but this is really a tight record. Try it out for the price - at least it will reassure the last twenty years were not totally wasted.

I much prefer Primitive Cool which has some really memorable tracks and She's the Boss second. This album is totally forgetable and a big disappointment.

This album gels, I mean man it rocks like Mick can. Produced by Rick Rubin if that rings a bell. Mick is the entertainer of the universe, forget David Bowie and Sting. OK-Rod Stewart and Elton John give him a race for the watering hole! But now seriously isn't Mick like the one dude we all pretend to be in the shower? Hasn't he been there since the beginning of time and carried us all the way through practically everything--like love, marriage, family, divorce, death, wealth and poverty? Let's all give thanks for Mick and forget the Beatles(Paul McCartney)who jumped ship like decades ago. This is a great album by a great artist of all time anywhere handsdown.

"Don't Tear me Up" which is great - don't listen much to the rest, maybe I will...

This is a killer set of songs which showcases Mick Jagger's versatility. He can vocalize in different styles so well...rocking the house on one track, singing blues on the next. All of the songs on Wandering Spirit move me. "Mother of a Man" rocks with any Stones song.

I ADORE this CD. I first heard it on the local classical music station and my ears picked right up. "What IS that?" It was so alive, so vibrant. The station only plays it about once a year, but each time it catches my attention. "Ah, that's Angele Dubeau." The selections are a mix of new and old. Two of the new pieces are by Francois Dompierre; his "Le Diable matou" is one of my favorites. I play this CD over and over and over...

I disagree with the reviewer who said you must love violin music to enjoy this. I do enjoy the violin, but I think the CD's power and reach go far beyond violin lovers.

The CD also includes a DVD of concert excerpts.

Give this CD a try. I'm so glad I did.

The sound is tight and fresh.But take heed--only a person who love`s violin works would enjoy this c-d.And i would be one of those persons.ESP.Hot Women with violins!!!

It is refreshing to hear something new. The tracks are old favorites but the sound is new. Different. And in a good way.
Not the same old interpretations sped up or slowed down. But a genuine new groove down a familiar road.
She is a great violinist and has a knack for interplay with the rest of the band. It's not a flashy highly technical performance like you may expect from Perlman or Mutter. But not on the emotional ragged edge like Sonnenberg. But something in between with a new twist.

Long a stodgy devotee of baroque music, with the first few notes of this strong stuff I became an addict. Over and over again I play this CD, never quite anticipating the power and emotional bang of the music as it plays - even though I know the notes by now. If you ever studied Walter Piston's "harmony" the structures and transitions are back-of-the-book stuff, but the push is all elemental, basic, built-in, the familiar 1-4-5 with musical sequins, trampolines, backflips, and gelginite. Wow. And then some.

I'm so besotted, I had a couple of 13-year old boys (my son and a friend) listen to it in the car one day. They were bug-eyed after a couple of cuts, and not with horror. Now they ask for it, and yell with glee when the musical tension breaks over their heads in crashing chords.

Can I add a few more stars?

This music is fantastic. Because the violin she uses is a Stradovarius, the music pours like liquid velvet out of it. The choices of compositions are fantastic also. I think her interpretation of them along with the violin and her back-up group are what make this album so outstanding.

As both a huge Rolling Stones fan and a lover of classical music, I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable and interesting discs I own. Here are 11 of the Stones' best songs, as you have never heard them before. This cd is certainly a tribute to the melodic and lyrical genius of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and crew, but the impeccable London Symphony Orchestra and guest vocalists transform these catchy rock tunes into incredibly haunting and powerful musical sagas. The versions of "Ruby Tuesday" and "As Tears Go By" are really amazing and even tragic. "Sympathy for the Devil" has an operatic feel to it. The child-like innocence of "Dandelion" is really quite entertaining. Considering the Stones were really a blues band at heart, one wouldn't think initially that their repertoire would translate well into a symphonic format. But it does. There is only one way to enjoy this rare musical treat-buy this cd now!

I've had this CD for what seems like a lifetime now, and I still can't put it away. By far the most timeless CD I own.

The lively levi clad rebel music of the Stones is traded in for high brow tuxedo's and an orchestral sound with mixed results. Through the years I've played this disc for a different rendering of the familiar rock anthems. As stated by another reviewer you must not compare because one is rock and one is a classical treatment of a rock song. The problem is that it is hard to seperate comparisons. Beginning with "Street Fighting Man" the Stones anthem that was banned because of the resulting violence it incited, the disc is a subdued and barely recognized shell of the original Richards and Jagger penned number. The translations work at times like the interesting versions of "Paint It Black"and the hauntingly beautifully dark "Symphony For the Devil" that sounds like a theme from play. For the most part the pure musical numbers are better than the others where vocals exist becuse of the inevitable vioce comparisons. An exception might be Marianne Fathfull's rendering of "Ruby Tuesday." Mick Jagger is featured on one song, "Angie," for a slightly different vocal interpretation that is slower and more dramatic. The London Symphony Orchestra produces a lush backdrop for the familiar songs associated with guitar and rock and roll. Taken alone it is a nice sampling of the Stones music but it is very hard to not make comparisons. They are two different genres and should be treated as such. Nonetheless I prefer the original versions but find these songs to be more soothing and sophisticated. As alternatives to the originals it sounds good but not great.

If you enjoy Classical versions of rock music, this is one that you must get. I love it. They have excellent version of the songs. This album is THE album that turned me on with Classical version of Rock music.

Interesting form of Stones music--definitely not for the Stones purist, but not bad if just taken as music to enjoy by itself.

I'm not sure how this music holds up as a soundtrack to a movie because I haven't seen the movie. But, just upon hearing the samples, it's a pass. I liked "Primitive Cool" more than this, the second, Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger collaboration. Mick keeps exploring other avenues besides the Stones, which is artistically healthy, but he never seems to surpass the bad boys. Mick might make the solo album of his dreams, and I know he wants to be a big solo act, by pursuing the blues instead of this pop schmalk sound.

I enjoyed this Mick Jagger minus the Stones album ... great songs like Blind Leading the Blind in different versions as in the movie as well as Old Habits Die Hard. You'll enjoy it. I watched the movie and had to buy the album. People ask me who is singing and are very surprised to hear it's good old Mick.

I don't care what the critics thought of this movie. If you are a soundtrack fan like me, then add this one to your collection for sure! Even with ole Mick singing 10,000 versions of Old Habits Die Hard, the different duets are enough to make each version stand on its own. I also love the Christmas feel of #6, Lonely Without You. Blind Leading The Blind (two versions) are also excellent! Darkness of Your Love gets me up on the floor to dance along every time. This is great background music for a chill party or if you are spending a night alone on the computer, or reading, or writing. I listen to it while painting. Have never even been a Jagger fan before, but I'll keep playing this one again and again no doubt!

I love this CD...You don't even need to mention the movie!!! Of course in the movie you get to see some very beautiful women!!...But the music in the CD is very,...very good. So good it can stand alone and shine...Mick, Joss and the rest are simply fantastic ..Worth your money..

I listened to the entire soundtrack and the music is decent. I am not a huge jagger fan but like the sound and syle of the music.

-HOWEVER-
BE careful and BE warned: This may not be what you are looking for if you just watched the movie:
Why to Movie/ Record Studios do this? Where is the great MUSIC from the MOVIE? You know, The Iseley Brothers' (For the Love of You) and Teddy Pendegrass'(Love TKO)songs???

And WHERE is the one song that everyone keeps asking about, but is mysteriously missing from the "soundtrack": The jazzy, cool song where Alfie and (Liz)Susan Sarandon are drinking in her apartment and seducing each other...? BTW, The name of that song is :

"The Beat Goes On"
By The Buddy Rich Band

(Originallay by Sonny and Cher, believe it or not!)
-You're welcome, 'cause I know you have been looking for it too :)You can find it on Buddy Rich Band compilations here on Amazon, there are several versions ( Live/ studio, etc.). I love the web.

Guys, give the people what they want and stop making it so hard to find things. The reason you used that song in the movies and the others listed above is because they are awesome ( even you thought so). If you didn't want to pay some licensing fee for those songs to have them on the score or if you have some exclusive deal with Mick Jagger to be the only one listed as the composer of the "soundtrack" then make a supplemental "SCORE" or give us the info so we can find it.

Again, I like Jagger and the music on this disc is good, its just misleading, and in that sense, disappointing. Now go get that Buddy Rich Band song you wanted in the first place and stop wasting time reading reviews about this "soundtrack".

Classic Mick. As is the case with many Stones / Jagger albums, this album not only holds up over time, but gets better.

Everyone in the Stones is special, but if you love Mick Jagger this is the album for you. I think there is space for Rolling Stones albums and the members' solo albums. I like the variety that the group and the solo albums provide the fans with. The highlights for me on this album were Visions of Paradise, Hideaway and Don't Call Me Up. I bought a copy when it came out and when I moved I had to leave my CDs behind but this is one of the albums I most miss.

With Pete Townsend and Lenny Kravitz guesting, how could you go wrong. This album could very well be a Stones album, that's how good the songs and music are. And, Mick did say in an interview I heard that he wrote a few of these songs for the Stones, but they decided not to use them, so he did. I think it's Mick's best work to date. Hope he does some more soon. Even if you're not a fan of his solo stuff, I think you'll really like this one.

This album was given to me as a gift because I'm a big Stones fan. I never heard of it or of Mick Jagger doing solo work so I was a bit apprehensive before playing it. Well, it is all I've been playing in my car. I love it. My favorite is "Hideaway"...probably because I know someone who is always talking about doing just what Mick sings about in that song. I play that track over and over. But they are all good.

THIS IS TRULY A GREAT ALBUM.ITS NOT THE STONES...ITS MICK FROM
THE HEART.I LOVE JUST ABOUT EVERY TUNE ON IT.THE BEST IS HIDE AWAY IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE DRIVING TO THE AIRPORT EVERY TIME I HERE IT! VISIONS OF PARADISE ALSO AWESOME..

I JUST LOVE IT!!!!

This is a pretty good selection of Jagger's extra-Stones material. Naturally, it's missing some good, obscure album tracks (Hard Woman, Half a Loaf, for example.) But for the casual Jagger/Stones listener, this does the trick. I have all of Mick's solo albums, so I bought this for the unreleased/rare stuff and the DVD, and for those reasons, this was a good purchase. Charmed Life is just a sliver of a song, but it's a great Mick disco track and works nicely next to Sweet Thing. The unreleased blues number and the Lennon collaboration are also both excellent. The album loses a star because of the inclusion of the Bowie track and the Peter Tosh track, neither of which I like. I would have preferred Mick's Live Aid duet with Tina Turner or Ruthless People. The DVD is fun, the video for Sweet Thing is one of the best music videos ever filmed. Let's Work - is NOT. Still, it's funny to see all of Mick's solo incarnations and fashions over the years, funny stuff. The interview is enjoyable and interesting, too. Overall, a couple of bum tracks, but otherwise a good purchase.

I bought this for my brother-in-law as a gift.He is 55 years old and a "nut" for ALL rock and roll music, especially the Stones...He LOVED it and was said to be seen and heard playing, and watching the DVD while singing and dancing on the hearth in his home!..Buy it for someone, even you...

As a Rolling Stones fan this cd was a must. The songs choosen for this "Very Best" make the listening as if they were new songs for a new cd. Very good the piece produced by John Lennon. We want more!

For anyone who is a Stone's fan this CD is a must. It truly is the 'Very Best of Mick Jagger'.

Not a bad compilation of Jagger solo tunes but it could have been much better. Where is "State of Shock," "Ruthless People" and several cuts from "Primitive Cool?" The videos are a fun time capsule, especially the cheesy "Let's Work."

What an album! It's great to hear Mick Jagger doing his own thing. I bought this CD to replace an old tape and I enjoy it today as much as I did years ago. Primitive Cool and Party Doll being my favourites.

Mick's second solo record is very good. Some songs are better than others but it's overall a little better than She's the Boss. Say you will should've been a hit. Check out Mary Chapin Carpenter's version of Party Doll.

I also bought this album (CD) when it first came out in the late 1980s, starving for something from the Stones. I actually liked She`s the Boss and hoped that this one would be equal to it, but perhaps a little more up-to-date. Boy, was I wrong. I think that, apart from one or two tracks, most of it`s garbage. Listen to "War Baby" and I keep expecting to hear bombs go off and the sounds of sirens.
I guess the thing is with Mick is that he was in a class of his own and did not have to produce this kind of stuff. I am sure he really does not like it, and he certainly did not need the cash. Pass on this one and buy Waundering Spirit instead.

Following the Stones' Dirty Work, bickering amongst the Stones prevented them from having the anticipated quinquennial tour. Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards decided on solo albums, creating speculations whether the end of the Stones was nigh. Such wasn't the case however.

But Mick Jagger's second solo album, Primitive Cool, went more on a harder-edged guitar rock sound than the pop polishings of She's The Boss. All songs were produced by Mick himself, with assistance from Keith Diamond and Dave Stewart, and he brought back Jeff Beck on lead guitar.

That's not to say that some of the pop polish was gone. The first single, "Let's Work," his simplistic solution on killing poverty, went to #39. The song seems to be a mean-spirited hit against welfare recipients, but maybe against those who take advantage of the system-"can generosity bring you humility?"

The second single, the #67 "Throwaway," owes a bit to the Stones, but is more typical of Mick's new hard-driving sound, but the theme of a "been there done that" greasy Casanova who finally wants some true love has been done before. "Radio Control" is even better, featuring some hard guitar riffs. Living Colour's Vernon Reid has guitar chores, so I wonder if it's him here.

The title track is an amusing commentary on how the young ask those who lived in the 50's and 60's if they lived the history of those times, be it fashion or political upheavals, as they learned it in school or saw on TV. I shudder to think of the time when it comes my turn, when some whippersnappers ask me of the 80's, "It all seems so primitive, how did you survive? It all seemed so different then. How did you stay alive?" His easy answer is to tell them what they want to hear, "Oh yeah," but sardonically telling the whippersnappers "Well I think you've got it figured out/go check it out for yourself/cause I've had it playing teacher for today."

"Kow Tow" is a song on taking a stand against a lover gone bad, refusing to be bound to the past or being blackmailed, with some crunching guitar on the chorus. The jumping "Shoot Off Your Mouth" comes closest to the Stones-like nastiness, and is a harder-edged Little Richard/Elvis-type song slamming another ex who not only puts him down but becomes like the proverbial rat on a sinking ship when things go bad. And when he gets stronger, "who are you to shoot off your mouth?" he demands. The most energetic song here and a fave.

The bittersweet ballad "Party Doll" sees Mick visiting country since "Faraway Eyes." More an acoustic piece than country, it shows the disillusionment that sets in once the giddy party days are over, especially when the other half "wants to live in clover." Paddy Maloney gives an Irish flavour with the Uileann pipes. Mary Chapin Carpenter later covered this on her greatest hits album.

"I was born in a war, that's why they call me a war baby" sings Mick in the sobering anti-war "War Babies. The poverty experienced by the Brits, the storming of Omaha Beach on D-Day is juxtaposed with the Cold War arms race, with a faint background sound effects of air raid sirens, bombs, and machine gun clatter. "Why can't we hope to find a cure" be it to war, poverty, and security, is an oft-cried question, with a solution that can be either an impossible dream or a darker one.

A few filler songs fail to dampen a stronger solo album from Mick, who despite revisiting familiar themes, is has a reflective side on the title track and "Party Doll." It would be after another Stones album before Mick would go for round three with Wandering Spirit.

The Nadir: This waste of plastic effectively shut the door on Mick's dreams of being a Sting or Michael Jackson solo star. He should be slapped for the "Let's Work" video.

I am a major Stones fan and a fan of Wandering Spirit (although the rat should have saved those tunes for Voodoo Lounge). I can honestly say that I would rather listen to a Bill Wyman record rather than this.