Review: 'Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out' RSD Colored Vinyl

After Brian Jones died, and a somewhat shaky stage-restart at his memorial concert in Hyde Park, The Rolling Stones properly mounted their first tour in nearly three years in November of 1969. These shows would not be without their problems, the infamous Altamont disaster being among them, but the Stones' U.S. tour was at least a triumph of performance. Culling fiery tracks from Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, and the surrounding singles, as well as a few choice Chuck Berries and occasional side trips to earlier originals like "Under My Thumb" and "I'm Free", the Stones kept the material simple with the focus on Mick Jagger's cavorting and new-boy Mick Taylor's biting leads. 

The Stones were pleased enough with their work during those six-weeks that they issued their first band-sanctioned live LP in 1970, which mostly consisted of performances recorded at Madison Square Garden on November 27 and 28. Maybe Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out wasn't as blisteringly unhinged as the live platter of '70, The Who's Live at Leeds, but it was still a classy affair, despite Jagger's silly routine about popping buttons on his trousers. Its high-drama rendition of "Midnight Rambler" is considered by many fans to be the definitive one, but snarling takes on "Sympathy for the Devil", "Live with Me", and a slowed-down, aged-down "Stray Cat Blues" are essential listening too.

Now you can get yer own ya-ya's out on red/white striped vinyl for this year's Black Friday Record Store Day. Actually, the vinyl isn't quite striped, its pattern more reminiscent of a tennis ball, but that's not what really matters. What matters is that the vinyl sounds really good, with punchy bass and gritty treble popping out of very quiet, flat, and well-centered plastic. There is neither inner groove distortion nor annoying areas of non-fill. This is a very nice pressing regardless of patterns or colors, and it comes with a bonus lithograph depicting a contact sheet of band shots taken during the tour. But it's the cover shot of ecstatic Charlie Watts leaping in an Uncle Sam hat aside his donkey buddy that remains this record's defining image.