YOU go through this album thinking > oh yeah, that was an OK version of that song. That’s the trouble, it’s all just goddamn pretty ordinary or even worse > with a couple of exceptions.

They are the ballad Memory Motel > with guest vocal by Dave Matthews > a rambling, rough-house Gimme Shelter and Out of Control > better than the original from album Bridges to Babylon.

Memory Motel is a vocal triple treat with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Matthews > from the Dave Matthews Band > trading lines.

It’s Matthews who is the standout performer with a gravelly voice to rival the great Joe Cocker. When he sings lines such as “back up to Boston, I’m singing in a bar” and “I hit the bottle and hit the sack and cried” it’s from someone who sounds like he has been on a Keith Richards-style four-day bender. [Was so impressed I went out and bought a few Dave Matthews Band albums, but didn’t hear anything to rival this]

Out of Control builds in intensity with harmonica and wah-wah guitar. Gimme Shelter also builds into something worthwhile > but there’s an even better version on the much better 2004 Live Licks album.

The rest here is pretty piecemeal. There’s nice saxophone from Josh Redmond on ballad Waiting on a Friend. A faster than the original The Last Time and an OK > there’s that word again > Saint of Me, with Mick Jagger taking delight in “all the special pleasures of doing something wrong”.

He also calls one of the venues a “glorified tram shed” and yells in exasperation “Come on, Ronnie” during You Got Me Rocking.  Ronnie Wood > the clown prince of the Rolling Stones > must have missed his guitar solo queue. Probably too busy chuffing on a cigarette and making faces at the crowd.

African American blues pioneer Taj Mahal makes a guest appearance on his own song, Corinna > and a clunky Corinna it is.

The tracks on this live album are from the Arena, Amsterdam; River Plate, Buenos Aires; Zeppelinfeld, Nuremberg; TWA Dome, St Louis; MTV’s Live from the 10 Spot.  

No Security is disappointing. If you’re looking for a good Rolling Stones live album > try Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out (1970) or Live Licks (2004).

> WRITTEN by MALCOLM LIVERMORE