In the 1960s, The Rolling Stones were on the frontlines of a musical revolution that elevated rock n' roll from good-time party music to dangerous countercultural force. But from the 1970s onward, they've been a phenomenon unto themselves. Having long outlasted their '60s British Invasion peers, The Stones have continued to set new standards for stadium-sized spectacle and dogged, age-defying perseverance well into the 21st century. And though Mick Jagger's recent heart surgery forced them to postpone their 2019 tour, fans still have an opportunity to take part in the live Stones experience-vicariously, at least-via the release of the deluxe edition of their latest compilation, Honk.
The album's bonus disc is the latest entry to a concert-disc canon that stretches back to the mid-'60s but has become more abundant since the late-'70s, with live albums essentially serving as de facto souvenir programs commemorating the band's major tours. Each Stones live record has preserved a specific moment in the band's history through their own singular mix of contemporary selections, surprising obscurities, and throwback covers.
Given Honk's emphasis on The Stones' latter-day catalog, let's take a closer look at their live albums over the same period to see how The World's Greatest Rock n' Roll Band have been able to hold onto that title for over a half century now. (Note: In recent years, a number of archival Stones live releases have been brought to market; this survey sticks to the official live albums available on Spotify that came out shortly after the tours or special performances they documented.)
Love You Live (1977) The story: Love You Live captures The Stones in all their hedonistic mid-'70s majesty. Recorded primarily on their 1975-76 arena tour of North America and Europe, this double-album set serves up venerable warhorses like Honky Tonk Women and Jumpin' Jack Flash and proto-disco workouts like Hot Stuff and Fingerprint File with equal amounts of grit and spit. But the band dig deep into their blues roots on the album's famed third side, a set of old-school covers culled from a secret club show at Toronto's El Mocambo where the band corrupted classics like Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy and Chuck Berry's Around and Around with their singular brand of sleaze.
Standout performance: You Can't Always Get What You Want, which swaps out the original's uptempo gospel groove for a slow n' low bluesy sway.
Nicest surprise: The closing Sympathy for the Devil, which The Stones had reportedly not played since 1969 due to its sinister associations with the tragedy at Altamont.
Does it include Satisfaction ? No.
Still Life (1982) The story: A snapshot of the American tour for 1981's Tattoo You, Still Life marks the dawn of Mick's spandex-joggers phase-a telling sartorial indicator of the increasingly vast stadium stages he now had to sprint across on a nightly basis. But aside from a late-game appearance of the insta-classic Start Me Up, the setlist mostly forgoes Tattoo You to touch on all corners of the band's career, from the 1964 ballad Time Is On My Side to the punky 1978 rave-up Shattered.
Standout performance: A toughened-up rendition of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' 1965 soul standard Going To A Go-Go, a song that had never appeared on a Stones studio album, but became Still Life's Top 40-busting lead single.
Nicest surprise: The rambunctious Emotional Rescue deep cut Let Me Go.
Does it include Satisfaction ? Yes-and it's a version that manages to be both twice as fast as and longer than the original.
Flashpoint (1991) The story: The Stones' 1989-90 Steel Wheels tour featured their most elaborate set to date, a post-industrial assemblage of towering bridges and spark-shooting pipes that looked like something from a Mad Max film. Likewise, their onstage ranks expanded to include two keyboardists, a trio of backing singers, and a horn section. Marking original bassist Bill Wyman's final tour of duty with the band, Flashpoint is also the first Stones live album to feature two tacked-on studio tracks (the Gulf War-inspired commentary Highwire and the somewhat less political but infinitely more funky Sex Drive ).
Standout performance: A cover of Willie Dixon's dirty blues classic Little Red Rooster featuring some guest soloing from Eric Clapton-a harbinger of the celebrity cameos that would become a defining feature of future Stones live albums.
Nicest surprise: A faithfully rustic rendition of the Beggars Banquet country serenade Factory Girl.
Does it include Satisfaction ? Yes-a rollicking five-and-a-half-minute version that adds a little shuffle to its step en route to a call-and-response brass breakdown.
Stripped (1995) The story: By the mid-'90s, it seemed like every rock artist of note was strapping on the acoustic guitars for an MTV Unplugged special. And while The Stones didn't follow suit, they did release Stripped, a (mostly) live set that isn't so much unplugged as laid-back. Recorded during a special intimate European tour of small clubs and theaters, the set list favors the rootsier, more soulful side of The Stones catalog. Interspersed among the concert performances are studio recordings of old tracks remade in a similarly casual spirit.
Standout performance: A vivacious cover of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone where the band claim it as their own unofficial theme song.
Nicest surprise: A rare airing of the slinky blues number The Spider and the Fly from 1965's Out of Our Heads.
Does it include Satisfaction ? No.
Live Licks (2004) The story: Coming on the heels of their 40th-anniversary tour-and its companion best-of compilation, 40 Licks-Live Licks presents the m
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
In the 1960s, The Rolling Stones were on the frontlines of a musical revolution that elevated rock n' roll from good-time party music to dangerous countercultural force. But from the 1970s onward, they've been a phenomenon unto themselves. Having long outlasted their '60s British Invasion peers, The Stones have continued to set new standards for stadium-sized spectacle and dogged, age-defying perseverance well into the 21st century. And though Mick Jagger's recent heart surgery forced them to postpone their 2019 tour, fans still have an opportunity to take part in the live Stones experience-vicariously, at least-via the release of the deluxe edition of their latest compilation, Honk.
