Paint It Blue: The Songs of the Rolling Stones

Paint It Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones

(House of Blues)

First Appeared in The Music Box, August 1998, Volume 5, #8

Written by John Metzger

What better way to pay tribute to the Rolling Stones than to have a variety of blues artists record a number of its songs? After all, the blues are what has been at the heart of the Rolling Stones' music right from those early Chess Records recording sessions for 12 x 5. Paint It Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones includes the final performances of bluesmen Luther Allison and Johnny Copeland. Allison's cover of You Can't Always Get What You Want is nothing short of brilliant as he makes the song his own while incorporating the familiar chorus of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. Copeland gets some help from Derek Trucks on slide guitar and turns in a rousing rendition of Tumblin' Dice. There are plenty of other tunes on this disc worth hearing as well. Junior Wells turns (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction into the churning groove of Smokestack Lightning. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Larry McCray team up for a gripping run through Ventilator Blues with assistance from Sonny Landreth on dobro and Derek Trucks on steel guitar. Larry McCray also adds a brilliantly funky rendition of Midnight Rambler, and newcomer Alvin Youngblood Hart adds a pair of songs to the disc — Sway and Moonlight Mile — both capturing that Rolling Stones' magic. Believe it or not, there's even more. If you're a Rolling Stones fan, this one demands a listen.

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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!