The fall of 1969 was without question one of the most pivotal periods in the career of The Rolling Stones, highlighted by the Thanksgiving release of one of their three best albums, Let it Bleed, and the winding down of a tour through North America in support of that album's predecessor, 1968's Beggars Banquet - a trek universally hailed as one of THE legendary tours in rock history, albeit one that was derailed by the tragedy at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in December (immortalized in the Maysles Brothers' 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter).
Originally released in 1970, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out has long been considered to be the Stones' ultimate official live document, chronicling a sliver of the fervor and fury of that '69 tour in the audio format. This 40th Anniversary Edition (released November 3 on Abkco) of Ya-Yas might have been short on bonus material, utilizing less than a quarter of a 79-minute CD for a second disc of tracks not featured on the original release (in spite of the fact that both Madison Square Garden shows and the stop in Baltimore were all recorded in their entireties for the album) and a DVD of concert and backstage footage that's barely 15 minutes long, but the third disc containing the fiery sets of tour openers Ike and Tina Turner and B.B. King certainly makes up for the deficit in bonus Stones matter, not to mention the outstanding packaging and gorgeous hardbound book containing a intriguing essay by longtime Stones photog Ethan Russell on the making of the iconic album cover and Lester Bangs' review of the album from Rolling Stone. And even given their brevity, the bonus tracks, which include killer takes on “Under My Thumb" and “I'm Free," are certainly welcome and do, in fact, complete the entire set list of the band's '69 tour (although the Altamont concert did feature the live debut of “Brown Sugar", the one straying moment from the otherwise rigid performance regimen). As for the original ten tracks, they have never sounded better, right down to the blistering head cutting session between Keith Richards and Mick Taylor on “Sympathy," cementing Ya-Yas as the quintessential live Stones album - even in its middle age.
