Ya-Ya's showcases how they've evolved as a band since 1966's Got Live If You Want It. Gone are the sloppy playing that was heightened by the screaming teenagers. Here, the band showcases themselves as accomplished and focused musicians. Part of this transformation was the new kid on the block back then, Mick Taylor. While not as versatile as Brian Jones, Mick Taylor played the best lead guitar ever for the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. Taylor works hard but never overplays; his riffs are brilliant on Jumpin' Jack Flash, Midnight Rambler & Sympathy For The Devil (listen to the second solo, it's by him, not Keith). Stray Cat Blues is much different from Beggars' Banquet's version, with the runaway's age changed from fifteen to thirteen, and slowing down the tempo. Love In Vain is brilliant, and on it Taylor again shines. Carol and Little Queenie are great and do justice to Chuck Berry's originals. Live
With Me Rocks with out-and-out fantastic bass playing by the great Bill Wyman. Honky Tonk Women is the only song here I think could have been better, but Street Fighting Man is great, thanks to yet again Taylor's fantastic electric lead guitar work.

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out isn't the greatest live album ever, but it lands near the top. It's a blistering example of how good live the Stones are when they feel like being this good rather than extremely sloppy. Compared to this, Love You Live and Still Life are big letdowns. I recommend this album today.

61 of 67 found the following review helpful:

Best Live Album They Ever Did  Sep 22, 2002
By Richard R. Carlton
There was only one version of Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! This is it. It was released simultaneously in the UK and US on Sep 4, 1970. Although the album was supposed to have been recorded at Madison Square Garden during the 1969 tour, most of the tracks were overdubed later and there are questions about what songs were recorded which nights and where. Karnbach and Bernson are fairly sure that Love in Vain was recorded on Nov 26th at the Baltimore Civic Center with the other tracks recorded during one show Nov 27 and two shows Nov 28 at Madison Square Garden and during the Nov 29 show at the Boston Garden.

This is the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material. ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog after Allen Klein became their manager in 1965. The resulting legal battles produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With these remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had these 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the World.

Many serious Stones fans consider this the best of the live albums they have done over the years. It was the 2nd live album but it caught them at their peak as a driving band with their own megahits first peaking....Honky Tonk Woman, Jumpin' Jack Flash, & Street Fighting Man are all delivered hot and fresh with blazing licks by Keith on everything......Sympathy For The Devil has a great delivery by Mick, but my favorites on this one remain Carol, Little Queenie, and Midnight Rambler. The incredible drive of the rhythm section on Carol and the opening chords of Midnight Rambler are historic....are part of the basic fabric of rock......no matter how you look at it, this is one album you must have if you want a live Stones piece in your collection.

The album has several notable facts connected with it:
.....Albert and David Maysles filmed the Madison Square Garden shows and they form part of the movie Gimme Shelter that focuses mostly on the infamous Altamont concert that occurred a few days later on Dec 6th
.....Tina Turner opened the MSG shows and did a duet with Janis Joplin while Jimi Hendrix watched...
.....2 days after the Boston Garden show the Stones recorded both Brown Sugar and Wild Horses in Muscle Shoals, just before they flew to SF for the Altamont concert

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection.

27 of 28 found the following review helpful:

Best sounding Stones Album  Jan 18, 2005
By Golf Hound
No doubt you have been reading all of these reviews stating that "this is the best rock 'n roll ablum ever" etc. and great details about each song. But nobody has mentioned the recording quality and sound quality of this album. I have listened to and been a fan of the Stones since 1965. This album sounds like no other they released in terms of recording quality. The more you listen to it, the more detail you pick up. I have never heard another live rock album that made me feel like I was more in a concert in terms of sound, atmosphere and pure joy. OK, I'll say it, this is the "Hope Diamond" of rock albums.
I can't understand why the Glimmer Twins never made another album like this one. All their other live albums pale in comparison. And none of their studio albums have the energy of this one. Some Girls comes close as does Exile on Main Street, but that's it.
I'm trying to be objective here even though the Stones are my all time favorite band in my forty years of hearing them. If you could have only one Stones album, this one is it on many levels.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

should have included the entire set!  Nov 30, 2004
By Grizzled Vet
One of the greatest live albums that exist today. The Stones were at the top of their game by the time they arrived at Madison Square Garden.

But there are a couple of points to make.

First, the sequencing of the songs. Because original vinyl has it's limits, songs from a live show couldn't be sequenced in the same order they were played in concert. What would happen is the songs were placed in such an order to balance out two sides of an album. With the advent of CDs, this re-sequencing is totally unnecessary. Yet the CDs are still pressed in the same manner as the original vinyl! At one point, Mick says, "Charlie is good tonight", and they launch into Honky Tonk Women. In the actual concert they start Satisfaction (I have a bootleg of some of the songs and that is how I know about which song is played).

Another point. Why isn't the whole concert being issued on CD? Since most CDs can pack about 78-80 minutes of music, there is no excuse not to issue the complete or nearly complete concert on CD. Even f they made it a 2CD set that contains the whole concert, I have no problem in buying it. Since the Stones have been poorly represented live early in their careers, having the complete concert on CD(s) would be fanatistic!

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

The ultimate Rolling Stones album, live or otherwise  Sep 09, 2003
By Docendo Discimus
It's hard to keep the superlatives from taking over when reviewing this classic 1970 album, the Stones' best live album bar none, and one of the greatest items in their entire catalogue. I loved it when I first heard it, and if anything I rate it even higher now.

"Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" was recorded over two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden in November, 1969 (with the exception of one song from a Baltimore gig the night before). Mick Taylor had just joined the band, but he and Keith Richards play like they have shared a stage for years, and while some overdubbing was undertaken on the vocals, no instruments were overdubbed...the Stones actually sounded this good!
And they do sound good. Amazingly good, actually. The sound on this 2002 ABKCO remaster is magnificent, clean and crisp and realistic, and the band is as tight as anything you'll ever hear, powerful, edgy and completely focused performances all the way through.

This is the ultimate Stones album, really. Everything the Stones can do is right here on this ten-track CD: Hard rock, blues rock, rock n' roll, blues and a little bit country & western, and absolutely everything is right on the money. And no, this isn't hyperbole. A lot of live albums suffer from one or more flaws, like bad mixing, bad fidelity, too much crowd noise, the lead singer sounding like he really can't be bothered to sing that damn song properly for the 1,000th time...but "Ya-Ya's" has none of them. The Stones tear through potent, gritty renditions of Chuck Berry's "Carol" and "Little Queenie", Robert Johnson's mournful Delta blues "Love in Vain", and some of their best original compositions, like the satanic samba "Sympathy for the Devil", the swaggering "Honky Tonk Women", and the tough-as-nails hard rock of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Street Fighting Man".

This is one of the absolute high points of the Stones' career. Never again did they manage to assemble a live album with this much power, and very few of records manage to pack so much fire and energy into a ten song track list. A must-have if ever there was one!

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