Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 34

ENTERTAINMENT Gettin' concert satisfaction can be costly BOB CLARK Calgary Herald Still without a ticket for Friday night's sold-old Stones show? Fear not. If you've got the dough, there are people out there eager to make some bread. But it's gonna cost you a lot. (In case you've just tuned in, tickets for the Rolling Stones gig at the Saddledome, priced from $60 to $350, sold out within nanoseconds of going on sale May 14. Blame the speed and volume of online sales, as well as prior availability to Calgary Flames season ticketholders and anyone who joined the Stones' fan club at $100 US a pop for the shortage.

If you lined up at Ticketmaster, chances are you've got squat.) With days remaining before the biggest concert here in years, tickets are selling for as much as $5,000. Here are your last-minute options: You could attempt to quickly climb the corporate ladder with some serious and complicated last minute brown-nosing with the higher-ups at the office. (Make sure that even they have tickets, before you get in too deep). Enter a contest offering tickets, such as the one the Herald is co-sponsoring with Q107. (Fill out the entry form in Friday's Swerve Magazine and drop it off at the Rolling Stones pre-party tent at the Saddledome.

Even if you don't win first prize, a 2005 Yamaha motorbike, you could win big on the second draw two front-row seats to the concert) If you must go at any cost, there are several ticket brokers in the city offering ducats. But be prepared to pay. For example, at www.showtimetick-ets.com, you'll find prices ranging from $275 at the 'Dome's 300 level to a cool $2,000 for a floor seat in the first five rows. At www.centrestage.com, the damage ranges from $325 for a section 214 vantage point to a measly $999 for row 20 on the floor. And, since it's legal to bundle re-sale Stones tickets with things like T-shirts or a dinner out, you might find a pack- age that's right for you.

At Bust Loose Holidays, for example, you could've bought a 222 or 223 section ticket plus a meal at Chicago Chop House for $349 GST, except that "We're sold out," says a Bust Loose spokesperson. So, you can either hang on a waiting list in such cases or take matters into your own hands and scan the classifieds or lurk around the 'Dome come showtime hoping to barter with a scalper. "The ones I offered are gone," says Jeff, whose seats advertised in Monday's Herald were quickly snapped up. The prices? "The seats in the 227 section were the low ones at $1,200, and the row 3 floor tickets were $3,600," Jeff says. "Those are cheap prices.

I know guys that have paid a little over $5,000 for a pair in the first five rows. From here on in, prices are just going to go up." But take heart. A gentleman by the name of Hal, who took out a Herald want ad on behalf of a Vancouver friend who was looking for tickets, says he's had calls offering seats for anywhere from an unbelievable $360 (for floor seats) to $1,800 in the first level of sections close to the stage. "The prices are all over the place," he said. BCLARKiQiTHEHERALD.CANWEST.COM C2 CALGARY HERALD Tuesday, October 25, 2005 The great unloved songs HEATH A rW' 0 I i I i i McCOY Lesser-known tunes show band's true greatness We've all heard the Rolling Stones' Big Hits (and Fazed Cookies), as the title of one of the band's many singles packages phrases it.

Classic rock radio plays 'em all day long, every day. And, as sorely overplayed as they are, they're undeniably great tunes. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction; Brown Sugar; Gimme Shelter; Start Me Up; Sympathy For The Devil; Miss You the Stones have packaged and repackaged their hits over the years on albums like Flowers, Hot Rocks and Forty Licks, among others (and that's not including the multitude of live discs out there). But the Stones are about much more than simply their hits. At their peak, the Mick JaggerKeith Richards songwriting team was nearly on par with Lennon and McCartney in terms of inspired rock 'n' roll brilliance.

They were a lot rougher around the edges; a bit sloppy; and decidedly nasty and nihilistic in tone, whereas The Beatles seemed more pure of heart and hopeful about the world. It's no coincidence that while the Beatles sung the spiritual Let It Be, the Stones were preaching salvation through sleaze on Let It Bleed. Albums like 1968's Beggars Banquet and 1972's Exile On Main St. were every bit the masterpieces, from start to finish, as such influential Beatles' platters as Revolver and Abbey Road. In the last couple of decades of overblown mega-tours and disappointing albums (not including this year's fine A Bigger Bang) this point has been lost to all but the most hardcore Stones fans.

As for today's musically hip youth, in love with the surreal Radioheads and the celestial Arcade Fires of the world, the Stones are typically written off as washed-up geezers. Here's our pick for the 13 greatest Rolling Stones tunes you're not likely to hear on the radio. Download these, kids, and see if you don't find yourself rethinking your daddy's favourite band. Out of Time (1966) A biting, richly melodic rocker, reportedly inspired by Chrissie Shrimpton, the first of Jagger's supermodel girlfriends, this tune is striking in its harshness with Mick lashing out at his "poor, dis- The Stones' better-known hits have been played ad nauseam on classic rock band's other work shows a rock 'n' roll genius that puts Jagger and Richards MUSIC Essential Stones The albums you ought to own MARK ANDERSON CanWest News Service Formed in 1963 as a straight-up blues band, the Rolling Stones have chugged their way through four decades, 21 studio albums, 11 live albums and countless compilations. While their contemporaries (the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks) and their successors (the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Nirvana, Guns Roses) burned out one by one, the Stones endured.

Nor are they done yet. As Keith Richards once said, "We're the only band to make it this far, and if we trip and fall, you'll know that's how far it can betaken." The following discography tracks the Stones best discs, from the early blues covers though their creative apex in the early '70s, through ill-advised experiments in disco in the '80s, to their current status as rock's elder statesmen. The Rolling Stones (1964): The Stones' eponymous first album cleaves to their roots, covering standards by the likes of Willie Dixon and Chuck Berry. Features three original songs, the first recordings penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Out Of Our Heads, (1965): Yet more blues covers with a single, significant departure, the groundbreaking (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

Released immediately as a single, it becomes the Stones' first U.S. No. 1 hit. Aftermath (1966): The first album of entirely original material builds on the success of three singles released the previous year, Get Off My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Paint It Black. Aftermath contributes Under My Thumb and Mother's Little Helper to the growing list of hits.

Beggars Banquet (1968): The universally acknowledged masterpiece sees the band explore blues, rock and country in 10 classic tracks, book-ended by two of the Stones' greatest anthems, Sympathy For The Devil and Salt Of The Earth. Includes Street Fighting Man. Let It Bleed (1969): Brilliant writing and musical virtuosity coupled with a darker vision, Let It Bleed explores themes of fear (Midnight Rambler), pain (Love in Vain), desire (Live With Me), apocalypse (Gimme Shelter) and redemption (You Can't Always Get What You Want) the essential soundtrack for an era increasingly dominated by Vietnam, racial strife and political assassination. Brian Jones, who had already been kicked out of the band, drowns in his swimming pool shortly before the album is released. Sticky Fingers (1971): Jones' replacement, lead and slide guitar prodigy Mick Taylor, gives the Stones their hardest edge yet perhaps ever on tracks like Brown Sugar, Can't You Hear Me Knocking and Bitch.

Exile On Main Street (1972): A double album of raw-boned country, rock, blues, rockabilly and gospel, Exile is considered by many the Stones all-time best work. From the harmonic beauty of Sweet Virginia and Torn And Frayed, to the rollicking Tumbling Dice and Happy (sung by Keith Richards) the album is uniformly brilliant. Black And Blue (1976): Mick Taylor quits the band, which auditions four potential replacements. Harvey Mandel shines on the James Brown-inspired Hot Stuff, but Ron Woods (Hey Negrita) is deemed the best fit, and becomes the newest Stone. Some Girls (1978): More funk, a dash of punk and a renewed country sensibility make this the Stones' last bona fide masterpiece, and first since Exile On Main Street six years earlier.

The rhythms by turns cowpoke slow (Far Away Eyes), disco (Miss You) and funk (Shattered), but it's the nasty-edged, misogynistic lyrics on tracks like Some Girls, When The Whip Comes Down, Respectable and above all Beast of Burden, that unify the album and ensure its place as a classic. Tattoo You (1981): A collection of outtakes from previous recording sessions yields a strong disc dominated by up-tempo dance tracks, including Hang Fire, Slave, Little and the mega-blockbuster stadium anthem Start Me Up. Buoyed by strong sales the album stayed at No. 1 for nine weeks the band signs a new $25-mil-lion recording deal with CBS Records. I Steve Perez, Associated Press radio, but a closer look at some of the on a par with Lennon and McCartney.

tonk. Rocks Off (1972) So road weary he's hallucinating, horny Mick can only find sexual satisfaction in his dreams on Rocks Off, as Keith and company crank up the chaos. Sweet Virginia (1972) A delicious slice of acoustic country-blues with our heroes washing down their pills with California wine and hiding speed in their shoes. Star Star (1973) Musically just a fired-up Chuck Berry ripoff, it's the lyrics that make this one the hidden gem off the largely disappointing Goat's Head Soup album. Mick's trashy ode to star-eating groupies, he capped this one off live back in the day by straddling a giant, inflatable penis that shot confetti.

It epitomized the excess of seventies. Before They Make Me Run (1978) In the wake of a heroin bust in Toronto that threatened to put Richards away for a long, long time, Keef makes a vow in song to kick the drug, but he also flips a bird to the authorities: they may run him out of town, but he's gonna walk before they make him run. Ever the rock 'n' roll rebel. HMCC0YTHEHERALD.CANWEST.COM carded baby," declaring her "obsolete." Yesterday's Papers (1967) A grimly churning, brooding melody, Mick writing off another lover with stunning coldness as Brian Jones tinkling marimba and Charlie Watts' softly rumbling torn toms fire the tune. 2000 Man (1967) One of the only tracks worth salvaging from the band's goofy LSD phase, as heard on Their Satanic Majesties Request, 2000 Man is the story of an aging sixties hippy in the year 2000, having an affair with his computer and suffering from frequent flashbacks.

Of course, his kids have no respect for him. The Stones weren't buying the Utopian sentiments of the flower power era. Stray Cat Blues (1968) Jagger feasts on the underage girls, mumbling lazily as if, in the words of writer Rob Sheffield, "forming consonants is too much to expect from a guy with such a demanding sexual schedule." Then he rails against the societal taboos of such debauchery, raving: "It's no hanging matter! It's no capital crime!" Meanwhile, Richards leads the band through the darkest, most sludgy blues they'd ever play. Salt of the Earth (1968) The Bob Dylan influence is evident on this soulful ode to the common man, but so is the Stones' increasing isolation from the "salt of the earth," as Jagger admits: "They don't look real to me. In fact they look so strange." Jiving Sister Fanny (1969) This funky rarity never received any sort of profile until 1975 when it was included on Metamorphosis, a collection of Stones throwaways.

Indeed, much of that album deserved to be thrown away, but somehow this gem wound up amidst the trash. Monkey Man (1969) Richards leads this one with the sharpest, meanest sounding riffs of his career, Jagger shrieking like a monkey about his dark existence in which all his friends are junkies (Keith in particular), and where he's callously "tossed around by every she-cat in this town." You Got the Silver (1969) Richards proves he's the Stones' real romantic on this gorgeous hillbilly love ballad. It's country soul that the majority of today's alt-country bands can't begin to touch. Dead Flowers (1971) A cool country-rocker about heroin addiction that reads like Mick trying to send Keith a wakeup call, the hook on this one is fit for the hottest honky FROM CI TIME: Latest song lyrics show a more reflective Jagger They were at Jagger's house in France at the time, and they threw themselves into writing songs. "Mick and I hadn't worked like this for God knows how long," Richards continued.

"We wrote Satisfaction and Get Off My Cloud in a little motel room. If I said, 'Mick, I have an he'd be in my room within five minutes or I'd be over in his. "After Exile on Main Street, we got used to being exiles ourselves, and it's hard to write songs 3,000 miles apart. Talking on the phone isn't like looking across the room, eyeball to eyeball." Don Was, who has produced Stones albums for more than a decade, said he's never seen Jagger and Richards as close as they were during the making of the album. "They didn't just hang out together in the studio," Was said.

"They went out to dinner. They enjoyed each other's company. In the past, I could tell in the studio if it was a Mick song or Keith song. But this time, everything sounded like a Rolling Stones song." Richards went even further in stressing the importance of the new work. He wasn thrilled with the Jagger has written about love and loneliness before, as in Miss You, but it seemed like a generic exercise, not a personal outpouring.

This time, he doesn't just talk about his own feelings more convincingly but laments his playboy tendencies. Jagger doesn't talk easily about these songs. He laughed nervously as he answered questions about them, and at one point he gave himself time to think by walking across the room for a bottle of mineral water. "Of course, you are as vulnerable as anyone else," Jagger said finally. "It's crazy to think someone can't be hurt just because he's famous or he struts across a stage.

If you go back through Stones albums, I'm sure you'll find vulnerability along with the swagger. "It may not have been as easy to see, though, because it's not my temperament to share that feeling. I've often hid my feelings with humour. This time the songs were written very quickly, and I was in a certain frame of mind. "I thought about some of the words afterward to see whether they were too personal, but I decided to just let them stay.

Keith was very encouraging." i favorite to be the next celebrity casualty in office "ghoul pools." Jagger's image hasn't changed much, partly because he's so private. Just about everything we know about him is from watching him swagger across the stage and from tabloid accounts of his latest affair. The Stones have never been known for confessional music. They've built their work around rebellion, sexual swagger and blues mythology, framed by a rhythm section so seductive it can make words feel unnecessary. But the new album, A Bigger Bang, takes the band beyond mere pose.

The social commentary of one of the album's songs, Sweet Neo Con, attracted some attention because of anti-Bush administration remarks. But it's only interesting because it's coming from the normally apolitical Stones. Even Jagger admits that social commentary isn't his forte. The real breakthrough is the personal songs, including the melancholy, country-tinged The Biggest Mistake and stark, Laugh I Nearly Died, that not only help humanize Jagger but greatly extend his range as a writer. band's 2002-03 tour, which was designed chiefly to promote the greatest hits package Forty Licks.

It felt too retro, he said. "The last tour, you might say, was basically resting on your laurels. It was like celebrating your wonderful career, your great success and all that a hurdle to get over. After that, we needed to prove ourselves again. I don't think we would be talking about the new tour if it was pure regurgitation.

"But now I feel like a kid again. I can't wait every day to walk up to the rehearsal room and play with Mick and Charlie and Ron. It's been like that ever since Charlie came back. He's already playing with the intensity of being on stage at Madison Square Garden. What a thrill." "This is my 30th-year anniversary with the band, and I've never enjoyed it more," said Wood, who had previously been in the Faces with Rod Stewart.

"Everyone is more relaxed, and I think the music is better for it." Everyone expects Richards, one of rock's great eccentrics, to be relaxed. Flis image has softened considerably since the '70s, when his renegade lifestyle made him the odds-on.