It's hard to beat the string of albums the Stones put out when Mick Taylor played guitar for them. I own Exile on Main Street, but I don't own the others in that '69-'74 golden age. So when I heard that the band was reissuing their last fourteen albums, I thought: here is my excuse to pick up Goat's Head Soup and Sticky Fingers. Maybe I'd get a demo of Coming Down Again or a live take of Can't You Hear Me Knocking.

No such luck. There's a right way to roll out a reissue of a classic album, and there's a wrong way. The Rolling Stones decided to trod the latter path. Given that Mick, Keith, and company haven't put out a really great album in almost thirty years, one would think they might feel compelled to jazz up the rerelease of their back catalogue. They're apparently remastered the recordings, and that's it. No live tracks, no demos, no b-sides, no nothing.

Juxtapose the insult the Stones threw at their fans with the fan-friendly approach taken by Radiohead and Pearl Jam. Radiohead's The Bends--to take just one of three of the band's new reissues--includes demos, unreleased tracks, live performances, b-sides, remixes, unplugged versions. It is triple the length of the original album, and includes a bonus DVD featuring this in-concert version of Black Star and this televised performance of The Bends. I own The Bends, and now I may own it again.

Ditto for Peal Jam's Ten, which more accurately, I once owned before someone stole it from me, and now the band has given me an excuse to buy it again. Pearl Jam's debut is remastered and, on a separate CD, remixed by Brendan O'Brien. It includes Singles soundtrack song State of Love and Trust the MTV Unplugged performance of Neil Young's Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.

Granted, the multiple-disc reissue is pricier than the route the Stones took. But why would a band make a fuss over rereleasing an old album--that's been available in the CD format for nearly a quarter century--without providing a new reason to buy it? I recently got reissues of The Who By Numbers and The Kinks's State of Confusion. With no price boost to the customer, the former added three live tracks from '75 and the latter contained several hard-to-get bonus tracks. The Stones are a similar band. Why do they think they can get away with mailing it in? With CDs going the way of 8-tracks fast, I am doubly puzzled by the reissue of the same old standard issue.

Dan is right. Just look at the reissue of the "Socialism" CD. It's flying off the shelves. New frontman, fancy stimulus packaging, and a killer "Reset" button. It's also compatible with the European DVD standard...er, never mind. The only drawback is that even if you don't buy it, you still have to pay for it.

I'm rather fond of some of the Alan Parsons Project reissues, myself.

Daniel
Las Vegas

I stole Pearl Jam's "Ten" from a Strawberries record shop when it came out. It was cool.