Get Stoned

AMG Review of Get Stoned

Dave Thompson
All Music Guide

One of the greatest anomalies in the Rolling Stones' compilations catalog was the failure of British Decca to grant a local release to the U.S. collection Hot Rocks. Rather, it was left to service import stores only, until 1977 finally brought the TV advertising Arcade label into the fray. Despite an almost gratuitously lurid sleeve design (a close-up re-creation of the Stones' lips logo, with added spittle and dental problems), Get Stoned remains one of the most pointedly classics-driven of all the band's '70s British collections, a roundup of 30 songs that carried the band from "Not Fade Away" through to "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses," and there's barely a classic left unturned. True, the sheer weight of magnificence does peter out somewhat during the latter portions of the two-disc set, with Let It Bleed left completely unrepresented. But most people buying this were chasing the hits, and that is certainly what they received.