The 40th anniversary box set of "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!: The Rolling Stones in Concert" (Abkco) -- one of the first great rock and roll live albums -- has a little something for everyone.
The box set lists at $59.98 and is released on Nov. 3. A "super deluxe" version, which adds three vinyl LPs (and in which the packaging and the book expands to 12x12), lists for $99.98.
The meat of the box is a three-CD reissue of the original LP, which captured the Stones at the height of their success and of their skills.
Disc one has the 10 tracks from the vinyl, issued in 1970, and disc two contains five unreleased songs from the recordings, made over two nights in November 1969 at New York's Madison Square Garden; the band's first appearance at this now-legendary venue.
The third disc contains the sets by show openers B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.
Also slotted into the gatefold digipak is a 29-minute DVD with live performances and other footage, including the photo shoot for the final album cover.
A 56-page hardcover book is loaded with great photos, essays and Lester Bangs' Rolling Stone review of the record. The most interesting section of the book shows the scrapped cover art and includes a discussion of "the cover that never was" with photographer Ethan Russell.
Guitar Hero fans get a free downloadable song -- "I'm Free (live)" -- here, too.
"The Rolling Stones are most assuredly not in trouble," wrote Bangs, presciently, in his review, "and are looking like an even greater force in the years ahead than they have been. It's too soon to tell, but I'm beginning to think Ya-Ya's just might be the best album they ever made."
Had he survived, Bangs could have been right saying the same thing 40 years later.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
