At Long Last, Satisfaction : After Five Live Albums, Stones Like ‘Stripped’ Sound

Another Rolling Stones live album?

“Boring,” a jaded cynic says in response to the idea.

How about a Stones unplugged-style project?

“The record you might put on at a sort of boring middle-class dinner party,” he continues with the same disdain.

Given the way bands routinely use live albums as marketing appendages to tours and, now, acoustic albums as ways to recycle favorite old songs, that kind of reaction is expected. After all, the Stones’ last two tours resulted in rather flat live albums.

But the jaded cynic speaking in this case is none other than the band’s lead singer Mick Jagger. That’s how he felt when proposals were made about an album documenting the Stones’ mega-successful 1994-95 “Voodoo Lounge” tour.

Keith Richards, Jagger’s partner for more than 30 years, wasn’t any more enthusiastic.

“What we didn’t want was the de rigueur ‘Voodoo Lounge Live,’ ” the guitarist says.

Yet, today, Virgin Records will release “Stripped,” recorded live during the European and Japanese “Lounge” swings--a collection that has, yes, an unplugged angle.

And, in separate interviews--with Jagger typically guarded, Richards his usual shoot-from-the-hip self--both are thrilled.

Rather than merely record the album at regular Stones shows, “Stripped,” produced by Don Was (who also did “Voodoo Lounge”), comes from a series of small-venue European gigs, supplemented with sessions held in a rehearsal-type setting in Tokyo. It’s a fresh change of pace from the band’s five previous live albums.

The “Stripped” song selections and arrangements--from a frisky “Street Fighting Man” to a tender “Angie”--use the relatively intimate settings to great advantage. There’s even a cheeky version of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” that makes it sound as if the song actually were written for the group.

“The idea for me was to show another side of the band that perhaps hadn’t been heard for a while and to make a record of songs not all of which were well known--a few unusual ones, done in a very direct, unembellished style,” says Jagger, 52, by phone from New York.

“There’s a fallacy that’s grown in the last 25 years that it all has to be slam-bang-wham,” says Richards, 51, by phone from his home in England. “And actually, most of the best rock ‘n’ roll albums are light as a feather--as they’re kicking you in the ass. Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, they fly, you know.”

So why did it take the Stones so long to do a record like this?

Richards says that in the past, just doing a tour was taxing enough. Thinking about making a record was impossible. This time, though, the attitude was different. One reason was the departure of founding bassist Bill Wyman. The other Stones have made no secret that they felt boosted, musically and emotionally, by his replacement, Darryl Jones.

Most significant, the guitarist claims, is a new commitment on the part of Jagger.

“I found him the most confident on this tour in the last year or so than I’ve known him to be for many years--more in his skin,” Richards says.

What brought the change?

“Mick’s always a mystery, even to me, and I’ve known him longer than anybody,” he says. “But I think he’s come to realize the benefit of digging in with the guys.”

Jagger shrugs off his mate’s suggestion that his attitude has changed.

“No, I don’t feel any different,” he says, dryly.

Nonetheless, this is the first time in perhaps 25 years that a Stones tour hasn’t been haunted by the specter that it might well be, to quote the song, the last time. The group has already demonstrated a new commitment by adding a 1996 trek to the “Voodoo Lounge” shows, with dates scheduled for Southeast Asia and India--locales the Stones have never played before--and South America. And there’s talk about following that with a brief return to North America.

If the Stones do go on hiatus again, Richards says he’ll probably reconvene his side-project band, the Expensive Winos, and return to the road. Jagger, though, is more cagey about his plans--he’s interested in reactivating his occasional film career--and sounds readier to get off the concert circuit.

“You’ve got to have some time to stop and be creative,” he says. “Otherwise I’d never do anything else in my life but write only songs about the lonely life in the hotel.”

The Stones are his first artistic priority, he says, but not his only one.

“I still feel that there must be more to the meal than ‘Brown Sugar.’ ”