MAKING TRACKS WITH THE STONES.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

You can't blame the Rolling Stones for touring and recording into their mid-50s.

When the iconic blues-rock band started, the guys had no idea they'd be at it some 35 years later. It's just that they kept getting asked back.

Appearing tonight and Thursday at the Anaheim Pond as part of the ``Social Security'' - oops, ``No Security'' - tour, which offers Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood's first series of indoor dates in 10 years, the Stones have heard it all before.

``No band has ever survived this long ... we could have written all the jokes ourselves,'' Richards said recently. ``You know what they're gonna start saying, so you just have to ride it out. In a way, it spurs the band on a bit.''

We don't know what spurs this band on. Like the Grateful Dead during that band's last 20 years, the Stones churn out lackluster albums and make their money by touring.

At the Pond, the band's first Orange County concerts since 1978, fans have paid up to $150 a ticket - $300 for Pond season-ticket holders.

For the sake of argument, and to get those nasty letters flowing in, here's my list of the 10 best Stones songs of all time. My criteria was only studio records, no live stuff, no cover tunes.

I wasn't trying to compile the greatest hits, only the very best. Maybe that's why there's nothing here beyond 1972. Most Stones fans agree the band was making its most witty, committed and forceful music with ``Let It Bleed,'' ``Beggar's Banquet'' and ``Exile on Main Street.''

We also asked John Carr, editor of the bimonthly unofficial Stones fanzine Sticky Fingers, to come up with his best 10 live tracks from the many hundreds of Stones bootlegs out there.

Fred Shuster's Top 10

1. ``Gimme Shelter'': From the ``Let It Bleed'' album, this was the Stones at their very best, with some of Keith's most stirring guitar work and Jagger's most haunting vocals. The opening cut of the last album to feature Stones creator Brian Jones, ``Gimme Shelter'' will forever be linked to the murder at Altamont and will always conjure up images of Jagger's top hat and scarf and the last gasp of the '60s. The repeated line ``it's just a shot away'' is answered by the ``you can't always get what you want'' chorus of the album's final track.

2. ``Tumbling Dice'': This track from ``Exile on Main Street'' is the Stones doing blue-eyed soul better than anyone. A monsterous Richards riff opens, followed by Watts' powerful edge-of-disaster drums. Jagger is at his strutting best, while Mick Taylor's terrific guitar lines weave in and out. Taylor also plays bass on the song, and Jagger throws in some guitar while backup singer Clydie King's sweet soul workouts in the background and Jimmy Miller's raw production ensure classic status.

3. ``Sympathy for the Devil'': This epic tune is from ``Beggar's Banquet,'' which signaled the Stones' return to their blues roots after the previous year's psychedelic outing, ``Their Satanic Majesties Request.'' An acoustic Delta flavor colors many of the album's tracks, but ``Sympathy,'' with its fiery guitar licks, leering vocal, Afro rhythms and satanic lyrics, defined the band's image for all time.

4. ``Wild Horses'': Off ``Sticky Fingers,'' this is the Stones' first nonironic attempt at country music, and it's a beautiful, heart-tugging masterpiece cut at legendary Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama during the band's 1969 tour.

5. ``Stray Cat Blues'': Another bluesy gem from ``Beggar's Banquet,'' this one features some stunning slide work and Jagger at his most lascivious and malevolent. The Stones' reputation as the ``world's greatest rock 'n' roll band'' begins with this album.

6. ``Satisfaction'': It's all been said before. When this defining single came along, with its timeless three-note riff and sexy lyrics, nobody had heard anything like it before. The Beatles only wanted to hold your hand. When ``Satisfaction'' was issued on the ``Out of Our Heads'' album, it established the Stones as rock's bad boys.

7. ``Ruby Tuesday'': A beautiful, melancholy oldie from ``Between the Buttons,'' an album release that was bookended by some of the most notorious incidents in the band's history. Before the record came out, the Stones went on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' to perform ``Let's Spend the Night Together,'' the suggestive B-side to ``Ruby Tuesday,'' and Jagger was forced to mumble the song's title or risk being banned. A few months later, Jagger and Richards faced their first drug arrests.

8. ``Moonlight Mile'': With Paul Buckmaster's grandiose strings sawing away and Taylor's moody guitar, this sad, yearning, perfect piece closes ``Sticky Fingers'' on a note of cocaine-adled regret. Richards doesn't play on this track - he was busy living it.

9. ``Let It Loose'': A gospel-infused beauty from the Stones' best album, ``Exile on Main Street,'' this track is fueled by Nicky Hopkins' piano, a sweet vocal choir that included Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) and a slippin' and slidin' horn section.

10. ``Sway'': Another ``Sticky Fingers'' classic, this time with Taylor, the best guitarist ever to play with the Stones, handling the numerous guitar overdubs while Richards sits this one out. Watts is all over the drums, Hopkins rides the ivories, and Jagger tries to keep up, but it's Taylor's showcase all the way.

John Carr's Live Bootleg Top 10

1. ``Jumpin' Jack Flash'': Bootlegged from the ``Gimme Shelter'' 1969 Altamont concert film, this alternate version features a fantastic lead guitar break from Taylor. It's the 1969 version of the Stones without horns and sidemen.

2. ``Roll Over Beethoven'': From the 1970 European tour, this Chuck Berry favorite was last covered by the band in '65 and hasn't been picked up since this trek.

3. ``Stray Cat Blues'': From the 1971 farewell to Britain tour, before the band moved to France for tax reason, this was recorded at Leeds University with lots of inventive lead work from Taylor.

4. ``Love in Vain'': An incredible version of this Delta blues classic taped during the 1972 tour, with Taylor's fluid, bluesy guitar at its very best.

5. ``You Can't Always Get What You Want'': Taped in Europe in 1973, a great 12-minute performance of a great Stones song with a memorable sax solo by Bobby Keys.

6. ``Wild Horses'': A song never played during the Taylor years, this marks the start of the Ron Wood era of the Stones. Taped in 1975 by an audience member in Baton Rouge, La., tour keyboardist Billy Preston's chimes ring in the background during a unique version of this Stones country classic.

7. ``Brown Sugar'': Bootlegged from a 1978 radio broadcast, this performance features an energetic audience sing-along on the chorus.

8. ``Paint It Black'': With backup singers, horn section and extra musicians, this 1989 track reveals an energized Stones back on the road.

9. ``Gimme Shelter'': A fantastic, extended version from 1995, taped in Europe for TV broadcast.

10. ``Let It Bleed'': Taped on the secondary smaller stage at a Chicago venue in 1997, this is a solid country rave-up.

To find out more about Sticky Fingers magazine, write to P.O. Box 3474, Granada Hills, Calif. 91344.

THE FACTS

Who: Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams.

Where: Anaheim Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave.

When: 8 tonight and Thursday.

Tickets: Sold out; try brokers.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--2--Cover--Color) (1--Color only) Still Rolling

As the Stones hit town, a look at their best tracks

(3) Mick Jagger, left and below, and Keith Richards during a recent Rolling Stones performance in Oakland.