The Rolling Stones - Oakland '69

I had some Rolling Stones I was going to post the other day; some old outtakes and such, but after giving it a little thought, I decided it was pretty similar to a post I’d already done. Those links are down now, but it’s barely been six months, so I decided I’d post that stuff some other time.

But I still had that taste for the Stones, so I went back to my collection and dug around a little. What I came up with is a portion of a show from the 1969 tour – a tour that has been called “history's first mythic rock and roll tour.”

This was the tour where the Rolling Stones assumed the title “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” The tour opened Nov. 7 in Colorado, but the two shows a month later, at the Forum in Los Angeles, would be the ones attracting national attention as the official tour openers. The tour would gradually move east, with the New York Times calling the shows at Madison Square Garden “the major rock event of the year.”

While Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! was the official release from the tour, the shows also helped give birth to the bootleg recording industry. One of the earliest live boots was a recording called Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was a recording of the Stones’ Nov. 9 show in Oakland.

So what’ve we got here tonight? If you can believe the notes that came with the file, this recording comes from the same show as the infamous Live'r recording. This version supposedly came from a 1972 FM broadcast, as part of a series of specials commemorating the closing of the Fillmore West. It is also supposed to have come originally from Bill Graham’s own archives, released to KSAN for those radio programs.

I’ve never had the opportunity to listen to Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was widely praised for being a better album than Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!. This recording, however, is great in its own right. The sound, while obviously not a professional mix, is very listenable. The nine songs here are barely half of a typical night's set, but still manage to capture a raw and energetic band: One that sounds like The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.

Sympathy for the Devil.mp3
Stray Cat Blues.mp3
Prodigal Son.mp3
You Gotta Move.mp3
Love In Vain.mp3
Live With Me.mp3
Gimme Shelter.mp3
Little Queenie.mp3
Satisfaction.mp3

Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones

posted by aikin @ 8:46 PM