Rolling Stones: SNL, 1978

I mentioned the other day I was involved in watching season four of Saturday Night Live. Somehow there was a mix-up down at Blockbuster and they sent disk two before they sent disk one. Eventually disk one arrived and I was able to look at that season's opening episode, which featured the Rolling Stones.

American music in 1978 was on the precipice between the punk rock and disco eras. The Stones had just released Some Girls with “Miss You,” a strongly danceable track, opening the album. This SNL appearance would throw all disco pretense out the window as they took the stage for a classically ragged performance.

“Get out of my life / Don’t fuck my wife.” Did that really make it past the censors? Keef, reportedly so drunk at dress rehearsal that he was dropped from a sketch, makes it onstage to play (he’s a trained professional, kids). Mick’s voice blown into ragged hoarseness. The band a mesmorizing mess. This is the Stones in boiled down, punk rock mode. Barely even recognizable as the band we’ll see three decades later in Shine A Light.

These tracks were unofficially released as part of a boot titled Sucking Don on SNL. Along with the SNL appearance, the disk includes performances from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, as well as the SNL rehearsals. I owe big, big thanks to Dino over at D&P’s Bootleg Tunz World for finding this for me. I had spent quite a bit of time looking for Sucking Don before I reached out to Dino. Within a few hours, one of his readers had located it and passed it along. His site is great and I want to encourage you to visit it early and often.

Beast of Burden.mp3
Respectable.mp3
Shattered.mp3

Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones, TV

posted by aikin @ 12:55 PM