Wednesday 8/25/21
I've been meaning for a little while to post some rare Rolling Stones audio on here, which I'll do now as a quick break between pieces I am writing. I wrote an op-ed this AM on college football, and now I'm mostly done with one on Dante.
(It's a little bit later now. The Dante op-ed is done. It's excellent. Updated my FB author page, sent the college football op-ed to USA Today, wrote a letter to the IC, sent "Out of the Book" to an editor, and look, I've done more in three hours than any of these bigot-fucks have ever done in their lives.)
This isn't a rare performance by any means, of course, but check out "Tumbling Dice" from Exile on Main Street. It could well be the finest cut of the Stones' career, and it's certainly the best drumming performance Charlie Watts ever gave. He owns the extended coda. Listen to what he starts doing around 2:47 and then on until the end. Do you hear how that frees up Jagger to do what he wants to do? Towering rock and roll art. Those aren't just bombs--those are finesse bombs.
This is rare. It's the Stones in Hamburg in 1965. There are not a lot of vintage era performances of "Satisfaction" in existence. Not from when it came out.
One of their best concerts, much cherished by collectors, from Honolulu, January 1973, with a unique setlist.
This is from a few days before in LA, a benefit gig. An even rarer setlist--"No Expectations," "Route 66," "Dead Flowers," "It's All Over Now."
Time to run some stairs.