Collectors Music Reviews

Paris Par Excellence (SODD-067/68)

Pavilon De Paris, Aux Abbatoirs, Paris, France – June 7th 1976

Disc 1 01. Introduction 02. Honky Tonk Women 03. If You Can’t Rock Me / Get Off Of My Cloud 04. Hand Of Fate 05. Hey Negrita 06. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg 07. Fool To Cry 08. Hot Stuff 09. Star Star 10. Cherry Oh Baby 11. Angie 12. You Gotta Move 13. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Disc 2 01. Band Introductions 02. Happy 03. Tumbling Dice 04. Nothing From Nothing 05. Outta Space 06. Midnight Rambler 07. It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll 08. Brown Sugar 09. Jumping Jack Flash 10. Street Fighting Man     Bonus 11. Fool To Cry (Demo Version)

In 1976 the Stones played June 4/5/6/7/9/13 in France.  There have been at least. count them, 17 different releases of the 6–7-76 show. SODD 067/78 uses primarily the soundboard source with an audience blend on “Angie” + “YCAGWYW”. One immediately cannot help but hear the tape hiss from the soundboard source which sounds at times like a loud cricket concert.  However, as one continues to take in the concert with the intermittent cuts that surprisingly seem to allow for a smooth flow and continuity of music, one realizes that the tape hiss becomes incidental as the music once again rises above it. The tape hiss disappears altogether during the audience patch-ins.

I compared “Down And Out In Paris” on the Rattlesnake label [RS 066/67] to the above SODD and found that SODD was brighter and Rattlesnake had more definition on the low end. SODD offers a stellar 6 minute demo version of “Fool To Cry” to close out Disc 2 while Rattlesnake offers 2 bonus tracks of “All Down The Line” (4-29-76) + “Sympathy For The Devil (5-23-76).

I must confess that I immediately played the demo version of “Fool To Cry” on SODD before listening to the above 6-7-76 concert and postured that this by itself was worth the price of admission. But I soon discovered that the 6-7-76 concert was the main attraction with the Stones belting out a solid vintage performance from start to finish. And the “war horses” as we have come to expect of late were actually some of the highlights of the show. This was a guitar driven band back then that played with reckless abandon.

One cannot go wrong with either of the above 2 versions of the infamous 6-7-76 show. This is absolute must have stuff for Stones enthusiasts. Through this listening experience I obtained a fresh wake-up call that served to remind me of just how powerful of a band the Stones were in 1976!

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