Abandoned In Detroit (Dog N Cat DAC-068)
Masonic Temple Auditorium, Detroit, MI – July 6th, 1978
Disc 1: Let It Rock, All Down The Line, Honky Tonk Women, Star Star, When The Whip Comes Down, Lies, Miss You, Beast Of Burden, Just My Imagination, Shattered
Disc 2: Introduction, Love In Vain, Tumbling Dice, Happy, Sweet Little Sixteen (July 19 Houston), Brown Sugar (July 19 Houston), Jumping Jack Flash (July 19 Houston), Respectable (July 6 Detroit audience), Far Away Eyes (July 6 Detroit audience)
Abandoned In Detroit is the fourth permutation of the KBFH tape from Detroit to be released. The tape’s posting online was a good thing since only a handful of songs have circulated from a professional source. There were some problems though.
Two songs from Some Girls, “Respectable” and “Far Away Eyes” were not included although it is presumed they were taped. Wolfgang’s Vault didn’t note that the final three songs, “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Brown Sugar” are not from Detroit but from the July 19 show in Houston (Jagger clearly greets Houston before “Brown Sugar”). All of the silver releases deal with this situation in various ways.
The first to surface is the non-label one disc title Rolling Stones ’78. All sixteen songs that were posted online were copied on the disc and the manufactures do point out the correct source for the final three songs. Keeping It Simple (White Widow) followed soon after and is pretty much the same except the sixteen songs are spread out over two discs and there is evidence of the music being downloaded with “swishing” residue over the music.
Can’t Forget The Motor City (Vintage Masters Premium Series VM-005A/B) include “Respectable,” “Far Away Eyes,” and “Street Fighting Man” from the Fort Worth soundboard and round out the release with other KBFH tracks to produce a mini-Handsome Girls release.
Dog N Cat make the proper notation for the final three songs and include the two missing tracks from the audience recording of the Detroit show at the end of disc two. It may have been a better idea to include the two songs between “Shattered” and “Love In Vain” where they lay in the set list. The sound quality of the main tape on this release is excellent sounding.
The KBFH tapes are very top heavy with a weak lower end, but DAC sounds slightly fatter than the others. The performance is one of the better ones on what is generally perceived to be the Stones’ most sloppy tour. Detroit follows a lackluster performance on July 4th in Buffalo and is a considerable improvement. Some claim, based on this more complete tape, this is one of the strongest shows from the entire tour.
One of the early highlights includes “When The Whip Comes Down” where Ron Wood delivers a great guitar solo. This version was included on the official greatest hits package Sucking In The 70’s. “I never played in a temple before. I hope there’s no money changers in here” are Jagger’s erudite comments before “Miss You.”
Jagger’s microphone has some problems in “Tumbling Dice” causing him to come in late and to drop out somewhere in the middle. The audience recording used at the end is merely fair quality, but it is good to have the missing tracks from any source. This version is as good as any other but it is hoped the entire Detroit show will someday surface.
