Rolling Stones – Eastern Promise (Kiss The Stone KTS 445/446)

Eastern Promise (Kiss The Stone KTS 445/446)

Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan – March 12th, 1995

Disc 1 (68:07):  Intro., Not Fade Away, Tumbling Dice, You Got Me Rockin’, Rocks Off, Live With Me, Sparks Will Fly, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Angie, Sweet Virginia, Rock And A Hard Place, Love Is Strong, I Go Wild, Miss You 

Disc 2 (60:25):  band introduction, Honky Tonk Woman, Before They Make Me Run, Slipping Away, Sympathy For The Devil, Monkey Man, Street Fighting Man, Start Me Up, It’s Only Rock’n Roll (But I Like It), Brown Sugar, Jumpin’ Jack Flash

When The Rolling Stones returned to Japan on the Voodoo Lounge tour, they played seven shows at the Tokyo Dome.  The fourth night of the set on March 12 was professionally filmed by Japanese television and was aired on April 4th.  And the telecast was released on video on Voodoo Lounge In Japan 1 (Trycle Inn/Dolphin TCVP-1001) containing “Not Fade Away” to “Love Is Strong” and Voodoo Lounge In Japan 2 (Trycle Inn/Dolphin TCVP-1002) with “I Go Wild” to “Jumping Jack Flash.” 

Eastern Promise on Kiss The Stone presents the professional recording in flawless quality and is among several labels who carry this show.  The first half of the show, from “Not Fade Away” to “Miss You” is found on disc one of Fuckin’ Tired (Wizardo Records).  Vinyl Gang copied the cover and the name for Fuckin’ Tired (VGP-051), but they present the complete March 12th show on discs one and two plus an additional disc of highlights from the other Japan shows.  Other titles with the complete telecast are Tokyo 1995 (Continental Drift CD007/008), Honky Tonk Tokyo (HTT 12951/2), and Live in Japan (Octopus OCTO 105-106).

The setlist for the Japanese dates were set for the most part.  All shows began with “Not Fade Away,” “Tumbling Dice” and “You Got Me Rocking,” had a middle set from “Love Is Strong” to “Honky Tonk Women,” and ended with “Sympathy For The Devil” to “Jumping Jack Flash.”  Alterations occur in the slow song set and in Keith Richards’ numbers.

Opening with these three songs is an interesting choice.  “Not Fade Away” obviously is a cover of the Buddy Holly song, was part of their repertoire in the early Brian Jones era and is the source of tremendous on-stage excitement.  “Tumbling Dice” is a staple from Exile On Main Street, perhaps the epitome of the Mick Taylor era and the excellent “You Got Me Rocking” from Voodoo Lounge represents the present day Stones.  Althought this may not have been their intention, the unchanging tripartite opener acts that way.

This idea is reinforced in Mick Jagger’s introductions to the next couple of songs.  “Thank you very much.  We got a lively group.  We got an old song, I think this is from Exile On Main Street.  I could be wrong.  It’s called ‘Live With Me.'”  (And the song is from Let It Bleed in fact.)  And “Rocks Off” is from “the same era or epoch.”

“Angie” is chosen for this set as well.  The Stones give a very slick and polished performance of the piece and is followed by “Sweet Virginia” which has “a more country feel since we’re really country people at heart.”  The middle set ends with “Rock And A Hard Place” from Steel Wheels, still sounding like the most produced song from that album.  “Love Is Strong” is the big hit from the album and the band play it with gusto.  For “Miss You” Jagger tries to lead the audience along in a singalong to mix results.  

“Honky Tonk Woman” has a great piano interlude.  Richards sings “Before They Make Me Run” and “Slipping Away” (“from Steel Wheels, right at the end of it…then it fell off” Richards jokes) for his two-song interlude.

“Sympathy For The Devil” has an organ and saxophone lead jazzy introduction and is followed by a great “Monkey Man” resurrected from Let It Bleedfor this tour.  “Start Me Up” sounds very slick in this arrangement with its emphasis upon the doubled vocals and honky tonk piano in the melody line.  The final songs “It’s Only Rock And Roll” (sounding more like a Chuck Berry cover), “Brown Sugar” and “Jumping Jack Flash” are all crowd pleasers and expected closers at a Rolling Stones concert. 

This tape in general is one of the great documents from the Voodoo Lounge tour and Eastern Promiseis an excellent production all around.  The insert contains extensive liner notes and many photographs from the video.  Kiss The Stone even utilize picture discs on the actual CDs which is a nice touch.  KTS is one of the legendary labels and their titles have withstood the test of time and are still very collectible.