Germany 1973 (Dog N Cat DAC-072)
Eisstadion, Mannheim, Germany – September 3rd, 1973
Disc 1 Eisstadion, Mannheim, Germany – September 3rd, 1973: Introduction, Brown Sugar, Bitch, Gimme Shelter, Happy, Tumbling Dice, 100 Years Ago, Star Star, Angie, Sweet Virginia, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Dancing With Mr. D, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Midnight Rambler
Disc 2: Honky Tonk Women, All Down The Line, Rip This Joint, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man. Bonus tracks, Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA – June 4th, 1972 (2nd show): Brown Sugar, Bitch, Rocks Off, Gimme Shelter, The Loveliest Night Of The Year, Happy, Tumbling Dice, Love In Vain, Sweet Virginia, Loving Cup, band introduction
Germany 1973 focuses upon The Rolling Stones’ September 3rd, 1973 show at the Eisstadion in Mannhem, Germany. There are two audience recordings from this show in common circulation and both of similar sound quality. The first release is Mannheim On Ice (OBR 458 CD 027) and the second is on Fire And Blimstone(Exile 008 A/B). There has been some discussion about whether or not Dog N Cat use a new, previously uncirculated third audience recording. It seems the tape they use is the master DAT clone of the first tape source found on the OBR release. Distant and thin, DAC applied a considerable amount of remastering on this tape to make it sound good. They cut the treble to remove the hiss and boosted the bass in the lower frequencies and several collectors have commented that this is a nice improvement of the tape.
Mannheim is the second night of the tour and like most of their tour in the seventies contains songs that would later be dropped from the set list. Like the opening night in Vienna on September 1st this show contains rare renditions of “100 Years Ago,” and “Sweet Virginia.” Mannheim is also notable for being the live debut of “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker).” The German station SWF3 televised a report from this show that included an interview with Mick in Rotterdam and parts of “Brown Sugar” and “Star Star” from this show. It was broadcast that evening and was rebroadcast on January 22nd, 2000.
“we’re gonna do a couple of new songs for ya from our new album. The first one is called ‘100 Years’.” This song was played the previous show in Vienna. And since the set list for the following concert in Cologne isn’t completely known, this is the final live appearance of the Goats Head Soup track. Jagger reverses the two bridges by switching “Now all my friends is wearing worried smiles / Living out a dream of what they was / Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up?” with “Now if you see me drinkin’ bad red wine / Don’t worry ’bout this man that you love / Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up.” The tempo picks up half way through resulting in a very dramatic track. It is an unfortunate casualty of their standard beginning-of-the-tour set list trimming as it is a very effective stage piece.
After “Angie” the band play “Sweet Virginia” for the second and final time on this tour. After this there would be no acoustic numbers. During the opening some people in the audience let out several shouts for attention. After “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” Jagger says they will play two more new numbers. “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo” includes the funk interlude but the transition is not as dramatic as it will be in later performances. In the latter part of the show Keith’s guitar goes out of tune during “Rip This Joint” and the concert begins with a tremendous version of “Street Fighting Man.”
Dog N Cat include the first half of the June 4th, 1972 late show from Seattle as a bonus. This comes from a recently surfaced third audience source which is significantly more distant than the other two. The best version for the complete concert is still Seattle Superfonic also released by Dog N Cat. This fragment is notable for the out of tune guitars in “Brown Sugar,” a rare apperance of “Loving Cup,” and Nicky Hopkins playing “Over The Waves” as a prelude to “Happy.” Hopkins’ number is noted under its more popular name “The Loveliest Night Of The Year” since it was a hit for tenor Mario Lanza in the fifties. The focus of the release is Mannheim and this release represents a nice upgrade over what is currently circulating.
