Kentucky Fried Rockers Vol. 1 (Dog N Cat DAC-023)
Freedom Hall, Louisville, KY – November 3rd, 1981
Disc 1: Take The A Train, Under My Thumb, When The Whip Comes Down, Let’s Spend The Night Together, Shattered, Neighbours, Black Limousine, Just My Imagination, Down The Road Apiece, Going To A Go-Go, Let Me Go, Time Is On My Side, Beast Of Burden, Waiting On A Friend, Let It Bleed
Disc 2: You Can’t Always Get What You Want, band introductions, Little T & A, Tumbling Dice, She’s So Cold, All Down The Line, Hang Fire, Miss You, Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction, Star Spangled Banner
Kentucky Fried Rockers Vol. 1 is the first of two brand new soundboard tapes and the first time these two concerts have ever been released on a commercial silver release. A fair audience recording does exist, but have never been booted for understandable reasons.
Now we’re able to hear both of these show in pristine sound quality. Like other soundboards from this tour there is a gap in the tape during “Time Is On My Side” which is filled with the older source. Otherwise this is an excellent, well-balanced and powerful recording.
The concert itself is very good and enthusiastic. There is a false start right after “Take The A Train” when Keith begins the “Under My Thumb” riff and stops. A nervous Jagger yells out some yeahs before the band is ready to start again.
“It’s hotter than hell,” Mick complains before “Shattered”. There is a very rare performance of “Down The Road Apiece”, a song that was in the early set lists but subsequently dropped. There are some mistakes in “Brown Sugar” and the band gets lost in the middle of “Jumping Jack Flash”.
DAC’s cover design is getting to be typical of their releases, a tasteful photo on the cover with the writing vertical on the side. It is again a very classy release and is recommended to fans of the 1981 tour. Except for this being a new show there is nothing else to really make this stand out from the others. This label have been trying to issue every one of these soundboard tapes and it’s rumored their next release will be from Cedar Falls, Iowa from November 20th.
Not even an audience tape has surface for this show so it will be interesting to hear. I sometimes think while listening to the tapes from this tour that the Stones’ material isn’t dramatic enough to sustain a two hour-long show. In any event, Kentucky Fried Rockers Vol. 1 and its companion Vol. 2 come recommended.
