Rotter’ Beast Of Burden (no label)
Feyenood Stadion, Rotterdam, Netherlands – June 4th, 1982
Disc 1 (75:50): Shattered, Neighbours, Black Limousine, Just My Imagination, Twenty Flight Rock, Going To A Go Go, Chantilly Lace, Let Me Go, Time Is On My Side, Beast Of Burden, Let It Bleed, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, band introductions, Little T & A, Tumbling Dice, She’s So Cold, Hang Fire
Disc 2 (79:54): Miss You, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, Jumping Jack Flash. Roundhay Park, Leeds, England – July 25th, 1982: Take The A Train, Under My Thumb, When The Whip Comes Down, Black Limousine, Beast Of Burden, Angie, Miss You, Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction, outroduction
The Rolling Stones started the 1982 European tour with three low key gigs in Scotland and one in London at the 100 Club. The first shows on the continent were three at Feyenood Stadion in Rotterdam on June 2nd, June 4th and June 5th. June 2nd does circulate unfortunately, but several exist for the second Rotterdam show. A good sounding complete recording was pressed in the late nineties on Rotter’ Beast of Burden (VGP-125).
No label Rotter’ Beast Of Burden is a transfer from vinyl of the older tape source to surface of this show. Some collectors claim this is better sounding. It is incomplete since it misses the opening three songs “Under My Thumb,” “When The Whip Comes Down,” “Let’s Spend The Night Together.” No label use a very good vinyl copy for the transfer. They corrected the pitch and also placed four songs, “Start Me Up,” “Twenty Flight Rock,” “Going To A Go Go,” and “Chantilly Lace” into the correct sequence.
Despite claims of superiority over the complete recording, this one is very good and clear. But it is much like many of the tapes from this tour and suffers from a flatness due to the outside arena and an unbalanced mixed. The first casualties are the saxophones which are sometimes audible, sometimes not, and the rhythm section of the Watts and Wyman are rather thin.
Picking up with the fourth song of the night “Shattered,” the band are already in midtour form. “Neighbours” is also very tight despite a squeaky reed on the saxophone in the middle.
Having a mid-tempoed blues “Black Limousine” is the first real let up in the set. A very long Temptations cover “Just My Imagination” is the first of the “oldies” cover set with also includes the Eddie Cochran cover “Twenty Flight Rock,” “Going To A Go Go” and the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” (recently added to the set list).
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” turns into a giant, loud sing-a-long. The crowd continue their noise with a Woodstock-style rain chant while Jagger introduces the band. “Miss You” has taken on massive proportions and serves as the focal point of the set, a space reserved for “Midnight Rambler” on previous tours. The track reaches eight minutes on most nights and conveys all of the Stones mannerisms from the late seventies and early eighties. The show afterwards, from “Honky Tonk Women” to the end, is the frenzied finale.
The bonus tracks are another transfer from vinyl, this time from the old Maybe The Last Time boot containing portions of the final show of the tour on July 25th in Leeds. It contains nine songs, Bill Graham’s introduction, and the Elgar “Pomp & Circumstance” closing. The entire show can be found on Live At Leeds ‘82(VGP 010), but this is a different tape used by Vinyl Gang which is clear tinny with an emphasis on the high end.
Jagger makes several comments, thanking the audience for their welcome for the first time in Leeds in many years, and he is cognisant of it being the final date of the long tour. As it would turn out, Leeds would be the final Stones show for more than seven years. There are very good versions of “Beast Of Burden” and especially “Miss You.” This is a nice bonus, but nothing beats having the entire show on disc. Rotter’ Beast Of Burden is an interesting release which is not essential by any means, but does present very rare tapes on silver disc for the first time.
