Rolling Stones – Shattered (no label)

Disc 2:  Just My Imagination, Respectable, Far Away Eyes, Love In Vain, Tumbling Dice, Happy, Sweet Little Sixteen, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash.  Bonus tracks:  Miss You (8 track mix), Far Away Eyes (Single Edit), Before They Make Me Run (Promo Mix), Beast Of Burden (8 track Mix), Shattered (Promo Edit)

Shattered comes from one of The Rolling Stones’ most legendary and documented tours.  July 1st, 1978 was the first of three World Series Of Rock events organized by Belkin Productions and sponsored by the FM station WMMS in 1978.  The Stones were supported by Kansas and Peter Tosh. 

The other two World Series Of Rock events were on July 15th with ELP, Foreigner, Journey, and Trickster and the third was on August 26th with Fleetwood Mac, Bob Welch, The Cars, Todd Rundgren & Utopia, Eddie Money. 

The Stones’ set was issued early on two different vinyl titles, each complimenting the other.  Shattered (Rim Shout RS 6141) has the eight songs from Some Girls, the current album, that were played at the show and We Ain’t Sugar (Shattered-In-Cleveland-S.I.C.-2) has the ten other tracks.  The only compact disc release is on the three disc We Ain’t Sugar (Vinyl Gang VGP 335) where it is paired with the June 10th Lakeland, Florida tape.

Shattered assembles the two vinyl releases and places the songs in correct sequence to present a complete concert.  The volume is boosted over the Vinyl Gang to attempt to increase clarity with some success. 

Municipal Stadium in Cleveland was a huge venue and the sellout crowd is very well represented on the tape.  The man with the tape recorder pointed the microphone to one of the speakers of the PA system and was able to capture a fair to good recording.  The sound is limited with the emphasis on the high end and the lower end  pushed down in the mix. 

Also working against the tape is the damp weather with rain falling throughout the show with occasional dips and muffles of the sound. In fact Jagger mentions the weather several times, saying that umbrellas are free but outside the venue and telling them to not worry, they are not sugar so they won’t melt in the rain. 

Reading reviews of those in attendance this day paint this as a poor show.  They remark that Jagger’s voice is hoarse and the band were sloppy.  For many and various reasons the Some Girls tour was their most inconsistent with some very good and some awful performances and although Cleveland isn’t the definitive 1978 show, it isn’t as bad as others like the one in Buffalo three days after.  

Included on disc two are various promo edits from the Some Girls LP that were released at that time and are not particularly rare but are good to have in one location.  The manufacturers replicate the old vinyl artwork on both the front and rear covers to give homage to this classic.