Tour Of The Americas ’75 (Apocalypse Sound AS 189)
The Forum, Los Angeles, CA – July 11th, 1975
Dragon dance, Fanfare For The Common Man, Honky Tonk Women, All Down The Line, If You Can’t Rock Me, Get Off Of My Cloud, Star Star, Gimme Shelter, Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, You Gotta Move, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Happy, Tumbling Dice, It’s Only Rock’n Roll, band introductions, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Fingerprint File, Angie, Wild Horses, That’s Life, Outta Space, Brown Sugar, Midnight Rambler, Rip This Joint, Street Fighting Man, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Sympathy For The Devil, closing of the lotus flower
Tour Of The Americas ’75 on Apocalypse Sound is the latest release of the pro-shot footage from the Rolling Stones’ July 11th 1975 Los Angeles show. Pieces first surfaced on the famous Hot As Hell video but the complete tape has been booted many times including Rocking At The Forum, Rockin’ At The Forum, Live At L.A. Forum 1975 on Jointrip (Jointrip JTDV-SP-006) and the semi-official L.A. Blues on Ganja. (The latter title used to be available through Amazon.)
Several years ago The Ultimate LA ‘75 (Top Of The Line / 4 Reel) was issued. The Apocalypse Sound is very close to the 4Reel version except it’s a bit brighter and clearer.
Some claim this is audience shot but that is definitely not the case. At least three cameras are used including one on stage. Its origin of the tape is a mystery. Its aspect ratio is 4:3 and looks like it was taped for a television appearance or for the closed circuit television at the venue.
For a two and a half hour performance tremendous effort was put into the editing which is impressive. Every minute of the footage is present beginning with the Chinese dragon being marched through the Forum to the pedals of the flower closing at the end of the final encore.
Jagger in particular gives the lotus shaped stage full use and the cameras capture the nuances of his movements. The vocals are still sometimes very low, but the guitars, which had been singled out for particular complaint, are boosted higher in the mix and sound fine.
Little details are also audible like the tambourine sounds and Billy Preston banging out “Mary Had A Little Lamb” at the beginning of “Get Off Of My Cloud”.
The performance itself is very enjoyable. “Gimme Shelter” has keyboards instead of the tenor sax duplicating the female vocals at the beginning and Jagger gives a mysterious dance during the instrumental passages. But it is true that “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, with both a Ron Wood guitar solo and a sax solo, is a highlight.
Richards is very hoarse during “Happy” and is helped by Jagger. “Heartbreaker” and an awesome “Fingerprint File”, with Jagger assuming a fetal position by the end, is the “funk” section of the set. The “slow” section with two ballads, “Angie” and “Wild Horses”, follows this. “Sympathy For The Devil”, augmented by dancing girls with tambourines marching around the stage is the rare encore and is thankfully captured in its entirety.
