Touring Party Vol. 2 (Dog N Cat DAC-080)
Disc 1, Municipal Auditorium, Mobile, AL – June 27th, 1972: Brown Sugar, Bitch, Rocks Off, Gimme Shelter, Happy, Tumbling Dice, Love In Vain, Sweet Virginia, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, All Down The Line, Midnight Rambler, band introductions, Bye Bye Johnny, Rip This Joint, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man
Disc 2, Civic Arena, Knoxville, TN – July 7th, 1972: Brown Sugar, Bitch, Rocks Off, Gimme Shelter, Happy, Tumbling Dice, Love In Vain, Sweet Virginia, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, All Down The Line, Midnight Rambler, band introductions, Bye Bye Johnny, Rip This Joint, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man
Every good release deserves a sequel and Dog N Cat have produced one. Soon after releasing the opening show of the 1972 in Vancouver on Touring Party Vol. 1, the second volume documents two shows from the middle of the tour in the American south. The first disc documents the June 27th show at the Municipal Auditorium in Mobile, Alabama. There are two popular recordings in circulation and DAC use the “Morganfield” source, named after its initial silver release Mobile 1972 (Morganfield 003). This one isn’t as good as the popular “Freezer” source used for many titles, but this is very clear and captures the atmosphere of the show very well. The label uses the second generation, speed corrected tape but have remastered the tape to reduce the hiss levels a bit producing a release that is typical of the label.
Robert Greenfield writes in STP: “The hair in Mobile, a breezy little city just across the border from Mississippi, is shorter than anywhere else on the tour. Kids have come from he entire southern tier of the states, from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky…” He goes on to emphasize how this was an with very clean, well-behaved kids in attendance. Jagger acknowledges the widespread appeal of this show by asking if anyone is from Louisiana and New Orleans after “Bitch.” Throughout the show there are issues with the equipment and Jagger even jokes about it before “Gimme Shelter” saying, “We’ll bust a few strings, bust a few hearts. You have to give us one second to get these strings together.” This is a good show with none of the rarities from the previous nights in Houston and Fort Worth.
After a four day break the tour resumed with the 4th of July show in Washington DC and continuing through Norfolk, Charlotte, and Knoxville in eastern Tennessee on July 7th. A fairly new tape, this is a a rare silver release of what Dog N Cat claims is the master cassette. The audience recording is fair to good but quite distant and muffled. It is listenable but not really enjoyable and exists as a good document of the show. There is a small cut before “Gimme Shelter” and between other songs but nothing substantial. The only other release of this is on Drippin’ Honey (Vinyl Gang VGP 294) released several years ago on a single disc in similar quality.
Some claim that at this point, a month into the tour, the performances were becoming mechanical and routine for the band. Others would say they were hitting a good stride by this time and were producing consistently excellent concert. Whatever the case Knoxville is very slick with no major mistakes or lagging numbers. In a review afterwards, the Knoxville Journal commented, “Lead singer Jagger, looking like the devil in drag, opened with ‘Brown Sugar,’ the song written for his wife. His movements and dancing were in keeping with his image as the epitome of evil sexuality. The audience loved it.”
Jagger appeals to the regional appeal of this date after “Gimme Shelter” saying, “How many came from Memphis? How many came from Atlanta?” with, by the sounds of it, many from Georgia. A curiosity occurs during the final song “Street Fighting Man.” A letter to the editor of Rolling Stone writes: “I want to go on record as the first to say when the Stones played Knoxville July 7, Mick Jagger reached in the box to get a fistful of rose petals, but wound up with a fried chicken breast instead. I saw it; it was far out.” Touring Party Vol. 2 overall is a curious release of two mediocre tapes with a nice live shot on the front cover. Given the sound quality and relative obscurity of these shows, this appeals to those who absolutely have to have every 1972 tape in a silver edition. Otherwise this is nothing special.
