Don’t You Wanna Live With Me (Dog N Cat DAC-071)
On Don’t You Wanna Live With Me, Dog N Cat collect together two completely unrelated audience recordings separated by almost two years and documenting two different circumstances in the band’s history.
Moby Arena, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO – November 7th, 1969
Disc 1 (72:06): Sam Cutler Intro, Jumping Jack Flash, Carol, Sympathy For The Devil, Stray Cat Blues, Midnight Rambler, Under My Thumb, Prodigal Son, Love In Vain, I’m Free, Little Queenie, Gimme Shelter, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women, Street Fighting Man
The first disc contains the audience recording from the opening night of their 1969 tour which saw a previous release on Catch Your Dreams (Before They Slip Away) (Black Light BL 101). The sound quality of the tape is merely fair and distant. The music can be heard but Jagger’s comments are lost in the mushy echo surrounding the sounds coming from the stage. This serves as a good document of the first night of an important tour, but doesn’t stand up to repeated listens.
The Colorado portion of the DAC release offers an enhanced low end but the vocals unfortunately get buried in the mix in the process. I prefer the high end on Catch Your Dreams (Before They Slip Away). The gain is higher on the DAC release and the drums are pretty much inaudible.
The Stones chose to play their first US date in more than three years in Fort Collins, Colorado as a warm up date before the two Los Angeles shows the following night. The press wouldn’t be there and they could break in their set list before the big shows.
The concert was held in whale shaped, 8745 capacity Moby Arena. (The basketball sequences in the 1977 Robbie Benson movie One On One were filmed there – if one is familiar with the movie you can get an idea of how big the arena is). In typical Stones humor, they had t-shirts printed saying “Fort What?”This show marks the live debut for “Prodigal Son,” “Little Queenie” and “Gimme Shelter.” “You Gotta Move” and “Live With Me,” two songs that were featured heavily on this tour, were not played in Colorado and would be introduced to the set list in Los Angeles the following night.
The songs selected for this tour features two early songs (“Under My Thumb” and “Satisfaction”), two covers (“Carol” and “Little Queenie”), and much newer material from Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed. B.B. King was the opening act for this show.
The tape begins with Sam Cutler introducing The Rolling Stones and the first half of the show is played at a fast pace with a few bum notes but sounding very good. After the first two songs, “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Carol” Jagger’s says in his first address to the audience, “We’re gonna do a few new songs.” The band then play “Sympathy For The Devil” and the audience cheers when Jagger sings “just as every cop is a criminal / and all the sinners saints.”
“Midnight Rambler” is the second epic jam which lasts nine minutes. The song would be extended as the tour progresses. “Under My Thumb” is introduced as a “pop” song. Bill Wyman’s bass rumbles through this number.
“This is Stu. He plays piano on ‘Honky Tonk Women'” is Jagger’s incongruous introduction before he and Richards play the only acoustic number in the set, “Prodigal Son.” The next three songs, “Love In Vain,” “I’m Free,” and “Gimme Shelter” are played very slow and makes one wonder if they were running out of energy. The final three songs sound very good though and the audience appreciates “Street Fighting Man.”
Coventry Theatre, Coventry, England – March 6th, 1971 (first show)
Disc 2 (62:47) Coventry Theatre, Coventry, England – March 6th, 1971 (first show): Jumping Jack Flash, Live With Me, Dead Flowers, Stray Cat Blues, Love In Vain, Midnight Rambler, Introduction, Bitch, Honky Tonk Women, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Little Queenie, Brown Sugar, Street Fighting Man
The second disc contains the March 6th 1971 Coventry show from their short U.K. tour. Because the band were moving to the south of France for tax purposes, they held a short, ten day long jaunt around England and Scotland. This was their first tour of the U.K. since 1966. Since their autumn 1970 European tour stayed on the continent these were their first concerts in their home country since Hyde Park in July 1969.
The Stones played two shows in the Coventry Theatre that night and there is some confusion about whether or not this is the afternoon or evening show. A previous release Farewell Tour 1971 (Vinyl Gang VGP 095) lists this as the second show, but Dog N Cat, and most other sources, say this is the first show. Compared to the Vinyl Gang release, DAC use a cleaner tape and the drums and guitar sound better and in general is louder. There is more pronounced hiss and slight distortion on the vocals, and the tape is twenty eight seconds longer on Dog N Cat than on Vinyl Gang with the extra time coming in between songs.
The label claim to use a tape closer to the master cassette which may account for the better sound quality. Although this is an improvement, the sound quality is still only fair and it is a rough listening experience. This is an essential tape for the collection because it represents one of the most complete set from what is otherwise the worst documented Rolling Stones tour of the post-Beggar’s Banquet era.
“Midnight Rambler” and “Let It Rock” from the March 4th evening show in Newcastle circulate, as well as an audience recording from the March 14th evening London show and the professional recordings and footage from Leeds and the Marquee.The set list is based upon the previous tour of Europe. “Roll Over Beethoven” was dropped and the acoustic set wasn’t played at every show. The tape begins as the band launch into “Jumping Jack Flash” and it is apparent right away this will be an aggressive show.
Before the band play “Dead Flowers” Jagger says, “We’re gonna do a few new songs for you tonight because you’re such a hip audience and we know you want to hear them.” The play an unusually aggressive version of “Stray Cat Blues” which sees Mick spitting out the lyrics, and “Love In Vain” contains a weeping Mick Taylor slide solo.
“Midnight Rambler” is stretched past the ten-minute mark and after the band introduction they play the new song “Bitch.” It is assumed they debuted this song at the first Newcastle show, so this would be the fourth overall performance of the piece. As the audience is applauding Jagger says, “thank you, you are too kind. That wasn’t even that good” before dedicating “Honky Tonk Women” to the shy girls in Coventry and encourages them to sing along with the chorus, “you all know it.”
“Satisfaction” is played in the new, unique arrangement that doesn’t go over well the audience. Jagger introduces “Brown Sugar” as “As Tears Go By” while the band tune their guitar and the concert ends with an intense version of “Street Fighting Man.”
Don’t You Wanna Live With Me is packaged in a double slimline jewel case with several period photos on thick, glossy paper. These tapes are an overall improvement over the older issues although there isn’t anything new. Since there are so few releases documenting these two concerts, this release fills a much needed niche.
