The Rolling Stones, “Dub And Douglas Present” (Eat A Peach EAT 115)
Introduction / Jumping Jack Flash / Carol / Sympathy For The Devil / Stray Cat Blues / Prodigal Son / You Gotta Move / Love In Vain / I’m Free / Under My Thumb / Midnight Rambler / Live With Me / Little Queenie / Satisfaction / Honky Tonk Women / Street Fighting Man (70:20)
Around in collectors circles almost since the dawn of the bootleg as we know it, recordings of the Stones gig at the Oakland Colosseum on the 9th of November 1969 have been released in tens of permutations, funding a small industry in itself, it took until 1994 for the Outsider Bird label to rummage around and dredge up the tapes that were recorded the previous evening at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles.
These tapes had also been captured by the same three people who were behind the Original Kornyphone and TMOQ labels, Dub, Ken Douglas and Chris and by the luxury of investigation, the original tapes that were recorded by the TMOQ gang appeared in c. 2012 and were released on the rather rare Japanese label, Dog N’ Cat’s 2 CD set, Western Affair Vol. 1 and the same recordings seem to be the source for this release.
Complete with the Sam Cutler introduction, this brilliant audience tape captures the frenetic energy of a late 60’s Stones show, the Summer of Love slowly burning out and the satanic imagery ramped up, things were starting to get heated again. Psychedelia had turned from hippyish whimsy and mutated, along with the drugs, in to a startlingly different beast. The sound is of a bootleg and what a sound that is – no soundboard, air-right IEM or DAT can convey the sound of hearing a tape reel smuggled in to the venue by two heady music fans and outlaws trying to push Capitol’s nose out, this is the sound of head-shops, basement bedrooms and student accommodation. Eat A Peach have boosted the sound without pushing it to the limits. True, there’s a lot of ‘needle in the red’ moments on the original tape but that’s only for the covert nature of the time.
The set list you doubtless know – chunky, glittery takes on Stones classics (Even then they were classics, witness the peal of applause for Stray Cat Blues as it hums in to view – No one sounds shocked that Jagger turns the age of his conquest down to 13, then after asking for the volume to be turned up to 10 for Prodigal Son, the crowd furiously clap along to this country whine stomp, Marvel at the lustre that Mick Taylor brought the band in their pomp and stay put as you realise that, no, this isn’t a second hand LP that you’ve scoured discogs for or bought off of Flea-Bay for $200 as the kids are now sourcing vinyl again, you don’t have to get up and turn it over again.
If you’re still listlessly searching for the old Dn’C release or are a sucker for 1969 shows – I still don’t see the definitive boxed set out there however, as most of the tapes that I’ve heard from this tour veer between authentically time capsuled and pivotally groundbreaking to miserable, unlistenable and ball aching, we’re still a few generations short of getting it just right – then I can certainly recommend picking this title up.
The artwork is the standard mini-LP cover with full printed inner-sleeve and a 4 page insert featuring a short write up on the early bootleg releases from this era and how Dub, Douglas and Chris brought around the seed of our hobbies – The colouring a faded purple / blue which fits very, very well with the red lettering.
