The Rolling Stones, “Fort Worth 1972, 2nd Show” (No Label)
Introduction / Brown Sugar / Bitch / Rocks Off / Gimme Shelter / Don’t Lie To Me / Love In Vain / Sweet Virginia / You Can’t Always Get What You Want / Tumbling Dice / Midnight Rambler / Band introductions / Bye Bye Johnny / Rip This Joint / Jumping Jack Flash / Street Fighting Man (73:31)
The Stones show, ‘Fort Worth ’72’ has been around a brace of times. Around 63 releases to be correct including Vinyl Gang’s “Fort Worth Express” (VGP 205), “Turn The Heat Up” (Bad Wizard BW6-24/25/27-72), “Ft. Worth Express” (Turd On The Run SRS-2008-1), “A Hard Shot To The Body” (Supersonic SS200016) and “Hows Your Lungs” (Stones Of Fire SOF 8002) with due respect, claimed to be a ‘stereo soundboard recording’, this tape sound much clearer than the recordings that I own so far, it’s a little longer, it’s a red hot show too! Each instrument is cleanly picked out from the maelstrom with Nicky Hopkins’ piano being the piece that pricks the ears the most.
We all know from the many, many articles that have been written about the bands shows from this era that the group were THE ones to watch – Led Zeppelin were a great ticket but we know that some of the overblown histrionics of their 30 minute ‘Stairway To Heaven’ could drag if your choice of hit was no more illegal than going over to the bar and grabbing a few pints, ensuring that your mother would smell it on your breath rather than the sweet smell of pot or having her catching you coming home, talking to the dog in tongues and gravitating towards your sisters lava lamp. No, the Stones were your dirty burger with fries rather than your 20 oz steak with trimmings – you want a salty hit and fast, you grab at that with beery hands and see a show with bitesized chunks. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.
From the outset of ‘Brown Sugar’ (Wherein the audience seem to disappear from the tape as the music starts) to the final blistering ‘Street Fighting Man’, the Stones are on funky, soulful form with enough bravado on stage to fill five large arenas.
This no label release makes claims towards a virtue of this shows outing, there’s no promise of a massive upgrade but this is a newly found tape – they haven’t put it out on merit as it sounds different to, say, Halcyon’s “The Return Of The Exiles” and – while the artwork might not be as glossy and sparkly as the Halcyon release – and that does look fine – the artwork for this latest release is pretty damn good looking too. It is still incomplete however – not that you’d hear the joins – missing ‘Happy’ and ‘All Down The Line’.
If you’re looking for something 1972 for your collection, already have The Brussels Affair officially (The expensive box or the download) and are looking for something that’s a little more rough and grungy but you can still listen to without screwing up your eyes too tightly, this is the one. A keeper!
4 Comments
Thanks for the insights Stuart. This is one that I’m going to get and enjoy.
Nice review Stu! I’m with relayer67 on that second graf. Love it! What always strikes me as a tad ironic in reading the periodicals and reviews from back in the day, is that at the time, the Stones were seen as the “serious” cultural zeitgeist music the rock critics loved, while Zep was your kid brother’s band, despite the aspirations to musical profundity (and I do like LZ very much). No matter how many tickets (or albums) LZ sold (and in the case of moving LPs, they outsold the Stones easily), they still weren’t taken as a “serious” “cultural” force, whatever that means to each of us. OK, down to brass tacks: I have, ahem, an unhealthy and unreasonable number of the Forth Worth shows in different packages and presentations, and have always considered (to my ears at least), Bad Wizard’s “Turn The Heat Up,” and VGP’s “You Can’t Do That, Baby” to be the gold standards and killers sound-wise as basically the L&G soundtrack (or most of it; I know some of the Houston shows were mixed in to the film). Do you think this title eclipses those? Thanks for your take and opinion mate!
TBF, I only own the Halcyon release that I mentioned – My meagre collection holding a few doubles of shows that I’m either attached to or to lazy to turf out of my archives.
A cursory skip through the internet had the Scorpio release front in 2004, the VGP version in 2006 – I’, to bet my Japanese copy – A best of the best label – would have been released around 2007 / ’08 so with this release sounding better than mine, I might suggest that we have a new king – Unless any other listeners want to chip in with their own thoughts.
And thank you for the compliments, chaps. I had fun with that.
The analogy in the second paragraph is priceless, at times I have been on both sides of the proverbial coin. I think I need to pick this title up