Tight Dresses And Tampax (no label)
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL – July 8th 1978
Disc 1 (57:33): Opening, Let It Rock, All Down The Line, Honky Tonk Women, Star Star, When The Whip Comes Down, Lies, Miss You, Beast Of Burden, Just My Imagination
Disc 2 (56:57): Shattered, Respectable, Far Away Eyes, Love In Vain, Tumbling Dice, Happy, Sweet Little Sixteen, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction
The Rolling Stones played one of their biggest shows on the 1978 Some Girls tour on Saturday afternoon, July 8th. Three opening acts, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Peter Tosh, and Journey, plus the Stones played before a capacity crowd of 75,000 in the sweltering heat and humidity.
Several tapes are in circulation for the event. Two songs, “Tumbling Dice” and “Sweet Little Sixteen” appear on the old vinyl Satisfaction Guaranteed (IMP 1123) and the concert minus “Let It Rock,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Miss You” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” were pressed on the 2LP Tight Dresses And Tampax (Stereo Master Inc AR-7878-CI).
Vinyl Gang released the show on both Tight Dresses And Tampax (Vinyl Gang Product VGP 145) and Satisfaction Guaranteed (Vinyl Gang Product VGP 378). Speed Freaks (Black n’ Blue RSBB-2002/003) is another silver pressed title utlizing this tape.
Tight Dresses And Tampax, the new release on the no label label, is the first silver disc pressing of the Stereo Master vinyl. The four missing tracks “Let It Rock,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Miss You” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” are edited in from the VGP-378 source as well as some between song tuning.
The sound quality of the vinyl source is very good to borderline excellent. It emphasizes the high end frequencies at the expense of the bass. Its deficiencies are most obvious in the transition between the two sources. Satisfaction Guaranteed has a much deeper and fuller sound. While it’s not a big improvement, it isn’t worse either and is effective in picking up the interaction between the band and audience.
At the beginning of the show, the taped introduction of Handel can be heard. Nothing sounds more aristocratic than pompous marches of the high baroque period, and it serves as the perfect foil “Let It Rock.” It’s certainly a bold decision by the band to begin the show, not only with a Chuck Berry cover, but one which was only available on a single many years before.
“All Down The Line” follows. The opening half hour is delivered at a tight, breakneck speed. It isn’t even until after “When The Whip Comes Down” does Jagger even greet the audience by welcoming them to Chicago.
“You look like a pretty bunch” Jagger jokes before “Miss You.” ” You having fun rubbing your bodies together?” Their biggest hit from the new album is the only real misstep in the show. It stretches to nine minutes, but the band seem quite lost in the middle. The Rocks Off website claims Sugar Blue joins the band to play harmonica, but there is non audible on the tape. At one point Jagger shouts out “Blue!” but nothing seems to happen.
But the show picks up again with a laid back performance of “Beast Of Burden,” and, after “Just My Imagination,” a wired “Shattered.”
“You’re too f***ing respectable” Mick shouts before “Respectable” in obvious jest. It has quite a bit of energy pouring out before things slow down for the comic narrative in “Far Away Eyes.” The Stones really loved American country & western as well as American blues but were too self conscious to really excel in the former. But this is one piece where they can have a lot of fun playing with both musical and narrative cliches and include the audience in on the joke.
“Love In Vain” follows as a slow and serious blues number. In the past tours they would play a longer number or two, normally “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Midnight Rambler,” but they chose to keep the songs short and punkish and drop the long epics.
“Tumbling Dice,” Richards singing “Happy” and “Sweet Little Sixteen” quickly follow. “Brown Sugar,” played double time compared to earlier versions, and an epic “Jumping Jack Flash” leading into “Satisfaction” serves as the show’s grand finale.
On a tour where the band play many quick and sloppy sets, they pull out the stops and deliver one of the better shows in Chicago. Perhaps it’s the respect to the birthplace (for them) of American blues or the massive crowd, but there are very little disasters or cringe moments in the two hour show. Rather, it’s one show worth having from this trip.
Tight Dresses And Tampax, like the other needle drops on no label, utilize the original LP artwork for the design and even the set list printed on the inside cover. The back has the correct sequence for the songs. It’s not a big improvement over the other tape source used on the VGP releases, but is still a very nice title to have.
