Here’s one that blind-sided me a bit, I just bought a brilliant LP on a whim, Rolling Stones From The Vault: The Marquee Club Live In 1971. I didn’t mean to, it just sort of happened. The previous couple of Stones live releases were just a bit too late to really pique my interest*, but this one? with all the ferment and fervour over the revamping of Sticky Fingers going down at the moment, seems to have just slipped into the racks without too much fuss but it is slap bang in that six-year span of their career that interests me most. At £16.99 for the vinyl and a DVD of the whole performance, it just had to get bought.
It’s a bit of a funny one, it wasn’t really a proper gig but a performance for Swedish TV at the Marquee Club in front of an invited audience of about 150 folk, so the atmosphere is a bit funny and the cheers between songs are a bit weedy. BUT the Rolling Stones are proper troopers and throw themselves into it as thought they were playing in front of a slavering throng of 100 thousand and they clearly relish the chance to show off the songs from the forthcoming Sticky Fingers, which wouldn’t hit the shops for another month. It is the new tracks that steal the show too, especially ‘Bitch’ and ‘Dead Flowers’, on the DVD you can just see how much the band are enjoying their new creations – they know just how good their new album is.
The show is excellent, Jagger wired and skinny as you want in a short, sequined Bolero cardigan of the kind usually sported over a dowager’s ball gown; Keith, impossibly cool-looking, impassive and stubbled – captured before he fried all his synapses; Mick Taylor never looking totally at ease, but playing some truly amazing guitar and the rhythm section of all rhythm sections, just doing their thing immaculately and unobtrusively. The late Bobby Keys gets a lot of air time too, which is nice to see.
What I like best here is the fact that this is a band really still trying, still working hard, long before they became a brand, or a machine. There’s a real sense, especially when Jagger is blowing some great harp on ‘Midnight Rambler’ that they still feel they’re a blues band who got lucky. They are more than that though, so much more, I mean just look at them! No-one has ever got close to being this rock and roll cool, the bonus here being that at this point they had enough humanity left in them to still be broadly sympathetic and relatable characters.
I can’t recommend this highly enough to any Stones fans in the room, or any of you who, like me, lost your patience with them a while ago. Buy this LP. This is great music from a great little band, the sound has been restored and mixed by Bob Clearmountain and as for the package … Wow! I’m not so keen on the masking tape chic of the cover, but get past that and we get a gatefold full of memorabilia and clips, a cut-out holder for the DVD and a couple of great pictures on the inner sleeve. This has been lovingly put together exactly the right way and I salute them for that.
Tell you what though not a single picture of Wyman anywhere on the LP, apart from a small head shot on an old poster. They don’t do forgiveness those Stones boys do they?
Anyway, I’m off to listen to ‘Bitch’ over and over again, or until my Southern Comfort runs out.
Feeling so tired, can’t understand it
Just had a fortnight’s sleep
I’m feeling so tired, Ow! so distracted
Ain’t touched a thing all week
I’m feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy
Ain’t touched a drink all night
I’m feeling hungry, can’t see the reason
Just ate a horse meat pie
Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart is beating louder than a big bass drum, alright
Yeah, you got to mix it child
You got to fix it must be love
It’s a bitch
562 Down (Still)
PS – Given the passing of 44 years, the picture quality is very decent and none of that horrible gimmicky camerawork and/or editing that mars a lot of footage from the era too.
*although all the bits I heard, via a friend were very good indeed.
I think we are on the same page with this band. I might tune in for the Bobby Keys angle.
I played this again a couple of weeks ago, it is a really good live set. The version of ‘Bitch’ is brilliant.
Sticky Fingers is my fav Stones LP so I think I should really seek out this performance!
Hiya, I usually go for Let It Bleed as my fave but any of the LPs around this period are pretty incredible.
This is a really good set and the DVD is great (pretty sure most of it’s on Youtube by now!).
Really like your line about it being a band vs. brand. And laughed out loud reading about the comments section perhaps not lining up with how you once envisioned your life!
Thank you Geoff, I have no doubt at all I stole it from somewhere, but I’ll happily take any credit I can.
As for life, maybe its like this for everyone?
Hey 1537, you made my day 🙂 Southern Comfort and Bitch sounds like an unbeatable combination! Since that’s inappropriate for me at the moment here’s a clip of that bolero…and Dead Flowers. https://youtu.be/4oPInSfh6H4
Brilliant – Jagger still looks human at this point too.
Inappropriate for you? (ticks through options on fingers) – I’m guessing you’re either in prison, or work as a trucker for a living and need to stay sober for the long ride down to Tulsa.
How did you know? Shhh…the warden’s coming back around.
Everyone I have spoken to since 1985 who have seen the Stones live say they’re pretty sloppy in concert. I witnessed this first hand at their performance at Superbowl XL. If they play well on this live album, it might be worth a listen.
I had tickets for the Wembley stadium gig in 1990 that they cancelled because Keith sliced his hand open, I couldn’t make the rescheduled date. Damnit.
My parents saw them a good few times in the 60’s.
This looks awesome! I love releases like this. I’m not a huge Stones fan but I kind of want this anyway. It has aroused me!
Uh oh. Stand back, everyone! Our HMO is aroused! Tie yourselves to the masts and hold on for dear life! 🙂
… that’s not a mast!!
Ewwwwww.
Brilliant – my work here is done.
You’re work is arousing me? Good job, well done!
My life isn’t working out quite how I envisaged it.
I had this in my hand at the shop the other day. I was SO tempted. And I would’ve bought it, too, if I didn’t already have a couple of records already in the mail to me. When I have the pennies for it, I will be buying this. Oh yes. Oh my yes.
It’s just a brilliant release, anything from around this period has to be, by definition.
Oh man. This looks amazing. I’ll need to pop into the record shop at lunch and see how this is priced. I love the Stones, but I’m not usually drawn to the ‘live vault’ stuff. This though. Damn you.
It’s just fabulous. What a band!
They most certainly are. They used to be, quite simply, the greatest rock n’ roll band on the planet. I really wish I was around to see that incarnation of the Stones. Before Jagger became cosmopolitan Jagger (I maintain that there’s still a lot of heart, hard work, soul and humanity in that band). Or fake Jagger. Sir Mick. Whatevers. He’s like Paul McCartney without the bass.
Anyhoo, this really does look like one that I need to add to the collection … decisions decisions!
My dad saw them play on the steps of a stately home in Somerset back in ’63 (I think) and certainly saw them at the Crawdaddy and Marquee in the early 60’s too.
My folks bought all the singles up to ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ and then got interested in other things.
That’d be pretty special. Magic.
Doesn’t give me a whole lot to rebel against. Damnit!
This looks damn amazing. I consider myself more of a passing Stones fan. Not a diehard, just someone who appreciates what they’ve done for the universe at large. But Beggar’s Banquet to Exile On Main Street, that’s a streak that I can’t deny and do love all of those albums. This one fits right in there.
I think I may have to locate this one.
It’s an unexpectedly great release, I wasn’t expecting anything this good and I didn’t plan on buying it at all. It’s also a damn fine package, they’ve taken care of us fans here.
An archival release with real merit. At last!
Archival schmarchival you patronising git. It’s one of 2015’s finest moments period.
Silly me. Fancy being fooled by a title like ‘Live in 1971’.
(finger hovers over ‘spam’ button)
My criteria revolves whether it has been previously released, or not. This ain’t, so for 1537 technical reasons it’s a 2015 release. Easy.
When I inevitably stump up for the Sticky Fingers box set, like the sheep I am, that’s a rerelease.
Beauty set. I’ve never seen this before. DVD and LP? No CD?
Aaron will be all over this review!
I think it only came out beginning of this week/end of last week. As it’s pay day today …
Lovely!
There’s a Blu-Ray, CD, CD deluxe and it has also been released in two brand-new formats which won’t be invented until 2017/18. True story.
I hope that one that new format they had in Men in Black, the little tiny disc that’s gonna replace the CD. I’ve been waiting for that.