Rolling Stones - Still Life (1982) + Still Life Revamped EXS-1981-03 (1982)

 (U.S 1962 - Present)

One of the great tours of the first half of the 1980s was undoubtedly the one that the Rolling Stones performed in promotion to their latest studio work: "Tattoo You", released on August 24.1981 The album's release was preceded by the single "Start Me Up / No Use In Crying" on August 14. Single that quickly climbed to the charts reaching number 2 in the United States and Canada.

Between June 30 and July 2, 1981: The Rolling Stones shoot straight studio-performance video clips in New York City for "Start Me Up", "Hang Fire" and "Worried About You". "Neighbors" at the Taft Hotel in New York City and . "Waiting on a Friend" on the streets of Greenwich

After promoter Bill Graham and Keith Richards convinced Mick Jagger of the need to embark on a new world tour, the band met at Long View Farm, North Brookfield, Massachusetts, from August 14 to September 25 to rehearse. But before starting rehearsals Mick and Keith hold a meeting to discuss the tour and tell Ron Wood he will have to curb his cocaine habit if he wants to join them.

August 26, 1981: Mick Jagger holds a press conference at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, announcing the Rolling Stones' 1981 Tattoo You U.S. Tour. Worcester on September 14 in front of 11,000 fans, the tour began in Philadelphia on September 25 at the JFK Stadium, with all tickets sold out, with 181,564 spectators. The tour grossed $50 million in ticket sales when the average ticket price was $16. The Stones were estimated to have reaped about $22 million after expenses. Roughly three million attended the concerts, but unfortunately, this was the Stones' last tour of the United States until 1989.

October 15, 1981: A fan dies at a Stones concert in Seattle after falling 50 feet off a railing. The New Jersey concerts are filmed by director Hal Ashby for the indoor show portion of the film Let's Spend the Night Together. December 13perform at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe (Pheonix), Arizona, where the outdoor part of the film Let's Spend the Night Together is shot. Next day,Kansas City, ick Taylor joins in on the first night and stays through the whole set. The Rolling Stones end the 1981 Tattoo You U.S. Tour with two arena concerts in Hampton, Virginia, with the first concert (on Keith Richards' 38th birthday) telecast across the country on pay-per-view TV. During the show, Keith swings his guitar at a fan rushing the stage during Satisfaction.

February 1982: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards join director Hal Ashby in Los Angeles to start work on the concert film "Let's Spend the Night Together" and on the soundtrack for the film at the Power Station in New York City: a double lp. Ordered Bob Clearmountain and David Hewitt to mix a live album. Mixtures that were made at the Record Plant studios in New York, with the idea that the album coincided with the start of the European tour on June 2, 1982 in Rotterdam.

The original project was to be a double album, where three of its sides were recorded live during this successful American tour and the last one would feature some tracks from Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge with Muddy Waters, the night of November 22,1981. [extract from albums forgotten reconstructed]

Still Life - The Album

The aural equivalent of a Stones t-shirt? Maybe, but this short single-disc live outing, recorded during the band’s 1981 American tour, was released in time for the European leg when the Stones were enjoying a second life in popularity, touring the now canonised 'Tattoo You'.

Still Life sashays exuberantly through the decades, opening with a scintillating ‘Under My Thumb‘, then moving onto Stones staples like ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ and a blistering ‘Shattered’ where the weaving guitars of Ron and Keith are at their brilliant best, as Charlie effortlessly keeps it all together, and pre-departure Bill Wyman is faultless as always on bass – although Bobby Keys, still on the outer with Mick, is sadly absent.

The rhythm section and band interplay is exemplary. A concert movie was also released to accompany the album and Mick’s banter after the opener is priceless:

“Welcome to everyone watching on TV, hoping everyone’s having a good time, sinking a few beers, smoking a few joints…alright!”

They don’t make them like this anymore. The album is heavy on covers: ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and ‘Going to a Go-Go’, both blues classics, are all garish mannerisms from Mick as he runs from one side of the stage to the other in his spray on tights as Ron and Keith smile and nod at each other with their perennial cigarettes.

There’s occasional vocals from Keith where it sounds like “Return of the Living Dead the Musical”, before they launch into a pacey ska version of Emotional Rescue’s ‘Let Me Go’. It’s delivered at break-neck speed, before Keith unleashes the trippy tones of his MXR Phase 100, a signature sound for this era, for the marvellous ‘Time Is On My Side’. Keith’s guitar treatments are subtle and as always sublime and his plaintive riff ringing out across the crowd is even more bittersweet.

We have room for another cover, Some Girls‘ Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me), a show stopper as Mick, Keith, and Ronnie sing together at the mic – a fine middle-era Stones moment. Then the high octane ‘Start Me Up’ and a super-fast ‘Satisfaction’ are exhausting just listening to them as they close out the album all too soon.

It does finish rather abruptly. I was having a lot of fun but it was brought to a sudden close and the outro ‘Star Spangled Banner’ (the Jimi Hendrix recording) chimes in as the Stones depart stage left.

Despite the album seemingly truncated, super-ultra-brief and probably released as a cash grab as a tour promo, it’s an amazingly enjoyable short burst of Stones live frivolity bringing back some great summer memories.

While it doesn’t document the overall performance of the ’81 shows, it is representative of who the Rolling Stones were at the time: a great live rock ‘n roll band. The album cover, a painting by Japanese artist Kazuhide Yamazaki whose work inspired the tour’s extravagant stage design, is very much of its time [extract from thepressmusicreviews.wordpress.com].

Rolling Stones - JFK Stadium 1981

Bonus - Still Life Revamped EXS-1981-03 (1982)

The Rolling Stones "Still Life" live album highlights eclectic songs from their 1981 tour of America. Leftover tracks were put together as official radio concerts for the "King Biscuit Flower Hour" and "Super Groups In Concert"

"Still Life Revamped" intertwines all of the radio broadcasted songs in to the "Still Life" album or includes them as bonus tracks with official interviews (see stonesworldcollection.blogspot)

The interviews from disc 2 were apparently done in 1982 since they included the Still Life album and the Let's Spend the Night Together movie. Some of what was said by Keith and others places the interviews in 1982.

Apparently the interviews on disc 2 were made for a radio broadcast sent to radio stations on LPs (see images below) and then later used in "The Complete History of the Rolling Stones" radio specials.

The interviews on CD 1 came from "Supergroups in Concert" radio broadcasts of the 1981 tour (see above). Many of the same musical performances were included in the King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcasts but KBFH didn't include the interviews from disc 1.

This post consists of 2 RIPS, all in FLAC format. The first, the official release of Still Life was taken from my Vinyl which I purchased back in 1982. As usual I am including full album artwork for both LP and CD releases, along with label scans.  Although I enjoy this live set, it was far too short in my opinion and my preference has always been to play their double album Love You Live when I'm in the mood to hear some live Stones.

Because this live album has no real track separation and most tracks simply run into one another, I am providing an alternative rip for your pleasure that has no track breaks (ie. Side 1 & 2 only).

The second rip is an extended bootleg release of Still Life which was sourced from the Stones forum "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" thanks to 'Exilestones'. This double CD set includes additional tracks and interviews sourced from various radio shows, also ripped from vinyl. Full CD artwork (including booklet) and vinyl label scans are also included.

Still Life Track Listing

01 - Intro (Take the A Train)

02 - Under My Thumb

03 - Let’s Spend the Night Together

04 - Shattered

05 - Twenty Flight Rock

06 - Going to a Go-Go

07 - Let Me Go

08 - Time is On My Side

09 - Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

10 - Start Me Up

11 - Satisfaction

12 - Outro (Star Spangled Banner)

Still Life Link (242Mb) 

New Link 19/11/2024

Still Life - No Track Separation (242Mb)

New Link 19/11/2024

Still Life Revamped Track Listing

101 - Take The A Train (Intro)

102 - Under My Thumb

103 - Let's Spendf The Night Together

104 - Shattered

105 - Twenty Flight Rock

106 - Going To A Go Go

107 - Let me In

108 - Time Is On My Side

109 - Beast Of Burden

110 - Waiting For Friend

111 - Let It Bleed

112 - Just My Imagination

113 - Miss You

114 - Start Me Up

115 - Satisfaction

116 - Star Spangled Banner (Outro)

117 - Jumping Jack Flash

118 - Interviews Part 01

201 - Still Life Interview

202 - Under My Thumb

203 - Let's Spend The Night Together

204 - Shattered

205 - Black Limousine

206 - Twenty Flight Rock

207 - Going To A Go Go

208 - Time Is On My Side

209 - You Can't Always Get What You Want

210 - She's So Cold

211 - Hang Fire

212 - Brown Sugar

213 - Start Me Up

214 - Satisfaction

Still Life Revamped Link (1.19G)

New Link 19/11/2024

The Rolling Stones – August Children, Berlin-Weißensee Live (1991) [Bootleg]

(U.K 1962 - Present)
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The Rolling Stones had spent much of the '80s on the sidelines. Despite increasing friction between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the band kept putting out albums -- though to relatively lukewarm reactions. Touring, however, was another story. By 1989, the Rolling Stones hadn't played a live show in seven years.

Their longest concert drought (before or since) officially ended on Aug. 31, 1989, when the Stones launched the Steel Wheels North American Tour at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia -- though, technically, the drought ended a couple of weeks earlier at a warm-up show in New Haven, Conn.

This tour was named for their new album Steel Wheels, which was released to enthusiastic reviews two days earlier. Jagger and Richards had patched up things earlier in the year, then started to write and record a record that felt like "classic Stones." Meanwhile, Jagger (in his mid-forties at the time) was consistently pressed on whether this would his band's final tour -- a line of questioning that seems increasingly ridiculous decades later.

Besides, Jagger, Richards, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts had a ready answer in the form of a marathon, 28-song opening date. After kicking off the show with the one-two combo of "Start Me Up" and "Bitch," Jagger showed he could hold up better than the power equipment – which blew a generator during "Shattered," the third song of the evening. Within minutes, the power returned and the Rolling Stones regrouped, carrying on with the Steel Wheels cut "Sad, Sad, Sad." But they'd superstitiously drop "Shattered" from subsequent shows.

The set list represented just about every Stones era, from early blues covers (Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster" from back in 1964) to psychedelic experimentation ("2000 Light Years From Home") to country rock ("Dead Flowers") and even some '80s material ("Undercover of the Night"). Richards gave Jagger a break down the stretch by fronting the band for a couple of his own songs ("Happy" and "Before They Make Me Run") before Jagger returned to take it home with wall-to-wall hits ("Brown Sugar," "Satisfaction," etc.).

This being the Stones' first big tour since 1982, spectacle wasn't sacrificed. The band took the stage amid crackling fireworks and roaring flame towers -- both of which would become derigueur on future tours. They also introduced what might be the most garish stage decorations in rock history: a pair of giant inflatable barflies that flanked the stage during "Honky Tonk Women."

As the mammoth tour continued, the Rolling Stones seemed to only gain momentum. "We're keeping our fingers crossed, and I'll hit the wood here,
but, yeah, they're getting better every day," he told Rolling Stone. "The band's really winding up now." He also called 1989 a "dream year" for the Stones, and predicted that the North American tour would become a worldwide one in 1990 . In fact, it did, although it was rechristened the Urban Jungle Tour before hitting Europe.

As dates flew by, the Rolling Stones recorded a live album (Flashpoint), broadcast a live pay-per-view special, one that was later edited into a prime-time concert special for Fox, and filmed an IMAX movie (Rolling Stones: Live at the Max) that was the first feature film completed with only IMAX cameras.

In some ways, the Steel Wheels dates marked the start of a new way of touring. It was the Stones' first tour with backing vocalists Bernard Fowler and Lisa Fischer and the first American trek with keyboardist and musical director Chuck Leavell. And, of course, it makes the first in a line of record-breaking, arena-sized blowouts that would continue into the new millennium.

None of those subsequent tours, however, would include the band's founding bassist Bill Wyman as a full-time member. Wyman decided he'd had enough and quit the band after the 1989-90 concerts. In this way, the Steel Wheels tour was both the beginning and the end of a Stones era.
[extract from ultimateclassicrock.com]

.This post consists of FLACs ripped from the Vinyl Bootleg released in 1991 by MM Extra Records, and is from their concert in Radrennbahn Weißensee, Berlin, Germany, held on the 13th August, 1990.   This bootleg is one of a limited edition hand-numbered of 300 with handmade silkscreen printed cover and inner sleeve, with the 1st edition having a dark red cover. This full concert was later released on CD in 1997 by Vinyl Gang Records (see cover above). Full album artwork and label scans are included. This one's rare folks, so grab it while you can.

.Tracklist
01 Fingerprint File Man (PA)
02 Sad, Sad, Sad
03 Harlem Shuffle
04 Tumbling Dice
05 Miss You
06 Almost Hear You Sigh...
07 Ruby Tuesday
08 Midnight (Rambler) Guru-Mick!
09 You Can't Always Get What You Want...
10 Cant't Be Seen
11 Happy
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The Stones were:
Mick Jagger - Vocals 
Keith Richards - Vocals, Guitar
Ronnie Wood - Vocals, Guitar
Bill Wyman - Bass
Charlie Watts - Drums
Bernard Fowler and Lisa Fischer  - Backing Vocals
Chuck Leavell - Keyboards
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Rolling Stones Link (427Mb)  Link Fixed 01/01/2024

Various Artists - BBC Live in Concert 1967-69 (Bootleg)

(Various Artists 1967-1969)
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During the late 60's, the BBC started to devote some of their prime time T.V to cash in on the quickly growing pop culture that was taking place in England and the US at the time.  This resulted in some wonderful audio and video archives of popular music artists at that time, recorded during the many Pop TV Shows that started to appear on the BBC. This bootleg is a sample of some of these recordings plus several one off documentary/ films, and features some classic names like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Cream. The quality of the recordings is pretty damn good considering most were made 50 years ago.
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All Of My Loving (A Film Of Pop Music 1968)
U.K. TV documentary. Oct-1-68. Excellent quality. 16:9 widescreen. A very interesting documentary about how pop music has changed the world and how the world has changed pop music. Drugs, the Beatles, sex, fashion, the media, love, war and financial profit are all examined. Fantastic vintage footage assembled in a collage form creates a TV program as "mod" and "pop" as the music it describes.

Cool footage includes: the Beatles in the studio, 60s London, Liverpool, psychedelic imagery, Cream, Hendrix, the Who, Pink Floyd and more. Terrific footage of the Who performing in Peoria, Illinois and smashing their equipment to bits! Interviews of Paul McCartney (in his "Yellow Submarine-look" period) discussing the meaning of Beatle lyrics and Ringo Starr talking about studio tricks.
[extract from beatlevid.blogspot.com]

The featured BBC recording of Pink Floyd, performing "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" in 1968, was filmed on the balcony of The Tabernacle, a community hall close to All Saints Church Hall, in Notting Hill, London, is part of a program called "All My Loving".

Other artists included are The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and many others, across a 55 minute film by Tony Palmer. First broadcast in November 1968 in black and white, the following year saw a colour broadcast, and one destined to put strain on the red guns of television tubes!

Anyone who is familiar with the three minute performance, knows that, with the exception of the very beginning, the recording was electronically treated to bathe the band in vivid red. A very interesting and effective trick, it complements the short but sweet performance well. [extract from brain-damage.co.uk]

Pop Goes The Sixties
Pop Go The 60s! was a one-off, 75-minute TV special originally broadcast in colour on 31 December 1969, to celebrate the major pop hits of the 1960s. The show was a co-production between the United

Kingdom's BBC and West Germany's ZDF broadcasters. It was shown on both stations on the same day, with other European stations broadcasting the programme either the same day or later. Although a co-production, it was primarily produced by the BBC and recorded at the BBC's Television Centre in London, in late 1969, featuring largely only British pop acts and hits.

The show (which went out at 10:35pm) was presented by Jimmy Saville and Elfi Von Kalckreuth. The two presenters introduced each act  but neither was present in the studio recording with the artists, their links being added later. Saville spoke English, whereas Elfi Von Kalckreuth speaks in German throughout.
The Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter" was the only track included in the show that had not been a hit single but instead an extremely popular album track.

Fleetwood Mac on Monster Music Mash

Monster Music Mash
BBC1 Monster Music Mash (1969) was a dedicated music series. "Pop. Blues, Folk and Whoopee!" - was introduced in front of a young-adult audience by ex-Animal Alan Price, supported by comedy jazz from Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. Refreshingly, the weekly guests had the freedom to perform a few numbers and not just their latest hit. First up were Fleetwood Mac, playing "Oh Well", followed by, among others, Pentangle and the Moody Blues. There was also an early sighting of Slade playing their latest single "Martha My Dear". It was serious stuff to follow Wacky Races during children's hour but regrettably just one short series was produced. [extract from Rock & Pop On British TV by Jeff Evans]

Happening for Lulu Show
One common feature of all BBC shows was their strict rules on what artists could or could not do when performing live on BBC TV. Artists were told exactly what to play and for how long so improvisations were unheard of, well, that's until the Jimi Hendrix Experience were asked to perform on Lulu's popular evening show.
After a blistering performance of Voodoo Chile, on the Happening for Lulu show in January 1969, The Jimi Hendrix Experience stop midway through a half-hearted attempt at their first hit "Hey Joe". The trio break into Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love", in tribute to the recently disbanded group, until producers bring the song to a premature end.

According to the memoir of bassist Noel Redding, Lulu had been due to join Hendrix on stage to sing the final lines of Hey Joe, but the band wasn't too keen on the idea. The stunt (according to rock and roll legend) earned The Jimi Hendrix Experience a ban from performing on BBC television. Hendrix died the following year on 18th September 1970. [extract from www.bbc.co.uk]

Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television program, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, except for a short period on Fridays in mid-1973 before being again moved to Fridays in 1996, and then to Sundays on BBC Two in 2005.

Each weekly program consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. Additionally, there was a special edition of the program on Christmas Day (and usually, until 1984, a second such edition a few days after Christmas), featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year. With its high viewing figures the show became a significant part of British popular culture.

The Cilla Show
Cilla was a BBC TV program hosted by British singer Cilla Black. It ran for eight series from 30 January 1968 to 17 April 1976.  The first series of the show started broadcasting on Tuesday, 30 January 1968, on the first show of which Black's guest was Tom Jones and the two music stars sang a duet together.
The UK's Eurovision Song Contest entry selection process was part of the Cilla show in both 1968 and 1973, when Black's close friend Cliff Richard was the featured artist performing all the songs shortlisted in the A Song For Europe segment

Cilla Black

Omnibus

Omnibus was an arts-based British documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The program was the successor to the long-running arts-based series Monitor. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings.

Omnibus - Cream, Albert Hall on November 26,1961, Some 5,000 fans packed out each show, and Clapton expressed surprise when they received a warm and emotional ovation; "We hadn't played in England for over a year and had no idea we were so popular, I was amazed we played to such full houses. I didn't think anybody would remember us."
He was almost tempted to carry on with Cream when he realized the strength of feeling among their supporters. But the die was cast: He had to stand by his decision, Cream's farewell at the Royal Albert Hall was filmed for BBC TV by director Tony Palmer, who had first met Clapton and Cream on the recommendation of Jimmy Page. His documentary on the group was screened as part of the BBC Omnibus arts show on January 5,1969, The footage was later re-edited as a full-length film, An earlier Palmer documentary, 'All My Loving', had helped introduce the serious side of rock to a wider audience and paved the way for Cream to be so heavily featured on TV.  Palmer was music critic for the Observer Sunday newspaper and recalls that John Lennon had encouraged him to make All My Loving, "That film was essentially John Lennon's idea, I'd first met him while I was at University and met him again when I begin working at the BBC. He told me the problem with rock music on BBC TV was it was restricted to shows like Top of the Popa and Jukebox Jury.

"These were highly successful pop shows but only reflected what was in the Top Twenty and not the more serious side. John said it was terrible because he knew a lot of musicians who wouldn't appear on either of those programs because they didn't want to play three-minute pop songs behind gyrating nubile dancers. Much as we liked gyrating nubiles, this was understandable. Lennon said. It's your duty to get these people onto television. [taken from Clapton - Updated Edition: The Ultimate Illustrated History By Chris Welch]

The Moody Blues (Color Me Pop)

Color Me Pop
Colour Me Pop was a British music TV program broadcast on BBC2 from 1968–1969. It was a spin-off from the BBC 2 arts magazine show Late Night Line-Up. Designed to celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television, it was directed by Steve Turner, and showcased half-hour sets by pop and rock groups of the period. The program was a pioneering precursor to the better remembered BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–87). Unlike its successor, most of the editions of Colour Me Pop are lost.

Currently only the editions featuring The Small Faces, The Moody Blues, and The Move are held in the BBC archive, as well as the episode featuring The Chambers Brothers that was never broadcast. In addition, three songs from the Bonzo Dog Band edition survive. Most of the Small Faces edition was commercially released as part of the 'All Of Nothing 1965-1968 DVD' in 2009. The Moody Blues edition was released as part of their 'Timeless Flight' box set in 2013.

The Look Of The Week
Hans Keller was the resident music critic on 'The Look Of The Week', which was to all intents and purposes a spin-off from BBC2's proto-Parsons nightly critical chinwag Late Night Line-Up, aimed at bringing 'the arts' to an audience that might not normally have noticed them tucked away there. As such, Keller usually got to verbally joust with classical musicians, theatre impresarios and heavyweight jazzers, with The Look Of The Week's interactions with the pop scene - barely regarded even as a part of the 'arts' at that point - rarely venturing beyond the odd bit of opinionating from rent-a-viewpoint Russell Brand of his day Mick Jagger.
In an interview with a very early Pink Floyd, while holding a cigarette aloft, Keller presages their appearance on the show by saying:

“The Pink Floyd – you’re going to hear them in a minute and I do not want to prejudice you. Hear them and see them first and we’ll talk about them afterwards but four quick points I want to make before you hear them. The first is that what you heard at the beginning, that short bit, those few seconds, are really all I can hear in them, which is to say to my mind, there is continuous repetition and proportionally they are a bit boring. My second point is that they are terribly loud. You couldn’t quite hear because, of course, it isn’t as loud from your sets as it is here in the studio or as it was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday" -  "I will ask them about that when we come to talk" he adds as if asking them if they'd mind stepping outside for a moment - "my third point is that perhaps I am a little bit too much of a musician to appreciate them. And the reason why that – why I say that – is that four, they have an audience, and people who have an audience ought to be heard. Perhaps it is my fault that I don’t appreciate them”.

And with a tilt of his head in the direction of the other end of the studio, it's over to some blobby amorphous light patterns and a spaceman voice intoning obscure intergalactic facts, and Pink Floyd delivering an astonishing performance of celestial travelogue "Astonomy Domine", then still some months from making its first public appearance on their debut album; to early fans of the band, this must have been one of the all time magic moments of the sixties. It's also the best surviving indication of what the original line-up sounded like live, the most accurate record of their famed but ephemeral light show (and yes, Barrett is playing his mirror-disc Telecaster, adding to the visual cacophony), and above all that it's simply a thrilling performance of a terrific song. And that's not all.

Syd Barrett

As they finish, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters politely set down their guitars and walk slowly over to some of those taller-sitting-down-than-standing-up stools as favoured by the likes of Bernard Levin, for a bit of a natter with Hans Keller. He opens by confronting the band members asking them why it all has to be so 'terribly loud', pointing out that he 'grew up with the string quartet' and as a consequence finds this kind of volume unbearable.

Waters and Barrett - both visibly cracking up - can only meekly offer that they like it that way, that they didn't grow up with the string quartet, and that it doesn't sound terribly loud to them, with Keller obliterating the latter two arguments but accepting that they see it as important to their art; often mistaken for a bit of stuffy pomposity, this is actually the prelude to a much longer interview. [extract from timworthington.blogspot.com.au]

Joe Cocker on How It Is

How It is
How It Is was a youth-orientated music and discussion program transmitted on BBC1 TV in 1968, on which John Peel was a co-host. The original series ran from July to December 1968; a short-lived follow-up, entitled How Late It Is to reflect its changed time slot, ran for ten episodes in spring and early summer of 1969. Both series were produced by Tony Palmer, who was also responsible for the 1968 TV films All My Loving and Cream Farewell Concert, which were shown in BBC1's arts series Omnibus, the former in particular provoking a controversy by linking the aggression of rock music to the violent political upheavals of the 1960s. Joe Cocker and his Greaseband performed on the How It Is in 1968, debuting his smash hit "With A Little Help From My Friends"

The Who

Twice A Fortnight
In 1967 a revolutionary comedy sketch show called Twice a Fortnight was broadcast on the BBC. It had sketches written and performed by (amongst other), pre-Monty Python Terry Jones and Michael Palin.  But it also featured performances from whoever was plugging their singles at the time. For example The Who, recorded for the pilot show 15th October 1967, a rather dizzy version of "I Can See For Miles".
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) mostly ripped from YouTube Clips. Basic custom artwork only.
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Track listing
01. Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - "All My Loving" (1968)
02. Donovan - The Lullaby Of Spring - "All My Loving" (1968)
03. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - "Pop Go The Sixties" (1969)
04. Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well - "Monster Music Mash" (1969)
05. Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe/Sunshine Of Your Love - "Happening For Lulu" (1969)
06. Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love - "Omnibus" (1968)
07. Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi - "BBC In Concert" (Jan 1970)
08. Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile - "Happening For Lulu" (1969)
09. The Equals - Baby Come Back - "Top Of The Pops" Show (1968)
10. The Hollies - I'm Sorry Suzanne - "Top Of The Pops" Show (1969)
11. Sandie Shaw - Long Live Love - "Top Of The Pops" Show (1965)
12. Lulu - Loves Loves To Love Love - "Top Of The Pops" Show (1967)
13. Tom Jones - Delilah - "Top Of The Pops" Show (1968)
14. Cliff Richard - Congratulations - "Cilla" Show (1968)
15. The Who - I Can See For Miles - "Twice A Fortnight" (1967)
16. Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine - "The Look Of The Week" (1967)
17. Joe Cocker & The Grease Band - With A Little Help From My Friends - "How It Is" (1968)
18. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Canyons Of Your Mind - "Color Me Pop" (1968)
19. The Mothers Of Invention - Oh, In The Sky - "Color Me Pop" (1968)
20. The Small Faces - Song Of A Baker - "Color Me Pop" (1968)
21. The Kinks - Days - "Pop Goes The Sixties" (1969)
22. The Moody Blues - Ride My See-Saw - "Color Me Pop" (1968)
23. Jimi Hendrix - Wild Thing - "All My Loving" (1968)
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BBC Recordings 1967-69 Link (209Mb)  New Link 02/09/2023

The Beatles & The Rolling Stones - At The Rarest (1973) Bootleg

(U.K 1960 - 1970, 1962 - Present)
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This LP is a Bootleg on the Italian Joker label (1973) with 7 tracks by 'The Beatles' and 6 tracks by 'The Rolling Stones'. The recordings are primarily derived from BBC appearances by both bands with a few live songs by the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl show in 1964.
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The Beatles / Stones Connection
By early September 1963, when Lennon & McCartney wrote - or more precisely finished - 'I Wanna Be Your Man' for the Stones, The Beatles were a huge source of national pride. Though they were yet to make that sensational and unprecedented inroad for a post-Elvis pop act into America, the fact that they had created an indigenous form of rock (a genuinely novel-seeming amalgam of rock 'n' roll, R&B, Brill Building pop and Everly Brothers/girl group harmonies) was already remarkable in itself. What was even more startling is that all of their three singles ('From Me To You' made its chart debut that very month) and half of their album (there was another due in November) were composed by band members. This wasn't actually that unusual for rock acts - Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry had written their own gear - but it was certainly novel for a band from the UK, a nation whose inferiority complex about their relationship to big, rich, glamorous America was deeply ingrained. The idea of a Briton presuming to write a song in an American form of music was thought to be slightly ridiculous. Hence, British artists had thus far sung the product of Americans or of freelance songsmiths. John Lennon and Paul McCartney, however, had recently proved that home-grown product could have as much artistic and - of sole interest to the music industry - commercial impact as the previous option of asking a Tin Pan Alley hack for material, or picking a hit from the American charts and hoping it made it to the shops before someone else got the same idea.
Oldham (The Stones Manager) bumped into Lennon and McCartney when the pair were on their way back from a Variety Club lunch at the Savoy hotel. When he told them that the Stones were having trouble finding material for their second single (Leiber & Stoller's 'Poison Ivy' b/w 'Fortune Teller' were mooted as their second release, good songs but lightweight pop), the pair mentioned they had something that might be suitable for their gritty style. "They were real hustlers then," Jagger later observed. Indeed, some insiders recall McCartney having his eye on the idea of become a Tin Pan Alley freelance songsmith himself when - as seemed inevitable to everybody at the time - his own and his colleagues' stardom began to wane.
When the party got to Studio 51 club in Soho, where the Stones were rehearsing. The Beatles pair explained that the song had a first verse and a chorus. They went into another room to finish it off. To the Stones' amazement, they returned about a quarter of an hour later, job done.
The Stones were hardly of the opinion that the song was a masterpiece (nor The Beatles - it was given to Ringo to sing on their second album) but that a middle eight and second verse could be completed so quickly was a revelation to them. It would be wrong to extrapolate from the light bulbs clicking on over their shaggy heads that they thought they could do it too, but it was certainly one of the things that would shortly lead to the band beginning to make their own transition to self-contained recording artists. Though Brian Jones' girlfriend of the time subsequently recalled the guitarist staying up, pre-fame, to the small hours to try to write songs, it was "Jagger/Richard(s)" that would be the credit to be found in parentheses beneath the song titles on the labels of Rolling Stones records when the composition did not originate elsewhere. Eventually that credit would be the sole one to be discerned, as the group became increasingly self-reliant.' Because of both the quality and the Zeitgeist-capturing nature of the joint compositions of Jagger & Richards, it was a short step from there to becoming legends. [extract from 'The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones', by Dean Egan. Published by Rough Guides, 2006. p25]
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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl Italian bootleg, which I recently picked up at my local flee market (found in amongst a pile of Italian albums) and purchased for a 'song'. My copy has a white album cover, but further research on the web has  revealed an alternative cover which is somewhat more appealing to the eye (see above right, and directly left). Full album artwork is included for both releases along with label scans (JOKER).
The recordings are pretty average and I have added some bass enhancement to the files to improve the listening experience.

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Track Listing

Side A - The Beatles
01 - Boys (live)
02 - Do You Want To Know A Secret
03 - All My Loving (Live)
04 - Please Please Me
05 - Misery
06 - Twist And Shout_You Can't Do That (Live)
Side B - The Rolling Stones
07 - Carol
08 - I Just Wanna Make Love To You
09 - Cry To Me
10 - Walking The Dog
11 - You Can Make It If You Try
12 - Route 66
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The Beatles and The Rolling Stones  (FLAC) New Link 31/07/2016
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W.O.C.K On Vinyl - The Rolling Stones Medley: Rolling Hits (1981)

Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.
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SOME STONES MYTHS
A band that has had as long and as colourful a career as the Stones will have accrued their fair share of stories, myths and legends. Here are just some of the erroneous (or are they?) stories surrounding the band.
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1.  OTIS REDDING WROTE SATISFACTION
Strip away the fuzztone guitar riff of 'Satisfaction' and take the edge off its snarled lyric and you have a stomping soul number the type of which proliferated on the Stax label in the mid-1960s. Perhaps it was this then that caused the Toronto Telegram to declare in February 1968, a couple of months after Stax artist Otis Redding's death in a plane crash, "It's High Time The Stones Acknowledged This Debt". The headline appeared over a story that alleged that the band had remained "stubbornly and disgustingly silent" about the 'fact' that they had bought the song off Redding for $10,000 when they had visited Memphis and heard him cut the track. The only shred of truth in the story

was that Redding had recorded 'Satisfaction' - although as Steve Cropper (Redding's guitarist, who played on the track) pointed out, not until the Stones version had hit the store. "The story that Otis originally wrote 'Satisfaction' is completely false," Cropper said. The progress of the crusading journalist who wrote the story towards the Canadian equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize is not known.
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2.  THE KEITH RICHARDS BLOOD TRANSFUSION RUMOUR
Whereas Tony Sanchez did much to scotch the Mars Bar rumour, he was chiefly responsible for the legend that, in 1973, Richards
- anxious to be 'clean' for an upcoming tour but unable to take the time to wean himself off smack - undertook a little-known rich addict's cure involving the wholesale replacement of his blood with that provided by a donor or donors. It's been repeated over and over in newspapers since whenever the Stones are touring and some juicy copy is required. Harry Shapiro of the charity Drugscope says, "It's rubbish. Drugs like heroin and coke wash out of the system in 24-48 hours. Detoxifying is not that much of a problem so long as you can deal with the withdrawals - it's staying off that is the issue - and that needs therapy, not a blood transfusion." Richards himself has also denied it. And yet... there is something convincing about the way Sanchez relates the story in his book, explaining that Marshall Chess - who had apparently taken the 'cure' before - told Richards of it, going into detail about the doctor who arranged it, the Swiss clinic at which it supposedly took place, the cost, the events surrounding it (including Richards' offer to pay for a cure for Sanchez, which he declined, fearing needles) and the way the cure gave Richards a cavalier attitude about getting hooked again, his reasoning being that it didn't matter because he now had a quick way of cleaning up any time he liked.
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3.  MICK'S CROTCH
How deliciously daring it was in 1971 to buy an album whose cover consisted of a life-size (these were 12-inch sleeve days) bejeaned male loin region with a real zip that pulled down (or, in fact, went up - to prevent damage, the zip had to be down when shipped to the stores so that its weight when stacked would be on the record label, not the vinyl). The descended zipper revealed a man's occupied pair of underpants. Naturally, everybody assumed it was Mick Jagger - at that point the biggest male sex symbol in rock - that was bulging in their faces. In fact, it is believed to be one of Andy Warhol's cinematic 'Superstars' named Joe Dallesandro (immortalized as Little Joe in Lou Reed's 'Walk On The Wild Side'). The model for the inner picture - who was noticeably less well endowed - is believed to be another Warhol acquaintance named Jed Johnson.
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4. THE MARS BAR INCIDENT
The 1967 drugs trial of Jagger and Richards gave the popular press a field day of scandal (supposed role models taking drugs) and sex (surrounded by men, a mystery woman was wearing only a rug). However, the most salacious gossip emanating from the trial did not see print, but instead was a true underground rumour, passed by word of mouth until virtually everyone in Britain had heard of it. This was that, when the police burst in that fateful night, they had found Jagger eating a Mars bar from the vagina of Marianne Faithfull (who was the woman in the rug but referred to only as 'Miss X' in press reports). Faithfull herself has denied it. Though Faithfull sometimes seems confused about details (in her autobiography she says Let It Bleed is her favourite Stones album and then proceeds to cite tracks from that and Beggar's Banquet and Sticky Fingers) she is hardly one to be anything less than candid about events. Even Tony Sanchez - whose book is a mine of dirt about the group - says it didn't happen. He wrote that, at the Jagger and Richards trial, "in a bar during a lunch break, two senior police officers gulped down bottles of beer with crime reporters and sniggeringly told "lewd and grossly exaggerated stories about Marianne's behaviour at the time of the raid... and a totally false and malicious rumour was begun which Marianne has never quite managed to live down." [sourced from 'The Rough Guide To The Rolling Stones', by Sean Egan. 2006  p294-296]
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This month's WOCK on Vinyl post features a rather Obscure 12" Single Medley of  Rolling Stones Hits (or

rather a Stars on 45 rendition) that was released in 1981, during a time when Stars on 45 party mixes were being released for the more popular bands of the time (ie. Abba, Beach Boys, Bee Gees). This 6 minute Stone Fest features some of the most popular Rolling Stones hits like "Satisfaction", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Honky Tonk Woman" and 8 others, all cleverly blending into one another.
The B-Side is a huge disappointment however, with a pointless track by Haim Saban called "Gonna Catch You" and should have been another Medley (Part B) featuring some of their other big hits like "Gimme Shelter","Little Red Rooster" and "Sympathy For The Devil" which were not included on Side A.
Anyhow, I hope this Rolling Stones medley really Wocks your socks off and ya like it !
Also included with the MP3 (320kps) music files are some alternative covers from releases in Germany and the UK, along with my own record scans and covers.
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Medley Track Listing:

Satisfaction
Get Off My Cloud
As Tears Go By
Let's Spend The Night Together
Honky Tonk Woman
Paint It Black
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Brown Sugar
Bitch
Miss You
It's Only Rock N' Roll
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Rolling Stones Hits (25Mb)  New Link 29/06/2022
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