Chicago
Monday, June 19 & Tuesday, June 20 (2 shows)
With contributions from four local
dailies, an equal number of alternative weeklies, three national magazines, and
one out-of-state newspaper, Chicago clearly ranks as a numerical leader in the
STP clippings derby. Unfortunately, the
assembled coverage deals exclusively with the Monday show, which is already
documented well by an almost-complete (13-song) audience recording. Yes, the reviews here do fill in the two
blueprint numbers missing from that recent tape (Bye-Bye Johnny and Rip
This Joint), confirm the lack of an encore, and establish Jagger’s
ripped-apart jumpsuit as a visual marker for June 19 photographs. But as welcome as these new facts are, they
miss the biggest, most elusive Chicago quarry of all: song tallies from the
still-unbooted and grossly under-reported Tuesday matinee. Indeed, no published reviews of either
June 20 show have yet emerged, although the Chicago finale that evening is
handled, set-wise, by a new and presumably complete audience recording that
captures the fifteen baseline tunes.
Although the reviews of the Chicago opener
cite all fifteen tunes in the standard concert template, they also bring our
first tantalizing reference to a wholly unexpected, perhaps even incredible,
song. Until now, this research exercise
has not uncovered any lone, uncorroborated/unrefuted mentions of non-core
songs, but the Chicago press offers two Monday outliers than cannot be ruled
out by the partial tape now in circulation: Honky Tonk Women (courtesy
of Chicago Tribune) and Soul Survivor (see Penthouse). Conceivably, the Stones could have trotted
out one of these as a Windy City bonus track in the unrecorded gap between Midnight
Rambler and Jumping Jack Flash, which would help account for an
independent reviewer’s tally of sixteen songs in the set. And of the two unconfirmed tunes, Honky
Tonk Women is certainly the more plausible, since we know it was performed
at a number of previous STP gigs. The
extraordinary Soul Survivor reference appears to be a misnomer, but
wouldn’t the song be utterly spine-tingling to hear live for the first time,
thanks to a dream Chicago 1972 soundboard?
To my mind, the book on Chicago’s first
and second playlists remains open pending additional press or audio evidence.
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June 19 |
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Chicago Tribune |
Chicago Daily News |
Chicago Sun-Times |
Chicago Today |
Seed |
Take Over |
Penthouse |
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Brown Sugar |
Brown Sugar |
Brown Sugar |
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Brown Sugar |
Brown Sugar |
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Bitch |
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Bitch |
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Rocks Off |
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Gimme Shelter |
Gimme Shelter |
Gimme Shelter |
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Happy |
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Happy |
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Tumbling Dice |
Tumbling Dice |
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Tumbling Dice |
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Love in Vain |
Love In Vain |
Love In Vain |
Love In Vain |
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Love In Vain |
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Sweet Virginia |
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Sweet Virginia |
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Sweet Virginia |
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YCAGWYW |
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YCAGWYW |
YCAGWYW |
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All Down The Line |
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All Down The Line |
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Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
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Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
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Bye Bye Johnny |
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Rip This Joint |
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Rip This Joint |
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JJF |
JJF |
JJF |
JJF |
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JJF |
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SFM |
SFM |
SFM |
SFM |
SFM |
SFM |
SFM |
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Jagger: “in shining white, the top of his outfit
cut low, a belt of gilt and red sash at his waist” “no encore” [Honky Tonk Women = ?????] Opening: Stevie Wonder |
Jagger: “a Levi jacket over his white jumpsuit” “about 15 songs” no encore |
Jagger: “a denim jacket over white jumpsuit with
glitter on his bare chest and hair, a gold belt and long, red sash trailing
from his waist” Opening: Stevie Wonder |
Jagger: “white satin jump suit, red sash, hair
doused in sparkle, eyes a-glitter” “16 songs” Opening: Stevie Wonder |
“no encore” Opening: Stevie Wonder |
Opening: Stevie Wonder |
[Soul Survivor = ?????] Opening: Stevie Wonder |
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Chicago Sun-Times:
“It was pure, unadulterated, hot, sweaty, throbbing, grimy, rude, crude rock
and roll. It was the Rolling Stones.” Variety:
“In Chicago as elsewhere, the Stones’ three shows June 19-20 were sold out within
a couple of hours. Tally for the two evening and one matinee performances at
the 11,000-seat International Amphitheatre was $198,000 with a $6.50 top. As
with probably every other setting, the sound, inspite of the most elaborate
speaker system seen to date at the huge arena, was ear-splitting and muddy.” Seed: [The ushers]
passed out concert programs that weren’t really concert programs – just one
widely published photo of the Stones and the rest of the pages taken up by
ads, i.e. the FM radio station with the GIRLS, the hippie chic chainstores
with the groovy threads ad nauseum.” STP: “Jagger follows
Watts out onto the amphitheater stage adrift in a boiling steampit of
clenched fists and gritted teeth, four thousand kids leading up on their
chairs from the first drumbeat, prisoners no more, released by the whipping
cross-rhythms of Brown Sugar and Bitch. Chicago Daily News:
“The arena itself was too hot, sticky and smoke-filled, and the sound
(although plenty loud) was far too echo-muddy...There were other small
incidents of discomfort. Like the man in the wheelchair, caught in the
stage-front crush, who had to be lifted onstage so that he would not be
trampled.” Penthouse:
“Kids had pushed their way down the aisles and the ones up front were panicking,
thinking they might be crushed, and we boosted the frightened ones onto the
stage where they wobbled for a moment, lifted briefly from agony to ecstasy.
Then they were carried off in relays by Leroy and Stan, who understood in the
way only black men over 35 can understand white children. We lifted pop-eyed
cripples in wheelchairs onto the stage and they were so relieved I thought
they’d forget themselves and just get up and walk away.” Chicago Sun-Times:
“And onstage there was Mick Jagger, skinny as a rail, shedding buckets of
sweat and yet undiminished in obscene energy. He did his bumps and grinds,
his ugly distending of thick lips in a variety of grotesquely erotic
grimaces, his galloping left foot, his sadistic Midnight Rambler belt
flagellation, his fluttering hands, everything in his bag of tricks.” Take Over:
“Immediately you focus on Jagger. Tight whites. Open shirt. Sequins in his
hair. We were real close and could see the the sparkles in his eye
make-up...It took him about five bars of Brown Sugar to tear his
shirt.” Chicago Tribune:
“By about the third song in the hour and 15-minute set Jagger’s jacket was
torn and frayed, the armhole seams given way under his piston arm movements,
reaching out, fingers wagging or undulating, feinting a touch with the
throngs that pushed forward, hands outstretched. By Jumping Jack Flash,
the shirt hung on him virtually in tatters, an almost severed sleeve looking
bizarrely like a formal glove on his waving arm.” Washington Post:
“Jagger disposed of his blue denim jacket, ripped out the armpits of his
sweaty white jumpsuit, and like a puny-chested stripper, twirled his red
waist sash while lights bouncing off suspended mirrors enveloped him.” Reader:
“There is a lot of hype in the Stones, but Jagger had offered 90 minutes of
top theater and two gallons of sweat and one velveteen shirt torn apart
early.” Chicago Today:
“[Jagger] sang, bumped, grinded, strutted, split seams, played harmonica,
swigged from a Pabst bottle, dashed water on the audience and himself – ever
on the move in a glaze of perspiration from 9:35 p.m., when the lights
suddenly blacked, until 10:50 when the Stones wrapped up this marathon gig
with a shower of rose petals, bows and blown kisses.” Chicago Express:
“Without the benefit of movie close ups, arty shots and super sound, the
Stones, from the 74th row in the Amphitheater don’t quite make it.
The sound was a fuzzy drone, so bad that it was often hard to make out what
song they were playing...I borrowed some binoculars and for a moment the
whole scene changed. The small and strutting figure turned into Mick Jagger,
wet with sweat, his white open-chested shirt ripped and falling off his
shoulder, his face pursed, then petulant, then lusty. His eyes flashed and he
twirled his red sash, his hips quivered and his pelvis jagged. He was
beautiful.” |
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June 20, 1st show |
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no
reviews found yet |
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STP: “Playing in
t-shirts in the smoky afternoon, the Stones do a laidback but satisfying
show, with Jagger working himself into the by-now traditional race-horse
lather at the finish. After a night in the mansion, it’s remarkable they
don’t have to wheel him on stage...So despite all the activity in Hef’s
pleasure palace, Mick is still able to run and jump all over the place,
during the second of the shows the Stones will do in Chicago. He winds up the
set with one leg stuck straight out behind him, like Nureyev, with the silver
bowl that holds the flowers balanced on his head like a polished steel
helmet.” |
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June 20, 2nd show |
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no
reviews found yet |
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New York Times Magazine:
“Mick didn’t make it down for breakfast [June 21] until around 6 P.M. After
two concerts and a night of considerable partying the night before, he and
everyone else were pretty wrecked. He asked if there were any more reviews in
the papers. Told no, he did a mock version of what they might have said:
‘They looked like a bunch of old whores out there, them and their tacky
clothes.’” |
Selected
Press Clippings
Chicago Daily
News1 * 2 * 3
* 4
Chicago
Express1 * 1b * 1c * 2
* 3 * 3a
Chicago
Today3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8
Chicago
Tribune1 * 2 * 3
New York Times
Magazine1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6
Take Over2a
* 3
