Anyone else let down by the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out?

I camped out 2 days at the Long Beach Arena to see that '72 show (and still ended up in the 6th row..d*#med "VIP promo" tix!), but still close enough to see the reds of Jaggers eyes. There is some website I once stumbled across that attempts to date all possible 72 concert photos based on reliable photos and newspaper articles. Jagger and the boys had enough costume and accessory variations during the tour to make it a remarkably reliable guide. LIFE mag's cover story includes a shot of Jagger in a dressing room...ID'd as that same Long Beach show.

 

They Were Playing "Bitch" . . . .

The Long Beach show was a good one, and I recall that Robert Hilburn's headline in the L.A. Times the next day was "Stones Hit a Peak in Long Beach." As usual with RH, he should have waited a day because they were ultraphenomenal on June 11 at the Forum, 2nd show.

Re Long Beach, do you remember during "Happy" or "Tumbling Dice" (I think it was the former) that Keith's guitar strap came loose and he had to cradle the guitar (a Tele) and keep playing, without benefit of the strap? Also interesting was that in 1972, but not later, he played "Happy" with a slide.

Re the photo from Long Beach, I believe they were playing "Bitch" (second song of the show) when I took it.

-- It was early in the concert, as Jagger had his coat on.

-- It was not the first song, "Brown Sugar," as Keith used a Strat for that. In the photo, both he and Taylor are playing Les Pauls.

-- Both Price and Keys are playing, which they did in "Bitch." Only Keys played in "Brown Sugar."

-- The show's third song was "Rocks Off." Both horns would have been playing but for that tune Keith switched to a Tele. Jagger may have taken his coat off by then, too.

-- The fourth song was "Gimme Shelter" and Jagger certainly would have taken his coat off by then.

-- Most of my concert photos from those days were taken during the shows' earliest phases.

So, by a preponderance of the evidence and relying on my faulty but generally still intact memory, I conclude that they were playing "Bitch" when the Long Beach photo was taken.

 

Pssst, I've already mentioned it on other threads, but Sam Cutler's just released his memoir "YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT - My life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, and other wonderful reprobates". Anyone with ANY interest in the 1969 tour should read this fascinating very intelligently written behind-the-scenes book. There are many intimate portraits and previously unpublished stories including the un-hired/un-paid security team made up of off-duty policemen that attached itself to the tour, and Sam's nervewracking attempts to stay behind after Altamont and set things straight with the Hell's Angels. He then moves into tour managing with the Grateful Dead, his observations/comparisons of the two bands are quite amusing.

(PS. RobertK; to answer your 2 month old question, Long Beach '72 is a bit of a BLUR; we were REAL close, but standing on our 2 seats with at least two/three/four nubile young girls doing the bump and grind,..I remember an itch caused by several "cigarettes" disintegrating in my underpants, etc etc etc. Where's a time machine when you need one?)

 

We went to the late Oakland show in 1969. It started insanely late due to the amp break down in the first show. It was all tie dye Dead Twin Reverbs for the set we saw. Not only did it start late, they waited an hour after Ike and Tina before they came out. I remember asking my g/f if she thought she should call and let her mum know she'd be late. She was so afraid, she didn't. I don't think it went well when she got home at 6am. Reflected badly on me.

Of course we went to Altamont. My brother and his pals went to see Humble Pie and the Dead the night before at Fillmore West. They drove back down to San Jose, picked us up, and we drove on to that madness. Right from the minute we got there, it was clear things weren't going to be peace and love. When we finally got to the race track, there were people leaving, saying "this is too weird". It just got worse. I can hardly watch Gimmie Shelter, I get creeped out. That is just the big nastyness. All around there was stuff happening that was not good. I didn't believe we'd ever find the car and make it home. I couldn't go to big gigs for years afterwards, and I passed on ever seeing the stones again.

Somewhere in my collection is a reel of tape that Bill Graham played one night on KSAN. It was from HIS tape of the Oakland show. It's not complete, but it does have Prodigal Son. I haven't listened to LiveR in years. I must dust it off and give a spin.

My pal Deniz Tek hitchhiked around Australia, following the 1973 tour. He has some good stories He also hired a super 8 camera and filmed a few minutes of the Sydney show. I guess he got there in the morning, and ran into Ian Stewart. He told him he was going to film, and Stew just said, stand over there for the best view!! The 8 minutes are bits of the first three or four songs. I had it transfered and tried to edit the music to match. It didn't really work, but it still is exciting to watch.

 

For some this is a holy grail for Stones fans ..what other RS album is there with Charlie on the cover.

 

Plenty. But those covers also have the rest of the band on them.


As for covers with just Charlie, I think that Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! is the only one.

 

Whatever its shortcomings and processings the original tapes were subjected to, I think it's a great album, one of the Stones' best, and certainly right up there in the pantheon of "live" albums. I will add the caveat that I first heard it almost 20 years before I finally saw Gimme Shelter in full, so it couldn't really pale in comparison.

 

I've heard the Graham Oakland soundboard broadcast tape..."Live'r"'s much better sounding. Cutler's book notes Keith trying desperately to get a dirty sound out of Garcia's powerful clean amp, and also folks "falling down" around it as Owsley passed around a pipe of DMT.

BTW; Does your friend "Deniz Tek" (can't be TOO many of them) happen to be Radio Birdman? I saw them from the moshpit last year and had a ripper of an evening!!

 

Don"t forget "Between The Buttons" back cover ...Charlie is evident.

 

How can anyone forget those cartoons?

 

I think Keith only played slide on "Happy" during the early (West Coast only?) dates on the '72 tour - he's playing straight open G rhythm by the time the tour got to Dallas/Ft. Worth (as seen in Ladies & Gentlemen). I could have sworn I saw a photo of him in either Seattle, Vancouver, or SF playing a sunburst early '60s Tele with the slide during "Happy", as well. It might be out there somewhere...

Robert - did Keith really play the Tele on "Rocks Off"? I've always been curious as to whether or not it was in standard tuning, on the Tele or the Les, etc. - thanks for the insight!

 

I guess that depends on your definition of "much better sounding."

I listened to the Graham sbd a couple weeks ago, forgot I even had it in my collection, and was surprised it was as good as it was. It has a crazy amount of hiss, but it isn't the dull, hollow-sounding audience recording that is LiveR. Mind you, I love LiveR, mostly because it captures a magical moment in rock history that would have been nothing but memories for attendees, without a bootlegger's interest to change that reality.

But I've always been amused that history has written that it is a fantastic sounding boot. It's very good, esp. for the time...but it ain't a world-beater sonically.

 

Sounds like you had a good time.

The Graham tape is purportedly contained on "Hangout" and includes Shelter, Sympathy, Stray Cat, Love in Vain, Live with Me, Prodigal, You Gotta Move, Queenie, Satisfaction.

I have distinct memories of Keith playing slide on "Happy" during all five of the 72 shows I saw (June 9, 10, 11[two shows], and 13). I can't be sure but I think he played the Tele on "Rocks Off." It's got the sound and compact-sounding chords I associate with the five-string, G-tuned Tele. Of course the film doesn't help because it substitutes "Dead Flowers" for "Rocks Off."

LiveR and the Graham recording, while not perfect, are much more than "just good enough." Still among my favorites.

 

That would be the same one. No surprise he's a huge Stones fan. He's now got a modern Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar to complete the collection.

The Graham tape is patchy, but a nice compliment to LiveR.

 

Nice shot of Keith with the Dan Armstrong.

 

Hi Robert & Everybody,
I have a poster of this shot of Keith. It used to be available at one of the bigger online poster stores a few years ago.
I just wanted to comment that I looked at some of the posts in this fascinating thread once again and a question was answered to me of very small sorts. When the amp/electrical breakdown occurred at the Oakland Coliseum Arena at the first show, I did not know that amps were loaned to the band from The Grateful Dead. In this regard, the Stones had a relationship to The Grateful Dead prior to Altamont and I can only assume that it was at least a good one.
The one question I've always had, and I suppose I should create a thread for (or perhaps somebody else can), is what do the The Grateful Dead feel about The Rolling Stones and what do the Stones feel about the Dead after all of these years after Altamont? Is there any anger towards each other as a result of what happened? Has anybody ever read or heard members of either band comment on the other after the fact over the years? It is as if there is total silence on the part of either of them when it comes to their respective roles in Altamont. As a result, I've also wondered if either of them has any disdain or praise for their musicanship? Has anybody ever heard of Keith doing any public or private jamming with Jerry Garcia at any point in their careers while Jerry was alive?

 

I hate to be in the minority...

I used to love this record when I was a kid. Listening to it now is a great disappointment. Bill at times is so off it is embarrassing, there are major guitar tuning issues...Charlie and Jagger are the highlights of this record for me now. What did I LOVE about this record??

THREE MONTHS LATER The Who would record LIVE AT LEEDS - an edited BUT not overdubbed record - and would take the place of the greatest live rock album ever released.

I will try to listen to this again with open ears...it's hard to go back home sometimes

 

I love this record...so many other later Stones' (and many other rock bands) want to play so FAST, but it's ok for rock and roll to go slow and groove...

 

I was listening to a compilation that had alternate versions from the 1969 tour, in excellent stereo, and was just blown away. I have to say again - in several songs, Mick Taylor's beautiful, melodic, and fluid playing is silenced, to the detriment of the album. Probably taken from the Gimmie Shelter dvd, the sound is so CLEAR and CRISP, it puts ANY version of the official Ya-Ya's to SHAME.

They can go a long way to restoring Ya-Ya's to a more accurate and enjoyable document of the 1969 tour this fall... but they probably won't.

 

Felt the need to ask this again...

What were Mick & Keef (more likely Keef IMHO) thinking when they essentially neutered Mick Taylor's bits on "Jumpin' Jack Flash", much to the determent of the song! I mean, you essentially ONLY hear Keef thru the entire song, and it sounds pretty effin' lame once you've heard what TAYLOR was doing for the song!

As much as I enjoy 3 of the 4 bonus tracks (You gotta move has been, and always will be a waste of space for me), until they restore Taylor's runs to ALL the songs, Ya-Ya's place of honor as a top notch live album will simply be false praise.

Also - anyone with a clue as to why they edited that verse out of "Sympathy for the Devil?" Did they do the verses out of order, and they simply removed it instead of doing fiddle and putting it in it's proper place?

 

They edited Taylor's guitar out of this Deluxe Edition? WTF! Are they going to do the same with the DE Exile On Main Street? Jagger and Richards have lost a lot of my respect, really. I have been a Stones fan for a long time, but I never thought they would do this.

 

The new release is ok, but prefer Stones on vinyl...

 

No - Taylor's solos during JJF have NEVER been on the official release. Watch the GIMMIE SHELTER dvd and you'll hear what's been mixed out of GYYYO.

The 4 bonus tracks have Taylor's bits intact - the disc of the original album is the same as it ever was - lacking in Taylor's bits in several places.

 

I used to feel the same.

I bought the SACD cheap a few years ago, but actually took it back to the store because I didn't think much of it.

However, having given the album more of a chance, I love it. I now have the 40th anniversary box.

 

oops I posted twice - sorry!