June 11, 1972- Inglewood Forum. Stevie Wonder, Rolling Stones.
Going to see the Stones for the first time was like finally hitting the big time. In fact, a friend in Phoenix asked me later, “Well, how was it, seeing the big time?” Since the demise of the Beatles in 1970, the Stones had no clear challenger for the title of “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” except for maybe the Who. The Stones truly were the biggest band on the planet.
Robert Hilburn announced the new tour plans in a Los Angeles Times news article several months beforehand. He reported that there would be three area shows- at the Hollywood Palladium, the Forum and the Long Beach Arena- and that the band would include Bobby Keys on saxophone, Jim Price on trumpet and Nicky Hopkins on piano, “each of whom was on the group’s English tour last Spring.” The Stones specifically wanted to play the Palladium because they had seen a few concerts there- T. Rex and Chuck Berry. Hilburn also warned that getting tickets wasn’t going to be easy: “Because 37,000 seats for the Stones’ last local appearance (two Forum concerts in November of 1969) were sold in one day, the demand for June’s concerts is expected to be enormous.” The full page “Calendar” section ad for the tour was dramatic- a big jet airliner headed into a cityscape with a tongue and lips design on the tail fin.
We only got tickets because a friend was willing to ditch school. This was a sacrifice for him because his mother taught at the school and there would be trouble if he got caught. But he agreed to get the tickets if we could give him a ride. We had been into the ticket outlet several nights before the Stones tickets went on sale- to buy Led Zeppelin tickets- and the woman on duty agreed to hold some tickets aside for us. Of course, when our friend inquired, no one knew anything about it. Still, we got tickets for the Forum show anyway and they were prized possessions in a summer that would be a young concert-lover’s dream. At the beginning of the summer, I had tickets for the Stones, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, George Carlin, Led Zeppelin and more in my drawer.
The big day came and the electricity of the event started outside the Forum as the crowd was filing in. Preachers had positioned themselves with bullhorns right by the entrance ramps and insisted that the crowd was going to see Satan himself- Mick Jagger. People in the crowd good-naturedly mocked them, clutching their tickets and pushing insistently toward the door.
Inside, the excitement grew. Pot smoke filled the air and Stevie Wonder kicked in with his instantly funky energy. There was a story circulating at the time that having Stevie Wonder as an opener was a bit of sweetness for the Stones, who originally opened for Wonder on their first tour in America. Wonder’s set was similar to what we had seen earlier in the year at the Joe Cocker show, and the results were the same- rock fans being turned on to Wonder’s new boogie music.
The Stones were big and legendary and their production, headed up by the famous Woodstock staging mastermind Chip Monck, matched the image. Notably, they had huge video screens- state of the art- above the stage, at times dwarfing the real life figures on stage. The Stones’ new album, Exile on Main Street, had just been released and plenty of the new material mixed with the old. One of the most memorable tunes for me was “Sweet Virginia,” with Richards lazily leaning his foot on the monitor while the band swayed through their saucy take on American country music. Older songs in the show included “Brown Sugar,” the whole arena joining in on the “woo” parts, “Jumping Jack Flash” and my favorite, “Bitch.” The showstopper, however, was “Midnight Rambler,” Jagger whipping the stage with his belt. How was the big time? Full of everything a rock fan could want- excitement, sex, some social rebellion and a crowd unified in a common understanding that for this one night, anyway, this was the best party on earth.
July 9, 1975- Inglewood Forum. Rolling Stones w/ Billy Preston.
I don’t remember how I ended up with an LA Times in northern Wisconsin, but while paging through the “Calendar” section (shades of earlier years) I focused on a ticket agency ad offering tickets for the upcoming Rolling Stones dates. Ticket agencies were brokers who bought and sold event tickets for concerts and sporting events- always at a profit. I had always considered it a kind of legalized ticket scalping, but stopped questioning when the desire to buy was kindled. The concerts coincided with my own travel dates and so I called the airlines to check out the possibilities. Incredibly, it didn’t cost any more to reroute my flight from Chicago to Seattle through LA, so I called the ticket agency, confirmed they had tickets, then sent an incredible sum- $35 per ticket- for tickets to two nights in a row. I had never paid so much for tickets before, but knew that the Rolling Stones would be worth it. I made reservations at a hotel right across the street from the Forum, packed up a bottle of Black Velvet and flew to LA, where the hotel shuttle picked me up. Though I did not particularly feel rich, I had truly joined the jet set of rock and roll.
Since I last saw the Stones in 1972, they had lost guitarist Mick Taylor. After experiencing the sloppy work of Rod Stewart and the Faces in Phoenix, it was not particularly good news to me that guitarist Ron Wood had been tapped to fill in for Taylor on this tour. The disappointment, however, was balanced by the further news that Billy Preston was also set to join the Stones, playing keyboards and adding vocals. After witnessing the magic Preston had created with George Harrison the year before, I felt that this could only be positive news, though there was no feeling at all that the Stones needed help. This tour- also including percussionist Ollie Brown- featured the famous “star stage” which opened like a big, slow flower. I strolled over to the Forum and was in my seat- behind the stage- on time. Then I spent the next hour watching the rest of the crowd file in while musicians entertained down around the stage and walked around the arena in a conga line. At one point, a spotlight trained itself on a familiar figure- Ringo Starr- just reaching his seat, flanked by bodyguards. When the moment finally came for the show to start, the star/flower opened, Mick Jagger hanging onto one petal.
In the Herald-Examiner, Robert Kemnitz described the decorations that night: “It suggested a cross between a Chinese restaurant and the twinkling bushes of Disneyland: Oriental banners, fish kites and an elaborate string of blue lights.” He also gave details of the opening festivities, including the movements of a “Chinese dragon” and roving steel bands. Kemnitz reported that it was “well after nine” when the Stones launched into “Honky Tonk Women.” Other tunes in the set included “Get Off My Cloud,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Brown Sugar,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Street Fighting Man” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” According to Kemnitz, the star stage weighed twenty-five tons and was bordered in neon.
Despite the glitter, the party-like atmosphere and the staging, Kemnitz also dared to question whether the Stones were delivering the goods on this, their sixth American tour: “It was great rock ‘n’ roll by any standards except Stones’ standards.” Though skeptical, Kemnitz ultimately couldn’t resist Jagger’s sense of showmanship. After the Stones performed “Angie” and “Wild Horses,” Billy Preston performed two tunes. During one of those songs, Jagger swung out over the heads of the audience on a rope. Kemnitz called it “an exciting bit of rock ‘theater,’” something the band had attempted only once before- in New York City. Ultimately, Kemnitz awarded the Stones a victory for turning even “sinister” rock and roll, such as their song, “Sympathy for the Devil,” into a “celebration.”
LA Times writer Robert Hilburn also questioned the effectiveness of the new Stones show. The headline for his review asked: “Are the Stones Gathering Moss?” Hilburn also saw that “their only challenger…is their own past” but, like Kemnitz, lost his thread when he got down to the business of describing the action near the end of the show. Jagger had already doused himself with water when he picked up a second bucket. Jagger found a new target among the celebrities standing at the side of the stage and “hurled the water at them- hitting (gulp) stylish Bianca and funky chic Liza with a Z square in the face.”
Hilburn reported that the set list was 23 songs long, including “Tumbling Dice,” “Rip This Joint,” “All Down the Line” and “If You Can’t Rock Me.” According to Hilburn, the show also included a balloon “in the shape of a phallus.” He also noted the rope swinging bit: “Seeing a star of Jagger’s magnitude even take a slight risk is a bit startling.”
The end of the show was a celebration, as Kemnitz suggested. As “Sympathy for the Devil” was churning away, the musicians who had entertained at the beginning of the show came ascending out of a trap door in the middle of the stage. Their cacophony of percussion sounds and just the mounting number of them helped end the show as it had begun- as a party.
On the way out after the show, I scored a tour program that someone had bought but left behind. The program detailed the planning and marketing of the tour, including a press conference that “saw the Stones rolling down Fifth Avenue on a flat-bed truck playing “Brown Sugar” while surprised New Yorkers abandoned their lunch-hour plans and dashed from apartments and offices for a glimpse at the world’s number one rock ‘n roll band.” It included photos of each musician, a picture of a billboard announcing the tour and shots from the rehearsals. Ron Wood’s listing said “courtesy of Faces” and featured a picture of Rod Stewart and the Faces. A full-page map of the tour had lines drawn between the international stops. The back cover featured a logo of a hawk/jetliner swooping in to grab a piece of America. Jet set indeed.
July 10, 1975- Inglewood Forum. Rolling Stones w/ Billy Preston.
The next day, I spent time lounging in my room, watching television and checking out the horse races at Hollywood Park that were just visible from my hotel room window. I strolled around down by the hotel pool and watched the frolicking girls in their little bikinis. I had a brief conversation with one of them and was made privy to the information that the Stones, or at least the Stones’ crew, were staying in the hotel on the fifth floor. I took a walk in the surrounding neighborhood, visited a record store, then returned to the hotel. On my way back up to my room, I punched in floor five just to see what would happen. When the door opened, two large guys with serious looks and their arms folded over their chests greeted me. I didn’t pursue it, mumbling something about being on the wrong floor, then went back to my room for a few drinks and a nap.
That night’s show held few musical surprises after seeing the previous night’s show, but the feeling of familiarity and the luxury of just being there again resulted in a special kind of pleasure. Everything else in the world had dropped away and all that was left was rock and roll. Towards the end of the set, I decided to take a walk. Incredibly, the aisles were completely clear all the way around the stage. I noticed that there weren’t even any ushers in sight, so I moved along the railing, took up a position just above stage left and rocked to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” undisturbed by other fans or staff. The next morning I was back on the airplane and back to reality.
July 21, 1978- Tucson Community Center Arena. Rolling Stones w/ Linda Ronstadt.
How could you go wrong with a Rolling Stones concert? That was my thought when ticket sales were announced for a Tucson show at the Community Center Arena. The new album, Some Girls, had created a stir with lyrics in the title song declaring that “black girls just want to get fucked all night long.” Anti-racist groups were up in arms. Some Girls, however, would join the Springsteen, Sex Pistols and Elvis Costello records as my platters de jour of the time. I had enjoyed all the Stones’ shows I had seen so far, so I went down to stand in line for tickets, like everyone else. The line wrapped around the building and it really was no surprise that tickets were sold out long before I made it to the box office. I hung around a while, not believing that I didn’t get a ticket, when a guy offered to sell me a pair of tickets he had just bought- at a substantial profit. I had an argument with him about scalping, but bought the tickets anyway.
There was certainly an excited buzz surrounding the Community Center on the night of the show. We stopped in for a drink at an area bar beforehand and everybody there seemed to be getting cranked up for the concert. That would be the highlight of the night, however. As soon as the Stones hit the stage, Mick Jagger growled “I never thought I’d play in this cow town again.” The audience howled and hooted, but I knew what Jagger meant. Compared to a place like Los Angeles, a gig in Tucson was a throwaway affair.
Sure enough, Jagger held back, enduring rather than sparking up the set list. Keith Richards was just plain sloppy, swinging his guitar around, not bothering to finish leads and generally not paying attention. Guitarist Ron Wood, now a permanent member, didn’t help much either. There was one bright spot to the evening- in the middle of the show; Jagger introduced Linda Ronstadt, who came on as a special guest vocalist for the song “Tumbling Dice.” Ronstadt, a Tucson native, had also released “Tumbling Dice” as a successful single. The moment, however, would pass uneventfully, as Ronstadt seemed lost about how to share the stage with Jagger. Jagger writhed and Ronstadt stood still, they sang the song and the highlight was over. The rest of the concert did not improve. This was exactly what the punks were rebelling against- tired old rock stars, ripping people off with a substandard performance. I would join the revolution and wouldn’t see the Stones again for sixteen years.
from King Koncert, Memoirs of an American Rocker The 1970s