Listened to this yesterday. It always reminds me of the great fall of 1989.

1st tour in the States in 8 years!
1st date (Jacksonville, FL show) with my wife.
1st new Stones album since Dirty Work.

While the album has some flaws (dated production, a couple of clunkers, etc.), it's still got some good and even great stuff (Almost Hear You Sigh) on it. And, yeah, I like it a lot.

I remember how excited all of us were about the CD and tour. Cooler weather, Stones tour, new album, new girlfriend, nice setlists. Long live 1989!

Wish I was getting ready for a tour right now.

Thoughts?

i don't remember anything about a new gf...but it was 20 years ago....

I remember falling asleep (yes, I'm being serious) while Living Colour were playing and then waking up for the intro and then The Flame almost put me in my seat! Best intro to a show ever I've always thought.

Yeah, Living Color were sooo boring. Steel Wheels - the album - I still love about half of it plus the rest ain't too bad (perhaps except "Rock and a Hard Place")

SW is a poor album imho, but the tour was great!

Great album (at least much of it), great tour. "Steel Wheels" really sparked my interest in the Stones to begin with. I was 20 years old back then.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-08-18 18:48 by OhNoNotMeAgain.

Superb album, Fab tour. Last really great hurrah!

Yeah, we skipped Living Colour and the FLAME was toasty! Got a great "Angie" and "Ruby" that night. Other highlights - "2000 Light Years", "Rambler" and "Paint It Black".

3 songs - YCAGWYW, Miss You, and Rock/Hard Place on Flashpoint are from that show.

hindsight being 20/20 - it was all good and fun at the time...what a relief that the family feud had abated...but it definitely ushered in the era of the lounge/vegas act that would continue for two decades....and the album proved (for many) to be all but unlistenable as the years passed by....

Quote
ablett
Superb album, Fab tour. Last really great hurrah!

No my friend. The last great hurrah was A Bigger Bang.

JumpingKentFlash

i remember the day it came out very well. my brother and i went to penn state (reading pa. campus) to pick up his the girlfriend (now ex wife) we then went to the mall and i rushed in to buy steel wheels but there were no cds left . so i bought the cassette which was cool because we played it on the way home. i was so excited because the stones were back together and were touring for the album

"No my friend. The last great hurrah was A Bigger Bang."

I know what you saying but Steel Wheels still really sounded like the Stones. The Rythmn section was intact and it sounded great. They all played great and there was real surprises on the album (Continental Drift) and live (Factory Girl, 2000 light years etc.)

I love Steel Wheels although I don't play it that often. My first current Stones album (being a relative youngster).

A a good album and a fantastic tour. 89/90 had something special because the Stones back on the road was considered as a sensation and the band was concentrated and in great shape!

Well, in those days I left Germany to South America for familiy reasons, and on my good old Sony Walkmann I just had Mixed Emotions, because the relase date of SW was after my depature from Germany. Fortunately I've got the album very fast from some friends of mine by air mail.
But in anyway it was a hard time for me in Ecuador, because it was hard to find some news about the current North American tour.
Instead of good Stones stuff' I've got salsa music every day....
Happily I've seen them on their european leg of the tour one year later.

Keep on rollin'
Gangster

Great album and a great tour + great memories

Yawn.

Steel Wheels was the first album to be released after I became a fan (I had borrowed an old "Love you Live" from my neighbours aunt), so as for everybodys "first", this is a favorite, flawed or not. I still listens to some of the tracks on a weekly basis! Great memories of that time. One sticks out: I remember thinking Steel Wheels was the most ragged record I had ever heard. Ha ha. That thought still brings a smile to my face.

RB

I seldom play the CD these days, but I certainly enjoyed watching the Atlantic City show on TV.

Actually, my favorite document of the 1989-90 tour is "Cold Steel Blue" (Tokyo 1990).

Not my favorite album by a long shot but it's hard to believe that was 20 years ago! My, how time flies... may they have one more great tour in them!

Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind...

Good album, great comeback and a superb tour. What more could we ask for. Keith was never the same again though.

<I remember falling asleep (yes, I'm being serious) while Living Colour were playing and then waking up for the intro and then The Flame almost put me in my seat! Best intro to a show ever I've always thought.>

Luckily, you didn't experience the "magic" of Dan Reed Network... The worst support act ever (Oslo 1990).

crazy to think that when steelwheels came out brians death or altamont was also only 20 years ago then...
i remember the 89 hype very well. i was 16 and sooo @#$%& excited about the comeback. the album pretty much sucked, but to see them live for the first time felt like...well yeah the first time ;-)
continental drift and then the fire...i still feel the heat...magic!

At the time I thought it was a good album (the best since Tattoo You), and the concert in Gothenburg 1990 was great!

These days, Mixed Emotions and Continental Drift are classics for me!

I am 46 now and knew the Rolling Stones since my childhood, when they were played often on the radio, but they were only one band among many for me.
In the mid-eighties - relatively late - I became a die-hard-fan, and so "Steel Wheels" was their first album for me, that I listened to with interest, when it really came out.
The first time I heard it, was when it was played entire (!) on the radio.
Each song was commented by the moderator and I was not leaving for the john the whole album through.
I must say, I was not too impressed.
The production style was not my cup of tea and there was no new "Brown sugar" or "Gimme shelter".
Well, they had already written it by then...
But the album had it's moments and I listened to it quite often for a while.
For my birthday my then-girlfriend gave me the record - the good old vinyl-days - as a present.
She wrote on the inner cover "hope you don't look that wasted when you're as old as they are now".
Those guys were soo old then for me, I believed it could be their last album.
When the "Urban jungle" tour was announced, I ran for tickets.
It was in Hannover on a nice sunny day.
I did not drink anything the whole afternoon because I was afraid I might need to go to the toilet.
The opening-act were the forgettable and forgotten "Gun".
Enjoying the Stones concert, I was really sure, that this was their last tour, and that I was the witness of a historical moment.
It was a great concert and I was very close to the stage.
I was so amazed!
This was the first and only Stones-concert I eveer saw and it was really great.
I never went again, because I was afraid, it could destroy a wonderful memory.
By the way - I think I don't look as wasted now as Keith did in 1989...

I have some fond memories of that album & tour too.

First of all, I can't believe it's been 20 yrs!
I was 25 yrs old in '89. 1969-1989 took forever...1989-2009 has flown by.

Anyway....I wasn't able to attend the '81 US Stones tour...so I NEVER thought I'd see the
day that they would hit the road again. I had become a serious fan in 1980...and now the idea
of seeing them perform live in my "hometown" was a bit surreal.

Collecting Rolling Stones bootlegs and import cd-singles etc.. became an obsession.

I camped out (overnight) in front of a local Ticketmaster to get the best tickets I could
for the 9/9 & 9/11 Alpine Valley (East Troy) shows..for me & my buddies. Scored front row (Keith's side)
for both nights. A couple weeks later..they added a 9/8 show. No luck. Even though the prime tickets
were only $35 each, it was still significant $$ at the time.

Re: the Steel Wheels album..........overall I like it quite a bit....but I've never really liked Mixed Emotions.
MTV had the Stones on everyday (it seemed)....the press conference in Grand Central Station was great!
I like the Mixed Emotions video..mostly because of the glimpses of the band playing in the studio etc...
Also loved the ABC 20/20 interviews because they were taped at Alpine Valley.

Loved the 27 song sets and the enormity of the stage. I thought Mick did a great job keeping his
voice and the band sounded great.


IORR............but I like it!

It was 20 years ago today....oops wrong line...
Yeah, fond memories as well. Two nights at Alpine Valley Wisconsin. Got Steel Wheels before the show and so wanted to like it. But even back then it just felt a bit empty. A few real cool songs, but also a change in their sound, and the production is horrid. Loved Mixed Emotions, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break the Spell...but then there are others that just sound like the Stones trying to be current, but a bit flat.
The show. Also I loved parts of it. The set list was amazing. Some great nuggets that shocked me. This was pre internet so we were all surprised by some of the songs. Who would have thought they would pull out 2000 Light Years, Play With Fire, Ruby Tuesday!!! WHEW! But I was also struck by how uninvolved Ronnie seemed to be. They seem all the interested in his participation and he was much more "rehearsed" with his guitar parts. I remember You Can't Always Get What You Want vividly, and his short copy of the studio licks, but none of the fire they he played it with in '81.
But all in all great memories!

Happy when they decided to tour again. But now I look back:
very bad album
the end of the real rocking Stones: three back ground vocalists/replaced Keith/Ronnie Chuck and another keyboard player taking over and making the Stones sound too 'smooth'

I never listen to any of what has been played live from 89 on except a few club gigs now and than

Quote
whitem8
It was 20 years ago today....oops wrong line...
Yeah, fond memories as well. Two nights at Alpine Valley Wisconsin. Got Steel Wheels before the show and so wanted to like it. But even back then it just felt a bit empty. A few real cool songs, but also a change in their sound, and the production is horrid. Loved Mixed Emotions, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break the Spell...but then there are others that just sound like the Stones trying to be current, but a bit flat.
The show. Also I loved parts of it. The set list was amazing. Some great nuggets that shocked me. This was pre internet so we were all surprised by some of the songs. Who would have thought they would pull out 2000 Light Years, Play With Fire, Ruby Tuesday!!! WHEW! But I was also struck by how uninvolved Ronnie seemed to be. They seem all the interested in his participation and he was much more "rehearsed" with his guitar parts. I remember You Can't Always Get What You Want vividly, and his short copy of the studio licks, but none of the fire they he played it with in '81.
But all in all great memories!

well-rounded analysis that echoes my general points of reflection. even without hindsight, I think most of us that had seen them on their prior tour at the beginning of the decade knew we were seeing a much-evolved act and couldn't quite figure out what the hell had happened. the polish and spectacle were somewhat unnerving...i think some of us felt a bit of sellout had occurred...but it was tempered by our utter joy of seeing them at all after a seemingly interminable absence....

Elmo, what show were you at - well, I guess I could look it up - that made it onto Flashpoint?

I wish the Atlantic City PPV version of Start Me Up made it onto Flashpoint. Although that version is stellar anyway. I just like Ronnie's playing on the AC version better.