I'm putting together a playlist on my new PC featuring the best of the shows from Handsome Girls (vol 1-4). I call this the last rock n roll tour (in the old style) by the Stones, as they didn't rely on background vocalists and extraneous musicians, other than the keyboard combo of Ian Stewart (RIP) and Ian McLagan, and just played their asses off (when they were sober enough to do so). No elaborate stagesets or lighting--it was just the band.

This tour has garnered some criticism, as the band was inconsistent to say the least. However, when they were ON, it was a guitar-driven show which proved to the punkers that the Stones hadn't lost their edge. Apart from '73 and '03, this has become my favorite tour.

Culling the best from these four CDs is sometimes difficult, as so much good stuff was captured on this collection, but after I sort through them all again I think I can come up with a live album that will blow your socks off. The Detroit and Houston shows are very good, with maybe a track or two from Lexington and Memphis.

The setlist was fairly consistent throughout the tour, with emphasis on tracks from the recently released "Some Girls". This is one of my favorite Stones albums, and the tracks were meant to be played live.

In the context of the times, I think this was the Stones striking back at the naysayers who were already writing them off. Keith was having his legal problems, and Ronnie was there to keep everyone together. This was before his own bad habits caught up with him, and he shines in most of these performances. The one thing that I noticed is that Keith and Ronnie are at equal volumes, left & right. They sound great together, and this is what Keith meant by the "ancient art of weaving".

This WAS the last rock n roll tour by the band, and it deserves the attention it is now getting.

I agree, Its mostly what I have been listening to lately. It is stripped down,straight forward Rock and Roll. It was a different Stones tour in the sense that it was just 2 months long, June and July 1978 and played in small venues one night and packed stadiums the next. The songs they played besides the mostly Some Girls stuff made for a great set list.
From Mick introducing the band in a diferent way each show then right into Let it Rock, all down the line, a raunchy version of Honky Tonk Woman, sweet little 16, Hound dog from Memphis, Happy, there are just so many.
I wish there was a great quality pro shot DVD besides what is out there.
It was near the end of what I consider phase one of The Rolling Stones, a different tour, a different sound, and they rocked their asses off!!

"And now from England The Rolling @#$%& Stones"!!!!!!

At the time it was considered a return
to form by the band. Hopefully they
will do so again with their new album/
tour, dispelling any doubts that they
are truly the worlds greatest rock and
roll band!

At the time it was considered a return
to form by the band. Hopefully they
will do so again with their new album/
tour, dispelling any doubts that they
are truly the worlds greatest rock and
roll band!

Sorry -I didn't seem to be able
to post, but in fact did I see.
Oh well, perhaps it will be doubly
true this time around! ;-)

The Last Stones Rock N Roll Tour--1978
[perso.wanadoo.fr]

Well I can't say whether it was the best of the last or whatever - but I can say it was very good - I was at the Fort Worth show on or about 7/17/78. This brings up a point: I've seen dates and stops listed for this tour and the only one I ever see mentioned for Fort Worth is on 7/18 at the Tarrant County Convention Center (TCCC), but the show I saw was at a different place: Will Rogers Auditorium. The tickets were printed as being for a show by "The London Green-Shoed Cowboys"; Peter Tosh and Doug Kershaw ("Orange Blossom Special") opened, with Kershaw later joining the Stones for "Far Away Eyes". I remember something about a second show being added, and some uncertainty about where we were supposed to go for the show. In the end we made it to the right place and I'm glad we did, even though I heard that scalpers were offering $200 for the tickets. In case anyone's interested, I have a CD (received directly from Tony Sanchez, former Stones hanger-on) of a Fort Worth show around that date but he labeled it "Tarrant County Convention Center". Will Rogers is a much smaller place - a large theater - and it made for a better show (and recording). Regarding the show location - does anyone know what gives - why the Stones frequently are reported to have played only at TCCC in July of '78? I'd like to be certain that the recording I have is of the same show I attended.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2004-12-22 14:20 by epischedda.

The soundboards recordings from this tour are great. Indeed just pure rock and roll. However i have heard many times that a lot of shows were real sloppy and not good.

Can anyone tell me why they only toured for two months and why did they play a show in a small venue and then a big one?

Cheers,
Wuudy

It´s somehow strange with the 78 tour. Not often mentioned in Stones books, not mentioned in the 25x5 documentary and other Stones documentarys. It´s like a ´lost tour", or something.

Songs from both "Will Roger's" and Tarrant County" are on Handsome Girls. The Far Away Eyes version w/Kershaw even twice, I think.

I think 81/82 tour was the last rock n roll tour.
No background musicians or extra horn players. However they only played stadiums it was still really rock n roll.

Re: Handsome Girls

Thanks - I'll try to run that down.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2004-12-20 14:02 by epischedda.

What about Ernie Watts, Gene Barge?

Okay, that was just on sax to replace Bobby

How much did Bobby play on that tour(s) anyway? On Hampton he played together with Ernie...

He was there for his classic BS solo.

----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"

The "problem" that the -78 tour has been forgotten is that probably few outside of boot collectors have heard anything from it. As far as I remember only When the whip comes down is available as a b side of beast of burden? I agree with most of what has been said here; the 78 tour was great and with some very good boots to prove it (Handsome girls, Out on bail and Tight dresses and Tampax (chicago) just to mention a couple of the best? Let us all hope that the new album will be something like the breturn to form that Some Girls was; tight, unadorned and with some great tunes!



Mats Larsson

I have to agree the 78 tour was the last great rock n roll tour. The 81 tour was great musically but was marred by Mick's bad vocals.

75 was the last great tour, even though they had percussion and horn help. The 78 tour was so dead, gives me a head ache...

Dead???

Yes predictable and dead! I remeber the reviews the Knowling Bones says it all...

It is strange, to my mind at least, that the '78 shows are so revered now through the retrospectoscope. I think the handful of decent boots that keep getting mentioned are the reason. But to get a better picture, get the boot from the Cleveland stadium show.

The press savaged the tour. It was either Look or LIfe magazine that ran an article with big glossy pics that suggested that it was waste to take time off from work or even summer school to see the show.

For all the bitching that we hear today about set lists, the shows on this tour almost never varied with the exact same songs every night, and the occaisional addition of a rarity like Hound Dog ( which I do love) thrown in at random. And while nearly 30 years later, we recognize Some Girls as a classic, it was not easy in 1978 to sit in a packed stadium with an iffy sound system and hear song after song that was realtively unknown. The shows were short, and the stadium show I attended in Celeveland was as I remeber only about 90 minutes long.I cannot vouche for valididty, but a freind working a stadium show as always sworn he heard Mick at one point say, " We may not have been our best, but what the @#$%& we came," a pretty raw attitude for 90,000 paying fans.

I love Handsome Girls and Goregeous Girls. The opening salvo of Let It Rock was at awesome on these discs. Keith and Ronnie really did "weave" on this tour. These famous boot attest to how good the band could be, but there are boots, and there were shows, that also show how absolutely the bad the band could be at its worst.

July 13, 1978....the Stones at the Dome. One of the best shows I have ever seen. Van Halen, Doobie Brothers, and then the Stones. It was great. Nothing like the first time. I loved the Jagger of 78..........what a contrast in dancing to the cock-sure strutting of 72.

kahoosier, I think the passage of time has indeed given us a new perspective on the 78 tour, and other musical trends of that year. That was the year of AC/DC's "Powerage", the Police's domination of the airwaves with "Roxanne", and , for better or worse, the release of Van Halen's first album. The first nails were already being pounded into disco's coffin, and the hints of the return of hard rock and the advent of "new wave" were there.

78 had it's plusses and minuses. I would tend to argue 81 was the last real rock-n'roll tour,though. Very few frills - the extra saxist worked very well and added a much-needed layer to many songs; 78 lacked that in some respects. BTW, Bobby typically played on both LIB and BS during the 81 tour.

I saw them at Rich stadium, Buffalo, N.Y. on 7/4...I believe it was the 78 tour.No fancy stage get ups... just them playing from the Some Girls play list. Are there any Boots of that show?

I've listened Phoenix (81), Hampton (81) and Rotterdam (82) yesterday. I liked it very much.
For me this tour was the last rock-n'roll tour. Just guitars, the piano to support the guitars, Jagger in great shape.

I don't understand why many of you always talk about the bad Jagger-vocals that tour.
I think it's not bad at all. Listen to Love you Live. That was bad singing, not the 81-82 tour.

'In the sweet old country...'

Agree!

Agree as well. Jagger sounds great on that tour, just real rock. Voice seems much lower then in the later tours, in which I think he sounds not so raucous.

bassaleman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw them at Rich stadium, Buffalo, N.Y. on
> 7/4...I believe it was the 78 tour.No fancy stage
> get ups... just them playing from the Some Girls
> play list. Are there any Boots of that show?


A quick perusal of my source for available recordings of RS live shows (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/rollingstones-faq/part2/) fails to reveal a recording of that show; you might want to look the list over more closely.