Here we have another entry in the Eagle Rock 'From the Vault' series, recorded at the L.A. Forum during The Rolling Stones' 1975 tour of the US in support of the Made in the Shade hits album, which came a year after the release of It's Only Rock and Roll and the departure of lead guitarist Mick Taylor. New guitarist Ronnie Wood here performs his inaugural duties with the band, and though he's not quite the player Taylor is, you can clearly see how well he jells with the band, and Keith Richards in particular. The set list is a mix of older favorites as well as more current material from their most recent releases at the time.
The DVD portion of this set was filmed on Saturday July 12th, 1975 (the band played a five night stint at the Forum) and the CD was recorded the final night on the 13th. Over on the DVD, the age of the source material really shows, as much of the video contains lots of grain, as well as some really horrible lighting which renders a good portion of it awash in bright reds, yellows, and oranges, making for a tough watch at times. Thankfully, the performance of the band is pretty strong, as they dip into their catalog for some great renditions of their classic songs. For my money, the band was even tighter on the Sunday night show which is included on the CD, highlights being the funky "Fingerprint File", "Tumbling Dice", "If You Can t Rock Me / Get Off Of My Cloud", "Wild Horses", "Doo DooDooDooDoo (Heartbreaker)", "It s Only Rock n Roll", "Honky Tonk Woman", and "All Down the Line", among many others. Keyboard player Billy Preston even gets to showcase two of his own tunes, the funk rock track "That's Life" and the more fusion oriented "Outta Space", both featuring some cool guitar licks from Wood & Richards and Preston's great keyboard textures. The latter part of the set is perhaps the most fun, with spirit versions of "Brown Sugar", a lengthy "Midnight Rambler" (with Mick Jagger in fine form and tons of guitar interplay), a furious "Rip This Joint", a the furious 1-2-3 punch of "Street Fighting Man", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and "Sympathy for the Devil".
Musically & vocally, the band just seemed to be more 'on' for the final show, so the real gem here is the CD. While it's great to see a vintage 1975 show on DVD, due to the source material and excess of lights that bleach out the band, plus some sloppy playing at times, the real attraction for most fans will be the audio portion of this great Eagle Rock package. Any live Stones from this era is a must have for fans, so this one of course comes recommended.
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Track Listing
1) Introduction
2) Honky Tonk Women
3) All Down The Line
4) If You Can t Rock Me / Get Off Of My Cloud
5) Star Star
6) Gimme Shelter
7) Ain t Too Proud To Beg
8) You Gotta Move
9) You Can t Always Get What You Want
10) Happy
11) Tumbling Dice
12) It s Only Rock n Roll
13) Band Intros
14) Doo DooDooDooDoo (Heartbreaker)
15) Fingerprint File
16) Angie
17) Wild Horses
18) That s Life
19) Outta Space
20) Brown Sugar
21) Midnight Rambler
22) Rip This Joint
23) Street Fighting Man
24) Jumpin Jack Flash
25) Sympathy For The Devil
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