The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969

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The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969

The generic tour poster, bottom filled by venue
Tour by The Rolling Stones
Dates	7 November 1969 - 6 December 1969
Legs	1
Shows	28

The Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour (which seems to have had no official name) was a much publicised, written about, recorded, and filmed concert tour of the United States that took place during November 1969.

1 History
2 Band members
- 2.1 Rolling Stones
- 2.2 Additional musicians
3 Set list
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

This was like no other tour the band had yet undertaken. Away from the stage since April 1967, and the U.S. since July 1966, they found that live performing had moved on. Instead of performing in small- and medium-size venues to audiences of screaming girls, they were booked into arenas with packed but more mature crowds ready to listen and move and amplification systems to match (as they would later say, it was the first time they could hear what they were playing). The tour was notable for being Mick Taylor's first with the Stones, having replaced Brian Jones shortly before Jones' July death.

The tour began on 7 November at Colorado State University, and then proceeded generally west to east, often playing two shows a night. The most known shows are those of 27 November and 28 November at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The final regular show was on 30 November at the International Raceway in West Palm Beach, Florida. After the tour's planned conclusion, the Stones organised and gave one last performance, at the close of the disastrous Altamont Free Concert on 6 December.

The Stones were introduced as they took the stage as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World," a title they were glad to claim and would zealously strive to keep for decades to come. Material was mostly from 1968's Beggars Banquet album and the not-quite-released-yet Let It Bleed. The performance itself featured the Stones showmanship that would become familiar: Charlie Watts businesslike drumming leavened by an occasional wry smile, Bill Wyman's undertaker persona on bass, the guitar interplay of Mick Taylor with Keith Richards, and most of all Mick Jagger's dancing, strutting, leering, preening frontman antics. "Ah think I've busted a button on mah trousers," he teased the audience. "You wouldn't want mah trousers to fall down, now would ya?"

Terry Reid, B.B. King (replaced on some dates by Chuck Berry), and Ike and Tina Turner were the supporting acts.

The 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, mostly based on the Madison Square Garden shows, documented the tour, as did the Maysles brothers' 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter which, while mostly known for its filming of Altamont, also contains substantial footage of the band's performance during the tour at Madison Square Garden.

[edit] Band members

[edit] Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger - vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards - guitar, vocals
Mick Taylor - guitar
Bill Wyman - bass guitar
Charlie Watts - drums

[edit] Additional musicians

Ian Stewart - piano

[edit] Set list

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

There were some set list substitions, variations, and order switches during the tour. Starting a trend that would continue for some years, the Stones ignored most of their pre-1968 catalogue, playing fewer songs from that period than they would songs not yet released.