The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972

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The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
Tour by The Rolling Stones
Start date 3 June 1972
End date 26 July 1972
Legs 1
Shows 48
The Rolling Stones tour chronology
UK Tour 1971 American Tour 1972 Pacific Tour 1973

The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour (for Stones Touring Party), was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones.

Contents

[edit] History

The tour followed the release of the group's album Exile on Main St. a few weeks earlier on 12 May. But this was far more than a typical rock band's concert following the release of a new recording. Rather, it became a major cultural event of the time. It came at the height of the Stones' reputation as "The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World", and attention was focused on the group's multi-edged visibility in popular consciousness: As purveyors of raw R&B carnal energy – "would you let your daughter near them?" was a popular question bandied about at the time – the supposed opposite of the now-broken-up Beatles' pop and art. As the epitome of bohemian decadence or worse, with Satanic influences and the legacy of the disastrous Altamont Free Concert to their name. And as a window into glamourous celebrity, for singer Mick Jagger had moved into the jet set of high society. These aspects were all intertwined, and so the tour attracted much attention from both high culture observers and low.

[edit] The Press

Several well-established writers were assigned to cover the Stones jaunt, a first for a rock tour. Truman Capote, who had not published any significant new work since 1966's In Cold Blood but was still considered a celebrity of the highest caliber, was dispatched to cover the tour for Rolling Stone magazine with good friend and Kennedy family member Princess Lee Radziwill and her companion, the artist Peter Hill Beard. Capote, who was frequently drunk and high on tranquilizers, did not mesh well with the group and along with his entourage abandoned the tour in New Orleans, only to resurface for the final shows in New York's Madison Square Garden. Capote did not complete his feature, tentatively entitled "It Will Soon Be Here", out of boredom with the subject. Rolling Stone recouped its stake by interviewing Capote about the tour in 1973. More palpitable was Terry Southern, who covered the tour for the Saturday Review and was good friends with Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Ultimately, the defining document of the tour came to be Robert Greenfield's S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones, published in 1974. Greenfield had already covered the band's 1971 British Tour for Rolling Stone and was granted unlimited access to the band's affairs. Greenfield was initially assigned as the magazine's sole correspondent on the tour, but then was relegated to "additional reporting" status by publisher Jann Wenner (akin to Timothy Crouse's status during the concurrent 1972 U.S. presidential election) after a last-minute deal was reached with Capote.

Such coverage was not limited to the print media. Dick Cavett hosted a one hour special shot before the concluding New York engagement of performances, that depicted a sheepish Stones bassist Bill Wyman smoking marijuana on national television. Capote, a regular on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and several other talk shows, regaled audiences with his misadventures on the road. New York radio host Alex Bennett breathlessly reported on the first Madison Square Garden show as soon as he got back from it.

[edit] Altercations

Showing that the Stones' bad boy reputation was not just marketing hyperbole and actually had some effect on their fan base, a fair amount of physical conflict surrounded the tour. It started with the first show of the tour, on 2 June in Vancouver, British Columbia, where 31 policemen were treated for injuries when more than 2,000 fans attempted to crash the Pacific Coliseum. In San Diego on 13 June there were 60 arrests and 15 injured during disturbances. In Tucson, Arizona on 14 June, an attempt by 300 youths to storm the gates led to police using tear gas. Unable to secure a hotel to their standard in Chicago, the group decamped in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion, described by most sources as a four day orgy interrupted by the occasional performance; Hefner, who did not attend any of the concerts out of what Greenfield described as "Manson paranoia", did not permit film crews into the mansion during the Stones' stay.

As the tour continued into July, so did the bedlam. There were 61 arrests in the large crowd at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on the Fourth of July. On 13 July police had to block 2,000 ticketless fans from trying to gain access to the show in Detroit. On 17 July a visit to the Montreal Forum saw all sorts of trouble: a bomb blew up in the Stones' equipment van, and replacement gear had to be flown in; then it was discovered that 3,000 forged tickets had been sold, causing a fan riot and a late start to the concert. The next day, 18 July, was no better. The Stones' entourage got into a fight with photographer Andie Dickerman in Rhode Island, and Jagger and Richards landed in jail, imperiling that night's show at the Boston Garden. Boston Mayor Kevin White, fearful of a riot if the show were cancelled, had to intervene to bail them out; the show went on, albeit with another late start. Dickerman would later file a £22,230 lawsuit against the band. The tour ended with three consecutive nights at New York's Madison Square Garden, the first night of which saw 10 arrests and two policemen injured.

To a lesser extent, this pandemonium extended to the touring party as well. The glamorous, jet-setting spouse Bianca Jagger often engaged in verbal fisticuffs with heroin-addled Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards' longtime companion. Altamont continued to haunt the band from every visage; a process server attempted to serve Jagger with papers relating to a lawsuit stemming from the concert while on the tarmac in San Francisco. Due to a rumored bounty from the Hells Angels calling for Jagger to be assassinated, both the singer and Richards carried .38 Police Specials throughout the tour.

Sideman Bobby Keys, a seasoned sessionman who had played with Buddy Holly in his teens (providing a vital spiritual link to the 1950s rockers who the band and especially Richards admired) was one of the "stars" of the tour, with prominent saxophone parts in many of the songs' arrangements. According to Greenfield's account, Keys was accorded "Inner Circle" status alongside Jagger, Richards and the other Stones. In spite of this perception, Keys (who shared Richards' penchant for heroin at the time) was dismissed during the subsequent 1973 European Tour when he failed to make several shows due to alcohol indulgence.

The last show on 26 July, Jagger's birthday, was relatively peaceful; a party was held in Jagger's honor by Ahmet Ertgun afterwards that included Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Andy Warhol, the Capote entourage, and Zsa Zsa Gabor amongst the throng of attendees, with music from Count Basie. When prodded for reaction by an interviewer, the then-reclusive Dylan half-jokingly referred to the event as "the beginning of an all encompassing consciousness": rock and roll was now elevated by the "in crowd" to a heretofore unseen pedestal, with the Stones regarded as its avatars.

[edit] After-effects

Many of the Stones' associates and collaborators did not survive the atmosphere of the tour. Marshall Chess, the band's de facto manager and head of Rolling Stones Records, lapsed into heroin addiction and lost over thirty pounds; he continued to work for the Stones at a diminished rate before leaving and detoxing in 1977. The rigors of the road exacerbated Nicky Hopkins' frail health; he too would battle drug addiction before undergoing the Church of Scientology's Purification Rundown several years later. Singer-songwriter Gram Parsons was excommunicated from the group's social circle after demanding all of the cocaine in the Denver hospitality suite; he would die a year later. Publicity coordinator Gary Stromberg, "one hundred percent fucked up" as per Greenfield's account at the conclusion of the New York run, was left on a boat off Fire Island to clean up; a "thirty percent fucked up" Stromberg would replicate his duties for T.Rex's first tour of America. Lighting director Chip Monck's experimental projection system proved to be a convoluted mess and major embarrassment, decimating much of his reputation of being at the vanguard of the field.

[edit] Filmings

No live album was released from the tour, although the usual bootleg recordings emerged.

However, two films of the tour were produced. The concert film Ladies and Gentlemen - The Rolling Stones, widely panned as being unimaginative and bland, saw a limited theatrical release in 1974.

Robert Frank's (of Pull My Daisy fame) Cocksucker Blues is an unreleased cinema verite documentary depicting concert footage, interaction with Warhol & the Capote entourage, flagrant drug use, Jagger masturbating, and staged group sex. Among the more placid scenes within the film was the sight of Richards and sideman Bobby Keys heaving a television set out the window from the tenth floor of a hotel. As Jagger felt that the band would not be granted work visas in the future if the documentary was released, it was shelved. As per court order, the film can only be screened publicly in the United States if Frank or an agent acting on his behalf is present. Nevertheless, Cocksucker Blues has been widely bootlegged over the years and, like its cousin Eat the Document, seeded on torrent sharing websites.

[edit] The shows

The exact quality of the shows on the tour is somewhat debated, with points revolving around energy of performance versus musicianship, liking of the horns-based arrangements or not, and so on.

When his performance was praised by sycophants backstage in San Francisco, pianist Nicky Hopkins retorted (paraphrasing) that it was "the worst performance of his life"; likewise, Keith Richards' playing was beginning to measurably suffer from his heroin addiction, though he would still take the occasional solo during "Bye Bye Johnny" and "Bitch". Ian Stewart, the Stones' original pianist and road manager, found the narcotic atmosphere uninviting and only performed his administrative duties. While Jagger and Richards retained the limelight, Mick Taylor's fluid, virtuosic solos and Charlie Watts' cross-rhythmic drumming always provided a steady musical backdrop for their increasingly important showboating. Indeed, Taylor's playing was becoming more and more prominent — admired by critics and praised by fans since but later criticised by Richards as having contributed to the increased distinction between lead and rhythm guitar.[1]

Most songs were played at a breakneck tempo, the manifestation of frequent cocaine consumption, although the set did include an acoustic "Sweet Virginia" and a powerful and dynamic "Love in Vain".

[edit] Band members

[edit] Rolling Stones

Mick and Keith in 1972.
Mick and Keith in 1972.

[edit] Additional musicians

[edit] Opening acts

Opening for the tour's shows was Stevie Wonder; this placement, along with his hard-edged hit of the time "Superstition", did much to increase Wonder's visibility to rock audiences, at this the beginning of his classic period. Wonder would also sometimes join the Stones at the end of a night's performance.

[edit] Set list

The standard set list for the tour was:

  1. "Brown Sugar"
  2. "Bitch"
  3. "Rocks Off"
  4. "Gimme Shelter"
  5. "Happy"
  6. "Tumbling Dice"
  7. "Love in Vain"
  8. "Sweet Virginia"
  9. "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
  10. "All Down the Line"
  11. "Midnight Rambler"
  12. "Bye Bye Johnny"
  13. "Rip This Joint"
  14. "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
  15. "Street Fighting Man"
  16. Encore: often none, sometimes "Honky Tonk Women", a few times "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"/"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" medley performed jointly by the Stones and Stevie Wonder and his band

Only a few minor set list variations occurred from this, the exact number of which are subject to ongoing research. Notably absent was anything from before 1968 in the Stones' catalog (excepting in the occasional encore medley). This tour also marked the banishment of their dark epic "Sympathy for the Devil", which had been wrongly associated with the killing at Altamont, from Stones' American performances for much of the 1970s.

[edit] Tour dates

  • 3rd June: Vancouver, Canada, Pacific Coliseum
  • 4th June: Seattle, Washington, Center Coliseum (2 shows)
  • 6th June: San Francisco, California, Winterland Palace (2 shows)
  • 8th June : San Francisco, California, Winterland Palace (2 shows)
  • 9th June : Los Angeles, California, Hollywood Palladium
  • 10th June : Long Beach, California, Pacific Terrace Center
  • 11th June: Los Angeles, California, The Forum (2 shows)
  • 13th June: San Diego, California, International Sports Arena
  • 14th June: Tucson, Arizona, Civic Arena
  • 15th June: Albuquerque, New Mexico, University Of New Mexico
  • 16th June: Denver, Colorado, Coliseum (2 shows)
  • 18th June: Bloomington, Minnesota, Metropolitan Sports Center
  • 19th June: Chicago, Illinois, International Amphitheater
  • 20th June: Chicago, Illinois, International Amphitheater (2 shows)
  • 22nd June: Kansas City, Missouri, Municipal Auditorium
  • 24th June : Fort Worth, Texas, Tarrant County Convention Center (2 shows)
  • 25th June : Houston, Texas, Hofheinz Pavilion (2 shows)
  • 27th June: Mobile, Alabama, Municipal Auditorium
  • 28th June : Tuscaloosa, Alabama, University Of Alabama
  • 29th June: Nashville, Tennessee, Municipal Auditorium
  • 4th July : Washington, D.C., Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
  • 5th July: Norfolk, Virginia, The Scope
  • 6th July: Charlotte, North Carolina, Coliseum
  • 7th July: Knoxville, Tennessee, Civic Arena
  • 9th July: St. Louis, Missouri, Kiel Convention Hall (2 shows)
  • 11th July : Akron, Ohio, Rubber Bowl
  • 12th July: Indianapolis, Indiana, Convention Center
  • 13th July: Detroit, Michigan, Cobo Hall
  • 14th July: Detroit, Michigan, Cobo Hall
  • 15th July : Toronto, Canada, Maple Leaf Gardens (2 shows)
  • 17th July : Montreal, Canada, Forum
  • 18th July: Boston, Massachusetts, Garden
  • 19th July : Boston, Massachusetts, Garden
  • 20th July: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Spectrum Sports Arena
  • 21st July : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Spectrum Sports Arena (2 shows)
  • 22nd July: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Civic Center Arena
  • 24th July : New York City, Madison Square Garden
  • 25th July : New York City, Madison Square Garden (2 shows)
  • 26th July : New York City, Madison Square Garden

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mentioned in several interviews over the years, among them in Guitar Player magazine 1977.

[edit] External links

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