I WAS RAISED BY A
TOOTHLESS BEARED HAG
Fifty-four years ago,
The Rolling Stones
stopped at
Leeds University for
the penultimate leg
of their
1971 UK Tour ,
a short,
nine-date tour
that marked
the band's return
to English stages
for the first time since 1966
aside from the
Brian Jones
tribute concert
in London's Hyde Park
on July 5, 1969
At the tour's opening concert,
on March 4 th
at Newcastle City Hall,
Mick Jagger
had announced
that the Stones
would be leaving the UK
in the spring for tax reasons
and would be settling in
the south of France.
The tour thus became
a sort of farewell
to their homeland,
to which they didn't know
when they would be
able to return,
and is often referred to as
the Goodbye Britain Tour .
The Leeds show was recorded
using the band's famous
mobile studio
and broadcast on
the BBC radio
a few days later.
Their version of
Chuck Berry 's
"Let It Rock,"
which closed the concert,
appeared as the
B-side to the
"Brown Sugar"
single in April
of that year,
but the rest of the performance
has never been
officially released.
However,
bootleg recordings
of the BBC broadcast
soon surfaced.
The Leeds concert,
titled
Get Your Leeds Lungs Out
a reference to
Jagger's words
encouraging the audience to
sing along before
"Honky Tonk Women"
quickly became one
of the most famous bootlegs of
the Rolling Stones' career.
The addition of
Mick Taylor in 1969
breathed new life
into the Stones ,
and the five years
the young guitarist spent
with the band remain
the pinnacle of their
more than half-century
on stage.
The 1971 tour
is perhaps the high point
of this second live lineup.
Although it hasn't been
written about as much
and therefore doesn't carry
the same mythology
as their epic
North American tours of
1969 and 1972,
Bill Wyman
himself declared that
the Stones never
sounded better than
during those nine nights
in March.
The truth is that everything
seemed to fall into place
for the band to give
their best on this
short tour:
after honing their skills
on the tours of
1969 and 1970,
Taylor had emerged as
the key piece that
brought to the group
a touch of virtuosity
that was unprecedented until then;
the insurmountable distance
that the jet set
and heroin would soon
cause between
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
was still just a small shadow
on the horizon;
the addition of pianist
Nicky Hopkins
(together with the horn section formed by
saxophonist
Bobby Keys
and trumpeter
Jim Price ,
who had debuted on
the 1970 European tour)
had finished consolidating
the band's more classic sound;
and the uncertainty about when
they would perform again
in their native England
pushed them to give
their best every night
before their
most loyal audience.
However,
perhaps the most important factor
that makes the 1971 tour
stand out above the rest is
that it was a much more
modest tour than those that
preceded and followed it.
Instead of filling large arenas,
the band chose to perform
in mid-sized venues,
breaking down the usual barrier
that alienated them from
their audience.
Furthermore,
the media spotlight on
their activities
on and off stage
was far less suffocating
than usual.
This unusual lack of pressure had
significant consequences
for the music,
and, with the exception of
their very
earliest live performances,
the Rolling Stones
have never sounded
more relaxed, intimate,
and raw than on
Get Your Leeds Lungs Out .
The first two songs of the concert
( “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Live With Me” )
were not broadcasted by the BBC
(it’s not entirely clear whether this was due
to sound problems or because the band
wasn’t satisfied with the performances),
so the recording takes us directly to
before the third song
of the night:
the classic
“Dead Flowers ,”
which would appear on
Sticky Fingers
in April of that same year.
What follows is an hour
of the Stones in a
truly inspired state,
sounding raw, sexy, dangerous,
and powerful as they
attack classic after classic
as if their lives depended on it.
To highlight a few moments
, I'd have to mention
Mick Taylor 's
passionate solos on
"Love In Vain ,"
the sweaty performance of
"Bitch"
(another previously unreleased track
that would later appear on Sticky Fingers ),
and the colossal rendition of
"Midnight Rambler,"
with Charlie Watts
and Bill Wyman
hot on the heels of
a frenetic
Keith Richards while Jagger 's
harmonica and Taylor 's Les Paul
practically smoked
a performance that even surpasses
the epic version of
" Get Yer Ya-Yas Out"
Finally, the incendiary
"Street Fighting Man,"
which closes the concert
before the
aforementioned encore
with
"Let It Rock,"
could easily serve to explain
to an alien what
rock and roll is all about.
However,
here is the complete show
so that everyone can choose
their favorite moments.
NOTES :
First Two Songs
Are Patched In
The Rest is
The BBC broadcast
With Great Sound
And With
Let It Rock
That Some Uploads
Leave Out
Plus I Added
A Nice Interview
With Mick In '71
TRACKLIST
Live With Me [*]
Dead Flowers
Stray Cat Blues
Love In Vain
Midnight Rambler
Bitch
Band Introductions
Honky Tonk Women
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Little Queenie
Brown Sugar
Street Fighting Man
Let It Rock
Mick Jagger interview with
journalist
David Dimbleby,
BBC, UK TV, 1971[*]
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