THE "ROCKS OFF" ROLLING STONES SETLISTS PAGE

BY GARY GALBRAITH (with Gerardo Liedo)

1975 TOUR OF THE AMERICAS


5th Avenue, NYC - May 1, 1975 - Announcing the tour! (Only Brown Sugar was played)

with Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston as guests (Ronnie first public performance with the Rolling Stones)

 

1975 Tour of The Americas overview

 

The Stones didn’t tour in 1974 – after 1968, the only calendar year thus far in their career that they hadn’t done so, and the only one where they made no public appearances at all – but they weren’t exactly inactive in the 18 months between the end of the 1973 European Tour and the announcement of the grandly titled ‘Tour Of The Americas’ on May 1st 1975 which was marked by a performance of ‘Brown Sugar’ on the back of a flatbed truck on New York’s Fifth Avenue.  In the interim period, they had recorded and released ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and then Mick Taylor had announced that he was leaving the band just before they assembled in Munich a couple of months later to start work on its follow up.  Much of the early part of 1975 was spent auditioning his replacement whilst recording the album that would eventually be released in April 1976 as ‘Black and Blue’.  With the band unable to settle on a replacement, Ronnie Wood was brought in ‘on loan’ from The Faces for the 1975 tour (he would go on to do a US tour with them after finishing his commitments with the Stones). A very different type of musician to Taylor and more of a showman his playing style met with Keith’s approval who was quoted as saying ‘with Ronnie, we seem to be able to get back to the original idea of the Stones, when Brian was with us, in ‘62-63. Two guitars have always been my particular love because I think there’s more that can be done with that particular combination than almost any other instrument….’.  A somewhat funkier sound was brought to the band’s sound with a more prominent role in the show for Billy Preston – who was also afforded a two-song mini set of his own backed by the Stones each night – and the addition of percussionist Ollie Brown. Save for a brief cameo at the shows in LA in July, the band had dispensed with a brass section.

 

Ronnie’s opening night in Baton Rouge was a baptism of fire with two 135-minute shows in one day on his 28th birthday.  It would be the only occasion on the tour where they played a matinee and an evening show. Most of the shows clocked in at anything from two to tour and a half hour in length – way longer than any concerts they’d played before – with songs like ‘Midnight Rambler’ and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ (on the few occasions when it featured as an encore) being stretched out to 13-15 minutes at times.  With ‘Its Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ having been released 9 months before the band hit the road, technically they weren’t really touring behind a new record (their record label had cashed in on the tour with a new compilation ‘Made in the Shade’, showcasing songs from the first four albums on Rolling Stones Records). Despite the title of the tour, it ended up merely consisting of 44 arena and stadium shows in the US plus two in Canada – plans to spend August 1975 touring Latin America were cancelled for mostly economic and security reasons, resulting in about 15 shows in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela being pulled from the schedule.

 

Despite the claim on the sleeve that ‘Love You Live’ comes from performances in Paris 1976 and the 1977 club shows in Toronto, three of the songs are actually from 1975. ‘Fingerprint File’ (which was only ever played in 1975 and which exists as a raw soundboard as well as a near excellent audience source running for over 3 minutes than the heavily edited released version) and ‘Its only rock n roll’ were taken from the Toronto 17th June concert and ‘Sympathy’ is from the 9th of July show at the LA Forum.  In 2012, as part of the series of six archive releases to mark the band’s 50th anniversary, the Los Angeles show from 13th July was made available as a download. (Confusingly, they used the bootleg title ‘LA Friday’ which applied to the 11th of July show). In 2014, a long available pro shot of the 11th of July show was officially released as a DVD by Eagle Rock along with a 2-CD set of the 13th of July concert.  The Sunday concert is the superior of the two performances.

 

Most of the 46 shows on the tour circulate amongst collectors in varying degrees of sound quality, with a few soundboard tapes being available.

 

Number of shows – 46

Number of shows in circulation – 39

 

Recommended shows –  aside from the official releases, Toronto 17th June, New York 27th June (probably the best show of the tour for me, featuring a rare and raggedly glorious ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ and an epic  encore of ‘Sympathy’ with Carlos Santana), the first and fourth Los Angeles shows (there’s also a very good partial soundboard of the first 70 minutes of the 12th July LA show), San Francisco 15th July, Fort Collins and the soundboard of the first 85 minutes of the show in Detroit on 28th July.

 

Personnel - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman with Ronnie Wood (guitar), Billy Preston (keyboards), Ollie E. Brown (percussion) and occasionally Ian Stewart on piano.

 

Concert Listing

 

No.

Date

City

State/Province

Venue

Notes

1

1-May

New York City

New York

Fifth Avenue on a flatbed truck!

Tour announcement – 1 song only (*)

2

1-Jun

Baton Rouge

Louisiana

Assembly Hall, Louisiana State University

Early Show

3

1-Jun

Baton Rouge

Louisiana

Assembly Hall, Louisiana State University

Late Show

4

3-Jun

San Antonio

Texas

Convention Center Arena

 

5

4-Jun

San Antonio

Texas

Convention Center Arena

 

6

6-Jun

Kansas City

Missouri

Arrowhead Stadium

 

7

8-Jun

Milwaukee

Wisconsin

County Stadium

 

8

9-Jun

St. Paul

Minnesota

Civic Center

 

9

11-Jun

Boston

Massachussetts

Boston Garden

 

10

12-Jun

Boston

Massachussetts

Boston Garden

 

11

14-Jun

Cleveland

Ohio

Municipal Stadium

 

12

15-Jun

Buffalo

New York

Memorial Auditorium

 

13

17-Jun

Toronto

Ontario

Maple Leaf Gardens

 

14

18-Jun

Toronto

Ontario

Maple Leaf Gardens

 

15

22-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

16

23-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

17

24-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

18

25-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

19

26-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

20

27-Jun

New York City

New York

Madison Square Garden

 

21

29-Jun

Philadelphia

Pennsylvania

Spectrum

 

22

30-Jun

Philadelphia

Pennsylvania

Spectrum

 

23

1-Jul

Largo

Maryland

Capital Center

 

24

2-Jul

Largo

Maryland

Capital Center

 

25

4-Jul

Memphis

Tennessee

Memorial Stadium

 

26

6-Jul

Dallas

Texas

Cotton Bowl

 

27

9-Jul

Los Angeles

California

The Forum

 

28

10-Jul

Los Angeles

California

The Forum

 

29

11-Jul

Los Angeles

California

The Forum

 

30

12-Jul

Los Angeles

California

The Forum

 

31

13-Jul

Los Angeles

California

The Forum

 

32

15-Jul

San Francisco

California

Cow Palace

 

33

16-Jul

San Francisco

California

Cow Palace

 

34

18-Jul

Seattle

Washington

Center Coliseum

 

35

20-Jul

Fort Collins

Colorado

Hughes Stadium, Colorado State University

 

36

22-Jul

Chicago

Illinois

Chicago Stadium

 

37

23-Jul

Chicago

Illinois

Chicago Stadium

 

38

24-Jul

Chicago

Illinois

Chicago Stadium

 

39

26-Jul

Bloomington

Indiana

Assembly Hall, Indiana State University

 

40

27-Jul

Detroit

Michigan

Cobo Hall

 

41

28-Jul

Detroit

Michigan

Cobo Hall

 

42

30-Jul

Atlanta

Georgia

Omni Coliseum

 

43

31-Jul

Greensboro

North Carolina

War Memorial Coliseum

 

44

2-Aug

Jacksonville

Florida

Gator Bowl

 

45

4-Aug

Louisville

Kentucky

Freedom Hall

 

46

6-Aug

Hampton Roads

Virginia

Hampton Roads Coliseum

 

47

8-Aug

Buffalo

New York

Rich Stadium

 

 

(*) See ‘Miscellaneous Non-Tour Appearances’ for details

 

INDEX

Part 1: 1st June to 18th June

Part 2: 22nd June to 6th July

Part 3: 9th July to 20th July

Part 4: 22nd July to 8th August

 

NOTE: The reason of the name "Tour of the Americas"

The tour was originally supposed to include shows in the following cities: August 7 - 10 México City, México - "Auditorio Nacional": 14 - 17 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Maracanzinho : 19 - 21 Sao Paulo, Brazil : Convention Hall : 24 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Anhembi Hall : 28 - 31 Caracas, Venezuela - El Poliedro. This leg of the tour was cancelled due to currency problems, in addition, at that time all groups that dared to perform in México and South America had security problems and the audience always rioted.

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