Rolling Stones/CA,USA 1973

The Stones’ 1973 Winter Tour was strongly associated with the cancelled Japan tour and the leaked soundboard of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICKY” in Australia, but the fact that the tour kicked off in the US, specifically at the LA Forum, is often overlooked. The reason why they performed in LA before heading to Australia was that in December of the previous year, Mick’s then-wife Bianca’s hometown of Managua, Nicaragua, suffered a major earthquake that caused 90% of the city to collapse, so it was suddenly held as a charity concert for Nicaragua. The concert also had another aspect of producing the first item to convey the state of the Winter Tour. That was “WINTER TOUR 1973” released by the famous label TMOQ (Trade Mark Of Quality). It is a vintage item released with the label’s famous stamp cover, but it might be better to call it “ALL MEAT MUSIC” with a slick cover featuring William Stout’s cartoon. At the time, the label was split into two groups and the releases continued, so this item reflects the situation where there were two releases on the same record. To tell the truth, until “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICKY” appeared in the mid-1980s, this was the only item for the winter tour. Nowadays, the impression of the leaked sound boards, including “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ~”, is overwhelmingly strong when it comes to the winter tour, but for LP-era enthusiasts, this tour could only be seen in “ALL MEAT MUSIC”. As a result, the interesting thing about the show on this day was that it was a live performance with a different menu from the US tour six months ago and the main tour that followed. The LA Forum had only just performed a show six months ago, and it seemed that the Stones were prepared to change the set list and take on the challenge, and at the same time, it also served as a test case for the Australian schedule. Although the first half of the show was the same as it was six months ago, as the show approached the middle, “Route 66”, the only live performance on the stage in the early 1970s, appeared. The straight performance was followed by “It’s All Over Now”, which was later performed in Hawaii, but it is valuable to try a one-off arrangement only for this occasion. Unlike the time in Hawaii, the arrangement is very interesting, as if it is a mix of “Rip This Joint” and the 1970 version of “Roll Over Beethoven”. Furthermore, “No Expectations” appeared for the first time since Hyde Park. And the flow from “Dead Flowers” to “Live With Me” seems to be a remnant of the farewell UK tour in 1971. Although it is a show that is included in the winter tour in terms of time, it can actually be called a special stage on its own. TMOQ was the first ever Stones bootleg “LIVE’R THAN YOU’LL EVER BE” and was a strong label for their latest tour. If the winter tour had only been held in Australia and Hawaii (and Japan!), the release from the label would not have been realized, and it would have been a blank in the history of the Stones’ 70-year live performance. But fortunately, the concert at the LA Forum was realized, so TMOQ also went to record. As is well known, the audience recording on this LP has a surprisingly on-sound image, but the balance is such that only Mick Taylor’s guitar stands out. And yet, clapping and conversations can only be heard from the person right next to him. From that, it is easy to guess that it was recorded in the front row, but it was probably recorded from a position close to Taylor and the support members. In fact, not only Taylor but also Nicky Hopkins and the horn section are also close. However, even if you take away this peculiar sound image, it is true that the sound quality is very good, and you get used to this balance as you listen (laughs). However, times have changed and we are now in the era of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICKY” and Hawaii sound sources, so it has been difficult to make a CD of a vintage album, and when it finally appeared, it was an item that was directly created from the TMOQ version. Then, after another ten years, the CD version “ALL MEAT MUSIC” based on the tape finally appears on the VGP label. It was revolutionary that the scratch noise peculiar to LPs could be eliminated, but on the other hand, the sound quality changed considerably. It was commonly pointed out by enthusiasts and specialist magazines that the sound became dark and dull, and the previously released LP CD was considered to be more faithful to the original sound and clearer. However, the LP version had a lot of scratch noise, and at the same time, there was a lot of Stones LP items that were directly copied, so it was not well received. In the early 1990s, there was a trend that “analog conversion” from LPs was a cheap thing to do, and items that were made into CDs without considering the condition of the board or the playback environment of the cartridge only exacerbated this trend. This is a bit of a personal story, but the first time I heard “ALL MEAT MUSIC” was on a cassette (with fan club reviews copied onto the inlay) at a shop in front of Kashiwagi Park, and since it was made with double-speed dubbing, the pitch was raised and the original clear sound quality was further emphasized (laughs). That’s why I felt strange when it was made into a CD. So this time, in order to capture the original sound quality of the LP on a CD, we carefully traced it from a mint condition TMOQ copy. The TMOQ copy is now highly popular as a vintage item, but since it is an early bootleg, the quality of the copy is rough to begin with (the pressing factory and the quality of the vinyl also changed depending on the title and edition), making it difficult to make a clean transfer. Of course, the scratch noise has been meticulously removed, resulting in an item that allows you to listen to this masterpiece with literally clean sound quality. And by cutting out the parts unrelated to the performance and MC, including the recording announcement recorded at the beginning of the record, it fits on one CD, making it even easier to listen to. This is the sound that maniacs wanted to hear! Live at the Forum, Inglewood, CA. USA 18th January 1973 Special benefit concert for the Nicaraguan earthquake victims (79:54) 01. Intro 02. Brown Sugar 03. Bitch 04. Rocks Off 05. Gimme Shelter 06. Route 66 07. It’s All Over Now 08. Happy 09. Tumbling Dice 10. No Expectations 11. Sweet Virginia 12 You Can’t Always Get What You Want 13. Dead Flowers 14. Stray Cat Blues 15. Live With Me 16. All Down The Line 17. Rip This Joint 18. Jumping Jack Flash 19. Street Fighting Man