St. Louis
Sunday, July 9 (2 shows)
A tapeless Kiel Auditorium performance has
long been acknowledged and mourned by STP fans, but now we must double our
sorrow and yearning, for St. Louis actually received a previously unregistered
second (afternoon) show that worsens the present-day boot gap. And like the eerily similar “missing
matinee” in Denver, the St. Louis instance need not have lurked unchronicled
for so long; once again, ready clues in the national press should have tipped
our Stones “authorities” to dig a little deeper than STP and the
Pashe-Monck tour ad for the complete 1972 concert itinerary.
The four publications assembled here offer
ironclad written and photographic evidence that the Stones played two shows (2
p.m. and 8 p.m.) in St. Louis, and I will not bother to recite all the clear,
corroborating references in the clippings now; the scans speak loudly enough as
they are. Beyond these local outlets,
even Rolling Stone itself (August 3, 1972) contains a
contemporaneous reference to the Kiel double-header:
Ten days
later on a hot Sunday in St. Louis, Mick Jagger is resting between
shows in
his hotel room with the TV set turned on and the sound turned off,
and news
reports about the Democratic Convention flicker across the screen.
Note that Jagger is
not resting “before the show” or “after the show” (singular) but “between
shows” (plural). Another national
publication, the trade magazine Amusement Business, also recapped
the true Denver and St. Louis gig histories in a story (July 29, 1972) about
tour promoter Barry Fey:
Fey’s
Denver-based, Feyline Productions staged one concert at the Univ. of
New Mexico
in Albuquerque, two at the Denver Coliseum, one at the Kansas City
(Mo.)
Municipal Aud, a pair at Tarrant County (Texas) Convention Center, two
at Hofheinz
Pavilion in Houston and two at St. Louis’ Kiel Auditorium.
More recently, a
Stones retrospective in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (December 7,
1997) had this to say about the 1972 visit:
The Stones
are at the height of their creative powers, touring in support
of Exile
on Main Street. Six years after the group’s first visit here, the
days of
half-empty halls are over. The band quickly sells out one show at Kiel
and a
matinee performance is added.
With references like these, one wonders,
why did the second shows in Denver and St. Louis remain unlisted in our
published concert chronologies for so many years? Setting aside any comments on the quality and quantity of original
“research” that actually underpinned these concert registries, part of the
answer may lie in the fact that some shows were added to the tour after tickets
first went on sale. Remember the
exultant Stones insider in Hollywood who bragged, “Every night is a
sellout. We’ve even added matinees.”? Well, he was speaking the truth, as Peter
Rudge confirmed in a post-tour wrap-up for the media that was duly summarized
in various print outlets. (Amusement
Business put it this way: “Four shows were added after the original
tour had been set.”) Some of these
extra afternoon gigs occurred in large cities and were thus too easy to miss,
but the bonus performances in out-of-the-way Denver and St. Louis just slipped
under the radar and vanished for decades.
(Actually, it does not appear that the Denver matinee was a late
addition like the one in St. Louis; tickets for both Denver shows went on sale
at the same time. Still, it went
uncredited all the same. The other
three tacked-on matinees may have been in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New
York.)
In addition to establishing St. Louis as a
two-gig venue, the local reviews offer a sort of negative revelation, too,
casting serious doubt upon the long-held notion that the Stones and Stevie
Wonder debuted the Uptight/Satisfaction medley encore here. Karnbach himself, who failed to catch the
Kiel matinee, may be mistaken yet again when he asserts that July 9 “was the
first night Stevie Wonder joined the Stones onstage for the encore jam medley
of Uptight and Satisfaction that became a regular feature at the
end of the tour.” This statement
appears to derive from a lone reference in STP:
In St. Louis,
on the eighth day of July, the Stones try to make their ghetto
move for
ribs and barbecue only to have a limousine driver tell them, “You crazy?
No one goes
to East St. Louis. People don’t even walk there. They got snipers
just sittin
in the windows, waitin.” The band gets together with Stevie Wonder
and
together they rehearse an encore number consisting of Uptight and Satisfaction
played by
both bands, two drummers, horns-a-plenty and bongos, which is certain to
kill ‘em in
New York.
Keeping in mind that
Greenfield was not in St. Louis to witness any of these events, the crucial
word in this paragraph is “rehearse.”
In other words, the special encore was practiced privately but not
performed publicly, an explanation that is fully consistent with the local
press evidence. Tellingly, none of the
reviews here say a word about any surprise encore extravaganza involving
Wonder, Uptight, and Satisfaction, so it is highly unlikely that
the medley actually got its tour debut in St. Louis. As we will see, the true (and well-reported) premiere happened in
Detroit, although you would miss that fact by reading Karnbach’s treatment of
the matter; incredibly, his book fails to report the very obvious Motor City
playing of Uptight/Satisfaction at all.
Beyond revealing one extra show and
demolishing one fictive encore, the locals also manage to fill in most of the
matinee set and nearly half of the songs from the stronger nightcap. Both concerts apparently got the blueprint
fifteen (“the same songs in the same order”) and nothing more, although some
doubt lingers because two reviews cite Jumping Jack Flash as the final
afternoon song. (Was Jagger’s
self-described “afternoony” pacing an acknowledgement of a truncated set?)
Speaking of the early show, just what is
that odd pullover-like thing shown on Jagger in the Globe-Democrat
photo? Was it worn on any other STP
stage?
Finally, did the tough “no cameras” policy
here also thwart all would-be tapers? Sadly,
perhaps it did, since we have yet to hear an audience recording from either
show.
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1st show |
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St. Louis Globe-Democrat
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River City Review |
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Brown Sugar |
Brown Sugar |
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Bitch |
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Rocks Off |
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Happy |
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Tumbling Dice |
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Love In Vain |
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Sweet Virginia |
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YCAGWYW |
YCAGWYW |
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All Down The Line |
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Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
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JJF |
JJF |
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Jagger: “spangled tank-top shirt” Jagger: “rhinestone-studded black T-shirt and
glittering forehead” “set of roughly 15 songs” Opening: Stevie Wonder |
Jagger: “wearing jester pants, with an extra long
yellow sash, a body shirt and white tennis shoes” “no encore” Opening: Stevie Wonder |
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“The Stones and 37 friends and helpers arrived secretly Saturday at a private
airstrip. The black limousines that chauffeured them everywhere were waiting
to whisk the musicians, crew members, production personnel, accountant,
doctor, publicity man and other hangers-on to a posh restaurant for a late
dinner.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
“Sunday afternoon’s audience was predictably young and unpredictably placid –
almost bovine. They were the second wave: The zealots were the ones who
waited in line for the initially announced evening concert, and these were in
evidence by the time the first concert let out.” Outlaw:
“Mandy, eighteen with a lot of cervical miles: ‘No one jumped on stage to try
to go on Mick in the afternoon show. The whole crowd was really a bummer.’” St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
“But Jagger himself – over vodka and 7-Up in the Tudor Room of the
Sheraton-Jefferson - termed his
performance, ‘afternoony.’ ‘Well, you see, you’ve got to pace yourself,’ he
explained, his hair still wet from the afternoon workout and less than four
hours before he’d repeat the whole bit. He was dressed in a print shirt and
tight pink pants, and wore bells which tinkled as he walked.” |
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2nd show |
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
Outlaw |
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Gimme Shelter |
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Love In Vain |
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YCAGWYW |
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Midnight Rambler |
Midnight Rambler |
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Rip This Joint |
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JJF |
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SFM |
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Jagger: “a purple, velveteen, rhinestone-studded
jump suit opened to his waist” |
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Outlaw:
“Consensus says that the second show was much better than the first, also
that the audience was more responsive. Both shows followed a pattern, the
same songs in the same order.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
“Policemen on duty around Kiel entrances asked several persons to leave
cameras and other items with the officers, and pick them up at Central Police
Headquarters several blocks away. Some of the camera carriers said they were
newsmen, but could not furnish identification.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“Police officers stationed on the fifth floor of the Sheraton-Jefferson Hotel
for their three-day stay were amused at the many groupies who were paraded
into the rooms of various tour members.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
“The Stones are close friends – but on free days – such as Monday in St.
Louis will be – they fan out to pursue individual interests: Soul food
restaurants, museums, regular sightseeing, and photography.” |
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Selected
Press Clippings
River City
Review1 * 2 * 3 * 4
* 5
St. Louis
Globe-Democrat1 * 2 * 3
