LIVE IN AKRON, RUBBER BOWL 1972

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. Jumping Jack Flash, 15. Street Fighting Man.

 

This new release presents the Stones 1972 Akron recording from a low generation tape. This concert was released on silver disc at first as Akron Rubber Bowl 72 (IMP 029) which was incomplete lacking Street Fighting Man and on cdr as Akron 72 copied from a tape of the same name; later a better version came out as part of Alabama Jubilee (VGP 306). Then it was released as Rubber Bowl 1972 (Sweet Records 71172) on cdr which was definitively the best version around and a great improvement of the VGP one, offering an audience high fidelity stereo recording of the show, as advertised on the back cover; it came with a free bonus DVD-R on the first copies that features The Old Grey Whistle Test 72 show and other assorted clips. Subsequently, Exiles in Rubber City (TCDRS 13) was released by Tarantura in 2012 using Freezer’s master as claimed on cover, this probably is what is referred to in the words of renowned taper Freezer who "received it in trade from original taper in the early 70s, then mastered it to cdr in 2002 and sent it to rollingstonesboots, a Yahoo trade group run by rmisra. It was then bootlegged with the life equalized out of it. It has been made available by a bootleg company which also added much hiss to their commercial silver release. It must be said that such version was soon copied as part of Touring Party vol.3 (DAC 126) coupled with Long Beach 72 and that recently has appeared on the market a no label cd called Rubber Bowl 1972 Revisited which is most likely using this version, although track listing features the Introduction and Band Introductions as separate tracks, the former is however missing here. Anyway, here is this 1^st generation copy, unprocessed, hoping no fool would decide to remaster it." Note that there are several PA cuts at the beginning of Tumbling Dice.

The sound is very crisp and clear, Nicky Hopkins piano can be heard throughout and Brown Sugar has good volume with the excited audience clapping in time; this recording is certainly the best from Akron 72 to have come out and it is really amazing how new versions pop up once in a while with such great new offerings that have remained hidden for almost 50 years, because despite this source had circulated in the past it was not so good sounding. Akron 72 has been considered a great hot show, although former recordings didn’t match the performance as far as sound quality. The band plays like a train from the starting song, it is funny that Jagger announces Rocks Off after the song is over, he seems to want to tell somebody the title of the song they just played which is the opening track of the album Exile on Main Street; a frantic version of Gimme Shelter follows with Taylor free to play his finest solo accompanied by an inspired Nicky Hopkins whose piano paves the way for the development of the song. Some PA problems happened at the beginning of Tumbling Dice with the sound that disappears on the first verses of the song with the disappointment of the attending fans. This is also one of the few 72 live recording which show clearly Charlie Watts drums, check Love In Vain for that. There is a cut right before the beginning of You Can’t Always Get What You Want, probably the cassette was turned in order to get the whole song recorded; it is great to hear through the whole song Nicky Hopkins piano fills as he is usually buried in the mix of almost any other 72 live recording, but here his playing can be appreciated as he follows and complements Taylor soaring solos. There is no edit glitch right before All Down The Line but there is a cut at 5.28 ( not at 5.19 like before) through Midnight Rambler, this could well be a marker; funnily at the end of the song a male voice close to the taper says Paint It Black, You Devil (not a female like on Ya Ya’s and Flashpoint disc). There is one of the shortest Jumping Jack Flash live versions around here with the clock that marks 3.45 minutes and after another small glitch Street Fighting Man starts, at its end then exploding fireworks can be heard. The Akron stage, we learn from some newspaper reports, was flanked by two large video screens showing closed circuit projections of the concert action, it will be a dream come true if some will pop up too in the future. This is another excellent tape recorded by a joeray, a taper that lost his master in 1973, but thanks to this liberated recording got back was is in fact a 1st generation copy.