The Rolling Stones – Live At Leeds (Live 1982)
Live At Leeds (Live 1982) (2012)
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1. Under My Thumb 2. When The Whip Comes Down 3. Let’s Spend The Night Together 4. Shattered 5. Neighbors 6. Black Limousine 7. Just My Imagination 8. Twenty Flight Rock 9. Going To A Go-Go 10. Let Me Go 11. Time Is On My Side 12. Beast Of Burden 13. You Can’t Always Get What You Want 14. Band Intros 15. Little T&A 16. Angie 17. Tumbling Dice 18. She’s So Cold 19. Hang Fire 20. Miss You 21. Honky Tonk Women 22. Brown Sugar 23. Start Me Up 24. Jumpin’ Jack Flash 25. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
From the European leg of the same tour Hampton Coliseum was drawn from, so there’s not really all that much reason for them to release this. Other than the fact that there are approximately 27 people in the world, including myself, who love the ’81-’82 touring era so damn much we could listen to shows from it all day and night. But that’s a pretty small portion of the market, you know? I’ve come to expect smarter business decisions from Mick at this point. Then again, maybe they chose this show just so they could call it Live At Leeds and confuse three or four people trying to buy the Who album enough that they would buy this instead. Every cent counts, dammit!
OK, even though the setlist is virtually identical to the one on Hampton (the only differences are that they dropped “Let It Bleed” and “Waiting On A Friend” and replaced them with “Angie,” which is hilarious because that’s about the last song this iteration of the Stones was equipped to play), there is enough to distinguish the shows to make them essential additions to any hardcore Stones fan’s treasured collection of Tattoo You tour recordings. (Would it make me a hipster if I said the bootleg Now We Need You More Than Ever of the show at ’81 Seattle show is better than either of the official Google Music thingies? Well, it is, so deal with it). For one, Live At Leeds documents the very last show of the tour, at Roundhay Park in Leeds, so it’s a bit more bombast to it, which inevitably creeps in at the end of any long tour. And although this show is still coke-fueled (in fact, they’re playing even faster here than they did on Hampton) and dominated by going-in-eight-directions-at-once guitar playing, it actually sounds like the band spared a few minutes on actually, you know, arranging the songs instead of just brutishly plowing through them. The playing is overall more controlled than it was on the American leg of the tour, probably owing to the influence of Bobby Keys, who joined the Stones on tour for the first time since ’73, and Chuck Leavell, who signed on to replace Ian McLagen as the second keyboards and who has been with the band ever since. Musical discipline isn’t exactly the reason I love this tour, but I can’t complain about the sharper focus of the guitar licks or that cool little double sax riff in “Black Limousine.” (I can and will, however, complain about Leavell’s icky 80s synths on “Miss You”). Hell, even Woody is somewhat lucid and plays a few nice solos to boot.
Song-wise, like I said, this thing is pretty much exactly the same as Hampton, so for further analysis on those matters, allow me to direct you to my review of Hampton Coliseum (Live 1981). For further analysis on noted douchenozzle Dan Snyder desperately clinging to the enshrinement of a racist moniker with all his might, allow me to direct you below.
