Last night
The Rolling Stones kicked off
a celebration
of their 50th Anniversary at the 02 Arena in London, where they filled
the 23-song performance with rarities and guest spots. One of those
guests was former Stones guitarist
Mick Taylor
who joined the band in 1969 before resigning in 1974. Yet yesterday
wasn’t the first time Taylor performed with his old mates since he quit
as he sat in for a large part of the Stones’ December 14, 1981 show at
the Kemper Arena in Kansas City.
Taylor was in Kansas City for a gig with Alvin Lee leading to his
guest spot at the Kemper. Ronnie Wood explained in his autobiography,
“On the ’81 tour in Kansas City, we heard that Mick Taylor was in town
we invited him up on stage for a few numbers. Perhaps the reunion over
excited him. He seemed to refuse to realize how much the band had
changed since his departure. He shocked us with how loud he was blasting
it. Bulldozing through parts of songs that should have been subtle,
ignoring the breaks and taking uninvited solos. And the volume! I
thought me and Keith play loud, but he was easily three times louder
than us. I was standing next to him, passing along messages from Keith
who would say, ‘Tell that @#$%& to turn it down!’ I was a little
more diplomatic: ‘Um, Mick, the song is finished’ or ‘It’s in E, not F.’
Afterwards, Keith told me, ‘It’s a good thing you were standing in
between us or I’d have flattened him.’ But he’s a lovely man and it was
great to see him.”
Rolling Stones @ Kemper Arena – December 14th, 1981
Set: Under My Thumb/When The Whip Comes Down/Let’s Spend The Night
Together/Shattered/Neighbours/Black Limousine/Just My Imagination/
Twenty Flight Rock/Going To A Go Go/Let Me Go/Time Is On My Side/ Beast
Of Burden/Waiting On A Friend/Let It Bleed/You Can’t Always Get What You
Want/Band introduction/Little T & A/Tumbling Dice/She’s So
Cold/Hang Fire/Miss You/Honky Tonk Women/Brown Sugar/Start Me Up/
Jumping Jack Flash/Satisfaction
Note: With special guest Mick Taylor on guitar. Probably from Black Limousine
up to You Can’t Always Get What You Want and also on Satisfaction
[Info via Complete Works of The Rolling Stones]
Despite what Wood said, the soundboard recording that circulates
tells a different story. When you can make out Taylor’s guitar licks, he
adds to the songs, he doesn’t take away from them. Mick T. stayed on
stage during a number of tunes from after his tenure in the group and he
must’ve turned his volume down as you can’t hear his distinctive tone
on those songs. Taylor especially shines on You Can’t Always Get What
You Want.
Head over to Soundaboard to download the liberated soundboard bootleg “Mick Taylor, We Love You and We’ll Always Do” in either FLAC or MP3 format.
