Description

Official Dutch tape. Clear cassette with grey texture. Catalouge number: 468135-4 Steel Wheels was, almost certainly, one of the hardest rocking Stones albums ever. Well, here it is live. Like a series of controlled nuclear explosions, these patron saints of all-things-good-about rock redefine live rock and shame every other concert band in the process. Just assume that every cut from Steel Wheels is better live, which they are, and further assume that Rock and a Hard Place is now, in its Flash Point iteration, the new standard for what can be accomplished with a guitar…and consider how this all segues into the most chilling (and savage) version Paint Black ever recorded (legally, at least). Long before anyone had ever heard of Reel Big Fish, the Stones were using brass sections as musical weapons, and that brutal application has never been more pronounced than on Rock and a Hard Place, but is also nicely employed on a ripping Sad, Sad, Sad. It may be with this album that the Stones perfectly demonstrate that brilliant song writing can be combined with brutal execution with compellingly sophisticated but savagely explosive results. Many fans consider this either their best live album or the second best (after the 1970 release Get Your Ya Yas Out). The album includes the UK single Highwire and the US single Sex Drive, both of which are studio tracks added to the live tracks from the tour. Flashpoint also includes what many people think is the best version they ever did of Little Red Rooster (it features Eric Clapton on lead). The tracks on the album were actually recorded at the following dates 25th of November 1989 in Jacksonville, 26th of November 1989 in Clemson, 19th of December 1989 Atlantic City and also during three dates in 1990, 26th of February in Tokyo, 14th of June Barcelona and 6th of July 1990 at Wembley (the last live performance with Bill Wyman). Steel Wheels featured blow up bimbos (named Angie and Ruby) during Honky Tonk Women (a song that already are many live versions of so it didn’t made it onto this album). Why the first-line rockers like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley became irrelevant is something of a mystery, but we owe them a debt of gratitude for getting the ball rolling. Rock was a childs game in those days, and it must have seemed odd to see adults playing it. Rock has matured since then, and there is nothing strange at all about watching Keith Richards smoke through some of the most celebrated music of the last 50 years. Rock isnt a childs game anymore, and on Flashpoint the Stones demonstrate, again, why they are rocks most celebrated veterans. Long live rock. Track listing: 1. Continental Drift 2. Start Me Up 3. Sad Sad Sad 4. Miss You 5. Rock And A Hard Place 6. Ruby Tuesday 7. You Cant Always Get What You Want 8. Factory Girl 9. Sex Drive-studio track 10. Cant Be Seen 11. Little Red Rooster 12. Paint It Black 13. Sympathy For The Devil 14. Brown Sugar 15. Jumpin Jack Flash 16. (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction 17. Highwire-studio track