I’ve got stuff going on this week and not much time to post, so here’s a quick one.
On this date in 1978, 90,000 tickets for a Bob Dylan show in London were sold in eight hours. Which reminds me of a pretty good line from a lifelong-Dylan-fan friend of mine who finally got to see Dylan live at some point in the early 80s. He observed that it was like seeing God, although God wouldn’t have sold out as fast.
On this date in 1972, the Rolling Stones released Exile on Main Street in the UK. (The official American release came a few days later). The album may have marked the peak of their extraordinary career, and was followed by one of their most fabled tours of the United States. The two-month odyssey attracted celebrity journalists, caused riots, and resulted in two films (Ladies and Gentlemen—the Rolling Stones and the never-released-but-widely-bootlegged Cocksucker Blues). The tour opened June 3 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and wound its way east, ending in New York on July 26. On eleven of the dates, the Stones played two shows in one day.
(Speaking of concerts: I’ve written a new post at WNEW.com—I actually wrote it one day last week, but the editorial wheels grind slowly over there—about classic rock concert cliches.)
It’s Pete Wingfield’s 60th birthday today—Wingfield is primarily known as a session musician with a diverse career, having played with Van Morrison, the Hollies, and Paul McCartney, among others. His songwriting portfolio is also diverse, ranging from “It’s Good to Be the King” for the Mel Brooks movie History of the World Part 1 to “Making a Good Thing Better,” a minor hit for Olivia Newton-John. Around here we dig him for his lone solo hit, “Eighteen With a Bullet,” which I’d post again today if I hadn’t posted it twice already.
Instead, I’m going to post an alternate version of one of my favorite tracks from Exile on Main Street. It was originally written in 1968 at about the time of Let it Bleed, and was rewritten by Mick Jagger as a tribute to Brian Jones after Jones died. It’s from the Stones bootleg Laid in the Shade.
“Shine a Light (Get a Line on You)”/Rolling Stones (bootleg; buy Exile on Main Street, if you’ve somehow managed to live this long without it, here)
Filed under: Today in History, Tracks
