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Jun 30, 2015 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

One of the best reissues projects around these days is The Rolling Stones’ From the Vault series. The latest DVD/CD package is the last show of the band’s 1971 UK tour, played for an intimate group of guests at London’s Marquee Club, just prior to the band’s releasing Sticky Fingers and decamping to France for tax shelter and the recording of Exile on Main St.

After opening with “Live With Me,” Ian Stewart’s piano-intro kicking he band off, the Stones reach new heights. “Dead Flowers” is a revelation, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards singing to the same mic as Mick Taylor delivers powerful, stinging guitar lines. “I Got The Blues” is Jagger at his blues finest, with dynamic vocal and the wailing saxophone of Bobby Keys. “Let It Rock” finds Richards taking lead guitar and looking completely delighted to blast through the Chuck Berry classic. “Midnight Rambler” is epic, and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is completely transformed, with Jagger tinkering with the melodic line and Keys augmenting the arrangement with sax.

Four songs from Sticky Fingers are played on this night; the band closes with “Bitch” and “Brown Sugar,” the tracks that cemented its at-the-time forthcoming album in beautiful infamy. Augmented here with a few alternate takes of “I Got The Blues” and “Bitch,” as well as a performance of “Brown Sugar” on Top of the Pops in 1971, the concert proper is only eight tracks long. But it explodes like a powder keg. (www.rollingstones.com) (www.eagle-rock.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10