The Rolling Stones - West Australian Cricket Ground, Perth, Australia, 2-24-1973

A couple of days ago, the Rolling Stones released a deluxe edition of their 1973 album "Goat's Head Soup." I haven't posted a stray tracks album of that era yet, because I've been waiting for some songs from this new release. I'll get to that eventually. But in the meantime, to celebrate this release, here's something else from the band from 1973.

In my opinion, the Rolling Stones in concert were at their peak in the early 1970s, while Mick Taylor was the band's lead guitarist. He left the band in 1974, so arguably 1973 is the peak of the Taylor years, since the band had the biggest repertoire of songs to draw from shortly before he left. (They toured in 1973, but not in 1974.) The most famous concert recording of the band from that year is called "The Brussels Affair." It was a very popular bootleg for decades, then was officially released in 2011. It's been included in the "Goat's Head Soup" deluxe edition as well.

That's a great concert. But I think this bootleg from Perth, Australia, is just as good. The set list is very similar, and both recordings are soundboards. But one sonic advantage this one has is that very little of the crowd can be heard. It's nice to hear some crowd response at the end of each song. But sometimes it's nice to have the clarity of the music and the banter between songs without the crowd noise.

The one flaw with this recording that probably stopped it from being more popular is that the last two songs were not included. The recording actually ends right as the third to last song, "Rip This Joint," finishes. All of that song is included, but nothing immediately afterwards. However, I've added the missing last two songs. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of where they came from. (If anyone can figure it out, please let me know.) But I'm sure it was from another 1973 concert, probably from that same Australian leg of the tour.

01 Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)
02 talk (Rolling Stones)
03 Bitch (Rolling Stones)
04 Rocks Off (Rolling Stones)
05 talk (Rolling Stones)
06 Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
07 talk (Rolling Stones)
08 Happy (Rolling Stones)
09 talk (Rolling Stones)
10 Tumbling Dice (Rolling Stones)
11 talk (Rolling Stones)
12 Love in Vain (Rolling Stones)
13 talk (Rolling Stones)
14 Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones)
15 talk (Rolling Stones)
16 You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones)
17 Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones)
18 All Down the Line (Rolling Stones)
19 talk (Rolling Stones)
20 Midnight Rambler (Rolling Stones)
21 talk - Happy Birthday (Rolling Stones)
22 Little Queenie (Rolling Stones)
23 talk (Rolling Stones)
24 Rip This Joint (Rolling Stones)
25 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Rolling Stones)
26 Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701041/TROLLNGSTNES1973_WstAustrlinCricktGrundPrthAustrlia__2-24-1973_atse.zip.html

For the album cover art, I used a poster for the band's Australian leg of their 1973 tour. I thought it was more interesting than a photo of the band on stage. The poster was rectangular, as most posters are. I had to crop it pretty dramatically to get it into a square shape. In order to get all the most interesting parts to fit, I moved the text of the band's name down some. I also added the text at the bottom.