From time to time I’ll explore a classic live album from a band that was at the peak of their career, at least up to that point. This episode will focus on “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” – The Rolling Stones in Concert by The Rolling Stones. If you need a refresher. Check out:
· Episode One: Scorpions / World Wide Live
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out is the Stones’ second live album. It was recorded in November 1969 at tour stops in New York City and Baltimore. This was a pivotal time for the Stones, fresh off the death of their recently-fired guitarist and founding member Brian Jones, and their first tour with Mick Taylor on guitar. The incredible Let it Bleed album was in the can and was released in the midst of these shows.
The original version of Ya-Ya’s had ten songs. While the release was heavily overdubbed, and every verse/solo/note/word that was fixed has been documented, it still manages to present the Stones at their drugged-out rawest, playing to crazed, equally-stoned fans across the US, and careening towards the west coast. A 40th Anniversary edition was released in 2009 that includes some extra tracks and a very cool extra disc of supporting band tracks from B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner. The book is great and the bonus tracks are welcome, but a truly great set would have included complete versions of both MSG shows and the Baltimore show sans overdubs.
For this writer’s money, it’s the live version of “Midnight Rambler,” recorded on November 28th during the second show that day at Madison Square Garden, that is the definitive Rolling Stones “moment.” It captures everything that made the band great. The blues, the rock, the swagger, the sexuality, the swing, the drama… It’s the Jagger/Richards dynamic and Watts/Wyman backbone wrapped up into nine minutes of pure, sloppy rock and roll perfection. The GYYYO version isn’t on YouTube, but this one is great too:
The `69 tour, ending with a disastrous show at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco marred by a murder and repeated beatings of audience members at the hands of the Hell’s Angels, along with the death of Brian Jones a few short months earlier, signified not only the end of the Stones original lineup and their efforts chasing The Beatles up the charts and through their various phases, it also signified the end of the 60s itself. The British Invasion was history. Any good vibes around peace, love, and music that were left in the mud at Woodstock or in flowers stuck in long, blonde hair in Haight-Asbury were violently laid to rest at Altamont, and bodies would continue to pile up in the Stones wake for the rest of their lives. That tension is palpable on Ya-Ya’s, and especially in the film Gimme Shelter documenting that tour, including the events leading up to Altamont, footage of the concert and tragic stabbing, and the MSG shows Ya-Ya’s was taken from.
The music of the Rolling Stones only got better after Ya-Ya’s. Let it Bleed was the first of three masterpieces with Mick Taylor on Guitar, followed by Sticky Fingers in 1971 and peaking with the not-over-rated, Exile on Main Street in 1972. It’s arguably the greatest three-record stretch by any rock band ever. There have since been better live releases from this era – The Sticky Fingers Deluxe Edition has a fantastic `71 UK set (aka Get Your Leeds Lungs Out!) and Brussels Affair, from the Exile tour, available as a bootleg for decades, released officially in 2011, but Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out! was the first, official, live document from the Stone’s early 70s’ heyday. It’s a document from a pivotal time in the history of the Stones, of rock and roll, and of the USA.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
