Back in March 1977 in Toronto, the future of the band was really in the stars. Not because Jagger and Richards temporarily lost themselves in vanities and egos before the Blues Brothers gang triumphed again. No, Keith was held in the Harbor Castle Hotel without a passport after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found a lot of heroin on him and therefore assumed “the purpose of trafficking”. Just a few weeks earlier, in London, Richards had got away with being fined for a bit of cocaine. But now jail threatened for more than one night, this time it seemed really serious. Too bad he actually only came to Toronto to play a little bit.
Jagger even sings properly again and doesn’t focus on swallowing final syllables
What the Stones then actually did between arrest, bail and court date: Two evenings at El Mocambo in front of around 300 lucky people who, after a radio contest, had believed that April Wine would be the headliner, not the opening act advertised as The Cockroaches. The Stones wanted to generate more material for a live album, as a flashback to the blissful rhythm’n’blues cover days in London’s Crawdaddy, as a credibility contrast to the usual arena shows of the time. And so, in 1977, side 3 of the double album “Love You Live” was born: “Mannish Boy”, “Crackin’ Up”, “Little Red Rooster”, a furious “Around And Around”. Now the rest of it is also official.
It has it all, as a complete recording of the second show plus three tracks from the first. Although the flashback isn’t as extensive as it might have been. Because Richards’ drug malaise had consequences for the Mocambo program in that not as much rehearsal as had been hoped could be done. That’s why many of the usual suspects were allowed to do it again, plus the then current “Black And Blue” repertoire: “Hand Of Fate”, “Hot Stuff”, “Fool To Cry”, the Billy Preston feature “Melody”. Only “Route 66” and “Worried Life Blues” expand the ancestral gallery.
Nobody would have complained if this club set had been released instead of “Love You Live” back then
Add to that the live debut of “Crazy Mama”, in which Ron Wood once wanted to be an Allman Brother, or an otherwise hardly played, frenetic “Dance Little Sister”. “Some Girls” has not yet sent a harbinger. Instead, the stage premiere of “Worried About You”, which was only immortalized on “Tattoo You”, awaits in a pleasantly unfinished eight-minute version, somewhat unfortunately placed at the very end.
Jagger – in the mix nicely immersed in an often unleashed band rather than dominating it – even sings properly again and doesn’t focus on swallowing final syllables. He’s having his fun anyway: handing out sarcastic pats for the journalists at the front table. Announces poor Charlie as a jazz drummer who only does it with the Stones for the money. And: If you later want to share a room with percussionist Ollie Brown, you have to take your mom with you. Despite occasional slacks (“Let’s Spend The Night Together”) nobody would have complained if this very lively club set had been released back then instead of “Love You Live”.
Only two questions remain: Why is “Happy” missing even though it was on the set list at least on the second night? Maybe Keith, this one was sans
Vocal spot stays, understandably not afterwards. Above all, however, one would like to know: What might Margaret Trudeau, the wife of the then incumbent Canadian Prime Minister, have thought in the front row when Mick Jagger repeatedly threw “You’re a starfucker, that’s what you are” at her
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