Exactly forty-five years ago today, my husband Tom and I, along with a few friends, stood on top of rickety wooden folding chairs in the 20th row of the main floor of Chicago’s International Amphitheater for a couple of hours screaming our lungs out for the Rolling Stones. And Stevie Wonder, whom we had never seen before, was the warm up act!
To get our much sought after tickets, we had an inspiration and headed to the Sears in the heart of Chicago’s South Side where only a handful of folks were lined up at the box office vs. thousands on the North Side. Good thing it wasn’t Roberta Flack, Al Green, or Chuck Berry performing!
And as I wrote this and started counting back on my fingers, I realized that I was probably about 6 weeks pregnant with my first child at the time. I’m surprised I wasn’t throwing up through the entire concert.
No live album was released from the tour…the above YouTube video is one recorded by an audience member on the very night we attended. The tour grossed $4 million which in today’s dollars would be almost $24 million but at the time was record-breaking.
The standard set list for the tour was:
- “Brown Sugar“
- “Bitch“
- “Rocks Off“
- “Gimme Shelter“
- “Happy“
- “Tumbling Dice“
- “Love in Vain“
- “Sweet Virginia“
- “You Can’t Always Get What You Want“
- “All Down the Line“
- “Midnight Rambler“
- “Bye Bye Johnny“
- “Rip This Joint“
- “Jumpin’ Jack Flash“
- “Street Fighting Man“
- Encore: often none, sometimes “Honky Tonk Women“, a few times “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” / “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction“
Feels good to remember that this 73 year old woman had her moments! Proof that you CAN sometimes get what you want.
