Rolling Stones - 'Handsome Girls - '78 Tour' & 'Some Girls Alternatives and Outtakes'

In the early 1970s, it seemed there was no band to challenge the Rolling Stones in their undisputed supreme reign of fame and staying power in the rock world.  But the music business is fickle, styles and trends change.  By the later 1970s, disco was in, and the Stones were out.  Punk rock was in, and the Stones were out.  The new trends and fashions moved away from the classic British rock super-bands like Led Zeppelin and the Who, and, as a result, a new generation of fans considered the Rolling Stones ancient, obsolete, aging dinosaurs, no longer dangerous and no longer relevant.

Disco music, dominated the record charts and radio airplay.  The Rolling Stones had not been on the AM radio singles charts and receiving airplay (FM radio, not withstanding) since “Fool to Cry” in April 1976.  Further still, the Stones did not play disco music, so disco fans considered their sound old and timeworn, and accordingly, they were left out of the then new dance scene.  Disco was the big thing in the nightclubs and nightlife, Punk rock was the new thing in the rock music scene, and both of these new trends were decidedly and absolutely against the Rolling Stones.

The Stones being pioneers of both raw rock music and the juvenile delinquent posturing that defines the true essence of the punk rockers; they were in fact the original punk rock band in the early 1960s.  They also knew a thing or two about making music you can dance to (most of their catalog), so in the true stride of legends, when the chips were down, they went into the studio and recorded a modern rock masterpiece that could not be ignored.

With the 1978 'Some Girls' album, they returned to their basic raw rock music roots and the Andrew Loog Oldham inspired bad boy image that made them figures of infamy and notoriety in the 1960s. 

The cover was designed by Peter Corriston with illustrations by Hubert Kretzschmar

The album 'Some Girls' melded the best influences of both disco and punk music, an absolute rock blockbuster that went straight to number one on both British and American charts.  The single "Miss You" went straight to number one on both British and American charts as well, overtaking many of the latest, most prominent disco singles in popularity and air-time.  Oh, and I forgot to mention Country music, the B-side of "Miss You" was "Far Away Eyes", which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1978.  A hit Disco song and hit Country song on the same album, only the "Glimmer Twins" could pull that off.

'Some Girls' was a smash hit record that shook the rock world and reestablished the Rolling Stones as a powerhouse rock band and a musical force to be reckoned with.  It brought the Rolling Stones right back into the mainstream, they were back on top. 

'Some Girls' went beyond platinum and became the biggest selling record of their career up to that point, in 2024 it's their 4th best-selling non compilation album.

The album was issued on June 9, 1978, and, the following day, the Rolling Stones set out on a summer tour to promote it, a tour designed to create hysteria by way of exclusivity, a tour that would be very different from any they had ever done before.

The 1978 US tour was put together very quickly in light of the fact that Keef was facing a lengthy prison sentence in Toronto on heroin trafficking charges.  The Stones were in no shape to go on the road.  Mick Jagger was emaciated, rundown and burned out from the rock star lifestyle, specifically from his overuse of cocaine [it's a helluva drug - Ed.].  Keef was in much worse shape than Mick, and trying to kick his heroin habit with a wide range of pharmaceuticals, Jack Daniel's and coke (no, not cola).  On top of that, Ronnie, Bill and Charlie were all snorting coke and drinking copious amounts of alcohol as well, especially Ronnie. [It was 1978, after all. - Ed.]

"Y'all got cocaine eyes"

At the start of the tour, only twelve dates were actually booked.  On this tour, the Rolling Stones intended to go back to their roots, back to rock and roll basics, and back to the simplicity of club and theater shows as an alternative to the large sports arenas and huge football stadiums that they had been playing in since 1969.

I saw the June 14th show at The Capitol Theatre, in Passaic, New Jersey, and the June 19th show at The Palladium, in Manhattan (both venues were 3,000-seaters).  Both shows were interesting, as they weren't greatest hits shows, as the Stones played almost all the 'Some Girls' album.

It's kind of strange with the '78 tour that it's not often mentioned in Stones books, not mentioned in the 25x5 documentary and other Stones documentaries.  It's like a "lost tour".

The first of today's freeloads is 'Handsome Girls - '78 Tour', which is a four CD box set bootleg of The Rolling Stones from our friends at The Swingin' Pig label.  The first two CD's include the entire Forth Worth show (which is also in the King Biscuit archives).  CD's 3 and 4 have pretty much every song broadcast from the 1978 tour, plus a few soundboard recordings that never made it to air.

Next up is 'Some Girls Alternatives and Outtakes', which is a 2CD set.  CD1 is alternate versions of the released studio album, and CD2 is outtakes.  The outtakes on CD2 are the original outtakes, some with the original lyrics, as opposed to the ones that are on the 'Some Girls Deluxe Edition' that were reworked and overdubbed in August and September 2011.

For the freeload, tell us what you were doing in 1978.