40 Year Itch : The Cock Rises

This is the first show of our tour so we're ...finding out what things we do good and what things we do terrible.

-Mick Jagger to fans

   On June 1, 1975 The Rolling Stones baptized their "Tour of the Americas '75" in Baton Rouge, introducing Ronnie Wood (who would officially become a member of the band in December), Billy Preston on keyboards and "Tired Grandfather", the band's nickname for a 15 foot inflatable phallus that wasn't always up for the show.

  As a Baton Rouge Advocate reporter wrote

"One of the stranger parts of the show is the appearance of a tall wind-blown bag of air resembling a male organ which rises from a trapdoor at the center of the stage."

   In 24 hours time, The Stones had rehearsed for six hours and played two two and a half hour shows, with The Meters opening. Next Stop: San Antonio. Which, thanks to an article in the Rupert Murdoch owned San Antonio News, would not be receptive to the cock. 

One of the highlights of the '75 tour was seeing how Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards played off each other, trading rhythm guitar licks and leads. As Richards explained to Rolling Stone's Chet Flippo:

"I mean, rhythm and lead are blurred because it gets past that. Someone strumming away in the background and someone else doing all the playing, it's way past that. We're just playing with each other. And we just click in together."  

 The band wasn't touring a new album, but their label released two compilations in June of 1975 that topped the Creem Magazine's readers poll for Best Reissues of the year.

1. Rolling Stones - Made In The Shade
 2. Rolling Stones - Metamorphosis
 3. Bob Dylan - Basement Tapes
 4. John Lennon - Shaved Fish
 5. Free - Best Of Free
 6. Yes - Yesterdays
 7. Elton John - Empty Sky
 8. Jeff Beck and The Yardbirds
 9. The Who - The Who Sell Out/A Quick One
 10. Chicago - Chicago IX, Chicago's Greatest Hits