Baltimore Or Less

By Sam Sessa (Baltimore Sun, November 27, 2009)

(Photo from Baltimore Sun archives)

With the help of archivist Paul McCardell, here is one more clip about the Rolling Stones’ 1969 appearance at the Baltimore Civic Center. This article, published on November 28, 1969, focuses more on the music and less on the violence:

Crowd Devastated by Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones devastated a sellout crowd at the Civic Center Wednesday night with basic, unsophisticated, harder-than-steel rock.

The show started an hour late, and was not helped appreciably by the appearance of Terry Reid, a British singer who looked and sounded like the Artful Dodger of “Oliver Twist.”

But the pace quickened with B.B. King and his band, who showed a together audience where Mick and the Stones got some of their roots …

Rubber-bodied and plastic-faced, Mick Jagger opened the Stones act with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and “an old, old one,” “Carol,” an early Chuck Berry thing.

‘Everybody Dance’
I’ve never been run over by a locomotive, but I know now what it sounds like — “Midnight Rambler,” which with its clean breaks made Terry Reid’s blues piece sound like kindergarten singing.

Toward the end, Jagger said he was tired of dancing alone and asked the audience to shake theirs a little too.

“Everybody dance, everybody — policemen too,” Jagger said. He asked the police and audience to respect each other.

The audience rose and the Stones tore into “Queenie,” another Berry tune, “Satisfaction” and “Honky Tonk Women.”

Earlier, King, the blues king, had asked people to get together. By the end, they were.

Each of the Stones was superb. Mick Taylor, who replaced the late Brian Jones, drove good rhythm and lead guitar. Charlie Watts, on drums, Bill Wyman, on bass, and Keith Richards, on guitar, played their usual thing — great.

By Sam Sessa (Baltimore Sun, November 27, 2009)

This week in 1969, the Rolling Stones performed a sold-out show at the Baltimore Civic Center (now called the 1st Mariner Arena).

Now, 40 years later, here is The Baltimore Sun’s recount of the show. There were fistfights and at least one karate chop to the throat, but somehow, no one was arrested. Oh, and the Stones played.

Rolling Stones Rock Civic Center
The shrieks of thousands of young females filled the Civic Center last night as the Rolling Stones, the English rock group, brought their brand of the electric apocalypse to Baltimore.

Mick Jagger, the head Rolling Stone, pranced out on the stage dressed in a red scarf, silver collar and a black costume amid the hysterical roar of the 13,000 persons who filled the Center to capacity …

Continue reading “Rolling Stones in Baltimore” at baltimoresun.com.