An “awesome” collaboration between music legends The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder has delighted fans.
Their performance of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction has thrilled listeners, who say the music legends’ collaboration is nothing short of mesmerising. A performance of the song from 1972 has since been uploaded to YouTube, where fans of the Superstition hitmaker and the Mick Jagger-fronted band heaped praise on the performance. Wonder had been performing as the opening act on The Rolling Stones’ American tour in ’72, and joined the band on stage for a wild and wonderful cover. Some fans consider it the “best arrangement” of the song to date, while others were simply blown away by the cover.
One fan writing in the YouTube comments of the performance wrote: “Stevie Wonder was the opening act at Winterland, San Francisco, June 1972 for the Rolling Stones. My high-school graduation present to me. It was a blast dancing to Stevie and the Rolling Stones. We actually had room and could dance to the music.”
Another remembers the performance well, adding: “I was there too and danced on the sub stage because I had a backstage pass given to me by someone who worked for Bill Graham. When the music started, a sea of humans rolled down from all corners of Winterland Auditorium, and that included me. Wish there was more of this magical moment on video, but glad some of it was recorded.”
A third shared: “Can’t believe I was there too. Stevie basically stole the show. Winterland only held 5000 people, like a house concert compared to the huge stadium shows to follow. And Bobbie Keys on saxophone!”
Others were thrilled by the “awesome” horn section which features on the song. A thrilled fan shared: “That horn section is awesome. So glad there’s some footage of this. Bobby Keys and Jim Price and the gorgeous Mick Taylor rocking. Stevie can put on a show.”
Another highlighted just how “amazing” it was to see Wonder and The Rolling Stones share the stage together. One fan wrote: “My God, what an amazing moment in music history!” A second viewer added: “Great show. I still have my ticket stubs. Fifty years ago, wow…”
Fans were thrilled by the memories of this wild American tour, with Prince having also opened for the band. The Rolling Stones had to coax Prince back onto the tour, however, when a rowdy crowd booed him off the stage. Recalling the incident, bass guitarist Brown Mark said it was the “crazied thing I had ever seen” with the crowd throwing food at the band.
He said: “Next thing I noticed was food starting to fly through the air like a dark thunder cloud. Imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other; it was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken; then my guitar got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys.”
Despite promoter Bill Graham attempting to calm the situation, Prince and his band were left with no choice but to leave partway through their performance of Uptown. The legendary performer would play just four songs to the crowd, and Prince vowed not to return to the follow-up show two days later.
Speaking in 1983, Jagger confirmed he understood how Prince felt but told him that if he did become a headliner in future, getting chickens and debris thrown at him would be all part of the performance.
Jagger said: “I talked to Prince on the phone once after he got two cans thrown at him in L.A. He said he didn’t want to do any more shows. God, I got thousands of bottles and cans thrown at me! Every kind of debris. I told him, if you get to be a really big headliner, you have to be prepared for people to throw bottles at you in the night.” You can watch Wonder and The Rolling Stones’ performance of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction below.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
