Some amazing unseen footage of the Rolling Stones performing on November 30th, 1969 in Florida at the West Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival has just been posted online by The Associated Press. The nearly 10-minute clip shows the band — along with then-road manager Sam Cutler — arriving at the Palm Beach International Raceway, with portions of six of the set's 13 songs — “Jumpin' Jack Flash,” “Stray Cat Blues,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Live With Me,” and “Little Queen.”
The West Palm Beach Show has been available on bootleg for years and took place the day after the original end of the Stones' historic 1969 North American tour. Following the tour's official wrap, the Stones performed at the festival and six days later played their infamous free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, which resulted in the murder of concert-goer Meredith Hunter by Hells Angel Alan Passaro.
On November 26th, 1969 the Stones met with the press in New York City with Mick Jagger and bassist Bill Wyman making light of their celebrity: (Reporter): Are you any more satisfied now, as far as your career goes? (wild laughter) (Mick Jagger): D'you mean sexually or, or philosophically? (Reporter): Both. (Jagger): I — yeah, we're more satisfied now sexually. (Bill Wyman): It depends on what happens tonight. (wild laughter) (Reporter): How about philosophically and financially? (Jagger): Financially — dissatisfied. Sexually — satisfied. Philosophically — trying.”
We asked Keith Richards to recall his life in and around the time of the band's golden period of the late-'60s into the early-'70s: “You ask other people that (laughs), y’know? You can’t describe your own wildness, but off and on, fairly (crazy). After all, you’re a bunch of guys that are just thrown into the deep end. Nobody else knew what to do. Nobody had been through situations like this. You had to make things up as you went along (laughs). It was fun.”