The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, also known as the "Stones Touring Party", shortened to S.T.P.,[1] was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of the United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by the Rolling Stones. Constituting the band's first performances in the United States following the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, critic Dave Marsh would later write that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an era."[2]
Associated album
Naming[edit]
The official name of the tour was 'American Tour 1972'. The tour is also known as the "Stones Touring Party", shortened to S.T.P.,[1] derived from the laminates handed out by the management to crew, family, friends and press, granting access to the various areas at the concert venues and hotels. In 2015 Jose Cuervo in association with the Rolling Stones launched a brand of tequila with a marketing campaign based on one of the nicknames of the American Tour being the "Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour".[15]
Filming[edit]
No live album was released from the tour at the time, although one was planned as far as having a front and back cover designed and studio touch-ups being made on several recorded tracks. Eventually, the album was shelved due to contractual disputes with Allen Klein.
Two films of the tour were produced. The concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones! only saw a limited theatrical release in 1974. Aside from an Australian VHS release in the early 1980s, it was not officially available on home video until 2010. The film's complete soundtrack was released as an album by Eagle Records/Universal in 2017.
Robert Frank's Cocksucker Blues is a documentary shot in cinéma vérité style; several cameras were available for anyone in the entourage to pick up and start shooting backstage parties, drug use,[19] and roadie and groupie antics,[20] including a groupie in a hotel room injecting heroin.[21] The film came under a court order which forbade it from being shown other than in very restricted circumstances. The film has since surfaced online in various bootlegged versions of varying quality.[19][22]
Tour support acts[edit]
Stevie Wonder was the support act for the tour. Having released his groundbreaking Music of My Mind album in March 1972, Wonder would go on to release another epochal album (Talking Book) by year's end.[23] This placement, along with his hard-edged hit "Superstition" (released in October 1972), did much to increase Wonder's visibility to rock audiences. He and his band would also sometimes join the Stones at the end of the group's performance for an encore medley of Wonder's 1966 hit "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".
The standard set list for the tour was:
Additional songs performed:
The exact number of setlist variations are subject to ongoing research. Notably absent was anything from before 1968 in the Stones' catalog save for the occasional presence of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". This tour also marked the banishment of "Sympathy for the Devil", which had been wrongly associated with the killing at Altamont, from the band's American performances for much of the 1970s.
The tour grossed a then-record of $4 million (US$29,136,038 in 2023 dollars).[24][25] Although each band member netted roughly $250,000 (equivalent to $1.4 million today), Jagger was dissatisfied when he learned that Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant had secured a then-unprecedented 90/10 split of gross receipts in the group's favor on its contemporaneous North American tour.[26]