The Rolling Stones Finally Release Their Legendary ‘El Mocambo 1977’ Small-Club Concert: Album Review
variety.comJem Aswad Senior Music EditorLike virtually every major rock act in the mid-1970s, the Rolling Stones had become bloated and overblown.
After the generation-defining singles of the ‘60s and the stellar string of albums running from “Beggars Banquet” to “Exile on Main Street,” they’d eked out three comparatively uninspired sets that, due to Keith Richards’ formidable heroin addiction and its multiple accompanying legal problems, found Mick Jagger seeking musical foils in guitarist Mick Taylor and then guest keyboardist Billy Preston.
Consequently, those albums — “Goat’s Head Soup,” “It’s Only Rock n’ Roll” and “Black and Blue,” the latter of which many fans consider a nadir in the band’s career — at times sounded more like fusiony rock or ‘70s funk than the Stones.
Their concerts had suffered as well, with their 1975-’76 sets meandering toward the three-hour mark, loaded with subpar songs from the above albums and even a dozen-minute, de facto intermission set from Preston.
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