The latest in Eagle Rock's excellent series of Rolling Stones archival releases, Some Girls Live in Texas '78 was filmed during the tour in support of the Stones' Some Girls album, which became the group's best-selling collection and is considered by many critics to be the last truly great album of the band's career.
The mainstream musical climate was changing at the end of the 1970s, with punk coming on strong and the beginnings of New Wave impacting, and this performance captures a band in transition, mixing the bluesy swagger of earlier tracks like "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Tumbling Dice" with the New Wave influence of "Shattered," the disco era, pre-rap strains of "Miss You" and the radio friendly "Beast of Burden," along with other tracks from Some Girls like "Respectable."
The performance itself has many strong spots. This was an era in which the Stones - who had featured a stage full of extra musicians on its previous tour, and would later turn into a virtual traveling circus show featuring a few members of The Rolling Stones - chose a stripped-down format, with minimal staging and a set list that focused on the type of fast, short, tightly-arranged songs that are the group's main strength.
Though Keith Richards had been busted for heroin just prior to the Some Girls album, he had not yet turned into the dead guitarist walking of later years, and he performs well here, along with then-relative-newcomer Ron Wood. The rhythm section of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman provide the trademark bottom end for the proceedings, while Mick Jagger is certainly an enegetic front man, albeit one with a penchant for some unfortunate costuming choices and somewhat silly onstage posing.
Jagger delivers his vocals well for the most part here, though as is his habit, he sometimes lets his dancing and posing get in the way of singing, particularly with his out-of-breath, virtually incomprehensible rendition of "Shattered," which leaves you wondering if he even knows the words to his own song. But he is at his best with a fresh-sounding "Miss You," fronting the band on rhythm guitar on "When the Whip Comes Down," and seated at the piano for the deliciously ironic country feel of "Far Away Eyes."
The bonus features include a new 2011 interview with Mick Jagger, in which he humorously - and accurately - describes his wardrobe from 1978 as "a joke in retrospect," consisting of "some nasty, cheap leatherette hats and some nasty, cheap colored jackets" mixed with some designer clothes. Jagger also candidly discusses the influences of punk, disco and New Wave on the Some Girls album, as well as his uncertainty about the band's future when Keth Richards was busted for heroin.
Other bonus content includes the Stones' appearance on Saturday Night Live, featuring a skit with Jagger and Dan Akroyd as well as a three-song performance that features an obviously ailing Jagger struggling to sing.
Some Girls Live in Texas '78 is an interesting look at The Rolling Stones in an important transitional period, as worthwhile historically as it is musically, and a valuable addition to the Stones repertoire.
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