How the Stones Captured the El Mocambo Shows for 'Love You Live' — and the Songs They Left Out

The Rolling Stones’ legendary surprise club gigs at Toronto’s El Mocambo in March 1977 are remembered partly because the band used their own Rolling Stones Mobile Studio to record the soundboard feed directly onto 24-track tape. The mobile unit was parked outside, capturing two full shows (one on March 4, another on March 5) while the band played a mix of classics and cover tunes under the name “The Cockroaches.” That raw live energy became the bulk of side four of the Love You Live double album, released later that year.

Not everything made the cut. The official release included “Let It Rock,” “All Down the Line,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Star Star,” “When the Whip Comes Down,” and “Brown Sugar.” But several performances from those nights were omitted: “Little Red Rooster,” “Reeling in the Years” (a cover of Steely Dan), “Route 66,” “If You Can’t Rock Me,” “Crackin’ Up,” “I’m a King Bee,” “Fingerprint File,” “Worried Life Blues,” “Confessin’ the Blues,” and an early version of “Miss You.” Some of these later surfaced on bootlegs and in the 2010 super-deluxe reissue of Some Girls, but the 1977 album stayed tight at six tracks from Toronto.