The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
If you'd like to watch two engaging documentary films about one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, I recommend The Rolling Stones Rock and Rock Circus (1968) and Shine a Light (2008). The Rock and Roll Circus is kind of a variety show filmed in 1968 with Mick Jagger as the amiable host and co-star. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the film also features amazing performances from The Who, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull and Jethro Tull. There is also a very uncomfortable musical collaboration between John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Eric Clapton that has to be seen to be believed. This fun, time-capsule of the 1960's was meant to be aired by the BBC way back when, but Mick Jagger, ever the controlling creative director, waited until 1996 (almost 30 years later!) to release this gem allegedly because he believed that The Who's performance totally upstaged anything by The Rolling Stones. (Make sure you watch the deleted scenes, they are priceless.)
The Rolling Stones Shine a Light
Now we fling ourselves forward in time to 2008, 40 years later Martin Scorsese has created Shine a Light, another riveting documentary about the Rolling Stones. First of all, it's amazing that these guys are all still alive, much less still in top form. This is primarily a concert video with some footage at the beginning that is totally unnecessary. There is also some token vintage footage that is only interesting in that we get to see how young and cute Mick Jagger used to be in his 20's. But the concert footage is pretty exciting considering these guys have been hauling out the same material for 40 years. The Rolling Stones are: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Darryl Jones. (Bill Wyman quit the band in 1993.) One of the best features of this film is the inserting of Jack White, Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera who all give great performances with The Rolling Stones. Aguilera in particular lends a youthful feminine foil to Mick's mature (yet still rocking) performance.
The best part of viewing these films together is the contrast in time to the same subject matter. It almost reminds me of the Up series of documentary films by Michael Apted, who started filming 14 children in 1964, and then revisited them every seven years to re-film them and to observe their choices and progress in life. So rock out this winter with the Rolling Stones and enjoy the rock and roll time warp.
Official Rolling Stones website here.
