Search - The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus on DVD

Worth seeing just for The Who

Adam Risch | Silver Spring, Md. | 05/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This tape is worth buying just for The Who's performance of "A Quick One While He's Away", which has got to be one of the greatest live performances of a single rock song ever. Unfortunately, it's followed by Yoko Ono's impersonation of a rusty fence gate as well as a subpar performance by the Stones. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" sounds like it's being played in slow motion, and on "Sympathy for the Devil", an obviously full-of-himself Mick Jagger seems to be more interested in mugging for the cameras then he does in actually performing the song. I've always thought that the Stones were one of the most overrated live acts in rock; and after watching them follow the Who here, it's easy to see why Jagger did not want to release the tapes.



Anyway, besides The Who, there are also some good performances by Jethro Tull (although I've read that their performance of "A Song for Jeffrey" is not entirely live?) and The Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards & Mitch Mitchell deliver a fine performance of "Yer Blues" before being joined by Yoko Ono and violin player Ivry Gitlis; it's amusing to watch Gitlis smirk as Yoko screeches over the top of their jamming). Marianne Faithful and Taj Mahal also perform, but to be honest I found them both to be forgettable.



Aside from the performances, I think this tape is interesting as a snapshot of the time (December, 1968). You get to see a number of rock legends in their prime, and even though not all of them deliver great performances, it's still fascinating to watch."

Rock and Roll In Its Element

A music fan | somewhere in Maryland | 11/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I already owned the Circus on CD when I saw the DVD on offer here. I didn't hesitate a second. I only saw the Stones live twice (they haven't been the Stones for a loooong time now), and as this film makes clear, they are anything but an arena rock band, something the last three decades have for the most part stuck them with being. The Rock and Roll Circus, if nothing else, shows by its example how bad an idea musically arena rock was, regardless its benefits to democratic plebeian rock fans who actually get to see shows thanks to the added seats. When one thinks of it, one wonders: if this had been released immediately, as was the original intent, might we all be watching rock shows under the big top today?



Don't know, but this may account for some of the things I've heard about the Stones' performance, particularly about Mick's. It appears to be Received Wisdom that The Who torched the Stones at this gig. I'd certainly never be one to denigrate the Who's diamond-hard rendition of "A Quick One," clearly superior in my mind to the one on the expanded "Live At Leeds." There may never have been a live band to match the Who, when they had it going as they clearly did here. The Who are the punk gods of White Middle-Class Outcast Rage. Daltrey punches up his lyrics --- literally, with his fists and the mic -- with a palpaple physical anger, which each of the other band members equals in his own way. The sterling quality of the music they managed to put out while emoting like this is one of rock's Seven Wonders, and it would be hard to come up with the other Six.



But in my humble, the Stones give them a major run for their money here. Mick's performance, often panned as over the top, is from my view classic Mick, all the way through. He has his awkward moments, for sure. The Stones were playing a new music now, demanding a different onstage group persona from the songs they'd played before screaming teens in the mid-sixties, and the Circus shows Mick trying it on for size. He pops a couple of stitches and loses a button or two (and, of course, pulls off his shirt), but he succeeds, in the end, grandly. As Pete Townshend puts it in his interview here, Jagger's the only Circus musician to be looking through the camera at an audience 30 years down the road. Watch him; Townshend's right. I've been a Stones fan for more than 30 years, and I think that if you want to see the Stones doing what only they can - could once - do, this DVD may be the best place. It's at least one of them. If you are a Mick Jagger connoisseur in particular, this performance is essential. (Same for The Who; same for John Lennon.) It shows much of the arena posturing Mick's been doing for the last 30 years for the hollow sendup of himself that it is. And remember that the Stones - including among their number the key organizer of the event as lead singer - came on at the scrag end of what college kids would call an all-nighter; the Who were not only fresh from the road but nowhere near normal bedtime when they went on.



Brian Jones? I was prepared from reviews I read here for a real zombie, but I have to give the man some credit. (Actually, lots, given his state at the time.) The CD credits him, but you have no idea from the sound alone what he's playing. His guitar does seem turned down to the point of inaudibility on "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want," to the extent that I originally thought that Keith was the only guitarist on those numbers. Now that we can see it, though, there's no question who's playing that delicious slide lead on "No Expectations." Brian still had enough to contribute, much more than the maracas he's handed for "Sympathy for the Devil," which makes what was going on in the band at the time, and what happened to him only months later, all the sadder.



Keith Richards holds that the band just expected more of their performance; they were disappointed, and as he puts it in his voice-over commentary, a bit harsh on themselves and ignorant of the significance of the event notwithstanding the performances. So, they shelved it. And Keith says they eventually were sorry they did.



Jethro Tull, so far as I can tell, was the only act (other than Marianne Faithfull) to perform over a backing track. This need arose, apparently, when the departure of Mick Abrahams shortly before the Circus forced Tull to press future Black Sabbath metalmeister Tony Iommi into service as the session guitarist. (Interestingly, the CD credits Abrahams and makes no mention of Iommi.) As Ian Anderson reveals, an "industrial accident" had forcibly removed a few of Iommi's fingertips, making him, apparently, unsuited for the more subtle filigrees of the evolving Tull guitar style. In addition, the close-on harmonica and flute parts Anderson had put on the record version were impossible to duplicate live; bassist Glen Cornick thus winds up wearing a Dylan-style harp holder while he "plays" over the harp track. That was, apparently, the only lip-synching; according to his own testimony, Anderson both sang and played his own way through the song. (And if he's lipping, he's doing one heckuva job.) It is significant that -- again other than Faithfull's -- Tull's song is the only one that sounds pretty much like the album version.



Performances (OK, Yoko, if you call that a performance and John agrees, so will we) aside, this is incredible fun, one heck of a period piece, and stuffed as well with great still photographs and voice-over comments from key participants. One word of warning: unless you are much more of a pro than I am at adapting your remote to the nuances of a particular DVD, getting at those nifty additions (and turning them off) will, well, give you some moments.



Suffer them. They are worth it in ways that rare experiences just are.



And one more note: if you don't have the CD, you might want it too. Not only is the music good enough to survive in your car; the deluxe booklet that comes with it features several photos (and two bangup articles by eyewitness David Dalton) that you can't get with the DVD."