The Stones themselves never really liked their performance at the Rolling Stones Rock N' Roll Circus in '68, and some have said The Who overshadowed them at their own gig, but I personally always loved The Stones' performance there. Jumpin' Jack Flash isn't played the best, but the rest of their short setlist is played amazingly IMO. Brian, even though his status in the band had diminished and his time left on Earth wasn't long, plays a beautiful slide on No Expectations--I prefer his performance of it at the Rock N' Roll Circus to the studio version, actually. And it was a beautiful swan song for the founding Stone. Sympathy is played I think for the first time, and it's done with incredible energy and probably  is probably the only live version of that song which is the closest to the studio version. It's more intense than the recorded version however. And I always preferred the rockier You Can't Always Get What You Want to the studio version....

One thing I do hate is how Brian's guitar was either buried in the mix or his amp was shut off on every song except for No Expectations. Low blow by the other guys.

The other acts range from great to "meh", and some of the other moments are legendary, like Mick and John Lennon's little sarcastic interaction or The Dirty Mac.

The Rock N' Roll Circus, along with the compilation Through the Past, Darkly, and my dad's vinyl record of Their Satanic Majesties' Request were my first real encounters with the Stones after hearing Paint It, Black at the end of the film The Devil's Advocate at age 7 in either late 1997 or early 1998 and falling in love with the song, so my opinion on The Rock N' Roll Circus may be colored with bias, but I do love it a lot.

What's your opinions on it?

Period piece that I go back and visit every couple of years or so.  :pullanolte

I'm going to dig out that ole' VHS.

with all due respect for our boys, this single clip represents everything i ever got into rock n roll for in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ku7QNRudg

maximum r & b!!!

R&R Circus has THE BEST SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL performance with MICK slithering on the floor and ripping his shirt off. It's totally hot. MICK in his prime, he looks so good with his long dark hair, pouty lips and MICK's piercing eyes stare directly into the camera, mesmorizing and tantilizing with each word out of his hot mouth. Yummiest MICK era for sure.

I love the entire DVD and I often showed it to my kids and their friends as a classic rock history lesson, they could not believe how young and fresh the band members were back then! Almost unrecognizable! The only part that is annoying is Yoko Oh No! Her music is way out there. Brian looks totally fvcked up out of his mind. I love the scene with John eating some noodles and hands MICK his dirty dish, MICK accepts his role as servant to John, its always stuck in my brain that John thought he was superior to MICK and back then MICKs ego was not so big. Interresting interaction between them. I can go on and on about R&R Circus, a snapshot in a very important time period in R&R History. It's amazing.

I revisit the dvd regularly and not just for the stones performance. Love the Dirty Mac but dislike Yoko screaming and carrying on.....

I remember when it was released and got it on video about the same time I finally got myself a video of Gimme Shelter.....thought I had it all at that point and I just lerve the nostalgia.

The Stones were a bit unkind about their own performance IMO. They were very good indeed.

And whilst his role may have been minimal, I always thought Brian looked the part.

The Who were marvellous - as they should have been, being hot off a tour. The Stones, by contrast, had been off the road for 20 months by this time.

Yoko's tedious involvement aside, 'Yer Blues' was magical.

I really hope that somewhere the rest of the rehearsal footage sees the light of day sometime. Would love to hear the Stones playing 'Walking Blues' and 'Yonders Wall'.

I LOVE IT. THE WHOLE THING.
I WAS AMAZED HOW GOOD THE STONES WERE WHEN I FIRST SAW IT.

When I was a wee monkey, in elementary school in fact, I had a subscription to Rolling Stone. Back then it was still an underground rag - it had a section called "The Dope Pages" and occasionally featured nudity or the F-word in bold type, all of which made me feel like quite the young outlaw. Anyway, one of the first issues I received in the mail was a special edition about the Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, which featured fabulous photos and a complete story about the show. It was written shortly after the filming, and reported that it would be seen on TV at Christmas-time. I was stoked!

I did figure that it would be a little while before we saw it in the States, but never thought it would be 25 years later! In the meantime there had been a LOT of speculation about how the Stones' set must've been awful, or else why bury it? Along the way I picked up a horrendous black & white vhs bootleg, which looked like it was recorded with some kind of daguerreotype camera. All that did was make this great lost gem seem all the more lost. When the Who's segment turned up in pristine condition in "The Kids Are Alright", I was even more confused. Where the hell WAS the Rock & Roll Circus?

The story is that it was stored away in a barn Ian Stewart owned and not re-discovered until after his death. But I was thrilled to finally see it, and still think it's pretty cool. Way better than the Hyde Park concert.

The original Rolling Stone article mentioned them playing "Route 66" as a warm-up, as well as "Yonder's Wall" and "Walking Blues". I'd sure love to hear them!

In the late 70s sometime, all of my original issues of Rolling Stone- including Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison's death issues - got mistaken for "a stack of old newspapers" and thrown away. Agh!

FPM wrote on Dec 16^th, 2011 at 1:32pm:

When I was a wee monkey, in elementary school in fact, I had a subscription to Rolling Stone. Back then it was still an underground rag - it had a section called "The Dope Pages" and occasionally featured nudity or the F-word in bold type, all of which made me feel like quite the young outlaw. Anyway, one of the first issues I received in the mail was a special edition about the Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, which featured fabulous photos and a complete story about the show. It was written shortly after the filming, and reported that it would be seen on TV at Christmas-time. I was stoked! I did figure that it would be a little while before we saw it in the States, but never thought it would be 25 years later! In the meantime there had been a LOT of speculation about how the Stones' set must've been awful, or else why bury it? Along the way I picked up a horrendous black & white vhs bootleg, which looked like it was recorded with some kind of daguerreotype camera. All that did was make this great lost gem seem all the more lost. When the Who's segment turned up in pristine condition in "The Kids Are Alright", I was even more confused. Where the hell WAS the Rock & Roll Circus? The story is that it was stored away in a barn Ian Stewart owned and not re-discovered until after his death. But I was thrilled to finally see it, and still think it's pretty cool. Way better than the Hyde Park concert. The original Rolling Stone article mentioned them playing "Route 66" as a warm-up, as well as "Yonder's Wall" and "Walking Blues". I'd sure love to hear them! In the late 70s sometime, all of my original issues of Rolling Stone- including Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison's death issues - got mistaken for "a stack of old newspapers" and thrown away. Agh!

What a great post! I also used to collect Rolling Stone Mags, I remember first hearing about circus in Circus Mag which used to be called Hullabaloo, & it was going be a T.V. special, I was out of my head excited, but as we know nothing happened until it was released as we know it, I would love to hear them do Yonder Wall & Walkin' Blues.

love it though some stuff seems to be mimed.............

:nanker

I enjoyed seeing Marianne Faithfull.

:boring I also liked 200 Motels. Some people didn't like that movie, but (maybe because I tend to be an S/M freak) I enjoyed it. I watched it twice, and it made me smile.

It isn't any worse than Cocksucker Blues.

But that's me; I don't hate.

Thought Mick did great.  Brian's slide on No Expectations was great, and loved The Dirty Mac.