The Rolling Stones Restored
A classic film, capturing the rock 'n' roll outlaws at the peak of their powers, is re-released
By IAIN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER 24, 2010
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the 1972 Rolling Stones American Tour.
Ethan Russell
By the time the Rolling Stones touring party hit Texas in late June 1972, it had already created a fair to middling amount of mayhem in other parts of North America. Various performances by the band had involved riots and tear-gas, as fans without tickets tried to crash venues and fought with police. Assorted hangers on, drug dealers, wives and girlfriends, and for part of the tour Truman Capote, followed in the band's wake. In Chicago, the Stones moved for several days to Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion, with inevitably debauched results.
To complicate matters, Keith Richards's taste for heroin had become a daily bad habit and the guitarist carried a gun, fearing alleged death threats from the Hells Angels, who pursued the band. The "Angels" were sore about the way the last U.S. tour by the Stones had ended. Recklessly, they had been asked to "police" a free concert at Altamont, which culminated in a fatal stabbing close to the stage for which they got the blame. That had been in December 1969, and since then the Stones had avoided touring America. In the summer of 1972 they were back, with a point to prove and an album made in the South of France and Los Angeles to promote: Exile on Main Street.
Various books have documented that tumultuous tour, the best being Robert Greenfield's eyewitness account—"A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones." And two very different films were made, both companion pieces to Exile, their masterpiece and creative peak in the studio. The first film, with an unmentionable name, was Robert Frank's creation—a grainy, horror show of drug-taking and back-stage degradation that so spooked Mick Jagger that he blocked its general release. The singer feared that if it was seen widely the band would be denied visas to work in the U.S. Equally heavily bootlegged by fans has been the second of those two tour films—"Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones"—now restored, released on DVD and shown fleetingly in cinemas earlier this month.
"Ladies and Gentlemen" has the merit of being purely about the music. And it is exceptionally good. Filmed during four shows, two each in Houston and Fort Worth, it contains 15 songs and shows a band that has successfully blended rock 'n' roll, country, blues, soul and gospel, performing at the absolute peak of its powers.
It isn't shot in the manner of a glossy modern concert film, with inane shots of audience members enjoying themselves. The focus is closely cropped, relentlessly on the band.
What the viewer gets to see is a group more powerful, tight and fluent than they had been three years previously, or at any point in their career. Out in front, a lithe Jagger preens and parades, mesmerizing and amusing in equal measure. The playing achieves an astonishing intensity on "Happy," "Tumbling Dice," "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "All Down the Line." On "Bye Bye Johnny," the Chuck Berry classic, they square the circle and complete their unlikely historical journey: four London boys (Jagger, Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts) borrowing great American music, making it their own and in the process adding improvements. Richards's two guitar solos here are spine-tinglingly good, only bettered by Mick Taylor's dazzling efforts on other songs.
It isn't a note perfect set of performances, and much more interesting as a result. Critics have blamed the use of certain substances for the acceleration in the pace of their playing at points. They approach several songs, such as "Gimme Shelter," at breakneck speed. But the train never comes off the track.
It was never quite the same again for the Stones. Four months later they were in Jamaica, recording "Goats Head Soup" (released in 1973). It has nice moments, and several songs are the equal of those on Exile and in this film. But it felt like a comedown album because it is. Mick Taylor would shortly leave the group, to be replaced by the cartoonish Ronnie Wood.
An astute Jagger realized quickly that he was firmly in the show-business game, blocking films that could jeopardize his earning potential. He redoubled his work on building the Stones into the immensely successful corporate machine that from 1989 until now could tour the world and make so much money.
He also grasped—between the violence of Altamont in 1969 and the degenerate 1972 tour—that the youthful "spokesman of a generation" tag he had acquired via arrests, lyrics and interviews was a ridiculous dead end. Jagger was the first rock star to work out that if he wanted to stay sane and survive away from the cameras he needed to put on his fame like a mask. Eventually Richards got the point too, cleaning up his act and perfecting a public persona that complemented his friend perfectly.
And how did the 1972 tour end after Texas? Following a fracas in Rhode Island with a photographer, Jagger and Richards were jailed and had to be bailed by the mayor of Boston. He feared a riot in his city if the band couldn't play that night, and bravely held the fort. From the stage the major pleaded for calm, whilst the pair of outlaws were rushed to the venue.
Four subsequent shows in Madison Square Gardens were topped off with a party for Jagger's 29th birthday. It was attended by the beautiful people of New York city, and a dazed Bob Dylan. Count Basie and his orchestra provided the music.
It is frequently said that decades don't have neat endings, running over into the next and sometimes only concluding properly several years later. The Sixties only got going properly in 1963 with the death of Kennedy and the arrival of the Beatles early the next year in New York. In the same city, at Jagger's party, the curtain came down. "Ladies and Gentlemen" is the soundtrack to the last act.
Said Jagger later: "I remember getting to about 1972 and thinking **** it, we've done it." He was right, they had.
The Wall Street JournalExcellent piece...
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