Back in '77, when the Clash said "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones", I was right there pumping my fist in righteous agreement. Screw those old bastids and their castles in the south of France. Fuckin' dinosaurs.
Then I stumbled across a slab of bootleg vinyl called Mick Taylor, We Miss You. OK, young punk me said, let's see what these clowns have. Forty-five minutes later, I scraped my jaw off the floor and came to the same conclusion the rest of the free world already had reached. Greatest rock and roll band in the world, indeed.
Mick Taylor, We Miss You was recorded in Philadelphia during the 1972 Exile on Main Street tour. Scapping up all the bootlegs from that tour I could find, it became clear that entire run of shows from coast to coast was magical. It was the ultimate Stones tour. A mighty band at their absolute apex.
So, naturally, the wonderfully shot concert film from the tour, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones, was seen by millions, shown on TV regularly and given pristine DVD treatment as soon as the medium became available.
Well, maybe in an alternate, more just universe. In this one, the film was shown in theaters for a week or two and vanished, unseen for close to 40 years. Bootlegs of the soundtrack popped up (most notable one called Fort Worth Express) and snippets of the film would appear from time to time, washed out and grainy from having been illicitly dubbed many generations over. But that was it.
Until now.
The entire film, digitally remastered and spectacularly restored, is in stores now. And man, is it something. This is the disk that washes away the bad taste of the past 30 years of Stones history and replaces it with complete and absolute proof that no band ever brought more to a concert stage. It's all here - timeless songs played with energy, passion and precision. And yeah, there was a reason Mick Taylor was missed by Stones fans once he packed it up -- his playing is nothing short of breathtaking.
The DVD features some nifty bonuses, including rehearsal footage, a 1972 interview with Mick and a new interview with Sir Michael reminiscing about the run of shows.
While it's not quite the revelation of last year's TAMI Show DVD (what could be?) this is still a vital part of music history that's been kept from us too long.
Back in '77, when the Clash said "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones", I was right there pumping my fist in righteous agreement. Screw those old bastids and their castles in the south of France. Fuckin' dinosaurs.