LIVE’R THAN JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #393!

The Rolling Stones – 1962-2013 (51 Year Anniversary) :: “The Rolling Stones lasting twenty, thirty years—what a stupid idea that would be.” – Lester Bangs, CREEM, December 1973

The Rolling Stones – Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live 2013 (Eagle Rock) :: Lissen bub, when it comes to historical audio-visual documentation, me and the Rolling Stones, we go way back.

That live archival audience recording of the Stones’ matinee show at Maple Leaf Gardens on July 15, 1972 that’s been making the bootleg rounds for the past forty years? Three guesses who tape recorded it from the Gardens’ press box and has the two original audio cassettes and the press pass to back up his brag? You betcha boots.

Think you’ve seen every Rolling Stones photograph there is to see? Three guesses who shot close to two hundred color transparencies and black and white negatives of the Stones in 1975 and then promptly filed them away for safe keeping in a bank vault where they’ve remained sight unseen for the past forty years? You betcha boots.

So when it comes to the cinematic side of things, “that’s no big surprise” that I’ve seen ’em all on The! Big! Screen! from Gimme Shelter and CS Blues to Ladies & Gents and Crossfire Hurricane—and if you’ve never seen any of those aforementioned flicks projected large’r than you’ll ever be, then you just haven’t seen them, son.

But don’tcha let an elitist attitude like that stop you from perusing the Stones’ latest life affirming concert film which conceptually picks up where the end of Crossfire left off—and when I say “life affirming” you best believe that I dang nab mean life affirming. And you can set aside the ancient age factor ’cause these chain-smoking cats are spryer than a spring chicken on a roof of hot rocks, lemme tell ya. Louder, too.

But nobody ever attends a Rolling Stones concert just for the music, even if the band does play all their greatest hits with note-perfect precision, just like they did on the original studio recordings. So when it comes to matters of sartorial splendor, there are no flies on the singer who easily evokes the past by wearing a long-sleeved black top that’s strikingly similar to the one he donned during the ’69 tour, minus the astrological symbol. Then he daringly slips into something a little more comfortable; namely, a shortened knock off of the blousy white dress that he unabashedly adorned when he was reciting Shelley during his first Hyde Park performance—a few lines of which he also nostalgically reiterates for the poetry buffs in attendance. Why, he even goes so far as to tell the audience how “beautiful” they are in a nod to his infamous stage patter at Altamont.

All this plus the only guitarist to leave the Rolling Stones and live, Mick Taylor? You betcha boots, which is why not only is this the greatest retrophonic Rolling Stones concert film released this year, it’s the perfect DVD gift for that recidivist reprobate on your seasonal shopping list who missed seeing it on The! Big! Screen!

So feel free to go ahead and disregard that above-noted short-sighted Bangsian quote because you don’t have to be a staunch Stones supporter to know that they’ll still be straddling stages and doing it to death a mere nine years from now when they saddle up for their 60th Anniversary Tour. After all, if the past half century has taught us anything, it’s that you should never sell the Rolling Stones short when it comes to making music and making money.

Oh, and three guesses what song 70-year-old Mick “I Don’t Want To Be Singing ‘Satisfaction’ When I’m 40” Jagger signs off with? You betcha boots.

Be seeing you!