Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 9, 2022

For anyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or at least the challenge of having to watch one or more of the many so- called "SD Blu-rays" of Rolling Stones concerts that first Eagle Rock and then the rebranded Mercury Studios have put out (almost all of which capture memorable performances and feature great audio, if pretty shoddy looking video), rejoice! The Stones can be seen in high definition, if you're patient enough, with patience being the operative "technique" here, since the feature under review was actually produced back in the Dark Ages of 1968. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was initially conceived as a kind of marketing tool which would be broadcast (supposedly on the BBC, though that never happened) to help promote the then new Beggar's Banquet album the Stones had been toiling over for some time. The special had a rather amazing guest cast, which, in addition to the Stones (of course) also featured none other than John Lennon (more about that later), Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, and Marianne Faithfull, along with, yep, you guessed it, various circus performers. The result is weird, no doubt about it, but it's a really fun time capsule and, as some introductory text mentions, kind of a neat example of the "communal spirit" that was ostensibly sweeping the planet in the late sixties.

In a way, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus reminded me of a kind of "very special episode" of a little remembered series that (briefly) dotted the American broadcast landscape just a bit after this piece was supposed to air, Music Scene - The Best of 1969-70 (note that this link points to a DVD, though with no Blu-ray available, I'd personally recommend fans of this era of music to check out both this volume and a subsequent volume). Music Scene was a valiant attempt to resurrect the "glory days" of the 1950s era Your Hit Parade, though instead of having a repertory company of musical artists, the artists who were actually charting with contemporary hits were on hand, supposedly giving live performances (my hunch is a lip synching moment or two may have snuck in), while there was a repertory company of comedians doing interstitial skits, including such future notables as David Steinberg and Lily Tomlin (Tomlin would in fact go directly from this short-lived series to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In).

In this particular instance, the conceit is not comedians per se, but instead a carnival like atmosphere that offers some acts in between live musical performances. You're therefore kind of getting a mishmash of a live concert video and another old television standby, Circus of the Stars. This probably does not work in terms of some of the supposed comedy or some odd and frankly awkward "candid" bits (one with John Lennon and Mick Jagger is particularly weird, though when compared to an outtake included as a supplement, it's actually relatively "normal"). The circus stuff is okay, hardly revelatory, especially in an era that has seen the wonders of productions by the likes of Cirque du Soleil.

But the music is entirely captivating and it does in fact seem like all the performers are there giving it their all, live, not Memorex (so to speak). There's some scuttlebutt that one of the reasons this never saw air back in the day is because Mick and the boys felt their performances were weak and showed how obviously tired they were, but they're actually quite energetic in my opinion, and this is a great opportunity to be able to see Brian Jones in color. The other acts can run the gamut from odd to odder, with the possible exception of a lovely ballad by Marianne Faithfull and some more or less traditional blues inflected stuff from Taj Mahal. Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson is of course as outrageous as ever (in a good way), and John Lennon's perhaps humorously named "supergroup" The Dirty Mac (with Eric Clapton) does okay with a rocking blues number but then arguably falters pretty obviously with some "singing" by Yoko Ono accompanied by insane violin playing by Ivry Gitlis.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of abkco with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in either 1.33:1 or 1.78:1. As can be seen, I've included screenshots from the 1.33:1 version in positions 1 through 10 and screenshots from the 1.78:1 version in positions 11 through 19, and my advice is to stick with the original aspect ratio on this one as even the smattering of examples I provide here shows pretty clearly that the "widescreen" framing often results in bizarre bifurcations of faces, often with only about a third or so of any given performer's visage even visible. Grain resolution also isn't especially helped in the wider aspect ratio, and some anomalies that are present in the 1.33:1 version are perhaps exagerrated, like some fuzziness and near pixellation. One plus on the 1.78:1 version is that it ameliorates if not completely eliminates almost comical amounts of "stuff" (not necessarily just hair) that is furiously stuck in the gate and litters the bottom of the frame in particular throughout the presentation. The palette is really nicely suffused, and reds in particular look especially vivid. There are definitely some variances in detail levels on display, and some shots basically look like moving blobs of color, so some may feel a 3.5 score is overly generous, but close-ups offer pretty substantial detail levels and generally very good clarity.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I've repeatedly joked with regard to those aforementioned SD Blu-rays of Stones material that really people would be well served to just treat them as CDs and simply listen to them. While the video element here is a good deal better than an SD Blu-ray, the audio is arguably the biggest allure as with those SD Blu-rays, since abkco rather nicely has included a Dolby Atmos track on this disc. Now admittedly there isn't a huge difference between the Atmos track and the also included Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, but you can make out additional spaciousness and verticality in things like some of the billowing crowd noises that open the piece, or even some of the audience reactions later. All of the music throbs with intensity that is well served by all three tracks on this disc, though perhaps unsurprisingly, I found the Atmos and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks to be the most enjoyable. Fidelity is fine throughout, and there really isn't any major damage to report. Optional subtitles in several languages are available for the commentaries and the Sideshows material, though not for the main feature, kind of weirdly.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The menu design on this release is a bit whimsical, with the supplements split between the following categories:
Sideshows offers what I assume are outtakes and/or unused performances:

• Taj Mahal

  Checkin' Up on My Baby (HD; 5:38)

  
  

  Leaving Trunk (HD; 6:27)

  
  

  Corinna (HD; 3:51)

• The Dirty Mac

  Yer Blues - Tk 2 - Quad Split (HD; 4:35) offers four camera angles side by side (by side by side) in a display that may remind some of the cover of Let It Be.

• Pete Townshend Interview (HD; 18:32)


• The Clowns (HD; 2:00) is pretty badly damaged and in black and white (perhaps by design).


• John and Yoko

  Backstage (HD; 00:44) may have some fans asking the impertinent question, "Is Yoko really letting Julian smoke a cigarette?"

• Julius Katchen (HD; 6:35) offers the classical pianist in performances of Ritual Fire Dance and Mozart Sonata in C - 1st Movement.

Backstage

• Commentaries (Original Ratio Only)

  Director & Cinematographer

  
  

  The Artists includes among others Mick Jagger, Ian Anderson, Taj Mahal and Yoko Ono.

  
  

  More Artists and Guests kind of weirdly had a text card saying the commentary would begin with Taj Mahal, but then chapter skipped forward to around 15 minutes in where it features Marianne Faithfull.

In addition, this Limited Edition is packaged beautifully, with a kind of quasi-DigiBook that features a reprint of a Rolling Stone (hmmm) article by David Dalton. Behind the book, a four panel accordion style foldout holds the Blu-ray, a DVD copy, as well as two Bonus CDs. The first CD is more or less a soundtrack of the special, while the second CD offers previously unreleased tracks, including three tracks by The Dirty Mac, including what I guess could be thought of as a "cover" version of Revolution.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a curio, to be sure, and a lot of the non-musical stuff kind of just lays there, but the performances are amazing, and any piece that offers Yoko Ono in a witch's costume (whose idea was that?) and which appropriately starts with a song called Song for Jeffrey obviously has a lot to offer (this is said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, lest that not be clear). abkco is also offering this more affordable version without all the extra packaging and content this one does, but this release has some really fantastic supplements both on the Blu-ray disc as well as the accompanying CDs and DigiBook like insert. Technical merits are generally solid, though audio probably easily trumps video. With caveats noted, Recommended.