7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Originally filmed in December 1968, "The Rock and Roll Circus" was originally intended to be released as a television special. The special was filmed over two nights and featured not only the Rolling Stones but The Who, Jethro Tull (with future Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy Iommi filling in for the recently departed Mick Abrahams), Marianne Faithful and an all-star jam featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Micthell. Sadly, this also marked the final appearance of the Stones founder and original guiding light, Brian Jones, who would be dead within six months after filming the special.
Starring: The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, The Who, Eric Clapton, Mitch MitchellMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 47% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch
Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD, 2 CDs)
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
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.
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 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:
- Checkin' Up on My Baby (HD; 5:38)
- Leaving Trunk (HD; 6:27)
- Corinna (HD; 3:51)
- 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.
- Backstage (HD; 00:44) may have some fans asking the impertinent question, "Is Yoko really letting Julian smoke a cigarette?"
- 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.
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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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The Rolling Stones
2008
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Special Edition | Warner Archive Collection
1970
50th Anniversary
1973