To avoid disappointment and save yourself literally hundreds of dollars, it's a fine rule of thumb to remember that seeing solo acts, rock bands or even aging jazz stars that you might have loved in the 1960s, '70s, or '80s (can the '90s be far behind?) is almost always an exercise in frustration. That's the beauty of recordings. If they contained inspired music and were well-recorded, they age well. Musicians that were once young and vital . . . not so much.
And then there's the Rolling Stones.
If you can put aside the fact that what was once a rock 'n' roll band has now grown into a merciless money machine, and a somewhat creaky repetitive live act that hasn't made a great record since 1978, they still do deserve a nod for never saying die. To borrow a famous line from Midnight Cowboy, those boys are gonna die on the stage. And yes, we will certainly miss them when they're gone!
In Ole' Ole' Ole', the new film released on DVD and Blu-ray by Eagle Rock Entertainment, these pampered rock stars, who make silly, gratuitous efforts during tour stops to hear local music, are shown cruising through a 2016 tour of South America. Unlike more jaded Anglo-American crowds, the fans there who shout "Ole' Ole' Ole' Richard" at many stops, are still fairly rabid. On the tour's last stop in Havana, the band's first visit, and ostensibly the reason for the film, the first timers dance, sing, cry and give the band what it obviously still needs: tidal waves of applause.
At the end of the film they all audibly ponder off camera why they go on as a band. Ron Wood reckons it's the shared memories that are "the wobbly stuff that keeps us together." But as this film makes clear, it's really the adulation, the applause and oh yes, the money that keeps Keith, Mick, Woody and Charlie on the road in their 70s.
To be fair, the film does have a few telling scenes between these wizened rock owls that bring a smile and are worth viewing. The fanatical Stones fans, more like aging street kids, in Argentina, the "Rolingas," are fun to watch. And Keith and Mick, always a fascinating, turbulent alchemy of human interaction, spend a scene backstage in Brazil talking about writing and playing "Honky Tonk Women" that shows there's still some genuine human emotion between them. Keith, always the warmest-blooded being in the band, has always had a talent for humanizing the cooler, more self-involved Jagger.
"There's no rational thing about human chemistry, especially two blokes coming straight out of Dartford," Richards says "We can irritate each other immensely because we are quite different but at the same time we also know that we've been given this amazing gift between us."
Charlie (who is closing in on 80 years old) and Woody are ghosts in the film, only allowed to speak on-camera for a few brief moments. The band's manager and production chief get more screen time. And the rest of the band—hired guns and excellent musicians like bassist Daryl Jones, keyboard player Chuck Leavell, saxophonist Karl Densonetc—say nothing and appear only in flashes.
While the Stones ca 2017 may play well in South America, it's the Stones when they were young, when they were still cutting edge, like say during the post-Exile years that I and most long-time fans still want to hear. For that, Eagle Rock has also recently released in the US, Ladies and Gentlemen, a CD of the soundtrack to the concert film of the same name.
Although a Blu-ray/DVD videocentric media company, Eagle Rock has also done music CDs and has been releasing a steady stream of important Stones live sets. Releases like the 2012 DVD/CD/double 180 gram LP release of Some Girls (Live In Texas ‘78) or the 2015 DVD/CD/single 180 gram LP release of The Marquee Club (Live in 1971), have better sound than an extent bootlegs of the same shows and are in the history of the band, among their strongest recorded live sets.
Supposedly, a live album taken from the Exile tour was always planned, and even got as far as cover artwork, but was never released. Hard not to wonder where those tapes are today? Conversely, two films Ladies and Gentlemen and Cocksucker Blues were shot during the 1972 tour. The latter effort, Robert Frank's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll cinéma vérite chronicle of the '72 tour remains out of official circulation, but has been available via bootlegs for many years.
Ladies and Gentlemen has a typically involved Stonesian history. Shot during four Texas shows in 16mm and recorded on 32 tracks, it was sold to investors as an investment property by the band, blown up to 35mm and was shown in the US in Quadrasound. This early attempt at surround sound required a system that had to be transported to each theater and required an on-site mixing engineer to manipulate. Digitally remastered in digital HD in 2010, the film was reacquired by the band and released to theaters and on DVD and Blu-ray. An LP of the soundtrack was released in Europe at the same time. Of all the Stones concert films, this is best, capturing the band at the very peak of its powers. The opening four songs are "Brown Sugar," "Bitch," "Gimme Shelter," and "Dead Flowers." Later on are killer versions of "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Rip This Joint," and "Sweet Virginia." Guitarist Mick Taylor, the secret weapon of the band during that era, plays amazingly throughout.
The trouble here is that the sound of the CD is flat, compressed and one-dimensional. The balances are bizarre at best and there is weird distortion everywhere, which may be the result of the Quadrasound. Significantly, there are no engineering, mastering or production credits for this release listed in the booklet or the CD tray card.
The ubiquitous Dave Grohl notwithstanding, it's clear that rock music has, for the moment at least, said what it has to say. There currently are no really big rock bands or rock records out there. There was a time however, often referred to in ancient chronicles as the '70s, when rock was king and no one stood higher in the rock pantheon of that sodden decade as The Stones. If you possess the ear-brain skill necessary to blot out bad bootleg sound in favor of performances, then perhaps this is worth having. But this CD, clearly a cheapie afterthought, is a very disappointing document from the band's most memorable tour. See the film. Love Jagger's bejeweled eyes. And Bobby Keys' sax.
