It’s part 26 of my youtube countdown, and we’re going to the circus…the Rock and Roll Circus that is. In 1968, the Rolling Stones produced a concert movie that was never released called the..ta daaa… Rock and Roll Circus. The ‘Circus,’ was sadly never released for some reason, that is until the past ten years when they finally gave it a proper DVD release, which you should all get, like I did. It features performances by the Stones, the Who, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and a SLEW of others. It’s fantastic, and I intend to post more videos from it in the near future. This performance, expertly introduced by John Lennon, is the Stones playing their searing rock classic, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” I love this version for several reasons. First off, it features Brian Jones, soon to be deceased, and probably extremely high, playing with the group in full color and in awesome psychedelic clothing. Second, I just love the way the Stones play it. They obviously weren’t too comfortable playing it, like they would be 20 years and 10 million plays later, so they take it slow. It comes off very sexy and sludgy, just perfect and menacing. So enjoy ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash for Brian Jones, the clothes, Mick Jagger not being a total douche yet, and for John Lennon being a cool motherfucker. Go!
UPDATE 10.20.13- Google/YouTube killed the original. Here is another performance from that era. (Willie)