Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus! The Who, having just come off tour, absolutely blew the Stones offstage. The Stones, after finally taking the stage in the wee hours of the morning, were so outclassed by the Who the whole project was shelved and didn't resurface until the internet age.
Yeah, Jagger thought the Stones' performance of "Sympathy For the Devil" was "sub-standard", so it was never broadcast. Personally, I think it was great.
The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, December 1968. Mick Jagger wouldn't allow the whole film to be released for nearly 30 years because The Who totally blew away the Stones. This clip was released in 1979 as part of The Who's documentary, The Kids Are Alright (which you should watch & react to in its entirety).
I have been waiting for this one, my favorite Keith Moon video. Moon at his peak youthful energy, playing masterfully, with insane antics that are beyond comprehension. The "R&R Circus" has clear stage lighting and great multi-camera filming, so it's the clearest film of Moon playing. The water spray drum-trick is new, but Moon's other craziness was typical in concert, like at the Isle of Wight. I love Moon throwing the tom-tom over his head, although there is better edited footage out there from the "Circus". Pete's and Roger's physicality was somewhat hindered by the small stage, so Moon gets our full attention.
I must have watched this video over a hundred times over the years. It never ceases to amaze. The energy is outstanding. There was nobody like them. EVER.
This is from 1968. It was billed as the rock and roll circus. The Stones were the ones that thought this up. The line up was Jethro Tull, Taj Majal, The Who and the stones. The stones didn't want to release it to the public because they thought their performance was not very good, but in reality they admitted that The Who blew them away.
THIS is where The Who launched the rocket ship that would take them to the peak of their powers. The breakthrough album Tommy would be released the following May, and tours that followed it would carry them into world domination as the most exciting live band in Rock for the next several years afterward. Pete described that period as "glorious years", because through Tommy, each member of the band found himself and realized the full potential they had as performers - "because we were balanced", as Pete later said. Anytime I try to turn someone onto The Who, this is one of the first vids I show them, and nobody has been left unimpressed yet! Pete would later refer to this song, originally recorded for their second English LP, as "Tommy's parents". Absolutely BRILLIANT!!
L33's reaction: "Dude, I don't know what sound that was,,,, but MAN! Keith Moon!" I have been there too, trying to understand how Moon could play like this. Basically, I think "that sound" was Keith trying to decide which drum to hit, and then deciding to HIT Them ALL! I liked to describe Moon's Style as sounding like a drum set falling down a flight of stairs! But in the best possible way!
Thank you. Thank you for the redo. All time favorite video. The band had just come home from a long tour of the US and were at the peak of their 1960’s power. They blew the roof off the Stone’s Rock n Roll Circus....
Ned from Spain jumping the gun coz I'm totally loving that you're reacting to this. There are so many sweet moments in this that I never get tired of it. Moon is on fire a rhythmic human avalanche of smashes n bashes and hilarious too. Pete hits the boom mic above Moon but is able to save it without messing up the song and does some of his best windmills, jumps and slams while playing amazing guitar. Roger and John are both impeccable and dynamic. It's miracle that this is on film and available for us to watch. Thanks Lee.
The whole video of "The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus" is an amazing moment in time, Mid-December 1968 in London, England, when anything was possible. In addition to The WHO's stellar performance you also get to see Jethro Tull, with a pre-Black Sabbath Tony Iommi on Guitar. The Dirty Mac, their ONLY performance, John Lennon and Eric Clapton Guitars, Keith Richards on Bass and Mitch Mitchell, from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, on Drums. And of course The Rolling Stones for about five songs, with a very smashed Brian Jones, just before he left the band, and drowned. My advice is get this Blu-Ray DVD, totally worth it.
John Lennon put a band together to play at this event. John vocals and guitar, Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on Bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums playing The Beatles song Yer Blues.
I saw the Who in early 1968 on their I Can See For Miles Tour. It was so much FUN! That's what I miss about music from the '60's. Things were changing fast in '68. Next up later that year were concerts by Hendrix, Cream, and others. The world had turned.
A great clip, for sure! Filmed for the Kids are Allright movie. Love the movie, but if you watch Moonie, he's a shell of himself. As a who fan that saw him live, six times, this was sad to watch.
Awesome, man. It’s from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus filmed in ‘68. I remember when this came out on the 90s. Rumor is that it wasn’t released initially because of this particular performance. Like, The Who was better than the Stones.
The Who discovered that they bring their audience up and down after they started playing Tommy live. And they do…the speed and loudness changes make me feel like I am on a roller coaster…take me on an emotional journey. One of the things I love the most about this band is the way all of the songs have very different sounds (other than the concept/opera albums) but unique.
December '68. Jetho Tull also played this and they played with Tony Iommi on guitar (even though he mimed)! He was a 2 week replacement for Mick Abrahams before they got Martin Barre in to play. They played "A Song for Jeffrey" & "Fat Man". Ian Anderson sang and played flute live.
The Rolling Stones put on a big event with most of the major bands of the time, or representatives of them. It was planned for Christmas broadcast, but after The Who blew the Stones away with this performance, the Stones shelved it until 1996. The Who's performance was so legendary, when Jeff Stein was making his rockumentary The Kids Are Alright, he was able to obtain this video (and the audio for the soundtrack) in 1979. Part of this is used extremely well in Wes Anderson's Rushmore in a scene of an escalating feud between Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman's characters. Also of note, The Who were playing the fabled Fillmore East for the first time (under that name) in April 1968, and A Quick One was in the setlist, and was used poignantly the night Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed, and Townshend at the end said, "and that certain someone who shot that other certain someone is forgiven". Ironically, the next time they played the Fillmore East, Pete kicked a police officer in the balls for coming onstage to get the place to evacuate due to a fire next door, so forgiveness only extended so far...
You've been doing Woodstock, and now it's time to do The Who's six song set for Who Wednesday. Look for The All Officially Released Material at about 28 minutes.
I’ve been a Who fan since I was 9 years old, back in 1979! The best advice I can give you is to watch The Kids are Alright, it’s 1:49 minutes of the greatest Rock n Roll Rockumentary ever filmed on The Who, I’ve seen it hundreds of times, and each time is like the first time that I watched it! Now that’s Rock n Roll!!! Great reaction!!!!!
This is from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. If you haven't seen it, pick it up. It has Jethro Tull, The Who, and a Supergroup 'The Dirty Mac' consisting of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton!
This shows up on their The Kids Are Alright movie that has a bunch of so good songs, interviews and just plain fun ) The song if I remember hearing right was something needed for 10 minutes that were needed to fill the album. The cello singing was because though the wanted one to play in the song they could not get someone to do it.
Pete took the windmill from Keith Richards who was actually warming up. He told Keith he hoped he didn’t mind stealing “his windmill move. He looked at me like a germ”. He had no clue what he was talking about.
When do you think that happenned? Pete was doing it before this. Tommy Smothers asked Pete about it in 1967 on their show during the My Generation performance.
This is the best version and it’s totally live. Watch the “Dirty Mac” from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus also. Lennon, Clapton, and Keith Richard’s in the same band! Yeah baby, now that’s rock n roll!
I liked Tommy, but Quadrophenia (and the tune, Naked Eye) is what turned me into a Who fan. In '75, I turned 18, graduated HS, and could buy beer. I saw Jaws in the theater and the Frampton "Comes Alive" tour in the summer, but the absolute highlight of the year was seeing The Who with Mooney in November. Great year! I saw the Tommy tour twice in '89 and saw them once again in the early 2000s, before John passed. Here's another 10 from Pete. (and some of his best lead playing) It's Kenny Jones on drums, not Mooney, but still great. Genius lyrics. The Who Naked Eye ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KqQCZNWaMBY.html RIP Mooney and John. Thank You!
Outstanding Performance ! The best I’ve seen for this song! Period! Keith is on fire!! I love this quality and power play! Excellent! ( I am happy to own the dvd of this unreleased show at the times)
The Who, why is it my favorite group? Each Who album is unique and unlike other albums. As soon as I heard “Tommy” in 1976 when I was 11, I became a fan. Pete Townshend is a genius and his solo albums confirm that. Thank you for this analysis.
The Rolling Stones Rock'n'Roll Circus is a must see/react. You might want to do it as a watchparty, I'd be there! Let's see, we have Jethro Tull (when Tony Iommi was on Guitar), Taj Mahal, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell), Maryanne Faithful, and others, along with real circus acts! I have the DVD, it's a prized possession, great features and cover art.
"The Old grey Whistle Test" show! the Who play a song that predicts the Internet"the Relay!"Kick ass song,mad drumming by Keith Moon! play it and revue it for us1
This was "The Rock & Roll Circus" - it was put together by the Rolling Stones and it had John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Who, The Stones (of course) and others and was a crazy live show made for the BBC at the time but was never broadcast because Jagger thought the Stones' performance was sub-standard (it wasn't). You can watch the whole thing on RU-vid, I believe, or at least most of the segments. It's a pretty extraordinary time capsule of a very special moment in 1968 where the best artists of the time just got together to watch each other play. It was Brian Jones' last performance with the Stones, as well, as he drowned 7 months later. FUN FACT: Led Zeppelin had *JUST* been formed as a band and was going to be included, but they didn't make the cut. NOBODY had ever seen "Rock and Roll Circus" until 1996, when it was finally released. So nobody in 1968 *ever* saw this concert special.
Rolling Stones... Rock n Roll Circus on blu-ray. Great show! And features the 'scratch' band of Mitch Mitchell, Lennon, Keith Richards (on bass!) and Clapton.
Because the who blew the stones away the rock n roll circus didn't surface until several decades later. Also one of the last appearances of Brian Jones in the stones before he was kicked out and passed away
I don't know why I assumed this would be the album version. Totally forgot about the Rock 'n 'Roll Circus. Have you done The Dirty Mac tracks from this show? If not, you'll definitely want to. That's definitely a very aggressive, unforgiving "forgiven"...
The story behind the Cello Cello was that they wanted to add a Cello to the original recording. They couldn't afford to hire one, so they improvised! Also, Brian Jones was shown at the end, dressed as a clown, next to the little person!
The fun thing about the Jethro Tull performance is that they were playing their single, which they couldn't play live as Ian sings, plays flute and harmonica. So Ian's vocals and flute is live, but the rest of the band is miming to the record. The guitarist on stage is not the guitarist on the recording so the CD and DVD have different credits. The guitarist seen was only in Tull for maybe two months before returning to his band Earth. He complained about how Ian ran the band like a dictator, reheasring and rehearsing. He hayed it, but he knew it worked so he did it to hus own band. Soon, they would rename themselves Black Sabbath. You get to see Tony Iommi miming skide guitar on a white Stratocaster. I was blown away when I bought the DVD having had no idea Tony was ever in Tull. He never actually recorded with them.
There was talk years ago about Pete T. being a watcher of improper movies with children in them. He was investigated for it. He said he was doing research about it. I don’t know what came of this investigation.
Hah, you gave in to all of us intertube blowhards. 😄 The 'Rock and Roll Circus' looks so good because it was produced and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the same guy who produced promo films for the Stones and The Beatles, including all of the footage used in the "Let It Be" and "Get Back" films. It's a treasure, especially The Who's appearance.
This was a video/movie, that the Rolling Stones put out to showcase their upcoming album, and also to compete with The Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour." The Who were one of maybe 5 "guest artists and Bands." They completely stole The Stones Thunder, and the show itself. It was called, "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus." People were in an audience of about 50, and they were all made up as odd clowns, and fantasy figures. It was very psychedelic and surreal. You have to see it to for yourself. This was about 1967, I think.
This is from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Jethro Tull, John Lennon, and a fantastic performance from the Stones. But…,The Who blew the other bands away with this performance.
Since you fancy eminence front, so much... you must do it live... also, john pioneered splitting the high and low frequencies and a lot of the sound you are hearing is actually him, even though you think you are hearing a lot of low end. John is a major contributor to the who sound and Pete has spoken at length about it. Chris Squire and other good company would follow!
Buddy Rich amaba a Moon, él admiraba la frescura y libertad de Moon, lo cual es todo un cumplido dada la reticencia de Rich, respecto a los bateristas de rock. Tony Williams respetaba mucho a Moon, y Elvin Jones cuando escuchó Tommy dijo "es todo un baterista, mantiene el ritmo cuando cae" Moon era distinto, en los primeros discos se manifiesta su técnica clásica de jazz o shuffle, pero luego su creatividad fue absoluta, decayendo a medida que las drogas y el alcohol lo consumían. Tal vez si hubiese sido más disciplinado hubiese logrado una performance ortodoxa, empero no sería Keith Moon! Es lo que creo. Saludos cordiales
