Rolling Stones 1968 Rock & Roll Circus

During the hectic 2004 holiday season of shopping and searching high and low for the perfect gifts for all the loved ones in my life, I had the good fortune of coming across a copy of a concert from long ago. Etched into the laser burns of a DVD was a trip down memory lane and a brief glimpse of a better time.

When I first saw the cover of this DVD I thought it was just a cheap copy of an old Rolling Stones movie venture or maybe another low-budget documentary. I always enjoyed the Stones and their music but was never what you would call fanatical about them like I was with The Beatles. There aren’t too many facts I don’t know about the Beatles but the Stones have huge gaps of information missing from my repertoire, like the fact that the Stones didn’t really do movies like the Beatles did. Oh, well, what do I know.

Actually it was my husband who first caught sight of this find, mixed in with all the other movies, and brought it to my attention. It’s titled, “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus” and was filmed December 11, 1968, back when I was way too young to enjoy it live or even be aware that it was happening at all.

After a short debate, my husband and I decided that it was well worth the twenty bucks and my husband actually got it as a Christmas present, in his Christmas stocking. We popped this circular slice of history into the DVD player one night and watched with amazement and tears in our eyes. It was almost like watching an old home movie that had been misplaced and was now found after many years. It’s a real treasure.

The Rolling Stones with a number of other incredibly notorious rock bands like Jethro Tull and The Who, who by the way were in their musical infancy during this filming, put on a 2-day Rock & Roll Circus Show in London. What an absolutely wonderful group of talented and historical musicians.

The Jethro Tull Band performed “Song For Jeffrey.” It was extremely wild. The lead singer reminded me of a rocking flamingo – standing on one leg, bobbing up and down, playing his flute - just groovin’! Although, I did notice that the term “bad hair day” had not been invented as of yet and I think bad hair was actually “in” at the time because there were a lot of people present with wild, just let it grow, washed two weeks ago, hair styles.

John Lennon was there and old Legthigh Lennon and Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell & Keith Richards formed an incredible band just for this special occasion and called themselves The Dirty Mac. Wow! What an amazing group of people they were and what a shame they never did anything as The Dirty Mac ever again. What’s really astounding is that they’re all so damn young. I barely recognized Eric Clapton! In a way it was rather depressing to see them so fresh, raw and new. It made me think about my own mortality and this new era that I’ve embarked on hesitantly. Middle age is not always a walk in the park and certainly lacks the excitement and communal feeling that the past contained. No one wants to talk about getting old even though that’s all they ever think about and it dawned on me that not only was I now a Hippie Chick Gramma, but Mick Jagger has got to be around 60 years old! Holy shit!

There is a clip of John Lennon and Mick Jagger having a brief chat. I love their attitudes and their crazy talk. Lennon was talking to Jagger, reminiscing and John says to Mick “I want to hold your man.” Now, what does that mean, John? What was goin’ on between you guys? Lennon is such a smart ass. You’ve just got to love him or hate him. There’s no in betweens.

Then, there’s this black guy dressed in a yellow cowboy outfit, complete with cowboy hat, with a band called Taj Mahal. At least I hope it’s a band name and not the black guy’s name. It was an odd sight but he was actually really good! I’ll have to look up his music on the internet and see what else he did besides “Ain’t That A Lot of Love.”

The Who had just returned from a tour of Australia where they were trying out pre-Tommy-type material, as is testified to in the interview on the extras of this really cool DVD. They did a song called “A Quick One While He’s Away” plus a few others. It was different kind of song but quite amusing and held my attention. Anything The Who did was pretty damn good.

John Lennon sang “Yer blues.” God, he was incredible. He was incredible without even trying. It just came naturally to him and the flow of words and notes and sounds and emotions could just about knock you off your feet and right on your ass. Sometimes he catches you off guard and his words, his songs, or just the sound of his voice could take you back to places that you didn’t always want to revisit. He had such an amazing power over me or should I say his music had amazing power over me.

And then, out of nowhere, comes this guy, I don’t recall his name, with a fiddle, and Lennon and Clapton are playing guitar, jammin’ and here she is….Yoko Ono. She was really high on something, man. I still wonder why such a great musician like John Lennon would put up with the noise that came out of his wife’s mouth. I mean man, I’ve got nothing again Yoko Ono as a person or an artist or as Lennon’s soul mate or anything but she simply cannot sing. It’s not even close to anything that would even resemble singing. I’ve purposely listened to her, concentrating very hard and straining, trying to find the music inside that noise – to find what Lennon heard. He must have heard something in the sounds she made or why else would he let her continue to stand there and make that awful noise and ruin such great rock & roll? I’ve passed it off as my own inability to recognize the artistry in this display of screeching and howling as anything that interested me or that I understood. I just wasn’t cool enough to see it, I guess. I’m really sorry, Yoko, but I still don’t see it. Yoko was talented, that’s evident in her ability to mesmerize John Lennon. She just wasn’t musically talented or at least not as seen and heard by American audiences and people such as myself.

Anyway, everyone is buzzed – noticeably, all the performers! Jagger is in his prime, though – young, focused and intense. His voice is in fine tune and he’s obviously having a very, very good time. Mick’s girlfriend at that time, Maryanne Faithful was there too and sang a little tune, a ballad called Something Better – what a trip she was. Whatever happened to her? Does anybody remember what happened to her? She just kind of fades away in my mind. Did she die or is she in a rehab center somewhere still trying to get clean? Maybe she’s an old homeless bag lady? Who knows? It’s a horrible shame that I don’t remember what her fate was.

She was very talented in a weird, fanatical way, very spaced out and quite typical of the female hippies of the era. We all wanted to be like her, beautiful, talented and able to have sex with Mick Jagger or whoever else we chose. We thought she was cool and mysterious and we all wanted to be like Maryanne – in the thick of it, you know? She got to hang out with all the greats.

The Stones did a superb job of performing “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Parachute Woman” which is a nice little tune, “No Expectations” and the classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Mick’s rendition of “Sympathy for the Devil” is marvelously fresh and new – in fact, it’s the best performance of it I’ve ever seen. It’s not flat, it’s not forced or fake. It’s honest and emotional and to top it off, young, dark haired Mick takes off his shirt. Oooh, la la! Skinny little runt that he was he was still incredibly sexy to us all. He was the bad boy of rock and roll but he could do no wrong in our eyes. He was simply beautiful but I can’t help but to notice the resemblance of an arab face scribbled on Mick’s chest, an obviously fake tattoo, and this was way back in 1968 – could it be Saddam? Bin Laden? The Antichrist? The Devil? Aren’t they all the same. I’m not sure who it was suppose to represent but it made me look twice.

Even though the Stones fans were considered a bit off, a little dark, not well-behaved, high on drugs, drunk and up to no good most of the time, we had nothing but love in our hearts. There was no evil here, no foul play, no violence, no hate. Just a bunch of fun loving kids trying to make a difference even if it was an incredibly small difference, it was a difference none the less. And, if you couldn’t make a difference, well, then, you’d might as well have a good time instead!

Make love, not war! Sex, drugs and rock and roll! They were more than just words, they were our way of life and we all had great fun just living, existing and enjoying each other, enjoyed every moment and that’s what I thought of when I saw this recording of this particular concert. It was a little piece of that delicious pie that my generation cooked up a long time ago. God, what an amazing piece of time I’ve been blessed with being able to observe. How lucky I am to have witnessed this particular piece of human evolution. What a find this DVD was 37 years later!

It scares me to think of what my grandchildren and their children will be a witness to. When I was growing up we didn’t bring guns to school, only joints and cigarettes and maybe an occasional beer or two. Hell, we hated guns! The establishment, the pigs, the soldiers, they had the guns and guns killed! We were venomously against violence. It was an enemy to be sought out and destroyed and overtaken by kinder, gentler, more loving activities like drinking, drugging and having enormous amounts of sex. Free love was our ticket and we rode that train as far as we could, having a great time along the way.

The public demonstrations of my time were designed without hate and carried out without violence. We participated in sit-in’s, collecting names on petitions, silent protests, starvation protests, walking out of the classrooms in unity and sitting on the front lawn, peaceful and fun loving, streaking (runnin' around naked!), smoking our herbs, wearing daisies and giving away flowers, flashing peace signs, growing our hair, weaving baskets and making love beads. We were just gypsies at heart singing our songs, in heat, making love with strangers or making love with the enemy, it was all the same. It was all good. We were out to save the world by loving it back to health. It was a great theory but as time went on we all got busy growing up, having kids of our own, being responsible, getting old, getting on with things and these images of these young, talented idols makes it seem like another lifetime ago.

It appears we’ve all forgotten the all important message of the 60’s & 70’s. It’s such a pity because it was a message we fought so incredibly hard to deliver, fought with all our hearts and all our strength and now, we’ve forgotten all about it all together. We haven’t given peace a chance lately because we haven’t really thought about it, just haven’t had the time or the inclination.

Everybody’s worried about money. For us baby boomers, retirement, if it isn’t incredibly near, is not very far away. On top of that we’re all fighting a losing battle to stay young and without noticing we’ve turned into the very thing that we disliked so much when we were young. We’re turned into the unfair establishment. We’ve become our worst enemies and slowly but surely we’re eating away at the very fabric of what holds us together as a civilization, as a united people, as human beings.

The next generation is coming up to bat. Heaven help us. I’d gladly trade a gun for love beads. Irresponsible spontaneous love making is superior in my mind to bashing in someone’s head abd sit-ins are far better than using an automatic weapon to make your point. Where has all the anger come from?

Watching this concert anger and violence were obviously not in attendance. It was refreshing and childlike and I felt sorry that it happened so long ago, wishing I could relive it again. Ahh….. who am I kidding. I was only 7 in '68. Okay, 22 years ago – still closer to a perfect world than where we are today. I’d like to go back and be 17 all over again. Those were the days.

It’s refreshing to look back and remember that it is possible. Anything is possible and the baby boomers proved it. They proved it with their voices and changes happened, wars ended, equal rights for women and minorities was greatly improved, injustices were righted. There was hell to pay and we paid the price with broken bones and blood and passion. But the message was always the same – love your neighbor, love yourself…love in general.

The sexual revolution was a result, a consequence and effect of free love and a natural progression of the human condition. We just naturally screw things up. Where there is love there is sex. Remember V.D. Man, we thought venereal diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea were so bad. Our kids have to worry about AIDS! It’s not just an embarrassment or an inconvenience – it’s your life on the line if you choose to have “unprotected” sex. There is no more free love – kiss it goodbye – but make sure it has a condom on first!

My kids really missed this particular love boat all together. I keep hoping they’ll catch on and take the reins away from us and discover love again. Lord knows someone has to soon, before it’s too late. Only God knows where this new generation will lead us. So far, I’m not very impressed by them. They’re quite strange, kids these days, and I don’t understand them at all. They’re angry, tense, dark and they’re not even high on anything!

So, maybe us “old people” need to just slow down and listen to the music again and remember. Remember the great ones who died delivering the message. Remember the child inside of yourself. You remember him or her don’t you?

I watched the images of this historic concert like a time capsule and it made me feel young and proud again. Out popped the Hippie Chick and we had to light up a joint to truly honor these great musicians and artists. It felt really good even if it was only for the 45 minutes or so before the movie was over and we had to transport ourselves back to present day reality.

I’ve tucked this memory back into it’s multi-colored, Circus-looking cover, back on the shelf with lots of other memorable films, concerts, documentaries, pieces of my life. If you ever get a chance to see The Stones Rock and Roll Circus concert of ’68 I would highly recommend you do so. It will bring out the little kid in you again if you let it. Go ahead and play! Have fun and party on! Grab your spouse, ruffle the sheets and make love, not war!