This ‘Circus’ Was Worth the Wait

You can’t always get what you want, but if you wait long enough. . . .

“The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus” is one of rock’s legendary buried treasures, a 65-minute special shot for British television in December 1968 but never aired as planned. Until its release on home video (as well as a soundtrack CD) this week, it’s been glimpsed only in photos and in footage that appeared in documentaries on the Stones and the Who.

The reason? Mick Jagger shelved it because he deemed the Stones’ performance--filmed in the wee hours of the morning, after a full day of shooting--subpar. Picky, picky. In the light of 1996, the lithe, and rogynous singer is inarguably charismatic and the group’s show-closing six songs form an effortlessly gripping display--intimate but majestic, playful but ominous.

The circus format in which the Stones set their variety show reflected the flower power era’s embrace of the childlike and the fantastic, but the group’s performance suggests the sinister currents that were surfacing in the music on its just-released album “Beggars Banquet.”

Still, you can see why Jagger was concerned about being upstaged under a big top crawling with rock gods and ad hoc supergroups.

The Who’s performance of “A Quick One While He’s Away” bolsters its reputation as the most dynamic group of the rock age. The Dirty Mac consists of Eric Clapton (fresh from the disbanded Cream), Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Keith Richards on bass backing John Lennon on a ferocious “Yer Blues.”

Lennon cavorts throughout the hour, introducing the Stones’ set in sign language and bantering with Jagger in a mock interview. The “Circus” musical roster is ultimately an odd mix, from L.A. bluesman Taj Mahal and newcomer Jethro Tull to stars’ girlfriends Marianne Faithfull and Yoko Ono, whose avant-garde blues may now earn her a new sobriquet: the woman who broke up the Dirty Mac.

*** 1/2

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“The Rolling Stones

Rock and Roll Circus”

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