I watched this again last night for the first time in a while. A few things came to mind.

1) how intense Mick's performance was. He was abosulutley on fire. The way he played the camera was great as was the way he worked the girl during YCAGWYW

2) How gay Mick acts during his interview with "Winston". I never really watched this part closely but I thought Mick was going to grab John and start making out with him. I also thought it weird how John handed Mick his plate of food. It was almost like John was using Mick as his bitch.

3) My wife pointed out that the memebers of Dirty Mac were laughing at Yoko's screeching. I thought they were just having a good time but they could have een wondering"what the hell is going on here?"

4) How beautifully Brian played on No Expectations and how worthless he was on Sympathy. It's sad to watch him try to stay in rythm with his maracas. There are times when he gets lost.

5) How totally in control of the show the Stones were. I came away thinking that the Stones must have been the strongest influence back in those days. I know the Beatles were "it" but something just hit me. Maybe it's my pain medication.

My wife isn't a Stones fan or a fan of 60s and 70s rock music. She pointed out that Mick reminded her of Michael Jackson until I told her that this show was in 1968.

I'm sure these points have been brought up before but I just thought it was interesting stuff.

Love the rocknroll circus stones stuff.....it didnt get officially released at the time....i read that was because they werent happy with their performance (dont know if this is true or not)...but if it is,maybe they were more self-critical in those days...the performance, in hindsight, is great!!!...i also read that the master video tapes were lost...then turned up in ian stewarts barn...who really knows?...but im glad it got released...check out brian jones electric guitar in you cant always get what you want...is it even plugged in?...he was so far "gone" they may not have plugged him in on purpose (sad & pathetic)...best wishes

I love it, but I don`t need the Yoko Ono-thing. Well, it`s wrong to move her part out because it was a happening.

Rock n Roll circus is great and does it for me. Not just The Stones, I dig Taj Mahal, Dirty Mac and of course The Who (awesome performance of a quick one).

While we're on the subject, I've always had some doubts about whether Brian played the slide part on No Expectations........ to me, it looks like they were miming the whole track, the sound/vision just don't seem to mesh and doesn't feel right.

I've always suspected that Brian was simply miming to a tape of Keith playing the slide part.... anybody care to agreee/disagree, confirm/rubbish?

Yoko's great if you want to shatter windows, glasses, etc....in the rocknroll circus check out the violin player as yoko steps up to the mike and starts screeching...he looks bewildered...funny stuff!!!

I assume they are laughing at her because she sounded like shit. Not sure what the hell she was trying to do. Anyone ever hear of the other tunes they rehearsed for this. I read in MOJO they rehearsed a few numbers from the early 60's. Wonder if there is a tape out there somewhere.

Also I think Mick looks cool in this with his long hair. Should have kept it that long more often.

supposedly micks hair was dyed darker for the ned kelly movie....

It's really cool, it was the first Stones video I got!
I always thought Jethro Tull is completely weird, Taj Mahal very cool (always wondered about his sunglasses - did you notice how dirty they are) and admire the guitar solo from his guitar player. I learned years later that he is an Indian who was quite a famous session guitarist, right? The artists are so strange, but it's very funny. And Marianne is quite boring. John Entwistle looks like from a horror movie in his leather outfit, I remember he scared my younger brother a lot )
The Dirty Mac song is very cool, love Eric Clapton there. I too noticed that Mick acts very gay when talking to Winston, ah sorry, Lennon. Did you notice that he makes the same gay move with his hand when he talks on the Four Flicks Documentary Disc about the interviews that he will do. He says "Yeah, Matt Lauer, he was fine" and makes that female move...

Anyway, the Stones set is very good I love they laid-back way they play the songs there! Especially Parachute Woman is great - and I think it's during that song that you see a camera man dancing around and quickly stopping when he notices that the focus is on him. And it's so funny how all these 16 year old girls look when Mick approaches them!

Once in High school I made a presentation about the Stones and showed the class Sympathy - my teacher sat there, with his hands over his ears and told me to stop the movie. What an idiot.


Belgrade-Bucharest-Budapest-Brno

i think that Jesse Ed Davis (guitarist for taj mahal that night) wound up a heroin casualty...sad waste of talent

I'm surprised you guys are missing the best part.

Watch the violin player closely during Yoko's bit. He seems all professional & maybe even a bit stuffy. He is playing, taking it all seriously & then Yoko starts singing...he doesn't flinch. After a bit he starts looking over & thinks they are playing a joke on him...he actually stops playing. He turns to John as if to say "what the fu ck is this". John looks at him with a big smile & saying something like "ya, man, ya". The violin dude just starts laughing as plays...realizing it isn't a joke...but that someone is taking this nut Yoko seriously. Then you see the band kinda cracking smiles.

Just seeing that guy react, kinda pissed off, as if it is all a big joke being pulled on him is priceless.

P.S. If any guy says M. Faithfull's part is boring, must be gay. Those are the best tits around...I even remember hearing Anita mention that somewhere before.

i must confess i didn't notice Marianne's tits. i must be gay, it seems.

To Cafaro:

>>How gay Mick acts during his interview with "Winston". I never really watched this part closely but I thought Mick was going to grab John and start making out with him. I also thought it weird how John handed Mick his plate of food. It was almost like John was using Mick as his bitch.<<

Mick is somehow doing an impersonation of Allen Klein in that bit.

I love most of the show, and love to see Tull. However, they should have used the brand New Yardbirds instead, because Tull had just lost their original guitarist and had to mime (except IA's vocal part) along the record with Tony Iommi on the slide, not being sure enough how it might have turned out...
So I have read somewhere that MJ had to chose between Tull and the New Yardb., but didn't appreciate the big guitar group. A sad mistake...

I had always heard that it was shelved because the Stones thought the Who had blown them off the stage. After watching it, all I could think was "What the hell were they thinking." As great as the Who were, there was NOTHING wrong with the Stones performance. They started strong and just got stronger.

My wife, who was a heavy drug user herself at one time, took one look at Marianne and said "Oh my God, she's high!"

I love the Yoko bit. It's actually a really good jam. Kinda sounds like the Velvet Underground.

Lennon is very condescending towards Mick who, to his credit, takes it graciously.

It's painful to look at Brian playing the maracas on SFTD. At one point, after one arm drops to his side and he's wincing in pain, trying to keep going with the other arm, Mick whips around and gives him a withering glare. That's the only time Mick or Keith even look at him. Sad.

I went to a midnight screening of the Rock 'n' Roll Circus in Leicester Square during the London Film Festival in 1996 (I think that was the year it was finally released) - a great atmosphere with much audience participation. I still have my RnR Circus souvenir popcorn bucket and drinks container as a reminder of the event!!

If Mick dyed his hair for Ned Kelly he must have been keen because the Circus was in December 68 and filming for Kelly began in July 69.

Anyone know what the deal was with Iommi being in Tull? Wasn't Black Sabbath already playing together by this time (Dec 1968)? I know he wasn't with them long enough to record anything, but did they ever play any shows together?

For years I heard that the Stones felt their performance was sub-par, but upon its release I was blown away by how great they were. I can see how they may have been down on it at the time, though....Brian looks bad, they all look incredibly tired and drunk/high....and I think they probably felt the performance was a bit on the sluggish side. Considering it was the middle of the night, and that they were dealing with Brian's problems, I think they pulled it off VERY well. Just not enough for them to be jazzed about it when it was over.

The Who were indeed awesome, but I believe the Stones held their own as "headliners" of that show.

His hair was dyed for Performance wasn't it

I didn't know about the Allen klein bit. I read they did Route 66 for it but it wasnlt filmed. Brain's slide on No Expectations could be mimed becuase there are parts where it looks like he isn't even playing.

Marianne looks great. Man, time and age aren't kind. john must have REALLY loved Yoko to even suggest she do that ridiculous shreiking. And then he get fired up about it after the song is over.

keith was really on his game in those days. His playing is just powerful.

It such a shame the way Yoko ruined that part. The band sounds so good, and then she has to go and ruin it. It's painful to listen to, I always end up fast-forwarding. A beautiful piece of history was blackened in that moment.

I do think those guys are laughing at her, and rightly so. She has no place being there.

You're the blues, John.

Lady Jane...i stand to be corrected...you're right...micks hair was dyed for performance not ned kelly...my brain cells are fadin' fast!!!...best wishes

No Expectation mimed? It did not seem like it to me. What are you guys going to say next? That the slide in the studio version of NE was played by Keith or Ry Cooder rather than Brian?

The Who really kicks ass in this show!!

Iommi joined Sabbath a few months after the Circus...

neptune Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No Expectation mimed? It did not seem like it to
> me. What are you guys going to say next? That
> the slide in the studio version of NE was played
> by Keith or Ry Cooder rather than Brian?


No, I think Brian did play on the studio version, but to my eyes/ears, the version of No Expectations on R&R Circus looks either mimed or very badly dubbed; I think the former may be true; I'll have to watch it again,but to me the performance doesn't look live, and brian's performace throughout is so poor, which makes me think ,ay have plaguws

How do we know Brian's performance was poor when you can't even hear him? His guitar is edited out in every song except NE. Whose bright idea was it to edit out Brian in his last live performance with The Stones? For that reason alone, I think the Circus is a big letdown . . .