Rock and Roll Circus Animals

Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus was made in 1968. You get to see:

• Jethro Tull, with Ian Anderson acting looney
• Marianne Faithfull, looking lovely and singing a surrealistic ditty about blue whiskey
• Taj Mahal singing "Ain't That a Lotta Love" (Sam and Dave by way of the Burrito Bros.), with Jesse Ed Davis on guitar
• The Who, doing their 9-minute rock opera, "A Quick One (While He's Away)"
• John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell, playing "Yer Blues". They are later joined by a violinist and Yoko Ono. They encourage her to sing. This doesn't come out so hot.
• And finally, the Rolling Stones

All this in an intimate circus setting with the audience in strange hats and yellow ponchos. We get to hear "Winston Legthigh" (John Lennon's real name) chatting with Michael Jagger (as Winston likes to call him). We get to see the Who, all singing (the Ox! Moonie!) like choirboys: "You are forgiven!" We get to see Keith, trying to grow into the face he has now.

We get to see very little of Brian Jones. He is present, but will be dead within months. He does a sweet slide on "No Expectations", but is otherwise rather absent.

Of course, Keith Moon is no longer with us, nor John Entwhistle. John Lennon is dead, too young. Jesse Ed Davis is a name you may not know - he was behind Klaus Voorman in The Concert for Bangladesh. He was behind a lot of people, a studio guitarist who made Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton sound good. A Kiowa Indian from Oklahoma, a quiet steady presence. Dead at 44, drugs and alcohol.

But I was listening to Marianne Faithfull singing about blue whiskey, and realized, this is a happy song - Marianne Faithful is still alive. She had some very bad times, but came out the other side. Mick and Keef, still present against all odds. Taj Mahal and Ian Anderson. Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, even Yoko Ono. Bless them all, they survived acute stardom. And though some of them may still succumb to chronic fame, they are all too old to die young.

There are some extras, but the only additional songs were 3 Taj Mahal numbers. They are great, and the camera loves Jesse Ed Davis.