Review of Rolling Stones, The: The Stones In The Park

Introduction

On 3/7/1969, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones was found dead. Two days later, the Stones gave a free concert in London’s Hyde Park. Part tribute, part celebration, I suppose.

This DVD is a re-presentation of an old Granada TV show from 1969. It comes with a U certificate so there is obviously no Rock ‘n’ Roll excess on show here. Instead, you get some great performances (Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor meshes immediately with the rest of the band), some interview footage with Jagger and some scene setting documentary footage.

Video

Taken from an old Granada TV show from 1969, you wouldn’t expect this to be visually pristine. It is, however, very poor indeed. It is victim to every possible visual blemish, from bleached out colours to dirt and grain.

Audio

Obviously, the original soundtrack was mono and this is how it is presented here. Being objective, this is easily the worst sounding DVD I have ever heard. The sound is compressed and muddy, and borderline unacceptable. But still, the music shines through. It sounds as good now as it must have done on that summer day 32 years ago.

Interestingly, the Stones’ ex-manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, once stated the three things that make a hit record. He said they were, “A great song, a great song and a great song..... It doesn’t matter: scratch, hiss, pop – if you’re gonna convert the world.” And that is very fitting here. Even though it sounds crap, it still sounds great.

Features

None.

Conclusion

Initially, I was appalled. The picture’s terrible, the sound’s terrible and the documentary footage of blissed out girls blowing bubbles and couples walking barefoot in Hyde Park is just plain embarrassing.

But two things save it.

First and foremost, the music and the performance. The Stones are on top form here – the poor sound can’t disguise that. And the songs are ... Well, they are “Satisfaction”, “Honky Tonk Woman” and “I’m Free”. For a start. Great pop, rock, r’n’b, blues. Whatever you want to call them, they’re great. Jagger is his usual pouting brat (guess who influenced Aerosmith’s Tyler). Keith Richards looks, well, alive. And Charlie Watts looks just the same – except for the long hair. This is the Stones at their prime; before they became the caricatures that they seem to be today.

Secondly, the interview snippets with Jagger start off embarrassing but quickly become entertaining. You expect him to be snarling and macho but he’s not. He is a bit fey, almost polite but slightly spoilt and brattish. And his enunciation is very familiar. And suddenly, it all clicks. Spinal Tap. The Tap guys talk exactly like Jagger does here and it is easy to see where they got part of their inspiration from. The Tap echoes (or rather Tap is the echo) continue with the announcer asking the crowd to “Respect the Trees” in a rather whiny voice and the presence of a group of Hell’s Angels acting as police and bouncers. Great fun.

Like the band, this DVD material is showing its age. You can see the quality still hanging in there but time’s catching up.

There are better Stones DVDs – the Bridges to Babylon disk is a worthwhile purchase – and the inferior sound and vision should deter most purchasers, even die-hard fans. Granada should have taken the time to produce a better disk. I`m glad I had the chance to see it. But I wouldn`t buy it.