The Rolling Stones in the 1970s: The Complete Review dir. by Alex Westbrook (review)

Most critics and long-time fans of the Rolling Stones agree that the band’s most creative period was between 1969 and 1974, during which they ascended to a higher realm of rock and roll artistry. That phase coalesced when guitarist Mick Taylor joined the band in 1969 after the death of original band member, Brian Jones. Taylor had a profound effect on the chemistry of the band. While it was true that Keith Richards drove the music and Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics, the overall sound was truly a group effort (as it should be) shaped by Carlie Watts’ drumming and Bill Wyman’s bass playing. Guest artists like Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ry Cooder, Ian Stewart, Al Kooper, Jack Nitzsche, and Merry Clayton also left an indelible stamp on the music.

Even though Taylor came from a blues background – and theoretically should have reinforced the Stones’ blues roots – he elicited a different sort of melodic element from the Stones, an unpredictable, lyrical musicality. The Rolling Stones recordings with Mick Taylor – Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street – were masterpieces of rock and roll. Catchy, fresh, vibrant, and alive. Hit after hit dominated the radio and joined the soundtrack of the times. Martin Scorsese used the song “Gimme Shelter” as aural shorthand for an era in his movies Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed. (He also used “Jumping Jack Flash” for Mean Streets and he directed the 2008 Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light.)

Eventually, as the 1970s wore on, the excesses that the band embodied, the reckless debauchery, the “sex, drugs and rock and roll” life that they lived, eroded their creativity. Richards, a long-time heroin user, became a debilitated junkie. Taylor left the band unexpectedly. Jagger became a scenester, a socialite, jet-setter, hanging idly with the Andy Warhol/Studio 54/New York art crowd. With every passing year, headed into the 1980s, as the music scene changed around the Rolling Stones, their music bordered on irrelevance. But they never stopped playing for long, they never stopped exploring and they never ceased to be a band.

The Rolling Stones in the 1970s is a two-DVD unauthorized documentary that chronicles the chapters the Stones passed through, from the height of their career, the departure of Mick Taylor and the addition of Ron Wood – who brought a party vibe back to the band – to their final incarnation as The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band, entertainers who put on a dazzling spectacle every handful of years and play all their hits.

This documentary is essential for any fan of the Rolling Stones as well as any student of popular music history. It has a good narrative flow. The story is told by talking-head music journalists and a voiceover narrator who fills in the gaps. Journalists include Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone Magazine; writer Paul Gambaccini; Mark Paytress, Mojo Magazine; Barney Hoskyns, Rock’s Back Pages; and Robert Christgau, Village Voice and Rolling Stone Magazine. The producers weave additional comments into the narrative from vintage TV interviews.

The music clips are taken mostly from live performances rather than from the recordings that the narrators are talking about at the moment. Maybe that has something to do with securing rights for the recordings, maybe it’s for the visual interest. The filmmakers do not interview the Stones, though they do include snippets of other people’s televised interviews with the band members.

The Rolling Stones’ most creative years may have been behind them by the end of the 1970s but they soldiered on in fits and starts, experimenting—sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing, as true artists must—until they eventually found their stride again as a rock and roll juggernaut that still sells out stadiums. As one music journalist said, “Their craft got them through.”