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The Rolling Stones Under Review: 1962-1966 Release Date: z Label: Sexy Intellectual

With the immediacy of You Tube and other internet information streams it is tough to accept the tag-line "Ultimate review and crtical analysis of the music and career of The Rolling Stones" that adorns the back of this DVD package, The Rolling Stones Under Review 1962-1966. The big tease is the videoclips - gorgeous video clips - The Stones sitting on a stage while they present Howlin' Wolf on the TV show Shindig, Buddy Holly with a snippet of "Peggy Sue" and delicious Rolling Stones tracks on film, all too short, and spliced alongside the commentary from Melody Maker magazine's Chris Welch, R & B singer Chris Farlowe (who was also under Andrew Loog Oldham's umbrella and had hits with Jagger/Richards material), Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor - who had performed with Mick Jagger in the band Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys- and others. The Dave Clark-leased video of "Paint It Black" live on Ready Steady Go and bits of "It's All Over Now" from The Red Skelton Hour are not as satisfying as finding full renditions of songs on the internet. That none of the guests point out that Mick clearly mouths the "f" word during "It's All Over Now" on TV in 1964 is as shocking as the fact that the singer got away with it, no pause and rewind available in the day allowing the moment to vanish for a few decades. The lip-synched rendition on Skelton's program might have the record playing "I used to love her", but Mick says into the camera "I used to (obscenity) her", and that's definitely worthy of discussion, if not by Red Skelton well, perhaps from their former bodyguard, Tom Keylock, who is interviewed at length here. Also distressing for purists is that you can do a quick Google search and come up with Felix Aeppli's Ultimate Guide 1962-2002 which has the actual dates of those TV moments along with images of 45 RPM covers, different from those displayed on this DVD. Now had this presentation included interactive components bringing the viewer to the internet sites which revealed the missing information it would be so much more significant. That doesn't render this 90 minute documentary useless, but it comes off less interesting than Chrome Dreams' Kate Bush:Under Review, perhaps because there is just so much information available on The Stones and far fewer Kate Bush fans who know her story. Narrator Mandy O'Neal has an appealing accent and editor Elliot Riddle does a fine job of mixing and matching the various elements, but when all is said and done it's the lack of information on the film clips being displayed that is as frustrating as the performances showing up in truncated form. Sure, it's a trip for those who appreciate the band to once again see how young they were at this point in time, the group's incessant touring in the new millennium imprinting on the collective consciousness the fact that they have not aged gracefully, but one can read the AMG biographies and get pretty much the same information more efficiently, which makes this work something for the casual fan and the hardcore completists only. The 13 chapters have eleven titled after Stones' songs so there's the opportunity to skip and jump through the documentary if one chooses. It's not "the ultimate review", but it's intriguing enough. Joe Viglione, All Music Guide

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