Original subtitles

[music]

[music]

[music]

The Rolling Stones sort of reinvented

themselves as [music]

purveyors of Americana in the late60s.

>> [music]

>> It brings about their greatest music

because I don't think any British band

has ever come so close to tapping

[music] into the sort of soul of

American roots music.

[music]

But if you measure the talent,

it's incomparable. what you're actually

talking about [music]

is a wonderful rock and roll band. You

know, they're out on their own.

[music]

That transition from the ' 60s into the

'7s was the Stones moment. Sort of the

debt of the dream was the Stones moment.

Not we love you, not uh All We Need Is

[music] Love, not all of that kind of

stuff. But when everybody started to get

the whiff of the fact, you know what?

The revolution's [music] never going to

happen.

[music]

In 1963, the Rolling Stones emerged from

the British blues underground to storm

the charts with a succession of

inventive covers. The Ying to the

Beatles Yang through the canny publicity

of manager Andrew Lugen, they came to

represent a more dangerous side of the

booming teenage culture, offending

parents whilst seducing their offspring.

Originally formed by guitarist Brian

Jones, the band's dynamics started to

alter by the mid60s and after many

singles in which they paid tribute to

their blues and rock and roll heroes,

the Stones began to work on original

compositions.

The key figures in transforming the band

were lyricist and frontman McJagger and

the quiet rhythm guitarist Keith

Richards, whose songwriting partnership

elevated the band to the top ranks of

popular music in 1965 with their hit

Satisfaction. The song just caught so

much the tenor of the time. It was one

of those songs that you know, you know,

just became a kind of anthem

immediately.

I can't get enough.

I can't [music] get enough.

When I'm driving in my car and I'm going

on [music] the radio

[music]

[music]

>> satisfaction is where the myth of Keith

Richards as the human riff begins. Jacka

then puts these fantastic words to it

and and the Stones never look back. I

mean, this is the pivotal moment in

their development. The band continued to

ride on a high throughout 1966. Their

unmistakable raw sound bringing them to

prominence in a market bursting with

competition. I think that Jagger and

Richards did bring something different

into the whole British pop sound of the

time and it was just really a kind of

blacker edge. They just found a kind of

voice really that was very different

from that of the Beatles and indeed from

the Kinks or anyone else. And it was it

had a kind of swagger to it. Nowhere was

that swagger more evident than on their

hugely successful fourth album

Aftermath, which proved a major artistic

breakthrough in consisting solely of

Jagger and Richard's originals.

In keeping with the Times, the band

promoted this record with a succession

of singles and numerous tours. And at

the end of 1966, they went to Olympic

Studios to begin work on new material.

In January 1967, the Stones unveiled the

double A side in both the US and the UK.

Ruby Tuesday and let's spend the night

together.

>> She [music] would never say where she

came from

[music]

yesterday.

Don't matter if it's gone.

I think in a way Ruby Choosy could be

looked upon as a sort of stones

yesterday if you like. Um,

interestingly, um, there's a lot of

evidence that Brian Jones had a very

strong creative input into the writing

of that song. Apparently, him and Keith

were sort of messing about on acoustic

instruments in the studio. And Brian

started playing something that was a

cross between some Elizabeth and ballad

and and an old blues by somebody called

Skip James. Brian Jones actually wrote

Ruby Tuesday

had the idea and then got it together

with Keith and Keith added to it and

then somehow

Mick started to get in on the act and it

became out came out as a Jagger Richards

composition but it was really a Brian

Jones composition. I think they did

tend,

Keith and Mick, they did tend to

plagiarize the ideas of others because

apparently Bill Wyman came up with the

central riff for Jumping Jack Flash,

came up with it on piano and you know,

Mick and Keith turned up at the studio

said, you know, hey, that sounds good.

And then they went away and worked on

the riff and and sort of built it into a

song. And apparently Bill was so

insensed about it that he actually got a

deputation of him Charlie and Brian

together, you know, intending to go and

confront Nick and Keith with this sort

of thing. Um, but you know, apparently

Charlie and Brian kind of lost heart.

>> Goodbye. [music]

Who could hang the name on you [music]

when you change with every new day?

Still, I'm [music] going to miss you.

>> He's got a very English sound. I mean,

for once, they're not looking to

America. Although, when it comes to the

vocal, Mick can't help doing his sort of

American mannerisms. Um,

I mean that Englishness had been there

before in songs like Lady Jane and of

course as As Tears Go By, but perhaps it

reaches its its high point in Ruby

Tuesday.

>> At the end of January, the album Between

the Buttons was released, a record

dominated by the same pop sensibility

that had characterized Ruby Tuesday. It

was to be the Stone's final collection

produced by manager Andrew Lug Olden.

The most overlooked period of the Stones

in a way is what I call phase two. Phase

one is the R&B covers band. Uh phase

three is the greatest rock and roll band

in the world, the riffs, etc. Phase two,

which is a brief period, it doesn't last

very long, is the Rolling Stones pop

band. And they wrote some fantastic

songs in this period. and Between the

Buttons as an album is probably the

apotheiois of it. The social commentary

of songs like Backstreet Girl.

In a way, these songs deserve to be up

there with the work of Ray Davis, who is

always held up, of course, as as the

great writer of these 60s English

vignettes. And Jagger and Richard showed

that that they could do it. Uh Ray Davis

has carried on doing it. Rolling Stones

went on to do something else, which is

perhaps why they've not received the

credit for it, but uh hugely underrated

pop songwriters in that genre.

>> Between the Buttons, it suffers from an

appalling sound mix. I mean, there's

there's some good songs on there. I

think Miss Amanda Jones um and I'd much

rather be with the boys that is from

around that time. And um these are great

songs, but they have terrible sound

quality. You know, they everything's

buried and muddy and it was all done in

a big rush because

65 66 the Stones were just touring all

the time. They were they were doing like

American tour after American tour and

then they'd come and do a quick British

one and it'd be like, "Oh, let's knock

out an album." You know, we got three

days or something like that and they'd

be in and out and they'd leave the

mixing to someone else.

>> Something happened to me yesterday. the

closer I I regard as one of the great

Rolling Stone songs. A complete goof, a

wonderful lyric. Uh uh really one of

their absolutely classic performances

and a very very one. Uh I don't think

they ever did anything else like it. And

uh it's such a goof and it's about

musical, right? It's about British music

hall.

>> [music]

>> Something very strange I hear you say.

You're [music] talking in a most

peculiar way.

But something really threw me.

Something also groovy.

Something happened [music]

to me yesterday.

yesterday.

>> The kind of authority

>> that you like those early Rolling Stones

albums had was certainly missing for

something like Between the Buttons. You

know, Between the Buttons is a charming

record, but like you don't go to the

Rolling Stones for charm. You know,

there was you know those those uh you

know 12x5 or the Rolling Stones now uh

you know those records just had such

heat and um and confidence. I think the

Stones did struggle to find um a new

direction around about the time of of

Between the Buttons because they didn't

have what the Beatles had. They didn't

have that kind of sophistication

in terms of songwriting or production in

the studio and that's not what they were

about. So there was some there was

somewhere between the kind of um punky

bad boys stance of satisfaction if you

like and the um their own version of

psychedelia on satanic majesties you

know whereas the Beatles just forged

ahead inventing a new language for pop.

The Stones couldn't really keep up with

that because they couldn't write ballads

like McCartney and they were never going

to be capable of something as ambitious

as a day in the life.

[music]

>> The English army had just won the war.

[music]

The crowd of people turned away.

But I just [music] have to look.

Having read the book.

[music]

I think it was only when they returned

to their essential kind of um blues

animus if you like that that that spirit

that essence that they they kind of got

themselves properly on track with what

the Rolling Stones were about and

between the buttons you know uh is is a

transitional uncertain record I think

for that reason this uncertain period in

the Stone's career was shattered by

events following the album's release

Keith Richard's Sussex home Redlands was

raided by police. Jagger, Richards, and

art dealer Robert Fraser were all later

charged and jail sentences handed out

harshly. This was front page news in

Britain with many journalists damning

the morality of pop stars and the

emerging counterculture. While others

saw these harsh sentences as

persecution,

the question over the effect that

musicians had on the nation's youth rose

to prominence once again. A national

newspaper had tipped off the police to

raid Keith Richard's house at West

Wittering. In the house were found

traces of cannabis resin and a pipe in

which cannabis had been smoked. Evidence

that an unnamed naked woman was sitting

on a sofa with a rug around her was

given in court today.

>> As an idol of many young people in this

country today, you have a very grave

responsibility.

>> It's a grave you know. How do you

propose to

>> exercise that now?

>> Well, that's very difficult. One

perhaps doesn't ask for

responsibilities. Perhaps one is given

responsibilities when one is uh

uh pushed into the limelight in in this

particular sphere rather than asking to

be and asked to be pushed into this and

in a way merely asked to be my private

life to be left alone. So as it were my

that my responsibilities as far as that

goes are only to myself you know in in

the public sector such as to do with my

work my records and etc. I I have

responsibility but in my private the

amount of baths I take or my personal

habits are of no

consequence to anyone else. I don't

think

>> you mean that you were picked upon

because you are who you are. I don't

think we're picked on picked upon in

that way because but it's just that

applies to everybody. I mean the

responsibility only applies to us

because who we are.

>> The news of the world had got Brian down

to speak easy

talking nonsense and offering pills and

joins to everyone and they reported it

as Jagger. Jagger immediately sued,

spotted a wonderful opportunity, sued.

And at that point, the news of the

world, I think, felt that their best

counter strategy was to uh was to set up

a bust,

which I think is what happened.

there was a consciousness in the United

States about what was going on with the

Stones uh in in the kind of burgeoning

counterculture because there was a sense

in which a lot of people were starting

to take drugs and you know that element

of who was going to get targeted or you

know what the risks were you know really

came to the four with the Rolling Stones

and of course then you know the who and

to a degree the Beatles you know

speaking out in support

just was one of those moments when you

realize well this is the counterculture.

This is something else. This is you know

this is more than just a kind of um you

know a momentary blip in pop culture

like this is going to be a cultural

battle and in many ways uh you know

those battles are still being fought but

you know the Stones were at the heart of

it because they became the target.

>> While the media frenzy continued [music]

the group focused on the recording of

their next album. Over the past 2 years,

the psychedelia movement spearheaded by

writer [music] and psychologist Timothy

Liry had begun to take hold of the youth

culture in America and its acid soaked

philosophy [music] proceeded to change

the sound of modern music. The work that

the Stones created during these sessions

[music] very much reflected the times

and in August a new double Aite was

released [music] that surprised both

audiences and critics. We love you and

dandelion.

>> [music]

[music]

[music]

>> Psychedelia, I think, was a blind alley

to the Stones because, you know, the

whole psychedelic ethos was love and

peace and community. And I don't think

the Stones were ever about community,

you know. I think they were about

individualism at the extreme.

[music]

[music]

>> It doesn't quite ring true the

sentiment, does it? The little film they

made with um Keith as the judge and

Marian Faithful as Boosezy or whatever.

I mean, I think that probably is a truer

reflection of their of their feelings.

Um, I don't think they had a great deal

of love for Ben Coffers.

I think there was a great danger with We

Love You.

It's a common danger with topical

singles is what happens to them if

they're no longer topical. But I mean, I

think if you boil it down that um We

love you is only topical because it had

the sound of slamming jail doors in it,

you know, relating to the, you know, the

drugs case.

It certainly stands up more than the

other side of it. Dandelion. I mean, in

a way, that double A sign was a concept

single as opposed to a concept album

because a little vignette of We Love You

is actually at the end of Dandelion. In

December, after the sentences for Jagger

and Richard's drug case were overturned,

the Stones finally released their

satanic majesty's request. Its tracks

were characterized by the same

psychedelic experimentation as We Love

You, and it was certainly the Stone's

most atypical album so far. Yet it

divided critics and many felt that the

band were losing their unique voice.

>> They were very spaced out when they made

it and the album was very spaced out as

a result of it. They were trying

desperately to do something which in

some way would play catchup to the

Beatles psychedelic

Sergeant Peppers and they came up with

their satanic majesties. It was far too

indulgent,

not directed or controlled enough, and

it just became a kind of um

piece of self-indulgent nonsense really.

Yet, Brian Jones, in an increasingly

troubled mental and physical state, once

again introduced new musical elements to

the band's tracks, and his

experimentation was a key part of the

album's sonic construction.

>> That was the sort of album on which he

could come into his own. He had this

ability to pick up almost any instrument

from a sitar to a a mandolin to

whatever. And uh coax interesting sounds

out of it. And an album like Satanic

Majesties gave him the the opportunity

to do that. [music]

[music]

Heat. Heat.

[music]

>> [music]

[music]

>> Ryan was in his element. I mean, he

could have brought like a food mixer

into the studio and, you know, they

probably would have let him stick that

on. You know, it was that kind of

atmosphere. But it was ill advised and

and also the the cover, you know, trying

to outdo the Beatles, but oh, we'll have

a three-dimensional cover, you know,

that'll beat their Sergeant Pepper with

all the faces on, you know, it really

was a a race. Was it like

Sergeant Pepper? Well, that's an

absurdity. The only way it was like

Sergeant Pepper was that it had a really

strange cover. A lot of the songs are

very strong. They're very good

songwriters, Jagger and Richards, you

know, and they didn't write many Bluff

songs back then. They were hitting it

almost every time.

Uh, some of them were more trivial than

others, and I would say that's true of

several of the songs on that record. But

as melodic and rhythmic constructions,

they're strong.

[music]

[music]

in [singing] the GP.

[music]

It's so very lonely. [music]

Your 600

years.

[music]

I think they were really in a bit of a

mess around the time of Satanic

Majesties, [music]

not least because Brian Jones was really

going off the rails. And I think the

Stones felt slightly

um out of place in that whole Carnobby

Street CFDAN wearing era because they

they knew it wasn't really them.

It didn't really answer particularly to

what Keith Richards was about. You know,

Keith Richards was not George Harrison.

He was really still wiied to a notion of

music as black rooted and intense and

soulful. He was not interested in beads

and bells. It's not serious.

But on the other hand,

it's not simply parody.

Uh it's not as if there's no sense that

um that they're not interested in these

realms of experience, this kind of

fantasy, this kind of sense of

psychological possibility. Uh they

they're dabbling in it in an interested

way.

certainly not convinced because they're

never convinced of anything. But on the

other hand, not just making fun of it.

Uh and

and not only because had they done that,

they would have really outraged uh the

fan base, but also because that was uh

their attitude. I think I don't know

with them. You never really know, but

that's what I that's the way I take it

and it's the way it comes off.

She comes in [music] colors everywhere.

She combs her hair. She's like [music] a

rainbow.

Come in colors in the air.

Everywhere

she comes in [music] color.

[music]

I've campaigned over the years actually

for its rehabilitation and written

articles claiming it as a as a lost

classic because I really do think it is.

I think as a an album of late60s

psychedelia, it's quite superb. And I

don't well I do understand why people

don't like it. People don't like it

because they're comparing it against

Jumping Jack Flash and Exile on Main

Street. Uh you know, but if you if you

listen to it alongside

other whimsical English psychedelic

records of 1967-68,

it's a great album. Although his unique

contributions lifted the album, Brian

was becoming increasingly isolated

within the band. Having lost his

girlfriend Anita Palenberg to Richards,

Jones's drug use was spiraling out of

control. And despite his status as a

founding member of the band, his future

as a Rolling Stone seemed uncertain.

Ryan quite quickly began to feel odd man

out largely because of Keith and Mick's

writing collaboration

and uh there was a kind of undercurrent

that this guy who considered himself to

be the you know the leader had suddenly

been eclipsed both by Mick as a frontman

and the Jagger Richard's writing

combination.

So he was

um a little isolated as a result of

that. He was both being eased out and

easing himself out of the Rolling Stones

commitment by his lack of responsibility

to the band and his lack of effort. He

was rejecting them in the same way as

they were rejecting him in a way. You

know, he would turn up for recording

sessions and just lie on his back

looking at the ceiling. [music]

Jones's despondency allowed Keith

Richards to flourish. After the

uncertainty [music] of their previous

albums, he turned his back on Carnaby

Street and British Psychedelia. And as

in the earliest days of the Stones,

looked to America for [music]

inspiration.

[music]

[music]

They toured a lot in America throughout

the sort of period of [music] screaming

hysterical girls and poppier songs like

get off my cloud [music] or whatever,

you know. And there was a there was a

lot of time spent in America

soaking up what this vast country meant,

the mythology of this place. and they

toured in the south and and Keith was

buying records which um by his own

admission he never really had time to

listen to. Uh, and then come sort of 67,

you know, the Stones were finally able

to take a little bit of time off, get

off the treadmill. And Richards has said

that he, you know, he he actually

unpacked a lot of these records he'd

bought and started, you know, absorbing

himself in American music again. You

know, he he started studying it again.

And I think that coupled with the way

the Stones had been scapegoated and

vilified by the British establishment um

with the whole Redlands bust, it just it

kind of focused him again. And in 1968,

you know, when flower power had faded

away and and you know, all that sort of

al Capone chic had passed through as

well, there were there was a certain

element of rock and roll revival.

You know, you got sort of reissues of

things like Rave On and Rock Around the

Clock were actually getting into the

lower reaches of the charts and, you

know, something like Lady Madonna

sounded very much like Fats Domino. And

there were also a very

strong element of plain and unadorned

albums coming out particularly by

somebody like Bob Dylan John Wesley

Harding which just Dylan's voice were

just sort of you know guitar bass drums

in the background very simple very sort

of stripped down and the stones lent an

ear to this I mean another strong

influence and this is kind of connected

to um to Dylan was music from Big Pink

by the band.

[music]

[music]

I picked up all of my winning and I gave

my little pess hand. [music]

She tore it up and threw it in my face

just for a laugh. [music]

Now there's one thing in the whole wide

world I would like to see. [music]

That's when that love of mine.

[music]

And what they did, the Stones came up

with something that kind of went back to

the sort of bedrock, I suppose, of of

1964,

but was allied to modern technology.

In February 1968, the Stones announced

that they were going to be working with

American producer Jimmy Miller in an

attempt to realize the new sound that

they were looking for. Miller had

successfully broadened the sound of the

band traffic, and with the Stone's next

release, he and Richard steered the

group away from the more elaborate

tendencies of psychedelic music.

I went to a small

recording studio in Morton, M O R D,

Morton, and uh there was my mate Stu and

Mick and Keith in the studio. And they

played me. I think I was probably the

first music journalist to hear Jumping

Jack Flash.

And I listened to it and I This is

amazing. This is a totally different

sound from what you've actually been

doing before. Where have you got it

from? And Keith gave me some convoluted

explanation of how he'd recorded his

guitar through a Philips cassette

player, stood the microphone in front of

the amp. I didn't really understand it.

I'm not technically that good, you know,

but I knew that he was telling me, you

know, they this was how they got the

sound. And I knew the sound was was

something special. It was thick and it

was all enveloping and it was exciting

and it was rock

[music]

and by hurricane

and I [music]

driving

[music]

>> pop was still singles and it was moving

really fast and you have a period of I

don't know maybe a year maybe longer

where the stones have no single uh We

love you was a moderate hit. Uh Satanic

Majesty's

pald by comparison with the Beatles

stuff. Um the stones seemed

to have vanished more or less. I mean,

if you were a 14, 15y old music fan in

England, the stones seem to have faded.

So, the impact the jumping jack flash

made at the time is hard to understand

now. I mean, you had to be there at the

time to uh, you know, suddenly the

silence was broken and with a bang, you

know, with a great record.

Jumping Jack Flash was the turning point

and I think that was the point at which

Keith really took started to take over

the sound

of the band because he'd now got his

confidence right and he realized that

he'd done something a bit special. Just

the fact that he decided to kind of, you

know, experiment with recording the

guitar that quite sort of punky lowfi

way is sort of such a it's such a

rejection of of the over orchestrated

aspects of of Satanic Majesties. And

it's just almost like saying we're a

punk rock band.

>> [music]

>> Now it's a super

[music]

I'm jumping jack.

[music]

>> People like Jimmy Miller coming onto the

scene from America were very important

too at this time. They did give them a

kind of transatlantic

sound if you want to call it that. kind

of uh ubiquitous

Americana with the Brit rock, pop,

whatever you want to call it thing as

well, which was an amalgamation of of

their um of their sound. Jimmy Miller

was was a very clever drummer. He

actually played drums on one of the

tracks, I think. I I'm not sure. He

certainly had a stab at Jumping Jack

Flash at one time. And there was one

track he did that Charlie couldn't do,

and I think he's actually he actually

does play it on the album. Charlie was

very good about that actually. He said

afterwards, I remember doing an

interview with him and he said Jimmy

Miller taught me something about

drumming at that point and I always

remembered it. He wasn't a great live

drummer, but he was a good drummer in

the studio and um Charlie was as usual

very gracious about that sort of thing,

which you know somebody else might have

been quite pissed off about. I would

suspect but Jimmy Miller was was an

important

factor in in Beggar's Banquet success. I

think

>> Jimmy Miller was incredibly important to

the Rolling Stones. I mean, Keith aptly

described him an incredible rhythm man,

you know, and when you listen to, you

know, those records he produced with

with with the Stones, everything is a

rhythm instrument, you know, Jagger's

vocal, the guitars, everything's moving.

The cowbells, all of this stuff is is is

rolling through. He'd get into the

studio and play them himself, you know,

something that, you know, something that

the Stones would absolutely respect. And

when Jumping Jack Flash came out, it was

like, you know, somebody just kind of

went it just kind of blew the fog away.

I remember a friend of mine, you know,

we were kids, it just kind of come up to

me and just said, "God, have you heard

the new Stone single? It sounds like

Chuck Barry, you know, like it that was

a good thing, you know, that was a sense

of, you know, the Stones kind of getting

back to what they did best." In June,

the Stones and Jimmy Miller returned to

the studio to begin work on an album

that would push them even further in

this new direction. This process was in

turn captured by the French filmmaker

Jeanluke Godar who at the height of his

powers in the 1960s shot a typically

idiosyncratic documentary around the

recording of one of the album's standout

tracks, Sympathy for the Devil.

>> I went to Olympic Studios in Barnes. I

would sometimes because I was quite

close to them in the early days because

I knew Stu, I could sort of drop in at

the studios and they wouldn't mind as

long as I didn't make a nuisance of

myself. So I did, you know, coming back

from the Scotch of St. James on the

Adelib and I remember going to the

studio one night and just walking in and

Jeanluke Godard was doing Sympathy with

the Devil. I was filming it and I

thought, "What the hell? This is

amazing. What is this?" You know, this

is another total departure from anything

the Stones had done before.

And Marianne was there and uh she said

that it stemmed from a book that she'd

given Mick called The Master Margarita.

She'd given the book to Mick. Mick had

got the inspiration for for Sympathy

with the Devil from that book.

And I was listening to it in kind of

fragments in the studio. I didn't really

get the full impact of it, but I did

know that there was something really

different going down. Well, Keith, I

thought of having the solo on the third

on the fourth one instead of the

>> because that's the way it's the way it

sort of is, you know, the last verse is

different.

>> Okay.

>> So, we'll have it like three verses

straight through and then the solo

>> should start off very cool. Should be

very cool. [music]

[music]

just [music]

>> Godar despite being at the very high end

of cinema was a complete cinema guy and

that means he was a complete he was

completely interested in the development

of popular culture in masculine feminina

for example a film he shot in ' 65 he'

taken a French a young French pop star

and used her as the uh main uh uh

character difficult to say exactly what

god I was aiming at but on the oneplus 1

in general is an attempt on the one hand

to take the creation of a track of the

rolling stones at that time and

juxtapose it with a whole lot of ideas

about black power revolution feminism

etc.

>> It seems to me that the attempt to

conjugate all those other things

together really doesn't work. There's

moments of humor and there's moments of

insight. On the other hand, as an actual

documentary of the Stones actually

recording a song, you have all Godar's

kind of brilliance at actually recording

the moment. Um, I don't think he thought

of it any in any way as a simple

documentary, but in many ways the force

of the film is actually to really show

you the Stones recording a song.

[music]

As well as documenting the recording

process, Godar was also able to capture

the changing dynamics between the

various members of the band. When you

see the Godard film, Sympathy for the

Devil, you see this sad figure of Brian

Jones in another world and he's in his

little booth playing his guitar with his

headphones on and he's not even aware

that they've actually turned turned his

sound off. you know, he's not even going

into the mixing board and he's there in

his own little world, absolutely

out of it. Keith steps into

this void. I mean, again, it's very

interesting if if if if you look at the

Godard film, um, you know, half the time

it's not even Bill Wyman playing bass.

Keith is picking up the bass and he and

Jagger are really driving it by this

stage. There's another bit in the film

where Jagger turns to Charlie Watts and

says, "Oh, you know, for heaven's sake,

Charlie, put some life into it." And the

two of them, Mick and Keith, at this

point, are are absolutely driven.

Godar's film was released in November

1968, a week before the release of the

album Beggar's Banquet. Although many

fans were bewildered by Godarr's work,

the track Sympathy for the Devil opened

the new record and would become another

classic in the Stones cannon.

>> [music]

>> Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm

[music] 12.

I've been around for a long [music] long

years. So many soul.

Sympathy for the devil is

melodically not that interesting, but

rhythmically it's a fabulous track. Uh,

and we have the Godard stuff, the

oneplus one um thing where they clearly

they have no idea how to take it at all.

You know, they're trying it as a ballad,

they try it as a sambber, they try it

and eventually they hit on this thing

and Anita comes up with the woo woo is

the witches chorus and uh, you know, the

whole thing falls into place.

If you take a title like sympathy for

the devil, you know, that's a very

different kind of idea than this kind of

angelic 60s vision that we've been

given. And almost in a kind of Blakeian

way, you know, the Stones and and a lot

of other people, I mean, obviously, you

know, Jimmy Pager, you know, in a in a

in a different and and harsher way.

Obviously, Charles Manson. I mean, you

know, this kind of stuff was in the air

as as the 60s began to fade. And you

know there was a kind of fascination

with

um

you know what's on the other side of

this coin you know what you know well if

you know if we're not getting back to

Eden you know what are the other

possibilities

to meet [music] you

[music]

is just a

Sympathy

to the Devil is an incredibly important

even [music] anthemic song. And what it

tells us is that um we are no longer in

this sort of dizzy utopia of LSD and

flowers and love and peace. And Satan is

sexy suddenly, you know, and the stones

more than anyone else in that period

flirted with the diabolical.

And it had a lot to do with an idea of

decadence that was endemic to uh

the smart set in London if you like that

the Stones were welcomed into and it

tapped into Alistister Crowley. It

tapped into a tradition of devilry if

you like that's always been there on the

kind of fringes of English culture. This

is a big part of what the Stones are

doing here, you know, and it taps into

blues mythology. Robert Johnson,

Hellhound on my trail.

>> Me

hellhound on my trail. Hell out [music]

on my tail.

On my tail.

[music]

>> This is This is a big part of what The

Stones are steeped in.

>> Beggar's Banquet was released in

December 1968 and was instantly hailed

as a masterpiece. Both a return to

basics and a significant progression.

This collection of powerful songs

reclaimed the Stone's position as one of

the greatest acts in popular music.

There was a real reaction to just the

volume and overkill really of 1967

where there was you know Hrix really I

suppose in cream you know beggar's

banquet was you know was full of country

blues and playful Appalachian sort of

country arrangements string band

arrangements you know factory girl dear

doctor prodigal son it sounds really

authentic to me I mean sounds like a

bunch of, you know, decadent

English white boys, but but who really

are immersed in the feel of that music

and they really do it really well. You

know, this isn't paste. Take me [music]

to the station

and put me on [music] the train.

I've got no expectations

[music]

to pass

through here [music]

again.

What's interesting, I think, listening

to to Beggar's Banquet today is

how almost folky some of it sounds.

There's a lot of acoustic guitars on

there. I mean, some great riffs on

there. Uh, but it's not nearly as heavy

as some of the the later albums. And

it's got a very appealing

um

slightly ramshackle

semi acoustic

feel to it.

>> They're really kind of digging deep into

the sort of roots of of of American

music and they're throwing off the sort

of spangled cloak of flower power. We're

just not interested in that anymore.

We're not interested in debutants. We're

really now interested in in this idea of

America. it brings about their greatest

music because I don't think any British

band has ever come so close to

tapping into the sort of soul of of of

American roots music.

>> Jagger's approach to lyrics was also

evolving and with this new set of tracks

he seemed to be finding his own

distinctive voice. there was a a sort of

element of Jagger just kind of as a

writer I think really engaging the times

you know street fighting man I mean the

kind of ironic anthem an ironic

political anthem you know this kind of

sense of frustration at the same time as

you know we're a band you know we're not

you know we're not leading the

revolution

>> everywhere [music]

I hear the sound of March and char

[music]

[music] and the time is right for rising

in the street. [music]

Street Fighting Man was very reflective

of the period in time with people on the

streets for one reason or another,

whether it was CND or antivietnam or

whatever it was. It was very reflective

of student unrest and young people's

disenchantment with the government and

the authority of the times. But I don't

think he was leading that. He was simply

looking at the papers and the news and

seeing what was going on and then

reflecting it as a younger person.

[music]

[music]

had done down there. Just no place for

man.

No.

[music]

Most great rock songs reflect the

attitude of the audience and the

generation at the time

and the way that they feel. They hold a

mirror up to the audience and they

reflect back at each other.

That's what rock music actually does.

>> Even as the Stones were in a sense

coming apart, I mean, because this, you

know, in a sense that record is about

the the dissolution of Brian Jones, it

also announced a kind of resurgence of

the Rolling Stones chronicling a very

complicated and troubled time. And not,

you know, this wasn't flower power. You

know, this is definitely sort of

postflower power. is a kind of

understanding of what was ahead.

>> In keeping with this darker vision of

the 1960s, Jagger had spent the months

following the recording of Beggar's

Banquet on his first major acting role.

The project, which the singer had been

involved in since its early development

stages, was the brainchild of writer and

artist Donald Camel, a disturbing and

dreamlike evocation of late 1960s

Britain called Performance.

>> Camel had known Jagger for a very, very

long time. Jagger had become part of the

Chelsea set of which Camel was a member

um very early on certainly by 1965 and

they had talked about doing a film

together for a very long time. So Jagger

was in place um uh funnily enough Jagger

was in place from the moment Brando

dropped out because the the the very

very very original idea was that Brando

was going to play the gangster. After

Brando dropped out, Jagger was there for

at least two or three years while the

script developed uh from something quite

different or relatively different to the

script we know today. Jagger's own

performance as the faded rockstar Turner

colliding with an East End gangster was

notable in its similarities to Brian

Jones, and Camel had indeed based

elements of the film on the lifestyle of

the Rolling Stones founding member.

There's no question that the house in P

Square is based in many ways on the

Jones House in Courtney Road and the

Jones and Palenburg house. It's

decorated in the same manner and Jagger

uses many of Jones's uh mannerisms.

>> Why?

>> Because you're afraid of him.

>> Yes. Right. Right. [snorts]

and he's afraid too

>> of you.

>> At the same time, it's not simply a

documentary account of Jones. Uh, it's a

great deal to do with Camel. I mean, in

some sense, it's autobiographically,

it's it's it's most strongly about Camel

himself.

>> Sorry to disturb. Has anyone got a

sixpiece for the phone?

>> Uh, can I uh use the blower up here? We

haven't got a blower up here.

>> What in God's name has he done to his

hair?

>> He's blown it.

>> Yeah. Well, that's it, dear. I got to

bring up my agent again.

>> Oh, I fancy the red.

>> No. No. It was the red diet.

>> Dead. Died.

Red.

>> Died. It dead.

>> Red. Red.

Van Go. Oh, no. This is the normal.

>> The normal?

>> Yeah. I was just having a laugh. Having

a laugh, you see, with my act, with my

image.

>> You know what I mean?

>> Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

>> Thought you would. Uh, he reckons, my

agent, that uh, time for a change.

>> It's time for a change.

It's the dark side of the sort of

swinging London 60s, isn't it really?

With Donald Camel obviously being

related to Alistister Crowley and the

fact that Anita's in there as well, you

know, it's it's like you you you can't

make this stuff up. It's just such a

sort of perfect kind of dramatization of

of the the forces that were sort of

swirling around at that time.

After endless battles with Warner

Brothers and several recuts, the film

was finally given a limited US release

in 1970 and a much more successful

release in Britain the following year.

Critical reaction was however very

divided.

[music]

>> [music]

>> Whereas the film drew some criticism,

its soundtrack was remarkable, including

a standout track by the score composer

Jack Nicher and MC Jagger, Memo from

Turner.

Memo from Turner is is a fantastic

track. And what's going on there really

is that Jack Nichi, who put the

performance soundtrack together, um

was himself uh very smitten with the

Stones. You know, Anichi was a pretty

creepy character in his own way and

it's, you know, he had his own sort of

slightly satanic dabblings and so the

stones answered to that slightly

sinister side. And in a sense, man from

Turner is Nichi kind of putting together

his own idea of the stones around um

around Jagger with with Ray Cuda playing

the the the bottleneck guitar.

[music] Anton on a hot and dusty night.

He will eat eggs in Samies when the

black man there drew his knife. [music]

Oh, you drown at you in ramp as he

washed his sleeveless shirt. You know

that Spanish speaking gentleman, the one

that we all call. [music]

>> It was mags

the one

great

solo moment by any of the Stones really.

Uh, you know, it's the greatest Rolling

Stones track, not by the Rolling Stones.

And, uh, Rikuda's guitar is absolutely

incredible. Uh, as Keith Richards

realized, um, because he went on to

allegedly steal one or two of Rise

licks.

>> Everywhere you look at it, it's from The

Last Poets to Robert Johnson. This is a

film which is absolutely on the music

money. Um, how they did it, I have no

idea, but they did it.

>> I remember [music]

1956.

You're a [ __ ] little leather boy with

a smaller piece of [music] stick. You're

a lashing, smashing hump man. Your

sweatshine [music]

sweet and strong. Your orans working

perfectly, but there's a part that's not

screwed on. There were many attempts,

many many attempts to put um uh rock

music and uh film together from the

Presley movies on um and um there were

some successes. I mean, the Beatles

films are are quite considerable films,

but there's no doubt the performance is

just head and shoulders above them all.

Um and most of them have been dreadfully

unsuccessful. So as a way of capturing

uh rock music and its energy and its

problems on film uh performance is

without equal. The whole band decided to

follow Jagger's example and to try to

make the transition to the big screen.

They put together a concert film that

would include performances from the Who

Marian Faithful and John Lennon. But on

seeing the finished product, it was the

Stones themselves who deemed it so

disappointing that it wasn't officially

released until 1996.

>> That was again an attempt, a mistaken

attempt by Mick to follow in the

footsteps of the Beatles who did the

Magical Mystery Tour. So they thought

they'd do a circus. That was my last job

for the New Musical Express to cover the

Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

>> That you can't always get what you want.

Honey, [music]

you can't always get what you want.

You can't always get what you want.

But if you try sometimes,

well, you might just find [music]

what you need.

Yeah, [music]

>> that Rolling Stones rock and roll circus

thing was another one of those kind of

mistakes that they made. They couldn't

get it quite right at that time for some

reason. The idea, the lineup was

fantastic. The Who stole the show.

[music]

>> [music]

>> Come on.

[music]

Don't let you lie. [screaming]

Oh, you're my [music]

[music]

[music] 10 times better than than the

the Stones were. Probably another reason

why Mick didn't put it out. Yet inside

the Stones camp, far greater problems

were coming to a head. As the band

worked in the studio on their follow-up

to Beggar's Banquet, it became clear

that the inspiration for Turner Brian

Jones was spiraling out of control.

Having lost his girlfriend to Richards

and having become a less prominent

member of the band, the former teen

pinup and party animal had become a

broken man.

>> Amongst them all, Brian was a clubber.

He used to like uh the bubbles and he

used to like people around him. See

Brian very funny really. He had so many

people around him. Some were good, some

were bad, some were leashes, you know,

but he couldn't bear to be on his own.

To me, although all these people around

him was a very lonely man, that's my

opinion of Brian. cuz sometimes he used

to talk to me

uh and I could feel

he was hurting. You know, Brian had

problems. I mean, there was an there was

an element of Brian's nature that was

today would be deemed schizophrenic.

Uh he had

a problem

with his identity, who he was, what he

was, where he was going.

And um it caused him great pain and it

caused some of the people around him

great pain as well. Brian, he could be

lovable,

very polite, very nice,

but he could be also he could be a

bastard.

There weren't too many people after the

first two or three years that had a good

word to say about Brian, which is very

sad because he could be quite charming.

He was very articulate. He was always

absolutely charming to me as a as a

journalist, but then he was usually

charming to people he thought could be

useful to him.

Um

he was intelligent, he was well read,

but somewhere along the way there was a

kind of there was a weakness, a flaw.

And

once he used started to use the drugs as

a prop,

then

that really undermined him. That really

underpinned him. By that time, I knew

anyway that there was a lot of animosity

going on. But I unfortunately Brian, he

got in such a state, he just couldn't

get it together. He couldn't hack it. He

just could not do it. He fell apart.

He became a figure of of almost of um

fun to the other guys in the band. Keith

and Mick

would ridicule it because of his

behavior. [music]

Uh and it was sad.

Um, perhaps if they'd have been a little

older and a little wiser like they are

now, they might have been a little

kinder and a little more supportive, but

Brian did

rather ask for it.

[music]

Now ostracized from his own bandmates,

his continued involvement in the Stones

made him a liability. In June 1969,

Mick, Keith, and Charlie visited Brian

[music] at his farmhouse, and the

founding member of the group was fired.

Ultimately, it was very important that

Brian Jones fade out of the picture. You

know, that was the making of the Stones.

It was the cementing of the Jagger

Richards partnership that that that

Brian just

dropped out. He was a mess emotionally

and chemically. A complete mess. A guy

whose heart had been in the right place.

who'd been a passionate

student of the blues, but who wasn't

capable of um accepting the challenge

of the Rolling Stones status.

After 3 days, statements were issued and

Brian's departure was made official.

Young guitarist Mick Taylor, who had

replaced Peter Green in John Male's

Blues Breakers two years before, was

announced as Joan's replacement. Yet

further drama was to unfold less than a

month later when Brian Jones was found

dead in the swimming pool at his country

home.

>> About midnight, Jones went for a swim

with his Swedish girlfriend, Anna Volan,

and another friend, Mr. Frank Thurugod.

After a time, Mr. Thurugod and the girl

went back to the house. When they

returned, they saw Jones at the bottom

of the pool and they pulled him out.

I was at Olympic Studios the night that

death happened and uh Tom Keelock who

was there minder appeared about 2:00 in

the morning and the word went round the

uh studio that something had happened

down at the farm and that he died in the

swimming pool and uh at first I wasn't

being told about it. I was in the

control room looking out into the studio

and I could see these little groups

quite seriously talking together and uh

[clears throat]

Charlie came in at one point quite

tearful and Marianne was there and she

was very tearful

and uh Jagger was curious mixture of

anger and sadness I think but the anger

was dominating and I remember him saying

it goes on it goes on.

And this was taken to mean by some

people that that the session went on,

which it did kind of dribble on for

about an hour, but nothing really was

probably it was going through the

motions to give them something to do

because they felt, I think, pretty awful

about the fact that Brian had died. I

think what Jagger was saying was the

Rolling Stones goes on.

>> Nobody was really that surprised. do.

There are people I mean I'm sure

everybody's got those feelings about

certain people. Everybody knows people

that

>> you just have that feeling about they're

not going to be they're not going to be

70 years old ever. You know that not

everybody makes it. You

>> the Stones already had a free concert in

Hyde Park planned 2 days after Jones's

death and they decided that the show

must go on. Jagger read a Shelly poem

and then released hundreds of white

butterflies in remembrance of Brian. But

it was also Mick Taylor's first live gig

and in many ways it marked the passing

of one era and [music] the beginning of

another.

>> I think the the death of Brian Jones

really

washed over the Rolling Stones. Had very

little I mean they're they're hard men,

you know. I mean, let's not forget

Jagger and Richards didn't turn up to

the funeral. Um Mick led off the

butterflies in Hyde Park at the free

concert uh and read Shelly for him, but

he didn't go to the funeral. he was

already off to Australia to to make Ned

Kelly, you know, and he wasn't going to

delay the shooting of his first major

feature film to go to his old friend's

funeral. So, there was a very hard

attitude there. Um, and I think they

felt in a way Brian had effectively been

dead to them for for for quite a long

time. But, you know, let's not overlook

the fact that Brian did make some

fantastic contributions, which Mick and

Keith have spent the last 40 years

talking down, but it is undoubtedly

there. It's undoubtedly there in their

first phase as an R&B band. It's very

much there in their phases of pop band

where he's introducing the melatron and

the sitar and all of these other

instruments that give it additional

fresh textures. So his contribution

in certain key periods was critical. Um

but by the time he died they had already

moved far far beyond Brian Jones. This

movement led the Stones further down the

path of American roots music and to

country.

This genre, previously so emblematic

[music]

of conservative values and the American

right, was by 1968 being popularized by

the birds and the international

submarine band. Rock [music] was moving

in on Nashville territory with first Bob

Dylan and then Neil Young recording in

country music's capital city. In [music]

1969, a slew of country rock albums were

released, including Dylan's Nashville

Skyline, which featured [music] a duet

with Johnny Cash, and the Flying Burrito

Brothers seminal debut album, The Gilded

Palace of Sin. Once again, honing in on

trends from across [music] the Atlantic,

the Stones released their unique take on

country in July 69, Monkey Tonk Women.

>> There was a movement back to [music]

Ruth's music of all sorts in the late

'60s. There was a kind of sense of

exhaustion with you know psychedelics

and you know going you know into other

realms. There was a sense of you know

let's put our feet on the ground and

there was you know a renewed fascination

with the blues and country music. Of

course something like honky tonk women

played right into that. What people I

think heard was just all that rhythm

when it came on the radio in the US. I

mean people went nuts.

is a home

that's all

[music]

[music]

Keith had always loved country music. Um

I mean Jagger recalls

Keith as a little boy, you know, dressed

up as a cowboy and [laughter]

guns. Um but uh you know Keith always

had a passion for for for country. Um

Jagger always regarded as as a bit of a

joke which is why a lot of the Stones

country tracks don't work because Keith

is treating them seriously musically and

then Jagger comes up with this sort of

pastiche vocal.

>> This used to hurt Keith a bit. I mean,

they'd be all drunk in the studio doing

Far Away Eyes and and it really does

sound like Mick sending up the CB radio

and country music radio station culture.

Um, yeah, I'm I mean, if he if he'd have

done a blues

and affected a fake black voice, which

uh you know, he would have gotten bold,

you know. I mean, it's a difficult one

because you don't know where the tribute

ends and the piss taking starts.

[music]

I don't think that country people like

this stuff very much at all at the

beginning. And I then I but then you

know you know then what happens in

country music is that you know basically

Nashville is the conservative wing of

American popular music. So now what you

have in you know where's the great

what's the great repository of a

musicians? Nashville. is, you know, all

these people uh walk into the studio who

plays the same kind of stuff that the

Rolling Stones would have played 30 or

40 years ago and do it real well.

They've listened to the Rolling Stones.

They're all Rolling Stones fans. Uh and

uh and they're all Keith Richards fans,

I'm sure. Hockey Tonk is a country

style. That's right. But a hockey tonk

is also a black blues joint. Before it

was a country style. It was a it was a

African-American term. And so it never

was fully country in terms of how it was

identified. Not fully.

>> Yet on the subsequent album, the Stones

re-recorded the track in an attempt to

fully integrate a country style. Without

Brian Jones to introduce new instruments

and sensibilities, they enlisted studio

musicians to broaden their sound. And on

Country Honk, they enlisted fiddle

player Byron Berlin, who had previously

worked with Gene Clark and Graham

Parsons. They put up the track

and uh I played a couple of passes

through it. They said, "Come on in." I

thought, "Oh, they don't like it.

They're going to just can it. They're

just going to say, "See you get lost."

[laughter]

And Glenn John's and uh

whoever. I don't remember exactly. Mick

maybe or whoever said, "We have a an

idea. We want you to go out on the

sidewalk and record this outside. We

have a better ambiencece we think.

Okay, nothing surprised me. I knew

everybody was experimenting with all

kinds of different things back in those

days. So, we put everything out there.

They put a little speaker out there so I

could hear the track. Didn't have

earphones. They just put a speaker

and a microphone

and uh started running it down. And

they're all standing around and uh

uh cars going by. Of course, everybody

was Oh, before I when we walked outside,

they were building, they're working on

the studio. They had a cat a big

bulldozer out there uh pushing dirt or

something. And I forget it. Mick Jagger

goes out and goes

and the guy just I mean immediately just

shut it off and just got off. It was

like what? You know, he just stopped it

right then and just left. I guess he

knew who he was.

>> [music]

[music]

>> I'm sitting in a bar.

[music and singing]

Just like I think any recording artist

uh rather than doing their their stuff,

their musicians playing

the same thing all the time, they

welcome a new sound maybe to to

compliment their music. I think any

artist is like that after they record so

many albums or so many songs. Gy

Christmas. I mean, you know, [laughter]

you get to the point where man, it'd be

nice to add a little something here. not

to get too far away from their sound,

but to uh compliment it, maybe.

>> This introduction of a multitude of

session players marked out the Stone's

follow-up to Beggar's Banquet, Let It

Bleed. As well as featuring Mick

Taylor's first contributions to the

Stone's music, it had an impressive cast

of extras, including Ry Cuda, Mary

Clayton, Leon Russell, Al Kooper, and

performance composer Jack Ner. This

fuller sound was successfully integrated

into the band's music by producer Jimmy

Miller and Let It Bleed was to become

another classic in the Stones cannon.

>> It would be one of the the 20 albums I'd

take with me to the desert island. I

mean, Let It Bleed is worth it for Gimme

Shelter alone, isn't it? I mean, Gimme

Shelter is one of the the finest things

ever created on vinyl. The uh the intro,

the build of the intro,

uh it's one of my favorite guitar solos.

It's such a concise guitar solo.

>> There are certainly some very strong

tracks on it. I mean, you know, with

giving Shelter the obvious example, I

mean, with that sort of wraith like

flutters of harmonica, and I think it

stands up well as a song. You know, the

fact it's borne out by the fact that

later on they somebody actually recorded

an album consisting entirely of

different versions of Gimme Shelter.

>> [music]

>> By any reckoning, I [music] think Gimme

Shelzer has to be, you know, deemed one

of the five greatest Stones tracks.

>> That transition from the 60s into the

70s was the Stones moment. sort of the

death of the dream was the Stones

moment. Not we love you, not uh all we

need is love, not all of that kind of

stuff, but when everybody started to get

the whiff of the fact, you know what,

the revolution's never going to happen.

You know, we're not going to get back to

the garden. You know, it's give me

shelter. You know, that's what's going

to happen. the feel, the mood of the of

the piece is so kind of eerie and and

and sort of apocalyptic and you really

feel like, you know, the 60s are are

coming to their sort of bloody finale

somehow in in in this track. And I also

think it was a stroke of genius

um that Jimmy Miller brought in Mary

Clayton to whale away because it just

takes it into a different dimension. A

sort of desperation

to this track, a real sense of foroding

and and unease which um is is

extraordinary. It's so haunting.

>> All they basically wanted was me on the

record. You know, they knew what I would

I think they kind of knew what I would

bring to it. I would bring Mary Clayton

to it, you know, just bring myself to

it. It wasn't anything made up where you

sing this part and I'll sing that part

and he'll sing that. It was any any of

that. I just brought my heart and soul

to it. Half sleep pregnant and rollers

in my hair and all. I remember three

takes of it of my part of it. I started

to uh chill shall we shall we? And we

came right up. By that time, some kind

of way, it was so late, my throat

cracked. It was a crack in that

particular song. They said, "No, don't

do it again. We love the crack. We love

the crack. Leave it in. Leave it in. Can

you do it again?" I said, "Sure, I can

do it again." [laughter]

[music]

He's going to shine. [music]

It's time to shine away. It's time to

[music] shine away.

>> Give me Shelter's a complete masterpiece

because I hate 60s nostalgia. The whole

notion of how horrible things were back

then,

is sort of annoying to me. But in so far

as there was a sense of a crackdown and

there were bad things going on, that

song captures it

as well as anything I can think of.

>> The civil rights movement was going on

still going on. Black people were

fighting for rights. Dr. King, I think

Dr. King had just been assassinated.

black people as a whole at that

particular time were we were just

distraught, you know, because our leader

was dead, you know, and I took all of

that stuff, all that stuff must have

been built up inside of me. So when I

took on a song like that to saying,

"Give me shelter. Please give me shelter

from the racism, from the war, from all

the craziness to go in the police, from

everything that's going on in the world

today. Can you please give us all? We

really need shelter. And I was really

like pleading to God, you know, please

Lord, give us shelter. [music]

[music]

>> [music]

>> There was

stuff brewing that the song wasn't about

because people didn't really know it was

brewing. Nixon was president by then.

uh what was really going on in the

historical long-term historical context

was that conservative

ideology was reasserting itself and was

going to take over capital. Um and uh

and we all need shelter from that. The

reason the song uh I maybe the reason

the song seems so profound now is that

even if it wasn't as true as it might

have been in 1969, it's continued to

have relevance.

Uh and we now

right now live in a world in which uh

needing shelter is an all too vivid part

of our lives, not to mention the lives

of the people we're destroying.

I think that track and the album

showed that Jumping Jack Flash and

Beggar's Banquet weren't a one-off. It

showed that the Stones had staying power

and uh they could sustain it and and in

fact they were getting better and

better.

>> In November 1969, the Stones embarked on

their first North American tours since

July 1966 and these concerts were an

entirely new live experience for both

the band and the audience. Previously,

the Stones had played in small venues to

screaming teenage girls, but they were

now a rock band and their audience had

matured.

Beginning at Colorado State University,

the Stones packed out large arenas,

including two nights at New York City's

Madison Square Gardens. I remember going

to see the Rolling Stones in 1969 in New

York. And uh it was ecstatic. I mean,

there was a moment, I mean, the opening

acts, as I recall, were BB King, Iina

Turner, and Terry Reed. And you know,

that was all great. And then suddenly

like the lights are out in this theater

and they're just, you know, there was no

big screens, no big stage show. I mean,

there was none of this kind of

production stuff. It was in an arena,

but you know, all the lights were out in

the place and all you could see were the

red lights on those amps. And I remember

sitting there thinking like the Rolling

Stones are going to be on that stage.

Like I could not believe it. It was so

exciting. And they were great. I mean,

they became a great band at that point.

I mean with

>> M Taylor

[music]

when I'm a

man [music]

on a radio

step

[music]

They closed every night with Street

Fighting Man and there was just this

kind of sense of, you know, people were

on their seats and pumping fists. And as

ironic as that song is, man, everybody

was feeling it. Like, you know, it was

one of those moments when,

you know, things were really shaken here

and it really seemed like things were

going to tip. like, you know, that that

desire to just like

smash something, just kind of run out

and, you know, like let's just take [ __ ]

over. It was it was on, man. It was on

in a big way. And the Stones were uh

were right at the heart of it.

Yet, right at the heart of it would

become an uncomfortable place for

[music] the Stones to be situated.

After closing their tour, they were to

play one last show at the free concert

being held at the disused Altoont

Speedway in Northern California. On a

bill that included the Grateful Dead,

Santana, [music] the Flying Burrito

brothers and Jefferson Airplane, the

Stones were hoping for an explosive end

to their tour. The concert film being

shot by the Mas [music] brothers of this

tour and to the decade itself.

The Stone's decision to use the Hell's

Angels as security for the concert was

[music] disastrous, however, and by the

time that Jefferson Airplane hit the

stage, the situation [music] was turning

ugly. There was very little doubt that

flower power had wilted by 69.

Um the leave the wear some flowers in

your hair when you go to San Francisco

and Donovan had be already begun to

fade. The Maharishi was becoming a bit

of a memory and I think they'd realized

that

things like free love weren't free and

it wasn't love.

and that flower power might have been a

good idea and peace and love might have

been a better one, but you had to have

some kind of infrastructure to put it in

place. And it went badly wrong at

Alimmon when the Grateful Dead

recommended to Jagger that he hire the

Hell's Angels. I think he made the

mistake of thinking he'd still got the

Hell's Angels that were in England when

they did hide part.

It was a remarkably stupid

decision to have used them. I think

[music]

the Hell's Angels were killers in

America. [music] They were killers. The

LA chapter of the Hell's Angels were

renowned for murders. [music]

It was not the bunch that of happy

bikers who turned up for the Hide Park

concert. [music]

When the stones eventually appeared, the

crowd was weary, frightened, and high.

The angels, on the other hand, were

drunk and violent. [music] No one was

aware that they were involved in such an

important historical event that this

concert would be seen as one of the key

moments in the fall of the

counterculture. [music]

The counterculture was already out of

control by the time Altoon took [music]

place, you know. I mean, the fact is it

it had failed. The experiment had

failed, you know, as it was doomed

[music] to do. I mean, there is no more

pathetic sight really than MC Jagger at

Altoont in the film Give Me Shelter,

>> completely lost, you know, just a sort

of skinny little English boy with a

silly cape on trying to

get on top of this horrendous scene. You

know, the Hell's Angels aren't called

Hell's Angels for nothing. You know,

they're nasty, brutish, pre-rock,

leather, greasy neanderals. They're vile

and uh and and they always have been.

They were never interested in peace and

love and and so to somehow try and

embrace the Hell's Angels as some sort

of alternative security force within

this kind of um coder to sort of

Woodstock, if you like, was just asking

for trouble. The night ended in chaos

and the famous murder of 18-year-old

African-Amean Meredith Hunter. It was in

many ways the end of an era and the

Stones retreated from these uncertain

times and looked for shelter. In the

1970s, the Stones outlook fundamentally

changed. They would never return to the

ironic anger of Street Fighting Man and

distance themselves from any politics or

idealism.

Although their music would continue to

appeal to a growing fan base, the death

of the dream that had been documented

with Gimme Shelter led to an increased

cynicism and personal isolation.

>> The Stones was like this sort of

traveling rock and roll circus really

that you know decamped to the south of

France. you know, it just it it became

more sort of cocooned and Keith, you

know, obviously began to kind of hit

hard drugs a lot harder

and, you know, the more heroin you do,

the less outward you look, the more, you

know, more internalized your emotional

experience becomes. disillusionment with

the counterculture has set in that

there's a sort of acceptance that

actually

sex and drugs and rock and roll are not

going to change the world so we might as

well just boogie. Um at the same time

this has made things a lot darker in

some ways. So, uh, the stones are are

freer to

explore those sort of nasty areas. And

yeah, I guess all of that is a

reflection of um the fact that the

spirit of 67 had all gone sour in ' 69

with Charles Manson, Alteront and all

the rest of it.

>> [music]

>> Yet this period of the Stone's career is

unique when they lost both their

direction and a founding member only to

reemerge [music] as the greatest rock

band in a very uncertain world.

[music]