The Rolling Stones

Here it is, June and there you are sitting on your June 4 “No Filter” tour tickets for Lincoln Financial Field—a date with The Rolling Stones postponed by Mick Jagger’s surprising heart issues. While one could joke that the sturdily in-shape Jagger seems less a likely candidate for heart issues than his battered-but-spry fellow Stone, Keith Richards, leave it alone. Jagger is well, and the tour will figure its way to Philadelphia—on July 23 in fact, a date just confirmed on the morning this column is written.

For now, and for those looking for that living Stones-in-concert sensation, there is a long list of past live albums and concert films to tend to, the boldest of which include (but are not limited to): Flashpoint (1991) from their rejuvenating Steel Wheels tour, the still-dangerous sounding Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (1970), the spunky punkish Some Girls: Live in Texas ’78 (2011), and the Scorsese-filmed Shine a Light (2008).

Almost as if anticipating a lack of live Stones in this time of Jagger-absence, several in-concert packages are coming out in June to soothe the savage beast (of burden, pardon the dumb pun).

Mick Jagger.

Photo: Victoria Will / AP, 2016

HONK, is not a live album, per se, but a four-LP collection of its classic cuts from every Stones studio album from 1971 up to 2016’s Blue & Lonesome in quad coloring of purple, red, orange and yellow. Though HONK’s hits sound vibrant, you’ll stay for the live album of ten songs recorded and unreleased (until now and here) within the last six years. Though “Dancing With Mr. D” (Live at Gelredome, Arnhem 10/15/17) is slimily diabolical and “She’s A Rainbow” (Live at U Arena, Paris 10/25/17) as quaintly psychedelic as its original, its several duets that make HONK worth its cost/weight: “Wild Horses” (Live at London Stadium 05/22/18) with Florence & the Machine’s Florence Welch, is as elegant and unbridled, as “Dead Flowers” (Live at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia 06/18/13) with Brad Paisley is country-cool and curt. Ed Sheeran and Dave Grohl also make appearances, but nothing as worthwhile as their predecessors.

When it comes to the Stones hosting star guests, nothing is as wooly or mammoth as the legendary—and long hidden from view—Rock and Roll Circus special, filmed for the BBC in 1968, unreleased until 1996, and, of this month, dropped in a 4K restored, remastered audio and video (DVD and Blu-ray) version with reams of never seen bonus material starring the one-off super-group The Dirty Mac with Keith Richards, John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell. Also part of the official Circus line-up is The Who, Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithfull, Taj Mahal and Yoko Ono with interviews and commentary with Pete Townshend, Richards, Mick Jagger, Ian Anderson, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and more. Here, you get a circus’ requisite acrobats, clowns, tigers and fire-eaters (hanging out with Jagger and Bill Wyman in the BluRay’s extras), but also a sparkling Stones’ six-song set (one of the last times they performed with multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones) of which “Salt of the Earth” is essential, The Who’s crushing version of “A Quick One, While He's Away,” a handful of folksy funky tracks by Mahal, a serenely weird “Something Better” from Marianne Faithfull.

Then there is June’s Bridges To Bremen release on BluRay, CD and triple vinyl. Presented by Eagle Rock/Eagle Vision—also responsible for Stones’ live and documentary titles such as No Security San Jose ’99, Voodoo Lounge Uncut and more—featured the fruits of the band’s first time fanvote set list for a lone rare track. Bremen wanted to hear the slow and blurrily soulful “Memory Motel,” and got it, along with everything from then-fresh material (“Saint of Me”) as well as swaggering takes on “Paint it Black,” “Thief in the Night,” and “Gimme Shelter,” a deeply bluesy “Anybody Seen My Baby?,” a rollicking Richards-fronted “Tumbling Dice,” and a razor sharp cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Each live chunk makes you yearn to hear the real Rolling Stones up close— well, many yards away even if you have premium pricey VIP seating —but Bridges at Bremen, with its regency and full out dedication to all thing Stones without guests or filler, is pretty close to a Lincoln Financial Field scenario without having to bitch about parking or grouse about drink prices.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Photo: Scott Gries.

A.D. Amorosi