Artist: The Rolling Stones
Title: Some Girls: Live in Texas ’78 (Blu-ray)
Label: Eagle Vision
Release Date: November 21, 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Eagle Vision returns to their Rolling Stones roll-out with a DVD that nicely compliments Universal Republic’s recently released “Some Girls Deluxe Edition” redux. “Some Girls: Live In Texas ’78” affords us a look at The Stones on the road supporting a then #1 record in the United States. Filmed in Fort Worth Texas at the Will Rogers Auditorium, the concert like the album is a mixed bag of styles. The Mick-centric late seventies Stones clearly followed, rather than led, the music of the times. With “Some Girls” they offered their own spin on disco, punk, Los Angeles country, and even threw in a Motown cover for good measure.
Most surprising about the film is hearing the band play a healthy hunk of “Some Girls” material rather than relying on tried and true crowd pleasers. 7 of the album’s 10 tunes show up smack dab in the middle of the set. In fact, the classic (even in 1978) numbers have all been rendered in more definitive style elsewhere. Some, like “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Women”, get perfunctory performances, while “Some Girls” songs have an enjoyable energy. The Berry-esque “Respectable” is a particular ball of fire here, easily outstripping the actual Chuck Berry songs played that night for verve and lyrical wit. The overall performance is better than “Shine A Light” but not as good as either “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones” or the now iconic “Gimme Shelter”.
The band is without horn section this time out. The Faces Ian McLaghan is on keyboards and we get a couple of corner-of-the-eye glimpses of sixth Stone Ian “Stu” Stewart boogying away at the piano on a few tunes. Louisiana man, Doug Kershaw, adds his Cajun fiddle to “Far Away Eyes”. While I love it on record, the song seems sorely out of place during this set and garners the many furtive “how’s this going?” glances between band members.
On the technical side, a very nice job of restoration ensures the film does not visually suffer from its 16mm origins (even on sometimes unforgiving Blu-Ray) and its sound has been enhanced with a re-mix and remaster by engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain. The included audio CD mimics the 17 song line-up of the film. It is interestingly a more compelling listen without the visuals. I suppose for me the “Mick of the mind” eclipses the caricature that the man himself was beginning to present by 1978.
The BluRay and CD combo is appointed with a liner notes booklet, including ticket stub images. The Stones billed themselves as The London Green Shoed Cowboys for this particular gig. Also included is a smaller book with color photos of the band on stage and a listing of the 1978 tour crew. Video extras include The Stones’ Saturday Night Live performances, which are fun to have but not high on re-watchability. A new interview with Mick spends as much time on his choice of wardrobe as it does the music, and a short segment of ABC’s 20/20 highlighting a couple of quick but interesting glimpses of the band during rehearsal sessions in Woodstock, New York. Fair warning: be prepared for newscaster Geraldo Rivera’s 70’s hairstyle and mustache. Yeah, even folks not in porno films did get turned-out in this fashion. I think Geraldo still does.
Of course Rolling Stones collectors will have already purchased this on date of release but once again Eagle Entertainment offers a multitude of formats and packages with pricing that allows even casual fans to add this to their collections.
Track Listing:
1. Let It Rock
2. All down The Line
3. Honky Tonk Women
4. Star Star
5. When The Whip Comes Down
6. Beast Of Burden
7. Miss You
8. Imagination
9. Shattered
10. Respectable
11. Far Away Eyes
12. Love In Vain
13. Tumbling Dice
14. Happy
15. Sweet Little 16
16. Brown Sugar
17. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Official Website: http://www.rollingstones.com