Posted on: September 22, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Rolling Stones – Under Review 1962-1966 / 2006 MVD / 82 Minutes / http://www.rollingstones.com / http://www.mvdb2b.com /

This Under Review features The Rolling Stones in the first four years of their existence as a band. One can expect MVD in the next three or four years to come out with other Under Review DVDs that will bring individuals up to the current period in The Rolling Stones’ life. This video is great for those individuals like me who had mothers that were only 10 when the Rolling Stones were first out. This means that this era of the band is quite historical, and is rapidly growing out of the purview of those individuals that are still active in society. If this DVD was not made, there is a chance that some of the knowledge that is shown on this DVD could disappear into nothingness, allowing holes to form about The Rolling Stones in the collective memory. Unlike some of the other Under Review DVDs, individuals that are interviewed on the DVD actually have descriptive tags placed next to their name.

This shows what type of pedigree that individuals have; we can thus tell that these individuals actually know what they are talking about instead of being some bum that is pulled off the street and told what to say. This shows the Rolling Stones in their earliest days, back when they were just a local act like thousands of other acts that are all around the world trying to make it big. One can tell that this DVD features an earlier time period than either Kate Bush or Queen “Under Review” DVDs; there is much less in the way of live footage on this video than on either of the other two. Obviously, there are not music videos or the like to show, so this is very heavily based on the audio and still picture aspect of things. One should know that even the Rolling Stones were a cover band when they first came out on the market. The band was not writing right off the bat, but covering Chuck Berry tracks.

This is not to say that the band was bland at the time, but that one can even hear that the Stones were creating their sound at this time. Their cover of “Come On” actually is closer to punk music than anything that would come in the next decade, and gives me a greater respect for the band. The track is so much different than the original, and is full of the pop brilliance that would come to light during “Paint It Black” and a number of their other hits. There are a lot of stories that are told during this DVD that feel almost too good to be true. I wonder exactly how many of these stories are true, and how many of these were just expanded through generation to generation until they were properly puffed up. Still ,the eighty-two minutes of this DVD should show the formation of the act and their rapid ascent into fame, and it sets the stage for further volumes showing their metamorphosis into something completely different (but still somewhat similar) to the version of the band that was playing BBC jazz shows back in the early sixties.

Rating: 7.4/10

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