Rolling Stones - The Stones in the Park (Hyde Park)

Rating:
Summary: Stones Fight Their Way Back
Review: I had always heard about this concert over the years, but most reviews panned it. Well, this reviewer gives it 4 stars. Considering the circumstances under which this show was performed (I direct those interested to read Stanley Booth's excellent book The True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones for all the gory details) it is not bad at all! Obviously under-rehearsed, the band struggle but manage some fireworks on some tunes, but do stink up the place on others. Some will complain about the out-of-tune guitars (see the Woodstock movie; everybody's guitars are out of tune. Same at Monterey Pop)but they hadn't played a concert in a long time. It's fascinating to watch them feel their way back and judging from the results less than 6 months later( The Ya-Ya's LP) their return to the top of the rock heap. Highly recommended!!! G2 the G

Rating:
Summary: It's "Only Rock And Roll," But I LOVE It!
Review: Well.......having seen this (I won't say exactly..."where"), I'm glad to see it's finally being released - legitimately. Why, certainly the Stones' performance was...uh...but, in all honesty, NO WORSE WHATSOEVER than that recent "Toronto" thing - and this has Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman! OK, all histrionics aside, founding member Brian Jones (what an APT last name!) died just two scant days before the Stones performed in Hyde Park, and albatross-around-the-neck though he CERTAINLY was - still - I mean, YOU try to do a gig, knowing a good friend died two days before! And though Mick Taylor's tenure with the Stones was absolutely the Stones' pinnacle, here, he's nervous - hey, how would YOU have followed Brian Jones? - and it shows. But still, despite the sloppy performance (and, OMG, PLEASE don't dredge up that dress Mick J's wearing!), "Hyde Park" is kind of like being a midwife for a particularly difficult childbirth. Just compare this to the movie, filmed a scant 6 months later, of the Stones at their very apothesis, "Gimme Shelter." Now the question that ALL Stones fans want to know: Where is it? Just exactly WHO is it that owns "Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones?" I thought they were finished with Allen Klien by this point, but I may be straying from the point...OK, dig, "Hyde Park" is certainly the price of admission! Buy it, and you'll think Nixon's still in the White House, Vietnam's still going on, no "live" band is using a damn synthesizer, you'll worry about what's bugging the Beatles so badly, and you-know-what is readily available at much less than it costs today!