Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent but underrated film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie is of 2 performances in Fort Worth on 6/24/1972 (afternoon & evening), and 2 in Houston (University of Houston) on 6/25/1972. Of the 15 songs, 9 are from the Houston shows (5 from the afternoon show) & 6 from Fort Worth. The Houston afternoon show was my first concert, thanks to my brother (ticket price $5.50). You can tell the Fort Worth shows by the lights behind the stage that are aimed at a high reflecting fixture above and in front of the stage which would bounce the lights onto the stage. Hofheinz Pavilion's ceiling in Houston was too low for this setup, so you have the basic light setup for the time. Seeing the Stones 15 times, this was the only time I saw Mick Taylor play with them. His guitar work on Love in Vain and Gimme Shelter is great, and the way the guitarists lock in together on Tumbling Dice and Rip This Joint is something to see. Other highlights - the energy of the show opener Brown Sugar, Keith on Bye Bye Johnnie, Mick's confidence on Street Fighting Man, Charlie Watts & Bill Wyman throughout, the horn section (both Texans), and Nicky Hopkins (you can hear him once in a while in the film - live, he was pretty drowned out). I also think Ian Stewart is at the piano for Brown Sugar. Anyone interested in the Stones should see this film. A great band at a critical time.

I happened to be lucky enough in '74 to be in Houston,TX when this was first in theaters! I got to see this with all the special sound equipment that toured with the movie. Speakers stacked as high as the screen on either side and a mixing board set up in the middle of the theater. They even had concert posters and t-shirts in the lobby! This was as close to the real thing as possible. I couldn't hear for an hour after I left the theater, unbelievable sound system that was installed for this concert film. I seen the Stones in '81 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and live in front of the stage didn't seem to be any louder than that theater was that summer afternoon in Houston! If you have a home movie theater, get it and crank it up and if not, get one and this movie!!

"Ladies & Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones" (Directed by Rollin Binzer,1973) Although I would perhaps include The Rolling Stones' performance in "The T.A.M.I. Show" along with this, that was a different era and line-up of the group, still including the musically-versatile band founder, Brian Jones, on guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, maracas, recorder and whatever else warranted his talents.And although there are many great live or pseudo-live performances of the band, ranging from their half dozen or so appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (the earliest of which rank with the aforementioned "T.A.M.I" showcase) to "Hullabaloo," to "Ready Steady Go!," to "Shindig!," and even a full-set, 1971 videotaped show at London's Marquee Club, where they got their start as a blues cover combo, one really cannot count these as full-feature, theatrical documents of the group. Nor can one, I suppose, count the initially British-only TV performance (since made commercially available from a color print, after the Stones reacquired it from The Who) of "The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus." And besides, although riveting, lead singer Mick Jagger was apparently higher than a cut-cord, helium balloon for that one! But for a pure, near-cinema verite (conceding they rehearsed their music sets) concert film, you can't get any better than this, save for a front row seat at one of their gigs from either the 1972 or '75 tours, the latter of which was, sadly, not filmed (at least to general knowledge). That tour contained the infamous ride Jagger took on an inflatable phallus, musically just as tight, theatrically even more the spectacle, though not in support of as great a studio recording. This film, culled from footage at two Texas concerts in the summer of 1972, to promote their then-new Atlantic/Rolling Stones Records LP release, "Exile On Main Street," remains not only the best concert film of the band, but among the best, straight rock concert films ever! I saw this film in a theater only once, in re-release on a 1980 double bill with the then-newly-released "Rock 'N' Roll High School," starring The Ramones, and it has to rank as one of the greatest double bills I have ever seen in a commercial theater--while away at college in Amherst, Massachusetts. One, the best celluloid document of a world-famous rock & roll band, in their prime and playing one of their best sets; the other, the best re-creation of a rock & roll drive-in movie, starring the world's most famous, two-chord garage band.Of course, the theater in which I saw it didn't have the benefit of the quadraphonic sound included for the film's initial release, but was nevertheless an awesome experience to see larger-than-life images of Jagger and Keith Richards (with his streaked, rooster's mane shag) double-sucking the mike, the camera close up on Jagger in a blue jumpsuit one second, panning the stage to a shot of Mick Taylor on a lead solo or Bobby Keys blowing sax the next, or downstage, then back up to Jagger, shimmying the stage at the second show in a white jumpsuit! "Dead Flowers," "Happy," "Sweet Virginia" and "Tumbling Dice" are high points, but it's all excellent, if only a little too short.I don't know about the validity of information contained in a previously-posted review, that someone associated with the film's production said existing prints of this film were damaged? All I can say is that I saw what appeared to be an intact film in '80; have since acquired a bootleg VHS copy of it in the early '90s, which appears to be mostly there, though something seems weird about the very beginning of it versus how I recall from the theatrical screening. But that could also be just my impaired memory--like those notorious Twins of Glimmer, I too have done some chemical dabbling over these many years! In any event, if you get a chance ever to see this on a big-screen--do yourself a favor and go see it! Also, you may try cruising the Web and/or eBay for an illegitimate DVD/VHS copy of the film--at least will get a sense of what all the fuss is about here. I think you'll find the superlatives justified.The Stones are well past their prime these days, almost the equivalent of a very well-compensated, touring oldies act ("The Strolling Bones" as some have said), making records that don't matter but to their legions of fans numbering in the millions & spanning a few generations now. But this film captures them perfectly, when they were very much an in-the-moment, happening entity, still releasing records of reckoning, really worthy of their moniker, "The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band!" But even Richards, the group's heart & soul, if not nominal leader, has said that dubbing given the Stones is overused, that on any given night the world's best rock & roll band is a different group; maybe that garage outfit playing their hottest set at some roadside shack in the boondocks is, on that night, the "world's greatest" rock act. For that humble admission alone, seeing this filmed recording of The Rolling Stones at the peak of their powers is an investment of time well worth spent!

I saw this movie in its original release. The band was very good, but Mick Taylor played all the good licks, while Keith posed and did little else of value. Between Keith Richard and Ron Wood, the Stones do not have a really good guitarist, certainly no one to equal Mr. Taylor. But due to a feud over song credits, Taylor left the band. And though I don't know which side has prevented this film being seen again, it most likely stems from this dispute over royalties.Sad. But if you saw the Stones on the Superbowl last year, that they have become sad is pretty evident. Too bad this record of when they could really rock has been buried by ego and childishness.