Here’s what is as close to a “definitive” documentary of the Rolling Stones as you’re going to get. Produced by Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman, Crossfire Hurricane includes recent audio interviews of almost all of the Stones through the years overdubbed with background film footage, archived interviews with the likes of Dick Cavett, concert footage and intimate recent films of the remaining original band. Bragging about “refusing to conform,” and living a “fairy story,” as well as bragging about the sex and drugs of rock and roll, Jagger, Richards et al walk a fine line between being a musical band, a “grand event” and a “hedonistic binge” throughout the entire film. Taken objectively, the music has some fascinating moments, but one has to think of the famous question, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?”
Bonus features include the 1964-65 NME Poll Winners Concerts with a pre-Tina Turner influenced Jagger presenting a hip reading of “Not Fade Away,” a German gig including a raucous “Satisfaction” and a Arthur Hayes TV Show from 1964 delivering a hoot of a “I Wanna Be Your Man.” A different world and worldview from the later days.
Eagle Vision DVD