Legendary British-born rock band The Rolling Stones released a new mini-documentary series, starting with the first episode which dropped on Thursday (February 9).
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Episode one is called “The Last Time.”
In total, there are six documentary shorts for the series, each featuring a different ’60s-era hit song by the acclaimed rock band as its soundtrack. According to a press statement, “The music is combined with thematically relevant interview clips from the band and contemporaneous historical figures, interspersed with historical documentary footage of related world events.”
The first episode, “The Last Time,” highlights the influence that early rock and roll and Chicago blues had on The Rolling Stones. Mixed with this is the “irony” of the British Invasion selling American culture back to the U.S. via white rock artists.
The first episode features footage of B.B. King, Little Richard, and more. It also showcases audio from Marshall Chess talking about meeting the band and inviting them to record in the Windy City.
“The Rolling Stones Chronicles puts the band’s music in context with history,” said Robin Klein, executive producer of the series. “While they were very much of that time, The Rolling Stones themselves served as a vehicle for and reflected and inspired change.
“This project provided a unique opportunity to unearth contemporary and authentic voices from the BBC’s rich archive to give deeper meaning to the Rolling Stones’ most influential records, and show how the cultural and societal shifts of the 60s still resonate today,” said Samira Choudhury, Producer for BBC Motion Gallery.
See below for descriptions of subsequent episodes:
Episode 2 – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (release date: Feb 16), set to the intercontinental #1 hit, follows the theme of sexual liberation, with a brief nod to David Bowie’s (then Jones) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.
The explosion of psychedelics and the infamous “Redlands bust,” wherein Jagger, Richards, singer Marianne Faithfull and other friends were arrested for drug possession at Richards’ home in ’67 is the theme of Episode 3 – She’s A Rainbow, being released Feb 23.
The Rolling Stones Chronicles Episode 4 – Street Fighting Man (release date: March 2), set to the song partially inspired by the 1968 student upheaval in Paris and elsewhere, focuses on the intense social unrest in the latter part of the ‘60s, centered around the struggle for racial equality, gay rights, the movement against the Vietnam War, student demonstrations and the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Among the featured audio/visual clips are Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali, the latter of whom states, “My people first deserve freedom, justice and equality.”
The theme for Episode 5 – Jumpin’ Jack Flash (release date: March 9), is the dual nature of technology and its hyper-acceleration during the birth of the computer age. The Cold War, the space race, and innovation in recording techniques are threaded together with footage of nuclear testing, astronauts and The Rolling Stones recording Olympic Studios as featured in Jean-Luc Godard’s film Sympathy for the Devil).
The final installment of The Rolling Stones Chronicles (Episode 6 – Gimme Shelter) will be released on March 16. The haunting 1969 track that opens the Let It Bleed album provides a backdrop for the theme of revolution and the turmoil that ended the decade. The hippie movement, the funeral for original guitarist Brian Jones and the Hyde Park tribute concert, and the tragedy of Altamont are all captured. At one point, Jagger explains to an interviewer, “Most young people are dissatisfied with the generation which they think is running their lives.” He is then asked, “What things are you dissatisfied with?,” to which he responds, “The generation that runs our lives.”
The Rolling Stones Chronicles release schedule:
Feb 9 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – The Last Time (EP1)
Feb 16 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (EP2)
Feb 23 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – She’s A Rainbow (EP3)
Mar 2 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – Street Fighting Man (EP4)
Mar 9 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – Jumpin’ Jack Flash (EP5)
Mar 16 The Rolling Stones Chronicles – Gimme Shelter (EP6)
The series is out via ABKCO and BBC Motion Gallery and can be found on the ABKCO Films YouTube channel. Fans can see the first episode below. Each episode will be released one week a part, every Thursday from February 9 to March 16.
Photo by David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns
