DVD Review: The Rolling Stones: Some Girls, Live in Texas ’78

Rolling Stones: Some Girls, Live in Texas, '78STUDIO: Eagle Rock | DIRECTORS: Jerry Carraway and Lynn Lenau
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 11/21/2011 | PRICE: DVD $14.98, Blu-ray $19.98, DVD/CD $24.98
BONUSES: new and vintage interviews, Saturday Night Live performances
SPECS: NR | 128 min. | Live concert | 16:9 | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS Surround | English, French, Spanish and German subtitles (for bonus features only)

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The Rolling Stones: Some Girls, Live in Texas ’78 is the latest Stones nugget to be issued by Eagle Rock, following the 2010 release of the archival document Stones in Exile and the concert favorite Ladies and Gentlemen…The Rolling Stones.

The Rolling Stones: Some Girls, Live in Texas, '78 scene

Ron Wood and Mick Jagger are shattered in Some Girls, Live in Texas ’78.

Restored, remixed and remastered from what looks to be a five- or six-camera 16mm production recorded at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, the arena concert (one of the last ones to have a virtually security-free stage down in front of the audience) finds the band rolling out the bulk of the songs from their latest album, 1978’s soon-to-be-classic Some Girls.

The Stones’ renditions of the Some Girls material is outstanding. Even with Keith Richards’ frequent jams and Mick Jagger’s trademark vamping, the songs are tight, hard and guided willfully by the most underrated rhythm section in rock’n’roll: drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. “Beast of Burden,” “Miss You” and “Shattered” are particular standouts. For my money, the band is at its best with the country-blues double shot of “Faraway Eyes” and “Love in Vain,” with Ron Wood (the newest Stone at that time) tearing it up on the slide guitar.

Bonus features on the DVD are led by a new 15-minute video interview with  Mick, who speaks of the Stones mashing up the disco, rock, punk and early rap strains of the era and coming up with Some Girls. (As usual, Mick waxes nostalgically and talks a lot, but doesn’t say all that much.)

The DVD also includes three vintage live performances from an episode of Saturday Night Live showcasing songs from the album, along with a sketch featuring Dan Aykroyd’s Tom Snyder interviewing a seemingly stoned and giggly Jagger.

There’s also an archival segment on the band from ABC TV’s 20/20, which is introduced by Hugh Sloane, who describes Sir Mick as “the notorious Mephistopheles of pop cult.” The piece finds young interviewer Geraldo Riviera asking Keith if he enjoys going on tour. “Sure,” Keith garbles with a grin. “What else am I going to do? Retire?”

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.