Hooves on the Turf

I've decided to buy Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! live box set

I went to see the 27-min Rolling Stones documentary, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, last night and I absolutely loved it! If I understood correctly, the show filmed is the first time “the best band in the world” played “the best venue in the world” (Madison Square Garden), in 1969. At the very least, the footage of a shy Jimi Hendrix backstage and of a peppy Janis Joplin dancing at the sidelines made my day. But it’s really the clips of the first two songs, “Prodigal Son” and “You Gotta Move” that are stellar—stripped down, Mick Jagger sitting on a stool, accompanied only by Keith Richards on an acoustic guitar. Filmmaker Albert Maysles was present to introduce the film, though it would’ve been more fun if he was open for Q&A instead.

The box set includes a DVD of this short documentary, but if you’d rather not shell out $60 (or $42.99 on Amazon), IFC is still screening it three more times over the next three days.

Tonight: Rolling Stones screening with filmmaker in person

Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out is the newish Rolling Stones documentary, and IFC is screening it tonight at 8:45pm with the filmmaker Albert Maysles in person. It’s only 27 minutes long, so they’ve paired it with Sympathy for the Devil, Jean-Luc Godard’s 1968 film on the band, which will follow.

Albert Maysles has put together never-before seen archive footage that shows the band — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman — at its apogee, wowing New York audiences at Madison Square Garden over the Thanksgiving weekend of that year [1969].