By Friday night my sleep deficit has caught up with me, I'm a zombie. I was ready to collapse last night by about 11:30 when Dawn said "let's stay up and watch something." Uh, okay. I looked in the TV Guide and to my mixed dismay (I have to stay up) and excitement (I wanted to see this), saw that the rebroadcast of the Stones concert was starting on HBO.

The concert had been on for a few minutes. My first reaction was to be taken aback by the close-ups of Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie: man did they look old and craggy. When you're about 60, the penalty for remaining rockstar-thin is a cadaverous face and hollow cheeks. But when the cameras pulled back, or my eyes lost focus as I drifted off for the first time of many over the next couple of hours, 30 years melted away and the magic was real. What a great show!

Every time the Stones dust it off again and hit the road I am skeptical that they can live up to the title "World's greatest rock 'n' roll band," but playing a mix of favorites from their 40 years as a band (I didn't hear anything newer than "When the Whip Comes Down" from Some Girls '78, other than Keith's "Thru and Thru" - um, no - from Voodoo Lounge, and the token new song, "Don't Stop," included on the 40 Licks collection), they seemed to actually gain energy as the show went on and the Madison Square Garden crowd became more and more rapturous.

Special emphasis was placed on the the classic late-60s early-70s period between Let It Bleed and It's Only Rock and Roll, possibly the most productive period of any band in rock history. I will mention only in passing that the remarkable Mick Taylor was lead guitarist for the band through this period - when the band achieved an unequaled synthesis of rock and roll, blues, and country - and for all Ronnie Wood's charms (especially on slide), he is no Mick Taylor (watch this great show, then watch Gimme Shelter, or listen to Get Yer Ya-Ya'a Out! to fully realize the difference). Hell, there are still plenty who miss Brian Jones, but the Stones became the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band only when young Taylor came on board.

Besides the core Stones (Bill Wyman retired in the '90s), standouts included the remarkable lungs (and I mean that literally and euphemistically) of singer Lisa Fischer, who matched Merry Clayton's archetypal original vocal on "Gimme Shelter" note-for-note before transcending it with a super-human flourish that I feared might cause structural damage to the Garden; and stalwart saxman Bobby Keys, who didn't have to imitate anyone: he played on all the original recordings, and particularly shined on the extended coda of "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'."