Music DVD Review: The Rolling Stones: Rock Files - Truth Or Lies

I didn't see the Stones when they came through Seattle (for the second time in a year) last month as part of their seemingly never-ending mega-tour for A Bigger Bang. My reasons are pretty much the usual ones; too much money goes without saying.

Plus, I've seen the Stones several times, anyway.

The best of these shows occurred some thirty years ago when they were a much younger, more vital band touring behind great albums like 1972's Exile On Main Street. Back then, the Rolling Stones, on some nights, at least, legitimately lived up to their claim as the so-called greatest rock and roll band in the world. On the strength of those shows alone, I'll admit I was still going to see the Stones as recently as Bridges To Babylon in the nineties. And that wasn't a great album.

The fact is Exile was pretty much the last great Stones album for me. They've had their moments since — a Some Girls here, a Tattoo You there — but for my money, if you wanted to sum up the Stones' best work in a nutshell, you can't go wrong with the period which began with 1968's Beggars Banquet, ran through Let It Bleed, and then ended up with Exile in 1972. That period is arguably when the Stones were at the peak of their game.

Which is interesting when you consider Mick Taylor was the guitarist on most, if not all of those records. The guitarist who replaced founding member Brian Jones (who was found dead in his swimming pool a month after the band sacked him), Taylor was widely believed to have been unhappy as a Rolling Stone and left the band soon after those records were made. He then promptly disappeared back into the obscurity from which he came.

That period is just one chapter covered in Truth Or Lies, one of those nifty little DVD documentaries on the Stones that seems to be popping up all over the place these days. Like those others you may have seen at your neighborhood Wal-Mart or Best Buy, this is also unauthorized, which means there is not a note of Rolling Stones music to be found here. As Rolling Stones films go, make no mistake, Gimme Shelter this ain't.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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