The Rolling Stones Under Review is a british made documentary on the bad boys of rock. Their early influences were American blues artists Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and Jimmy Reed. They were further influenced by Chuck Berry, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan. This documentary explores their growth from 1962 to 1966.

They began as high school classmates listening to the blues. Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts used to sit in with british blues artist Alexis Koerner when he played The Marquee. Mick Jagger became a member of Alexis Koerner's Blues Incorporated. When Brian Jones was offered the job to replace Alexis Koerner at The Marquee, they were billed as The Rolling Stones, named after a Muddy Waters song.

The Rolling Stones first top ten hit in England was "Not Fade Away", a Buddy Holly tune they gave a Bo Diddley beat. When they first appeared on the television show Shindig, they insisted that Howlin Wolf also be on the program. Their cover of Howlin Wolf's "Little Red Rooster" featuring Brian Jones on slide guitar is a featured highlight. Their first American single was Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now".

"The Last Time" was their first American top ten single and the first song composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. "Satisfaction" was soon to follow and reached #1. "Out of Our Heads" their third album was released featuring these two songs and I still own my copy. They continued to write their own material and scored with "Get Off My Cloud" and "19th Nervous Breakdown". They appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and released their first all original album "Aftermath".

I for one, listened to The Rolling Stones sporadically throughout the years. It was their interest in American Blues however that first motivated me to purchase "Out of Our Heads" and I wonder how many youngsters were turned onto the blues by them, especially among the British. If you're a Rolling Stones fan then you'll probably want to own this documentary, but more importantly go see them live while they're still on tour.

Richard Ludmerer
Director, The New York Blues & Jazz Society
ricdale2@yahoo.com