The T.A.M.I. Show

David Fricke is a Senior Writer with Rolling Stone magazine. He’s apparently valuable enough to the famed publication that he’s allowed to choose his own assignments, writing features on the old dudes, interviewing legends and reviewing only the tastiest new albums. My favorite contribution of his to the mag is “Fricke’s Picks,” a column that gives him space to write about under-the-radar bands, reissues of forgotten records and other music minutiae.

In the latest issue, Fricke talks about “The Greatest Rock Concert Movie Ever.” I couldn’t agree more with his choice. He writes:

All that is dull and predictable in modern rock-show films – caffeinated-jitter edits, hagiographic close-ups, the cheesy melodrama backstage – can be traced to this fact: The best example of how to do it right, The T.A.M.I. Show – a 12-act revue topped by James Brown and the Rolling Stones, shot live in Los Angeles with a delirious audience on October 29th, 1964 – has been officially unavailable, in its entirety, for more than four decades. The T.A.M.I. Show: Collector’s Edition (Shout! Factory) is the movie’s first release on DVD. Class starts now.

The first lesson: Get to the music, immediately. After breezy opening scenes of the artists heading to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in a limo, hosts Jan and Dean on skateboards – director Steve Binder (who later directed Elvis Presley’s 1968 TV special) jumps to a sly, bracing zigzag of Fifties roots and Liverpool cheek, Chuck Berry alternating hits with Gerry and the Pacemakers. Everything follows at the same velocity – Marvin Gaye’s manly lust into Lesley Gore’s vengeful-schoolgirl sugar; the proto-garage rock of the Barbarians.

There are also long, magnetic highs, when a single camera finds a thrill and stays there. When the Beach Boys (with a smiling Brian Wilson on bass) leap into “Dance, Dance, Dance” like the Ramones with tans, you see Dennis Wilson racing at the drums like Keith Moon during all of Carl Wilson’s guitar solo. In “Prisoner of Love,” Brown’s face slowly fills the lens as he staggers offstage, in his cape, before spinning back to the mike for more spectacular agony.

The Stones follow Brown’s set (the first time many white teens saw such black fire) with a prophetic mettle. The extended leaping-devil shots of Mick Jagger capture him sharpening the sex and danger in his own R&B choreography. Note the glimpses of a cocky, grinning Brian Jones and, too, the way Keith Richards plays guitar while facing drummer Charlie Watts. Some things, even in rock-concert films, never change.I’m glad the movie is finally hitting shelves. I remember reading about the legendary show a few years ago (T.A.M.I. stands for Teenage Awards Music International) and, as a serious Stones fan, being seriously intrigued. The film being officially unavailable, I ended up finding a bootleg on eBay and having it shipped from Brazil. It did not disappoint. In addition to publishing and distribution disputes way back when, I think that some of the artists held up its official release for whatever reason. Though my version has performances by the Ronettes and Ray Charles, they don’t appear on the version now available. Either way, the movie is a must-see, must-hear if only for JB and the Stones. You buy!