The whole thing sounds like one of those crazy, hypothetical scenarios cooked up by stoners on lazy Saturday nights as they stare into the smoky ether and let their minds run wild into delusional ecstasy. "What if, like, John Lennon, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton all jammed together, dude? What if, like, it was under a big-top circus tent or something, and everyone in the audience was wearing yellow ponchos and floppy hats?"Yes, truly a mad stoner fantasy - except that it actually happened, and it actually happened exactly like that.
The circus The Dirty Mac played in, as well as those aforementioned fans in yellow ponchos and floppy hats, were all part of 1968's The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus television special. In addition to The Dirty Mac, the special featured The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, and Marianne Faithfull.
The special was a production nightmare full of malfunctioning equipment, so it ran far longer than originally planned. The Stones didn't take the stage until 5 o'clock in the morning, 15 hours after it began. They were exhausted, as were the production crew and the audience, and so did not perform up to their lofty standards. Thus, Jagger did not allow the special to be aired or released in any way to the public until 1996, nearly 30 years later. So it was that The Dirty Mac, made up entirely of pop music royalty, went unheard by the general listening public.
Who knows what would have happened if the special had been released in 1968 and The Dirty Mac had been unleashed on the public? Perhaps it would have led to further collaboration. Perhaps it would have led to a whole album. Perhaps the group would have become the greatest musical act to ever live, changing the world forever through the force of their rock and roll. But, now we're getting into the realm of wild stoner speculation again - and that's not my bag, man.
November 17, 2015
More Song Writing
