The Rolling Stones — Beast Of Burden

JUL 01 1978 · 12:00

The Rolling Stones — Beast Of Burden (1978) Director: Lynn Lenau Era: Late Classic Rock / Punk Confrontation Era (1978) - The Rolling Stones' comeback period during which Some Girls reasserted their dominance amid punk's challenge to arena rock incumbents Exceptionally high. This clip is among the most significant extant live documents of the Rolling Stones at their 1978 creative apex, shot on 16mm by a locally-sourced Dallas crew led by director Lynn Lenau — a production history that itself constitutes a remarkable story of uncredited labor in rock filmmaking. The raw, unmediated aesthetic quality and the song's cultural weight ('Beast of Burden' ranking among the Stones' most enduring compositions) make this a Tier 1 archival artifact for any serious rock history or music video studies collection. Context: Filmed during the Rolling Stones' 1978 Some Girls US tour, this performance document captures the band at a pivotal moment of reinvention. Punk rock had declared war on arena rock dinosaurs, and the Stones — burdened by Keith Richards' looming drug conviction and a mid-decade creative slump — responded with Some Girls, widely hailed as their finest work since Exile on Main St. The Fort Worth performance embodies the tour's deliberate back-to-basics ethos: lean staging, no spectacle, pure performance energy. 'Beast of Burden' itself encodes the band's internal reckoning — Richards writing the song partly as an apology to Jagger for the weight he had carried during the addiction years. The warm, tungsten-drenched 16mm footage creates an accidental time capsule of late-70s American arena culture. Director notes: The performance clip of 'Beast of Burden' originates from the Some Girls Live in Texas '78 concert film, shot on 16mm at Will Rogers Memorial Center, Fort Worth, Texas, on July 18, 1978, during the Rolling Stones' Some Girls US tour. The footage was restored to HD and the audio remixed and remastered by Bob Clearmountain from original multitrack tapes for the 2011 release by Eagle Rock Entertainment. The film was produced with the involvement of Showco president Jack Calmes, who pitched the project to Mick Jagger and arranged filming access. Lenau's crew — uncredited for over three decades — included a handheld operator whose camera was in Mick Jagger's face for the entirety of the show. The Some Girls tour took a back-to-basics approach with minimal staging. The concert set included several Some Girls tracks alongside classic Stones catalog material.