The Rolling Stones- Miss You — The Rolling Stones- Miss You

JUL 01 1978 · 12:00

The Rolling Stones- Miss You — The Rolling Stones- Miss You (1978) Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg Era: Late 1970s Disco-Rock Crossover (1978) - Pre-MTV promotional film era; shot during peak disco cultural dominance and concurrent punk insurgency, capturing The Rolling Stones at a pivotal commercial and artistic inflection point. High. This is a primary-source document of one of the Rolling Stones' most commercially significant singles, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg — the most important music promo director of the pre-MTV era. The video's extreme visual restraint (near-zero motion, single-location, no scene changes, dark and muted palette) makes it a pure example of late-1970s performance promo conventions and provides an instructive formal contrast to the MTV-era videos that followed. Its inclusion in the 1984 Video Rewind compilation confirms its canonical status within the Stones' own archival assessment of their video legacy. Context: Released in May 1978, 'Miss You' arrived at a moment of acute cultural tension for The Rolling Stones and classic rock broadly. Disco ruled mainstream dancefloors while punk rock was dismantling the credibility of established rock acts, particularly in the UK. The Rolling Stones responded with a calculated genre crossover, embedding a four-on-the-floor disco rhythm and harmonica blues into their signature rock framework. The promotional film, directed by longtime collaborator Michael Lindsay-Hogg, reflects the pre-MTV promo tradition: a performance-anchored, low-budget, single-location document designed for television broadcast rather than elaborate concept storytelling. The dark, warm, static visual language mirrors the song's emotional register — nocturnal longing, urban restlessness — and connects to the broader late-1970s aesthetic of muted naturalism. Director notes: Confirmed by both IMDB (tt8797940) and IMVDb as the director of the 'Miss You' promotional film (1978), released in May 1978 on Rolling Stones Records. IMDB lists the aspect ratio as 1.33:1 (4:3), runtime approximately 4 minutes, color, mono sound mix. The video was later edited into the 1984 Rolling Stones compilation Video Rewind: The Rolling Stones' Great Video Hits. Lindsay-Hogg had an extensive pre-existing creative relationship with the Rolling Stones spanning from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, making him the Stones' principal video collaborator of the era. The 'Miss You' promo sits within his broader body of late-1970s Rolling Stones work, which also included music videos for Paul McCartney and Wings during the same period.