The Rolling Stones — Angie - OFFICIAL PROMO (Version 1)

JUL 01 1973 · 12:00

The Rolling Stones — Angie - OFFICIAL PROMO (Version 1) (1973) Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg Era: Early Rock Promo Film Era (1973) - Pre-MTV promotional film era when theatrical stage performances served as international broadcast surrogates for touring bands; part of the Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup campaign This promo film is a Tier 1 archival object: it is a confirmed, director-credited production from one of rock history's most commercially successful singles, made by a foundational figure in the music video medium. It documents a pivotal moment — the Rolling Stones at their early-70s commercial apex, the nascent promo film industry, and Lindsay-Hogg at the height of his Stones collaboration. The quantitative metrics (low brightness, slow cutting, minimal motion) align precisely with the song's melancholic register, making this a textbook case for the study of audiovisual translation of emotional affect in pre-MTV promotional cinema. Context: Released in August 1973 as the lead single from Goats Head Soup, 'Angie' represented a marked tonal departure for the Rolling Stones — a stripped acoustic ballad amid an album otherwise steeped in darkness and decadence. It reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 5 in the UK, and topped charts in Canada, Australia, and across Europe. The promotional film, filmed in London by Lindsay-Hogg, belongs to the pre-MTV era of theatrical promo films that allowed bands to achieve international television reach without additional touring. The video's stage setting and rose-petal imagery translate the song's melancholy romanticism into a visual register consistent with early-70s soft-rock and glam-adjacent presentation. The promo aired on the US premiere of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert on 28 September 1973, marking an early instance of a music video serving as a broadcast television programming centerpiece. Director notes: Lindsay-Hogg directed the promotional film for 'Angie' in 1973 to support the Goats Head Soup album campaign and its lead single, released 20 August 1973. The promo depicts the band performing on a theatre stage with a Rolling Stones banner as backdrop, with rose petals drifting through the air to reinforce the song's dreamy, elegiac tone. A second version (Version 2) was also directed by Lindsay-Hogg. The films were shot in London and provided the band with wide international television exposure, sparing them from additional promotional touring. Version 1 aired in the US on the premiere of ABC-TV's Don Kirshner's Rock Concert on 28 September 1973. Lindsay-Hogg has cited this video alongside 'It's Only Rock and Roll' and 'Hey Jude' as among his proudest work from the era. Copyright: (C) 1973 Rolling Stones Records.