The Rolling Stones: Let's Spend the Night Together

Annotation for KRRR! 2012 by Soňa Morgenthalová

In 1981, the legendary British band Rolling Stones set off on a tour of the USA. After several lukewarmly received albums, they finally managed to break through again with the album Tattoo You, and American fans sold out stadiums. Director Hal Ashby (who made the legendary film Harold and Maude, for example) was also there at the time, with an arsenal of people, cameras and a simple message – let’s spend the night together.

The film, which premiered in 1982, is usually classified as a concert film. Many critics deny its documentary nature, although in some respects it is very close to it. Hal Ashby managed to capture much more than just a fraction of the countless legendary “Stones” performances from the almost three-month period from September 25 to December 19. The euphoric atmosphere at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, and under the dome of the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey was captured by the lenses of fourteen and twenty cameras, respectively, which were in charge of Caleb Deschanel and Gerald Feil.

It is thanks to the number of cameras used that the filmmakers could afford to watch the Rolling Stones not only as a whole, but also all the small and large emotions that they experienced on stage. With the help of a few short entrances backstage, Ashby eloquently illustrates the personalities of the individual members of the group to the viewer, without a single word being said or a single conversation taking place. The moments in which they are fiercely focused on the performance during which they present their music to the world often seem surprisingly intimate, which contrasts with the drama with which they play their archetypal “role” in front of the fans. The film’s simple composition thus highlights the continuous flow of positive energy that the Rolling Stones manage to convey.

Let’s Spend the Night Together does not attempt to be any historical overview of the band’s development. They make do with minimal resources and Mick Jagger's iconic mouth. And it is in that simplicity that the essential, the essence of rock and roll lies.