The Rolling Stones and ABKCO Music & Records have released the latest in the series of faithfully-restored vintage 1960s promotional films in 4K resolution. The latest in the collection is the promo for “2000 Light Years From Home,” filmed and produced in 1967.
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The striking clip was directed by the late Peter Whitehead, already a Stones insider from his direction of the 1965 tour documentary Charlie Is My Darling and their video for “We Love You,” also from 1967. That reappeared in 4K this past August.
The video for “2000 Light Years From Home” opens on close-ups of all five members of the band at the time, and includes a staged performance of the Jagger-Richards song on color-treated film. The motif of Mick Jagger’s painted face was to be reprised for the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” video the following year, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
“2000 Light Years From Home,” from the Stones’ experimental 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request, was never an A-side in its own right. It was released as the B-side of “She’s A Rainbow,” itself not a UK single but a major hit in some European countries, with a No.25 peak in the US.
Jagger sings lead vocals and maracas on the track, which contained an unforgettable piano feature by indispensable session collaborator Nicky Hopkins. Keith Richards played lead guitar, fuzz bass and sang backing vocals, with Brian Jones on Mellotron and electric dulcimer, Bill Wyman on bass and oscillator, and Charlie Watts on drums.
The song has occasionally been revived on stage, notably on the Steel Wheels tour of 1989. It has also inspired a number of covers, including one by German band the Lovers in 1968, an instrumental version by Los Straitjackets in 2015, and the most recent interpretation by Kyle Richards & the TM Collective in 2021.
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