When I was browsing around looking for DVDs about favorite artists, I came across a series titled On The Rock trail. Seeing the big names attached to the series I had high hopes. Boy, was I wrong.

The Rolling Stones – On the Rock Trail starts out with a long history of the town of Tamworth in the U.K. I thought that was kind of cool since I have a town by the same name real close by. It was here, at the Old Stone Cross Pub, that Mick Jagger first shocked an audience when he urinated behind the bar there and had himself banned from the establishment.

That is one of the places cited “on the trail” of The Rolling Stones.

Liam Dale narrates a biography of the band. He drives around the United Kingdom and shows various places where The Stones were at various times in their history.

The Rolling Stones – On the Rock Trail takes the viewer through places in the history of the band, including clubs they played in, places they lived, studios recorded in, etc. There are film clips and still photos from throughout the years. There are a lot of shots of Dale traveling around England on a motorcycle.

It’s hard to believe they were World War II babies when that time seems so long ago. Then again, having seen some of them in photos recently, maybe it isn’t.

World War II babies always seemed that much more rebellious, determined, resilient, and adventurous than their fore-fathers… Probably because they had escaped the ravages of war and grew up in a free society that had been saved from Nazi occupation by the very fore-fathers that they would later rebel against…

This sort of sarcastic, sardonic narration is refreshing and makes the documentary more interesting than other discs of this nature out there. However, that cannot compensate for all of the problems with this pseudo-documentary.

Once again, as with other unauthorized documentaries of this nature, the makers of this could not get permission to use the actual music of the band. Instead, it’s filled with Stones-like riffs in the background as Dale narrates the story. The only other music segment comes when musician Paul Andrews sits in a studio and shows how the distinctive sound of the Rolling Stones came about musically. Again, mildly interesting, but nothing that would make me run out and purchase this DVD.

I don’t know what’s happened that it seems that every fan out there seems to think he has some obligation to make a documentary about his favorite artist. too many idiots with video cameras, perhaps. Whatever it is, it needs to stop so fans don’t have to wade through rubbish like this to find high-quality and/or authorized biographies that are actually worthy of our viewing time.