The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, 1968

If you have a distant memory of once seeing John Lennon perform with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, don’t worry, you’re not going crazy or having a stroke – that actually happened. Known as The Dirty Mac, this seemingly unlikely supergroup made their television debut on December 11, 1968 in honor of the Rolling Stones’ TV special, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus; Lennon, in his first ever performance away from The Beatles, enlisted the help of Clapton, Richards, and Mitchell for the project, bringing The Beatles’ “Yer Blues” to center stage and as an added bonus, John’s wife Yoko is blessedly nowhere to be found for this particular Dirty Mac performance.

While it’s strange seeing this particular configuration of rock legends together one stage with John appearing with a band that wasn’t The Beatles, it also gets our brains a-turnin’ as we think about what The Dirty Mac could have become with just a few more years and even more interesting than that, where life would have taken John, Eric, Mitch, and Keith. We’ll never know, but this video gives us a pretty fantastic idea. Check it out below!

Filmed before a live audience in London, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was originally conceived as a BBC-TV special. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had worked on videos for both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, it centers on the original line up of the Rolling Stones -- Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman (with Nicky Hopkins and Rocky Dijon)-- who serves as both the show's hosts and featured attraction. For the first time in front of an audience, "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" performs six Stones classics ("Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Parachute Woman," "No Expectations," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Sympathy For The Devil" and "Salt of The Earth.")

The program also includes extraordinary performances by The Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, Yoko Ono as well as The Dirty Mac a 'supergroup' before the term had even been coined, the band was comprised of Eric Clapton (lead guitar), Keith Richards (bass), Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (drums) and John Lennon on guitar and vocals. This performance marks the first musical context in which John Lennon performed before an audience outside the Beatles. A mirthful conversation between Jagger and Lennon captures these two at a pivotal creative point in time. The Circus is the only time Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) performed with Jethro Tull and the last time Brian Jones would perform with The Rolling Stones in front of an audience.

As David Dalton, who covered the event for Rolling Stone, so aptly put it, "...for a brief moment it seemed that rock 'n' roll would inherit the earth."