We’ve all heard this number to death, but the way it’s presented here (live in Japan, 1966) is the most absolutely pulse-quickening, life-affirming, rip-roaring-yet-tight-as-a-coil, groovy, just plain hep-as-fuck dust-up with excellent film production.
And just the stark simplicity of the presentation - perfection.
Out of curiosity, listened to it without headphones afterwards (through the basic shitty monitor speaker) and it had half the impact, with all the intensity of the interweaving guitarwork* completely gone, so - headphones are an imperative.
I found it was one of those videos that are so good that you almost try to not watch it too repeatedly. Real smoothies, and tighter than poor Katherine Helmond’s face in Brazil.
When I was a kid in the sixties, what the boys in school did (okay, Bob Ferguson, but you don’t know him) was pound out the drum solo from Wipeout with bare hands on their desk, faster and faster. I wished I could do it but I wasn’t cool.
I remember one classroom where somebody (Bob Ferguson?) started it and pretty soon a dozen guys were Wiping Out in unison. (Including me… hey, I can still do it). One kid wasn’t joining in, and I realized: he was a drummer in a real band, he didn’t have to prove anything.