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In 1968, The Rolling Stones were already pushing promotional films beyond simple pop-star posing, turning them into strange, cinematic extensions of their music. The visuals created for Child of the Moon and Jumpin’ Jack Flash capture a band drifting deeper into the darker edges of psychedelia, where innocence and menace quietly collide. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the unsettling imagery surrounding Child of the Moon feels less like a colorful flower-power fantasy and more like a warning hidden beneath late-’60s symbolism. Beneath the dreamy atmosphere, the film hints at paranoia, alienation, and the uneasy tension lurking underneath the supposedly peaceful ideals of the era.
Behind the Child of the Moon video
On May 11 1968 the Stones filmed a promotional film clip for Child of the Moon in the Surrey countryside under the direction of Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and then a second one forJumpin’ Jack Flash at Olympic Sound Studios. In this music promo, a solitary woman emerges from a dark forest, her face marked by tears, only to confront a group of stern men blocking her path. The most apparent interpretation is that these men represent potential threats. Alternatively, they could symbolize figures of excess, aligning with the song’s mystical themes. Styled akin to Lynn Redgrave‘s innocent character in Georgy Girl, the woman seems cautioned against proceeding further, perhaps hinting at a foreboding future or simply not fitting in. Child Of The Moon, intentionally or not, offers a potent depiction of The Rolling Stones’ dark ’60s mythology, reflecting on what Gary Valentine termed “the latent violence of the love generation”
As the single’s B-side, Child of the Moon may have appeared quietly behind Jumpin’ Jack Flash in 1968, but the song reveals The Rolling Stones exploring one of their most atmospheric and mysterious musical phases. Floating between fading psychedelia and the grittier sound that soon followed, the track relies more on mood than immediacy. Mick Jagger delivers enigmatic lyrics surrounded by layered instrumentation and drifting melodies, while contributions from Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Nicky Hopkins help transform the recording into one of the band’s most overlooked treasures.
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