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In 1972, The Rolling Stones invited photographer Robert Frank to document them on their American Tour – following three years of quiet from the band after the Altamont tragedy. In the band’s typical fashion, the tour was an outrageous and debaucherous affair, much of which Frank managed to capture on film. Through explicit and graphic scenes, the footage truly goes behind-the-scenes

However, on seeing the film, the Stones made sure it was never formally released and it became known as the most bootlegged film around. A true artefact of 70s rock ‘n’ roll excess, while the scenes of sex and drug-taking take the headlines, it’s the footage of the band and friends simply lounging in hotels and casually staring into space between shows that stick in the mind. The ironic thing is that while the band tried to stop the film from getting out, it’s now available in full on YouTube, the biggest streaming site in the world.

Stream Cocksucker Blues on YouTube.

Before Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt, he was Johnny Suede in Tom DiCillo’s film of the same name. A young and somewhat narcissistic dreamer in New York City with an outlandishly large – and perfectly coiffed –pompadour, Johnny has ambitions of being a major player on the music scene like his idol Ricky Nelson, but the cards simply aren’t falling for him. However his bad luck suddenly changes when a pristine pair of black suede shoes miraculously fall from the sky.

From here we see Suede’s romantic ventures and vague musical exploits as well as a run-in with strange musician Freak Storm, played by Nick Cave sporting a shock of white hair – perhaps a nod to Jim Jarmusch, who hired DiCillo as a cinematographer on some of his early projects.

Stream Johnny Suede on Amazon Prime.

A thousand kilometres off the southern coast of Japan lies a desolate patch of volcanic rock, no more than 8 sq miles in size. The island of Iwo Jima would appear totally unremarkable to anyone that passed its shores, and yet it was the battlefield for one of the bloodiest fights in the Pacific War and the location for one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century. Joe Rosenthal’s image of five marines raising the Amerian flag has become a symbol of US foreign intervention but its a story that only tells one side.

That’s where Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima comes in. Despite being directed by an American, the film is in Japanese and recounts the four day battle from the perspective of the defenders. The film is the counterpoint to Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers, which tells the same story from the American perspective and was shot back-to-back with Letters from Iwo Jima. The result is a uniquely two-sided perspective on a battle that claimed around 20,000 lives from either side.

Letters from Iwo Jima is streaming on YouTube.