Showing posts with label the who. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the who. Show all posts

The Who: The Kids Are Alright (2010) Review

The Who: The Kids Are Alright  (2010)
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The Who: The Kids Are Alright (2010) ReviewAfter having seen several other major DVD opportunities get squandered (The Beatles's HARD DAYS NIGHT leaps to mind), it is an utter delight to watch/listen to this DVD. It is great on several levels: the original film was one of the best collections of live performances in the history of rock, the reissue has dramatically improved the look and sound of the film, and the Special Edition extra disc includes some truly wonderful features. This ought to be the model for all future reissues, such as when/if they reissue the Rolling Stones's TWENTY-FIVE BY FIVE.
Only a couple of years ago I was trying to explain to my daughter that in the sixties and seventies, the Who were full-fledged members of the rock Pantheon, as revolutionary and crucial as the Stones, the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin. For some reason, they went into a bit of a decline in the general musical consciousness (I found kids my daughter's age might not know of them at all, whereas they knew the other aforementioned bands quite well). Thanks to some timely re-released and a tragic tour that saw the death of John Entwhistle, their star truly seems to be on the ascendant again. This album is crucial for proving what all of us at the time knew: the Who was without question one of the very greatest live bands of all time.
The Who was an amazing band, full of paradoxes. Roger Daltrey was one of the great front men in the history of rock, and Pete Townshend a crack songwriter and arguably the most entertaining to watch guitarist of all time. Yet, the lead instruments in the band, almost unique in rock, were Keith Moon and his maniacally abused drum kit and John Entwhistle's bass, both of them among the top two or three of all time on their instruments, if not the best. They were a great rhythm section, but they jointly tended to take over the songs musically, unlike Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman for the Stones, who were content to stay rock solid in the background. Live, they were amazing, with Daltrey marching in place, swinging the mike around like David about to use his sling against Goliath; Pete Townshend dancing disjointedly around while doing his famous helicopter chording of the guitar; Keith Moon playing as if he were on eight different drugs, tossing his drumsticks ten and twenty feet in the air; and amid it all, like the quiet in the eye of the hurricane, John Entwhistle standing stock still, motionless except for his hands moving up and down his bass, playing the instrument better than anyone else ever had, or perhaps has since.
The film begins with a bang, with a famous appearance on The Smothers Brothers Show (an awesome show because it was so amazingly subversive, with Tom and Dick acting like total squares, but in reality leftists who loved exposing the public to acts like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, and bands like The Who and Cream). Unlike Ed Sullivan, Tom and Dick truly loved these bands, and the opening number/skit, a rollicking version of "My Generation" (with Roger Daltrey suffering so badly from a faux upper-induced stammer that was a badge of their identification with the amphetamine-crazed Mods that one isn't certain he is going to be able to finish each line). Each number brings new revelations or refreshes old memories. For instance, in "I Can't Explain" from SHINDIG! Keith Moon is sporting a T-shirt with a bull's eye on it, a full decade before Richard Hell would achieve notoriety in New York for wearing one when he was still with Television.
The numbers included in the film are both wide-ranging and representative. I suppose any Who fan will find many of their own favorites missing, but no one can complain that the numbers focus too much on one phase of their career. The selections are extraordinarily well balanced. One of the more poignant features is the fact that the performance of "Won't Get Fooled Again," which was performed specifically for the film so that they could have one really good performance on film of one of their most famous numbers, was the last time the Who ever performed in their original line up; Keith Moon would die only three months later.
The extras disc is truly worth having, with a feature on the restoration of the movie, and nice items like a tour of the Who's London, an interview with Roger Daltrey, and, my favorite bit, interesting versions of "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," that features only John Entwhistle's bass and visuals. There is no question about it: the guy could play bass.
All in all, one is going to come across very few music DVDs quite this good. I highly recommend it.The Who: The Kids Are Alright (2010) OverviewStudio: Uni Dist Corp (music)Release Date: 03/02/2010

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Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut) (1970) Review

Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace and Music (The Director's Cut) (1970)
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Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut) (1970) ReviewWoodstock, the 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition is an wonderful box but far from perfect. If you have the 1994 Director's Cut you already have the meat of this box set. The extra songs are great (really!) but only worth paying for if you're itching for any new footage. Of course, if you don't already have a version of the Woodstock concert on DVD, then by all means get this box. The extra DVD contains three songs from the Creedence Clearwater Revival set which is fantastic to finally see (along with extra songs from another dozen groups). And PLEASE buy if from Amazon as they include their own exclusive DVD with a few very rare songs (limited time). The Life magazine reprint is fun but I would have preferred they replaced most of the "stuff" with another DVD. My personal peeve is the absence of Melanie. Even it you get this box set, it will still be worth the money to buy the 2 DVD set of +Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock+ and (if you still have a VHS player that works) its also worth seeking out the VHS tape from 1991 titled, +Woodstock: The Lost Performances+ which contains a hour of songs that are not in the new box set. The extra songs in the new box set are not integrated into the Movie, so you will have to change DVD's to see all the songs of a particular group. Perhaps when the 50th Anniversary rolls around we will finally get a box that puts all the performance footage together as it ought to be. If not, maybe we can have our Cryogenically frozen heads defrosted in time for the 100th Anniversary (don't count on it). Oh, as to the complaints of others about the songs being "corrected", just ignore them, the sound is great.Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut) (1970) Overview3 days. 3-million people. And memories to last a lifetime.Year: 1970Director:Michael WadleighStarring: Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens, The Who, Crosby, Stills & Nash, much more

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Tommy (1975) Review

Tommy (1975)
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Tommy (1975) ReviewAs the five-star rating would indicate, I've loved TOMMY sincethe day it opened (and yes, I was there for its premiere). I've alsopurchased the movie in just about every incarnation that have been released: videotape, laserdisc, and now DVD.
What's most exciting about the DVD version -- and something which doesn't seem to have been mentioned in other Amazon reviews -- is that the soundtrack to the film has been completely restored. "Quintaphonic sound" may sound a little silly and may not even mean much in this age of digital sound, but TOMMY was the movie that saw the rebirth of multi-channel audio (most films of the late 60s and early 70s were either mono or 2-channel stereo). The enhanced 5-channel discrete sound was a perfect extension of Ken Russell's audacious visuals. The tag line to the movie was "Your senses will never be the same," and it perfectly described both the visual AND aural assault on audience members.
Well, this DVD is the first (and only) format to feature the complete "Quintaphonic" soundtrack. If you have a Dolby Digital decoder, you're going to hear the movie in a way that wasn't even possible back in 1975! All of the vocals are locked dead center while the score itself blasts out of the remaining four speakers. And there's absolutely no distortion, even when you jack the volume up (which you should, since it was intended to be heard that way). It's a wonderful - and quite unexpected - thrill to hear the movie this way. Previous editions had absolutely terrible audio tracks that were poorly mixed down from the originals. The result -- even on the laserdisc -- was a muddy mess. Not so with this DVD edition, which includes a written essay insert explaining the soundtrack's restoration.
The picture quality is also outstanding. One key moment: during the blackout section of "Fiddle About" the screen is absolutely dark -- not a speck can be seen, proof that this film was carefully transferred from a pristine source print!
This is an incredible film presented on an incredible DVD. If your home system isn't yet able to decode the Dolby Digital soundtrack, do yourself a favor and get a decoder at the same time you buy this disc. You won't be sorry.
I'd warn the neighbors first, though!Tommy (1975) OverviewFilm version of the successful rock opera about a boy who witnesses the murder of his father by his mother and her lover. He becomes deaf, dumb and blind, and as he grows, he is taken to various experts for cures.Genre: MusicalsRating: PGRelease Date: 25-MAY-2004Media Type: DVD

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