| Musical Concerts
DVD Collection |
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Originally performed and broadcast for A&E on
May 7, 2004 from Manhattan's John Jay College, Blondie:
Live by Request finds New York City's cherished punk-popsters
older, rounder, and still in possession--if not always in complete
control--of the fire needed for credible performances of classics
like "Dreaming," "Rapture," "Call Me,"
and "Heart of Glass." The 2004 Blondie includes founders
Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, and Clem Burke solidly backed by Paul
Carbonara (guitar), Kevin Topping (keyboards), and Leigh Foxx (bass).
The disc's 17 tracks comprise Blondie's biggest hits, with "Atomic"
notably absent and four cuts from 2003's Curse of Blondie (including
a touching tribute to Joey Ramone) holding their own against the
tried and true. Harry remains her flamboyant self, compensating
for a diminishing vocal range with fresh phrasings and boundless
pizzazz. Lead guitarist Stein seems lost at times, while drummer
Burke plays tighter than ever, cementing the songs with a mix of
disco sass and punk fervor. Keep your remote handy: caller requests
and the show's vapid emcee get old fast. |
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Blur, one of Britain's premier bands, presents all
the videos from the band's 10 year history in chronological order
with Blur:
The Best of , including their biggest U.S. hit, "Song 2."
Songs: She's So High, There's No Other Way, Bang, Popscene, For
Tomorrow, Chemical World, Sunday Sunday, Girls And Boys, To The
End, Parklife, End Of A Century, Country House, The Universal, Stereotypes,
Charmless Man, Bettlebum, Song 2, On Your Own, M.O.R., Tender, Coffee
And Tea, No Distance Left To Run.
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Recorded in 1994, Bob
Dylan: MTV Unplugged is a brilliant, quietly impassioned performance
by one of pop music's most significant figures. Fronting his empathetic
five-piece band (Bucky Baxter excels on dobro, mandolin, and pedal
steel guitar; Bob himself plays frequent "rhythm leads"
on his Martin), Dylan performs four of his best-known and potentially
most overdone tunes in the 73-minute show; but "All Along
the Watchtower," "The Times They Are A-Changin',"
"Like a Rolling Stone," and "Knockin' on Heaven's
Door" all sound great, with Dylan, as is his wont, re-casting
both the arrangements and melodies. Even better is the obscure
"John Brown" (written in the early '60s but apparently
unreleased by Dylan until now), a driving, biting war protest
song of the kind that made him famous, while "Dignity,"
a lesser-known tune from the '90s, is filled with great lines
("Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues... said he
was abused by dignity"), and "Shooting Star" revisits
Oh Mercy, Dylan's best '80s album. Through it all, Dylan says
nary a word, although he does smile and shake some hands (even
removing his shades) at the end. And as good as it may be, this
show is most likely different from every Dylan concert before
or since, a sure sign of an artist in no danger of becoming irrelevant |
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Don't despair entirely if the Roxy Music reunion skipped
over your town in the summer of 2001. There's always this DVD to
watch, featuring a wildly enjoyable and often unexpected concert
performance by Roxy frontman and prolific solo artist Bryan
Ferry: Live in Paris .The setting is Paris in the spring of
2000, starring Ferry and about a dozen musicians mixing the avant-garde,
Tin Pan Alley, and a delirious pop mélange for the kind of
passionate European audience that during the early '70s gave Roxy
Music its first commercial and critical boost outside the U.K. Backed
by brass, piano, percussion, the occasional guitar, and a string
section comprised of beautiful Muses (you must see it to understand...),
Ferry glides through a handful of Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter,
and Kern & Fields standards, then hits the ground running on
a slate of his own classic compositions from the last three decades:
"Chance Meeting," "The Only Face," and "Avalon,"
among others. |
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Singer Cesaria
Evora: Live in Paris is the cultural ambassador and greatest
star of her native country, Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony
off the Northwestern coast of Africa. She excels at the highly stylized
and emotionally intense ballad style known as the "morna,"
a melodramatic, mournful romantic music that is much like the Portuguese
fado, full of beautiful, melancholy guitars and impassioned lyrics
of love lost and life both savored and endured. For those of us
unlucky enough to be unable to attend any of her concerts, here
is a splendid presentation of Cesaria and her band, recorded live
at the Zenith Theatre in Spring of 2001. The music is all heavenly,
a selection of favorites drawn from several albums, including sleek
ballads such as "Sodade," "Miss Perfumado,"
and "Angola." Hovering behind Cesaria are images of Cape
Verde's hills, beaches and towns, while onstage, some of the country's
finest musicians strum out gorgeous melodies. The one trouble with
this video is the editing: the French producers seem to favor montages,
including crossfades and overlays of the rear-projected images and
the musicians onstage. This technique quickly becomes intrusive
and detracts from the beauty of the performance -- personally, I
would have preferred a few more lingering close-ups of the singer
and her guitarists as they sank into the melancholy depths of the
music. But still, this is a lovely glimpse at one of world music's
great modern divas. |
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Recorded in December 1999 before a massive and wildly
enthusiastic French audience, this Cranberries
concert is remarkable testimony to the Irish band's seasoning,
evolving confidence, and heightened sense of fun in the years since
the release of their breakthrough hit singles ("Linger,"
"Zombie," "Ode to My Family," all performed
here). Fans who saw the Limerick-born group's early- '90s tours
recognized in singer-songwriter Dolores O'Riordan equal parts gamine,
witch, and an inspirational incarnation of W.B. Yeats's Glimmering
Girl. Now, however, Beneath the Skin: Live in Paris underscores
O'Riordan's more relaxed, womanly stage presence, as well as a rounder,
fuller sound from founding members Mike Hogan (bass), his brother
Noel Hogan (guitar), and drummer Fergal Lawler. |
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Recorded live in Live at Union Chapel captures David
Byrne at his most irreverent. Performing 18 songs spanning four
decades, Byrne effortlessly weaves lyrically potent compositions
and compelling arrangements to create an unforgettable evening.
Among the performances are stunning versions of David's Work, as
well as Talking Heads favorites. Backed by a full band and a string
section, Byrne's stage presence is matched by his masterful delivery. |
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Freed from the shackles of what Pink Floyd has become,
David Gilmour sounds positively liberated on his new live DVD,
David Gilmour in Concert. The years have snuck up on him, as
it inevitably does to all of our heroes, but his voice is even more
expressive now than it has ever been. He's actually becoming more
like his long-estranged counterpart Roger Waters, and that's a good
thing, a great thing in fact.
They are both world-weary veterans having finally arrived at similar
crossroads in their lives after drifting apart in their not-so-distant
youth. Both men's voices are thinning, sometimes straining to reach
notes. While Waters is still the bleeding-heart poet, and Gilmour
still the guitar virtuoso, both seem tired of the bloated excesses
of the rock n' roll machine that had welcomed them with open arms
all those years ago, instead opting to embrace a more deconstructed
approach to performing.
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Historico concierto realizado en california en 1974
ante 300,000 espectadores, además de Deep
Purple participaron Black Sabbat, EL&P, Eagles. Ampliamiente
recomendado, exelente sonido y calidad de imagen, muestra a un deep
purple explosivo. MK III Blackmore, Paice, Lord, Huges, Coverdale.
Canciones: Burn, Migh Just Take Your Life, Mistreaded, Smog on the
Water, You Fool no One y Space Truckin. El Maestro Blackmore destroza
su guitarra contra una camara de television (ABC) e incendia el
escenario. El mejor DVD de deep purple para mi gusto.
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For
Doors completists only, this shapeless gathering of rare film
clips of the band performing in Europe is hampered by the same old,
frustrating problems with attempting to convey, through lousy camera
work, the band's power as a live act. The packaging tells us the
Doors swept through London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam
during a 1968 tour documented here, but there's no way to appreciate
that save for a random clip or two of Jim Morrison milling about
outside concert venues, talking with fans. Otherwise, we see the
same sort of obfuscating on-stage close-ups of Morrison you can
see in any footage of a Doors gig, stumbling around, crooning, and
reciting poetry to minimalist accompaniment by Ray Manzarek on keyboards,
John Densmore on drums, and Robby Krieger on guitar. Unless one
can see, in the mind's eye, what the band is up to from the point
of view of a kid in the 30th row, there's no way to really get the
hypnotic, Dionysian effect for which the Doors were justifiably
famous. Thus, for anyone who can imagine such a thing, or take it
on faith, there's good reason to enjoy performances of "Spanish
Caravan," "Five to One," and two versions of "Light
My Fire." There's even a relic of pre-MTV, pop promotion: a
silly-looking performance of "Hello, I Love You" shot
before a baffled crowd on a London street. |
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The fingers (not to mention the hands they're attached
to) are flying as the music of violinist and fusion pioneer Jean-Luc
Ponty gets a first-class treatment on Jean-Luc
Ponty in Concert, a 70-minute performance recorded in Warsaw
in 1999. There's absolutely no doubt that the French musician can
play (it's not for nothing that he once toured and recorded with
both Frank Zappa and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, among
many others), and his bandmates, especially electric bassist Guy
Nsangue Akwa, are excellent as well. But while the music is undeniably
impressive (and beautifully recorded), with its demanding rhythms
and time signatures and angular, contrapuntal melodies, there just
isn't much there there, so to speak; it lacks the compositional
brilliance of both Pat Metheny and Weather Report, two giants of
the genre whose music Ponty occasionally evokes. Ponty and band
do get their groove on, and their quieter moments ("Pastoral
Harmony"--lame title, nice tune) easily eclipse pretty much
anything in the smooth jazz category. Add to that some fine bonus
features (including "Touring Memories," an interesting
collection of video from the group's travels in Europe and Asia,
as well as a very detailed biography and discography section), and
you've got a nice package that nevertheless falls well short of
indispensable |
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Reluctant rock hero J.J.
Cale takes the spotlight for this 80-minute session, recorded
in Los Angeles in 1979 but virtually unseen until 2001. The reclusive,
Oklahoma-born Cale is probably best known for writing songs made
famous by others ("After Midnight" and "Cocaine"
by Eric Clapton, "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd).
Those are among the some two dozen tunes heard here (five of which,
including "Breeze," are audio-only bonus tracks), as is
Cale's own minor hit, "Crazy Mama." The latter is a good
example of the witty, laconic groove that Cale, a superb guitar
player and laid-back vocalist, brings to much of his music, an appealing
style that's been an obvious influence on Mark Knopfler and others.
All of that, plus a good band that includes Leon Russell on organ,
is just enough to overcome the amateurish, public access feel of
the DVD's sound and visuals |
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I've been waiting for a release like this for years!
Mike
Oldfield's promo videos finally on DVD. Until now, the only
versions of these readily available were the few at the end of the
old Wind Chimes video album (all on this DVD). These alone would
have made the purchase worthwhile, but there are 19 promo videos
and a live BBC performance of Tubular Bells from 1976 on this DVD.
The extras alone would be worth a separate DVD release, including,
as they do the whole of The Wind Chimes video album. As a fan of
all Mike's music, this is a great DVD. I just can't believe that
I haven't seen any promotion of this DVD on TV and only found out
about it by accident through a Yes website, which happened to mention
Jon Anderson's appearance on the Shine video. Highly recommended
and definite must for any Oldfield fan. This is the best music DVD
I have, and I have quite a few.
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Exemplary television program with the Miles
Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers
and Jimmy Cobb, and including the Gil Evans Orchestra. The Sound
of Miles Davis (New York, April 2, 1959): Miles Davis (tp); John
Coltrane (ts); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d);
Ernie Royal (tp); Clyde Reasinger (tp); Louis Mucci (tp); Johnny
Coles (tp); Emmett Berry (tp); Frank Rehak (tbn); Jimmy Cleveland
(tbn); Bill Elton (tbn); Rod Levitt (tbn); Julius Watkins (french
horn); Bob Northern (french horn); Bill Barber (tuba); Danny Bank
(bass clarinet); Romeo Penque (woodwinds); Eddie Caine (woodwinds).
So What, The Duke, Blues for Pablo, New Rhumba |
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The DVD version of Moby's
multiplatinum CD Play is an almost perfect audiovisual synthesis
of personality and uncompromised creativity, and, best of all, Moby
never takes any of it too seriously. It's a given that Moby fans
will totally dig the music, but it's Moby's hilarious 20-minute
home video ("Give an Idiot a Camcorder") that everyone
will be buzzing about, since it's as giddy as a Monty Python highlight
reel and almost as inventive, with Moby himself hosting on his 2000
European tour, appearing in multiple guises and voices (Scottish,
German, French, and classic dude-speak), and playing a variety of
wacky interviewers with himself as their subject. Who knew the guy
was this funny? |
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New
Order was too "bizarre" for me as a high school kid
and I want to say: I was wrong, I missed out, and Thank God for
DVD that I get to see them performing in 1981, their first year
as New Order. Bernard Sumner is so unbelievably cool, the guitar
sound and other experimental sounds they brought into their music
is so light-years ahead of its time. Happily on this DVD the 1981
New York show is not plagued by the ridiculous quick-cut editing
that marred so many concerts that MTV ran in its early days. Happily
the editor is content to stay with one band member for longer than
two notes and it views much like I would watch a live show. Anyway
I was immature and not musically adept when New Order made their
arrival-- They left me in the dust. Sorry it took so long to catch
up. New Order could release many more concerts (and I'm hoping for
a comprehensive video clip DVD, remixed in 5.1) and I would get
them immediately.
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I really enjoy these concerts on DVD and have seen
a good number of them. I usually find that I need to watch the
concert twice to really get into them, but when I bought Rem
: Perfect Square on a whim and saw it for the first time,
I was hooked by the second song. The scenery of the concert location
is beautiful, as is the stage itself. The crowd is humongous and
energized. The picture and sound are both good, and the performance
is fabulous. I was very impressed. It's now an easy favorite.
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Performing with the London Metropolitan Orchestra
in 1994, Unledded documents the much-heralded reunion of Jimmy
Page and Robert Plant. Among the songs performed are reworked
versions of many Zeppelin favorites, including "The Battle
of Evermore," "Gallows Pole," and "Kashmir,"
along with four new songs, such as "Yallah" and "Wonderful
One." The platinum-selling Unledded cd heralded a new era or
renewed popularity. Released now for the very first time on DVD,
Unledded is the DVD Led Zeppelin fans have been waiting for. |
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Boy Howdy Tested and Creem Approved! This Creem Magazine
DVD release features Iggy
Pop and the original lineup of the Stooges (except for bassist,
filled in by indie legend Mike Watt) performing at their first Detroit
homecoming in 29 years. It is a full concert of the best songs of
the first two Stooges albums from 1969 & 1970 including: Loose,
Down On the Street, 1969, I Wanna Be Your Dog, TV Eye, Dirt, Real
Cool Time, No Fun, 1970, Funhouse, Not Right, and Little Doll. Also
included is the title track from the 2003 release "Skull Ring."
Bonus materials are highlighted by the legendary NYC instore performance
(minus Mike Watt) where Iggy explains the origin of the songs. |
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On January 20th, 2004, the classic line up of Yes:
Acoustic gathered together in Los Angeles to promote the DVD
release of Yes Speak. The band played an acoustic set in front of
a live studio audience which was also broadcast via satellite to
50 Regal movie theaters across the United States. This DVD captures
their biggest hits from that intimate, magical, exclusive live performance.
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Some of Bowie's DVD concerts are good and some are
great. This Reality
Tour is one of the great ones. Remixed into 5.1 Surround Sound,
the audio is amazingly crisp and clear. The light show is blinding
in some cases (as was the actual show in person) and the director/editors
use this to their advantage in splicing scenes. Some of the special
effects (freeze-frame, reverse imaging, blurs, etc.) can get tedious,
but it doesn't hurt the overall feel of the concert. Each band member
gets plenty of close-ups and the backing vocals are near perfect.
After nearly two years on the road, Bowie has connected to his audience
like never before, losing any pretension. He's there to have a good
time. |
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Decades after the death of drummer John Bonham and,
for all intents and purposes, the demise of the group, Led Zeppelin's
popularity continues unabated--and why not, as long as they keep
coming up with offerings as worthy as No Quarter: Jimmy
Page & Robert Plant Unledded. Originally released on CD
in 1994 and then in a remastered version simultaneously with this
DVD, the 115-minute program (including bonus footage) was recorded
on a London soundstage, in the hills of Snowdonia, Wales, and outdoors
in Marrakech, Morocco. It finds guitarist Page, vocalist Plant,
and an array of other musicians performing some new material, but
for the most part, the repertoire focuses on their Led Zep legacy--not
a surprise, considering that what they did together in that group
was better than anything they've done separately, including some
pretty good Plant solo efforts and Page's regrettable stint as a
member of the Firm. |
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Over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages
Theater in December 1983, filmmaker Jonathan Demme joined creative
forces with cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth and Talking Heads...
and miracles occurred. Following a staging concept by singer-guitarist
David Byrne, this euphoric concert film transcends that all-too-limited
genre to become the greatest film of its kind. A guaranteed cure
for anyone's blues, it's a celebration of music that never grows
old, fueled by the polyrhythmic pop-funk precision that was a Talking
Heads trademark, and lit from within by the geeky supernova
that is David Byrne. |
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This 1995 outdoor concert captures Annie
Lennox at the climax of her emergence as a solo performer, drawing
from both her stunning, largely self-written 1992 debut album, Diva,
and its immaculately crafted sequel, Medusa, devoted to gourmet
cover performances. With Lennox in powerful voice, a solid live
band attuned to the material's mix of pop, rock, and R&B accents,
and an enraptured audience, Live in Central Park thus charms from
opening downbeat to final coda, retaining Lennox's usual bracing
mix of intelligence and drama. With her close-cropped, dark hair
and bold tartan outfit, the erstwhile Eurythmic dials down the sharper
edges and chillier mood of that band's most stylized work to focus
on the haunted passions that bridge the Scot's solo and group efforts;
her choice of songs from her old band's repertoire locks snugly
into the spectrum of romantic obsession, heartbreak, and resignation
that shape solo signatures like "Walking on Broken Glass,"
"No More 'I Love You's'," and "Little Bird." |
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Given the sheer volume and varying quality of his
recorded output, not to mention his weird behavior, it's easy to
overlook the fact that Prince
is one of the great talents of the last quarter century--a fact
underlined in earnest by this galvanizing performance. The guy has
always had a preternatural ability to channel R&B and rock legends
like Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and James Brown (cf. this performance's
amazing "Money Don't Matter 2 Night/The Work"); now he's
added more sophisticated flavors to the mix as well, ranging from
George Benson to Steely Dan and Weather Report, and all without
sacrificing his own voice. Add to that covers of the Ohio Players'
"Love Rollercoaster" and Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta
Love" (really), all played by Prince and his smokin', skin
tight band, and what you get is one of the best shows of 2002, or
any other year. Extraordinary |
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If you have not seen this DVD, it must be restated
thatNick
Cave and his bandmates admit from the very start that they do
not like doing videos. So, if you presumably already have these
songs on CD and many of the reviews lean toward the negative, why
own this? Well, in my view, The Videos is a great collection precisely
because it is so primitive and often silly. I don't like all the
songs and would rather that others had taken the place of those
I don't like, hence the four stars. But overall, this is a video
that any Nick Cave fan should be eager to own because actually watching
Cave perform adds so much more to the songs.
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Black
Sabbath is one of my favourite bands and Ozzy Osbourne is one
of my favourite vocalists. This DVD gives the true Black Sabbath
power from the last moments Ozzy was in the band. This concert was
performed in 1978. Geezer, Ozzy, Tony, and Bill made a concert that
is excellent even to show to your kids. The track list is quite
alright, only "Rock And Roll Doctor" could have been left
off. The picture and sound quality are quite alright but not the
best ones. |
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This DVD smokes. Nightwish
is clearly on top of their game when they play live, and this perfromance
is one of the best I've ever seen. You can't compare Evanescence's
live DVD "Anywhere...." to this. Not even close. Nightwish
makes Evenescence look like a garage band when it come to playing
live in my opinion. I like Evanescence, but they're just rookies
as far as I'm concerned |
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The Intruduction to this is really cool, Then it
goes into Nightrain and Mr.Brownstone 2 Great songs. Live and Let
die witch is really good here. Its so Easy is one of my favorite
from Guns
and Roses on the DVD along with Bad Obsession. Attitude is a
great song unlike most GNR songs becouse its a misfits cover that
Duff sings but it is really good.Pretty tied up is my least favorite
song on the DVD, but still not bad. Welcome to The Jungle you gotta
have its excellent. Axl sings Dont Cry perfectly here. Double Talkin
Jive is another great song.Civil War is pretty good, Alot of changing
in one song even for Axl. Slash and Gilby start soloing at the end
of Civil War and it carries over into Wild Horses witch is mostly
guitar and really good. Then Patience thats awesome I prefer Slashs
original solo to the one in this version but still excellent. And
Finally November Rain probably the best GNR performance. The DVD
is Excellent no need for bonus features go get it! |
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Conceived by the French director Adrian Maben as "an
anti-Woodstock film," Pink
Floyd: Live at Pompeii was shot in October 1971 in a vacant,
2,000-year-old amphitheater--a venue chosen to accentuate the grandeur
and spaciousness of the band's Meddle-era music. This disc contains
a new, 90-minute director's cut as well as the original 60-minute
concert film, whose production and effects feel inescapably dated.
Maben's cut goes to great lengths to lend the film a more contemporary
feel, but it's the earlier version that makes this disc such a gem,
being more focused on the music and more wholistic in vision. The
anamorphic, 16:9 director's cut interweaves the Pompeii performances
with fascinating but distracting interviews and music snippets filmed
later (mostly during the recording of Dark Side of the Moon). The
movie was originally prepared in a 4:3 aspect ratio, however, and
the widescreen version crops perfectly framed images like the nine-square
mosaic of drummer Nick Mason in "One of These Days." |
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This is the long awaited critical review of the music
of Genesis
during the Peter Gabriel era. Drawing on rare live footage from
vaults of television companies around Europe, a leading team of
critics and working musicians revisits and assesses the music of
Genesis to find out why this remarkable body of work has endured
for over thirty years. Essential viewing for every true Genesis
fan. Features rare performance footage including The Knife, Stagnation,
The Musical Box. The Fountain Of Salmacis, The Return Of The Giant
Hogweed, Watcher Of The Skies, Supper's Ready, I Know What I Like,
Selling England By The Pound and Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight.
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Two classic Joe
Cocker performances captured live! The first one taken from
a classic live performance in Dortmund in 1992, the second is a
new concert filmed in Cologne in 2002. All of Joe Cocker's biggest
and best known songs are included! |
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