The Bee Gees – In Our Own Time (Eagle Blu-ray) + Crossroads Festival 2010 (Rhino Blu-ray Set) + Ghost Blues: The Story Of Rory Gallagher + Heaven & Hell: Neon Nights – Live In Europe + Velvet Revolver – Live In Houston
(Eagle DVDs)
Picture:
B-/B/C+/C+/B- Sound:
B-/B/B-/C+/B- Extras: C-/D/C-/C+/D Concert/Documentary: B-/B/B/C+/B-
A
documentary and four more Rock concerts programs have arrived on home video and
for the most part, they are pretty good.
The Bee Gees – In Our Own Time is a relatively recent
documentary on the highly successful vocal group and their long history, made
just before Maurice Gibb passed on, covering their many years in the record
business (their 50th Anniversary is upon us) with plenty of archive
footage and new interviews, plus stories you may not have heard before. Though remembered as a Disco group after
become a sudden target for political reasons, their success expands far beyond
that worldwide peak or their work with so many other artists, including brother
Andy Gibb whose story is particularly sad after his own standout success. This runs 116 minutes and is worth your time
to see.
Crossroads Festival 2010 is the latest of the highly
successful concert series, hosted by Bill Murray. It is a rare gathering of talent, which is
what the event is built on and as you can see from the following track
listings, few concerts today can match it.
Blu-ray Disc One:
Bill
Murray introduces Eric Clapton
1)
Sonny
Landreth with Eric Clapton - Promise
Land
2)
Sonny
Landreth – ‘Z Rider
3)
Robert
Randolph & The Family Band - Traveling Shoes
4)
Joe
Bonamassa & Pino Daniele with Robert Randolph - Going Down
Bill
Murray introduces Robert Cray
5)
Robert
Cray, Jimmie Vaughn & Hubert Sumlin - Killing Floor
6)
Jimmie
Vaughn, Robert Cray & Hubert Sumlin - Six Stings Down
Bill Murray
introduces ZZ Top
7)
ZZ
Top - Waiting For the Bus
8)
ZZ
Top - Jesus Just Left Chicago
9)
Doyle
Bramhall II - Gypsy Blood
10) Doyle Bramhall II - In My Time Of Dying
11) Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights
12) Sheryl Crow with Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi,
Doyle Bramhall II & Gary Clark Jr. - Long Road Home
13) Sheryl Crow with Eric Clapton, Doyle Bramhall
II & Gary Clark Jr. - Our Love Is Fading
14) Bert Jansch – Blackwaterside
15) Stefan Grossman with Keb’ Mo’ - Mississippi Blues
16) Stefan Grossman with Keb’ Mo’ - Roll 'N'
Tumble
Bill
Murray introduces Vince Gill
17) Vince Gill, Keb’ Mo’, James Burton, Earl
Klugh, Albert Lee - One More Last Chance
18) Vince Gill, James Burton, Albert Lee, Keb Mo,
Earl Klugh - Mystery Train
19) Vince Gill, Keb’ Mo’, Albert Lee, James Burton,
Earl Klugh & Sheryl Crow - Lay Down Sally
20) Earl Klugh – Angelina
21) Earl Klugh – Vonetta
Bill
Murray introduces John Mayer
22) John Mayer Trio - Who Did You Think I Was
23) John Mayer Trio - Ain't No Sunshine
Blu-ray Disc Two:
Bill Murray introduces Derek Trucks
1)
Derek
Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band - Midnight In Harlem
2)
Derek
Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band featuring Warren Haynes - Comin' Home
3)
Warren
Haynes – Soulshine
4)
David
Hidalgo and Cesar Rojas featuring Derek Trucks - Don't Keep Me Wondering
5)
Derek
Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band featuring Warren Haynes, David Hidalgo, Cesar
Rojas, Chris Stainton - Space Captain
Bill
Murray introduces Buddy, Jonny & Ronnie
6)
Buddy
Guy with Jonny Lang & Ronnie Wood - Five Long Years
7)
Buddy
Guy with Jonny Lang & Ronnie Wood - Miss You
Bill
Murray introduces Jeff Beck
8)
Jeff
Beck – Hammerhead
9)
Jeff
Beck - Nessun Dorma
Bill
Murray introduces Eric Clapton
10) Eric Clapton – Crossroads
11) Citizen Cope & Eric Clapton - Hands Of The
Saints
12) Eric Clapton - I Shot The Sheriff
13) Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck - Shake Your
Money Maker
14) Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood - Had To Cry
15) Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood - Voodoo Chile
16) Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood - Dear Mr.
Fantasy
Bill
Murray introduces BB King for the Finale
17) Eric Clapton, BB King, Robert Cray, et al - The
Thrill Is Gone
Though
not all of the music was my kind of music, it was fine music for the most part
and introduced some new faces. It is
still as rich as any of the previous release sin the series and music fans will
want to catch it at least once, especially in Blu-ray.
Ghost Blues: The Story Of Rory
Gallagher is a
new DVD set from Eagle following an exceptional line of DVD releases that
include the Live At Cork DVD we
recently covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8319/Rory+Gallagher+%E2%80%93+Live+A
There are
two more links to more great concerts and extras, but as fans know, he passed
away too soon at only 47 years old. Ian
Thuillier directed the look at the very talented singer/musician and it is a
worthy addition to defining his legacy.
The second DVD includes a concert compilation called The Beat Club Session 1971 – 72. Among so much good concert footage, this is
some of the best and includes 16 tracks songs:
1) Laundromat
2) Hands Up
3) Sinnerboy
4) Just The Smile
5) Used To Be
6) In Your Town
7) Should’ve Learned My Lesson
8) Crest Of A Wave
9) Toredown
10) Pistol Slapper Blues
11) I Don’t Known Where I’m Going
12) Going To My Hometown
13) I Could’ve Had Religion
14) McAvoy Boogie
15) Hoodoo Man
16) Messin’ With The Kid
Another
strong Gallagher release worth catching up with, it is a pleasant surprise.
Heaven & Hell: Neon Nights –
Live In Europe beings together the late Ronnie
James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice in a decent concert
covering 30 years of hits and other fan favorites from the careers of all
involved. Songs include:
1) E5150
2) Mob Rules
3) Children of The Sea
4) I
5) Bible Black
6) Time Machine
7) Fear
8) Falling Off The Edge Of The World
9) Follow The Tears
10) Die Young
11) Heaven & Hell
12) Country Girl
13) Neon Knights
As good
as the group was, this was an uneven concert for me and I was not totally into
it, though fans are more likely to be.
Of course, there was a sad irony in Dio passing, still giving it his
best up to the end.
Velvet Revolver – Live In Houston brings back the super-enough
supergroup on DVD in a 2005 taping at Houston,
Texas. With members of both the best and now long
gone Guns ‘N’ Roses, plus Stone Temple Pilots, the band became as important as
any Rock group of the moment simply because most bands in the genre were lame,
untalented or could have cared less.
These guys still had (and still have) the energy and talent to show what
Rock is all about. With lead singer
Scott Weiland keeping himself together, lead guitarist Slash, Duff McKagan on
bass with vocals, Matt Sorum on drums with vocals and Dave Kushner on rhythm
guitar, they play the following mix of their songs and songs from their first
bands:
1) Sucker Train Blues
2) Do It For The Kids
3) Headspace
4) Crackerman
5) Illegal I
6) It’s So Easy
7) Fall To Pieces
8) Big Machine
9) Set Me Free
10) Used To Love Her
11) Slither
12) Sex Type Thing
A good
concert, the only thing that got in the way was the sound mix, but more on that
in a minute.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Bee
Gees is a mix of many sources, including the new HD shot interviews, 35mm
film, 16mm film, analog videotape (PAL & NTSC), stills and even what looks
like kinescopes of the family then and now.
The quality is often goods, but there can be rough points and the
standout is a letterboxing of an NTSC-taped Music Video for Night Fever that
should have stayed 1.33 X 1 and looks much better on the Ultimate Bee Gees
DVD/CD set we reviewed elsewhere on this site.
The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Crossroads is the
best of the five here,
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Ghost
Blues is just fine for a documentary, with varied quality throughout, while
the 1.33 X 1 Beat Club footage comes
from analog PAL videotape that is not bad, but shows its age and has some minor
flaws throughout. The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Neon is
the weakest of the five releases with softness and bad Video Black throughout,
while the same on Revolver looks
colorful and pretty goods, but also shows some age already.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 on Bee
Gees has some good sound and the new interviews are recorded well, but the
music is not always presented as well as it could be considering the quality of
the original recordings. It is still
better than the PCM 2.0 Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 also included. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 on Crossroads is the standout here,
sounding great, very well recorded and having a very live sounding soundfield
that really delivers the music you would expect from the format. The PCM 2.0 Stereo is fine, but no match for
the DTS-MA.
The DVDs
all offer DTS 5.1 mixes and while we expected the Gallagher documentary to be limited and the older Gallagher concerts to also have sonic
limits, why Revolver is compressed
and has a muffled soundfield makes no sense.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes are worse and Neon has the same audio options, but
its limits are more tied to the recording equipment and production of the time.
The only
extras on the Bee Gees, Revolver and Gallagher DVDs are paper pullouts inside their respective
cases. Crossroads has no extras at all in its regular release version and Neon adds a Dio tribute by the other
band members and 30th Anniversary Interviews that include Dio.
- Nicholas Sheffo
