Woody
Guthrie All-Star Tribute Concert 1970
(MVD Visual DVD)/Billy
Paul: Live In Europe
(1973/PIR/Sony/Vocalion Limited Edition Hybrid Super Audio
CD/SACD/SA-CD Hybrid Quad Import)/The
Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus
(1968/ABKCO remastered Blu-ray w/DVD + 2 CD Set/Limited Deluxe
Edition)
Picture:
C+/X/B & C+ Sound: C+/B+ B B-/B+ B B & C+ & B-
Extras: C/C-/B Main Programs: B-/B-/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Billy
Paul: Live In Europe
Import Super Audio CD hybrid disc will play on any CD player, but the
high definition soundtracks are only available with an SA-CD player,
is from our friends at Vocalion Records in the U.K. and can be
ordered at the link below while this limited edition is still in
print.
Next
up are three vital concerts of great music you should experience....
We
start with a Rockumentary-era show that has sadly become lost in the
shuffle of so many catalogs, is also more about Folk music, yet the
politics and counterculture it represents are as vital and important
as any such film of the era. Woody
Guthrie All-Star Tribute Concert 1970
is finally available for the first time (for whatever reasons) and
turns out to be a major music event. Peter Fonda and Will Geer
narrate (between performances) the tribute with plenty of footage of
the people who lived the pain and suffered through the awful events
Guthrie made immortal in his classic music work.
His
son Arlo Guthrie leads an amazing ensemble of great musicians and
singers (including friends of his late father) including Joan Baez,
Pete Seeger, Richie Havens, Odetta, Country Joe McDonald, and
Ramblin' Jack Elliott among others. The performances are first rate,
the archival footage priceless and often stunning, what is being said
as valuable now as it ever was and the resulting show is the music
business and its artists at their very best.
Cheers
to MVD for being able to get this out there for people to finally
see. Even if you are not a Folk Music fan, as an exercise in pure
music cinema, you have to see it to believe it. I wished it were
longer, but we get bonus performances that last just over 12 minutes,
including ''1913
Massacre'',
''John
Hardy''
and ''Pastures
Of Plenty''
that includes Arlo Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott adding comments.
Next
up is another amazing show, Billy
Paul: Live In Europe
(1973), a great solo show by Philadelphia International Records'
great soul singer in amazing form. He only sings five songs: War
Of The Gods,
Brown
Baby,
Thank
You For Saving My Life,
Me &
Mrs. Jones
and the Elton John classic Your
Song,
but he gives these prolonged, leisurely, remarkable, with the
audience performances of each that he makes the evening a true event
and this recording captures it incredibly well. Lasting just over 33
minutes, I just wish this were longer, but PIR skipped a double
album. Would that have been too intense?
Either
way, if you only know him for his biggest hit, you are in for a huge
surprise as this work proves he was more than the equal of the other
big male soul vocalists of the time like Marvin Gaye, Al Green and
Johnnie Taylor. However, this is a limited edition disc, so get it
while you can before they run out, especially since this 4-track Quad
version has been out of print since the album was issued over 45
years ago!
Last
but absolutely not least is The
Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus
(1968), the Michael Lindsey-Hogg rockumentary that has only really
been available to the public for the last 20 years! We originally
covered its older DVD release and you can read more about the film
itself at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1583/Rolling+Stones+Rock+&+Roll+Circus
ABKCO
Records has remastered the film from its original 16mm elements in 4K
(supervised by Director of Photography Anthony Richmond, B.S.C.,
A.S.C.!) and also upgraded the sound from its original multi-channel
magnetic soundmaster, resulting in an upgrade more than worthy of the
two other Stones films out on Blu-ray that originated on 16mm film,
Gimme
Shelter
(from Criterion) and Stones
In The Park
(reviewed in its import Blu-ray edition elsewhere on this site, but
still
not on Blu-ray in the U.S. for some unacceptable reason.
We
are lucky to have the Limited Deluxe Edition that offers a great new
regular Blu-ray, upgraded DVD and 2 CDs with extra material never
issued before in a book-like case that has a very high quality
booklet (48 pages) in it with incredible pictures and solid text.
The Blu-ray and DVD offer two frame choices for the film, the
original 1.33 X 1 image as shot on 16mm and a widescreen 1.78 X 1
image that loses the top and the bottom of the image a bit, but is
not bad. The 1.78 X 1 is a new presentation is brand new, but as
good as it looks, I prefer the original block style version because
you can see more and it feels more authentic.
The
set repeats all the extras from the older DVD except the Fat Boys
piece, then adds more Dirty Mac music, the CD materials noted, the
booklet noted and Pete Townshend interview. This is a great all out
upgrade Stones fans, fans of such films and fans of anyone else
performing here will want to get while supplies last. It was worth
all the trouble.
As
a matter of fact, save a few shots that show the age of the film or
are in-between footage or down a generation because of optical
printing, the 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image and even
the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers of the
film on Blu-ray have exceptionally excellent and accurate color, nice
depth and definition for the 16mm format and its great the elements
survived all these decades so we can seer them looking this amazing
now. I always felt 16mm was more than HD-ready and now, it continues
to prove to be even better and 4K ready, so be ready to be impressed.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image DVD (whose alternate 1.33 X 1
presentation centers the square in a 1.78 X 1 frame like the Blu-ray)
on the new DVD are just better enough than the DVD to notice in
direct comparison, but until an actual 4K disc is issued, the Blu-ray
is the disc you have to see.
The
Billy Paul disc has no video, but the anamorphically enhanced
1.78 X 1 image on the Guthrie DVD also looks very good, also
was shot on 16mm and looks so good here, I hope we get a Blu-ray at
some point. The only sound option is lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono,
but it sounds good for the format.
What
the Billy Paul SA-CD does have is three soundtracks: ultra
high-definition DSD (Direct Stream Digital) lossless sound in the 2.0
Stereo and especially 4.0 Quadraphonic version that is amazing, holds
up incredibly well and really brings the concert to life. It was
issued this way back in 1973, but those copies are hard to find and
hard to find equipment to play back on, so having this version from
the original soundmaster is stunning and all serious music and
audiophile fans will want to grab this all-too-rare Quad concert.
Only so many concerts got this top rate treatment then. There is
also PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo for all CD players, but it is weak by
comparison, especially versus the 4.0 mix.
The
Stones Blu-ray also marks yet another first, the first classic
concert remixed for 12-track sound. In this case, your audio choices
are Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 for older systems), Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 and PCM 24bit/48kHz 2.0 Stereo lossless sound mixes and
the Atmos has the most clarity, impact, detail, depth and warmth,
making it the version that matches the amazing image and feels the
most 'live' of all, though the other options are not bad either.
Stones fans happy with the older ABKCO SA-CDs of the Stones (some of
which are reviewed elsewhere on this site) and the amazing 50-track
Blu-ray Audio only edition of GRRRRR! with all the hits in
three version of 96/24 2.0 Stereo (now sadly out of print) will love
the sound here. The PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo on the CDs are fine, but
also sound a little dated and limited as it is still an older format.
The
Stones DVD offers lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo, but they sound aged and underwhelming.
You
can order the Billy Paul concert while supplies last from
Vocalion at:
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8546
-
Nicholas Sheffo