Marvin Gaye Live in
Montreux 1980 (DVD & CD Editions)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Concert: B CD Sound: C+
Getting high quality work from artists no longer with us
is not easy. New high definition sound
formats like Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio is changing that, but besides most
people not being able to access that technology, what about on CD or
DVD-Video. Eagle Vision’s dual releases
of Marvin Gaye Live in Montreux 1980 on both a single DVD-Video and
double CD set is an ambitious attempt to fill that gap, which succeeds more
than might be expected.
Gaye was in Switzerland, evading
the Internal Revenue Service and trying to put his life back together after his
bitter dual divorce form Motown and his ex-wife Anna, a member of the Gordy
Family when they still owned the company.
Fortunately, when he took the stage on July 7th of that year,
video and audiotape was running to capture what was an energetic, non-stop
performance that demonstrated he was definitely on his way to a comeback. That would happen a mere two years later with
his triumphant return home and the stunning Midnight Love album, which
yielded his biggest-ever R&B hit, the classic “Sexual Healing”.
In this concert, he has plenty
of brilliant Motown hits to choose from.
These include:
Time (To Get It Together) (included on the DVD too, but not
listed on the DVD box)
Got To Give It Up
Funky Space Reincarnation
Come Get To This
Let’s Get It On
After The Dance
If This World Were Mine
(first of a three-song medley/Tammi Terrell tribute)
Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By
You)
Ain’t That Peculiar
I’ll Be Doggone
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Trouble Man (Theme from)
Distant Lover
Inner City Blues
Mercy Mercy Me
What’s Going On
Two of the first three tracks (“Time
(To Get It Together)” and “Funky Space Reincarnation”) come from his
brilliant, bitter, liberating double album set Here, My Dear form 1979,
which the Gordy’s refused to release at first because it repeatedly criticized
them! However, this was his most recent
studio album at the time and he simply was not going to censor himself. After all, this was great music, so what did
he have to apologize for?
Wearing a jacket that looks like
a Funk hybrid of Little Richard, Elton John, Liberace, Elvis, and Elmo the
Muppet with Sesame Street-like cutouts of musical instruments and other motifs
all over it, Gaye takes the stage and holds it like few artists ever could or
will. The 100 minutes never feel too long,
yet feel longer, but also do not
seem to last long enough. That is because it is a good concert and
Gaye’s untimely death has denied us decades of new concerts that will never be
performed. Gaye should also be given
credit for taking familiar material into new directions that do not sound like
the record all over again, but do not deviate so much that they are not in the
spirit of the originals. The band and
backup singing is also a big plus.
The full screen, full color
picture is from an analog video source that is likely the PAL format, which
helps since it is professional color videotape when it still streaked when
metallic objects moved too quickly. The
source is in fine shape, but shows its age, but it is on the color rich
side. The reds are not bad either, which
is good, when you consider that jacket Gaye wears. As compared to modern video, high definition
and digital, this might have occasional lack of definition moments that
distract, but they are usually overridden by the performances of Gaye and his
exceptional group of musicians.
The audio is available in three
versions on the DVD, then an additional version on the CD set. The best of the audio is the DTS mix, which
seems to capture the warmth, range, fullness, and depth of the original tape
source the best. The Dolby Digital 5.1
AC-3 mix is the same mix, but will less body and volume, typical of the
difference between the two in just about all cases. This tends to be especially true of music
DVDs. Both discs have PCM CD Stereo 2.0
tracks, both at 16bits, but the DVD is at 48kHz, while the CD is at
44.1kHz. The DVD PCM has some edge over
both the Dolby and CD presentations, but it is also smoother that the CD. The CD has slightly more midrange body, but
that is offset by a lack of smoothness that feels like a bit of breakup versus
the other versions in the rest of the sound range. How a kilohertz difference of 3.9 can make
such a difference, I do not know, but that is partly the case here. The CD set is fine if you are on the go, but
the DVD is your better bet, with the DTS being one of the earliest DVD-Videos
with music to get the treatment. This
pays off very well here.
As the set winds up, Gaye
finished with the three classic singles from the What’s Going On album,
then goes into a now-sad diatribe about what a wonderful world we have to live
in. This can be painful to watch,
knowing his undeserved fate a few years at the hands of his domineering father,
who spend a lifetime doing what he could to cut his more talented son down. Then he acted out his hatred in an act of
inexcusable, senseless violence. The art
will always outlast the circumstances, and in Gaye’s case, no “old school”
R&B artist has been more responsible for Rap and Hip Hop. He may have more clout that any other in that
respect. As a result, he may have truly
got the last laugh on his father, his ex-relatives, and the others who were not
there for him when they should have been.
His friends failed Marvin, but Marvin never failed music, which is why
this concert is ultimately so haunting.
For more on Gaye, try this link
to the SA-CD of Midnight Love (5.1
version) plus a great 1976 concert on DVD also from Eagle:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6800/Marvin+Gaye
- Nicholas Sheffo
