Customer Reviews

The '60s: Original NBC Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Loved the 3 1/2 hour made-for-TV movie as I just couldn't wait to lay my mitts on the soundtrack disc.Although it COULD have included a couple of MORE key songs from the era.There are several tunes on this fifteen track offering that I hadn't heard in years.Like Marvin Gaye's "Could I Get A Witness?"(one of the BEST Motown songs ever),Bob Dylan's "Chimes Of Freedom" and The Animal's "Winds Of Change".A few that I'll always hold close to my heart are Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love" and Cream's "Sunshine Of your Love".Nice.

I've been reading the other reviews of The '60s, and first of all, I've noticed a LOT of people asking about a song that was played in the mini-series and not on the CD. That is probably the CD's biggest fault; not that it doesn't do justice to the 60s as a decade, but that it doesn't do justice to the 60s as a mini-series. Bob Dylan is sorely mis-represented on the CD while his songs get a lot of play in the movie, but I think that the first track (a duet with Joan Osborne) is worth the CD.

Instead of a rushed companion product to the NBC Mini-series, the CD could have benefited from a more thorough representation of the different music genres emerging at the time (which I must say, all got fair treatment in the series). 1/3 of the soundtrack is devoted to boy and girl band pop, leaving the other 2/3rds to float around and leave the soundtrack as a hit/miss purchase. Highlights include Chimes of Freedom, The Weight, and Draft Morning, where I think we could have done without Do Wah Diddy Diddy and Do You Believe in Magic.

If you're getting this CD, I suggest you get The Essential Bob Dylan with it (most of the songs on that set were used in the movie).

Having watched the 4 hours of the stereotypical view of the sixties...all kids are either draft dodger radicals or gung-ho GIs....I was surprised at how diverse the soundtrack was in the movie. But unfortunately they didn't put the real gems on the CD. "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield alone would have been worth the price of the disc, but no, we get "My Boyfriend's Back" trotted out once more. And what about any British music for God's sake? The Beatles one appearance from the landmark appearance on the 2/9/64 show is the only hint that there was music made anywhere but the good old U.S.A. So much for a truthful representation of either the era or the music. By the way, I lived through the sixties.

I was fortunate enough to go thru the sixties as a teenager, and feel the power and magic of this music without the shackles of age or the wisdom that comes with it. And this is why, for all the technical advancements we have now, there is, for me, a warmth and a smile to this music that I havent felt since.

Look, no compilation of 60s music is ever going to satisfy because there was just too much good stuff, and to choose a couple dozen as a representation is bound to come up short.

The Soundtrack of the film was nicely done, as a complement to the film itself. And the songs they chose were mostly good songs, and well placed. Remember, this was not intended as a Greatest Hits, and for that we should all be glad. We've all heard those songs, perhaps too often. So those of you still focusing on what was missing should grow up and go look someplace else.

But I do want to note one disappointment about the CD, and that is what it did not take from the film. I was really excited to hear not one, but two songs from the first Velvet Underground album, the one with Nico. In 1967 their sound came out of another galaxy. And that the producers had the clout to bring HEROIN and VENUS IN FURS to primetime TV is a major victory in itself.

But these songs didn't make it to the CD. Too Bad.

To run a four-hour miniseries and then offer a cd which is supposed to adequately represent the mini series, should require a two-disc set of the major music from that movie. This collection does not fill that bill. Some of the music on this cd is only there to satisfy certain demographics and does not do justice to the miniseries...nor to the period it pretends to represent. What a huge disappointment; it could have been so much more... Obviously, somebody just wanted to make a buck and didn't care about the people who count the most: the customers.

overall i liked both the video & the offerings on CD. In fact i just came over from nbc.com to check out the community's take before taking up their KILLER combination offer - oops, sorry amazonia - & my response to all this is - when everybody's a critic, nobody has fun! There is NO WAY i am ever gonna b satisfied w/ any grouping, cause it's my life they're writing about - and in the pastiche of that time period - which really DID take much longer to xperience than most decades, whether you got high or dropped or not - there was just so much going on that the world, not just the US, had not seen the likes of, NONE of our lifelines could be even semi-adequately depicted, in my opinion. Sure there was a lot omitted on the album - how could you not have CJ & the Fish or some Phil Spector stuff, or Spencer Davis' "I'm a Man" or the Troggs send up of the Yardbirds/British "invasion" (Wild Thing) or Reflections - remember the leadin for China Beach? or Stevie Wonder - but there's just so MUCH ! Jazz & Acid C&W aren't even in the movie but they contributed. U want real? Buy soundtrax 4 Apocalypse Now/Platoon/Deer Hunter. Not only did i do time for protesting 'Nam, i was a DJ on the CVS Hornet for awhile in '68 & i was TOTALLY baffled how to include a very broad but heavy'n hip package to my shipmates.

Yes, i agree the producers shouldn't call this microcosm a "soundtrack", but from all the happy buttons they pushed they did ok. And "Draft Morning" was hardly EVER played on underground radio even & when u did hear it u didn't get it @ 1st - that can't be a savvy business move. And because of having no Brit/Aussie bands they HAD 2 shortchange us - go to the amazon.com catalog for Donovan (Leitch) & feed your 60's soul. Sample Hurdy Gurdy Man & Season of the Witch. I know his stuff wasn't in the vid, but to see how much this "trippy dippy little hippy" has influenced me blew me away...

TEXAS FAN - since nobody responded, that tune i believe w/ "i saw you comin' back$" is "Comin' Back to Me" on i think '67's Surrealistic Pillow by Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane, if it is it would go something like "small reasons like memories come, from t pages of a LOOK, the taste of sleepy music & suddenly you're hooked/& thru t open window, where no curtain hung - I SAW YOU (rep 2x) comin' back to me"

Hey, Amazon.com , I want to buy James Leno's Sixties CD! So when do you think you'll have it available? My 46th birthday is February 17th, so place a rush on production, ok? My two stars are based on your play list.....debating whether I want the same old, same old.....

i love this cd and i loved the movi

I liked the music in the movie (although the movie itself was way too Hollywood) and was expecting the same music on the cd. Unfortunately much of the music in the movie was not on the cd and it should not be advertised as a sound track of the movie. The music that they did choose to put on the cd did not capture the spirit of the movie or the spirit of the time period. I was taken in by a big marketing hype.

As was said below, I think that this CD is missing some of the great songs that highlighted the decade. Although I may only be 14, I think most (maybe all) of the music I've heard from the 60s is better than what we have today. I agree, we need more beatles, but not everything could be compiled on one disc. I think this disc would be a great thing for people to explore with. If they saw the show, and wanted to hear more, they should get this disc. It may lead them to other albums from that time, and expand their music appreciation as a whole