Customer Reviews

Black Oak Arkansas - First 30 Years

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This DVD has the best quality Black Oak Arkansas footage available today. If you are a BOA fan this is a must have!
While the title says "First 30 Years" there isn't anything recent from BOA on the CD. The title is misleading. It's mostly old stuff from the 70's, but it is still great.
The song list on the DVD is as follows:
Diggin' For Gold
Hey Y'All
Back Door Man
Hot & Nasty
Hot Rod
Mutants Of The Monster
Taxman
Jim Dandy
Jail Bait
Bump & Grind
Hey Y'All (reprise)
Dixie
If I Could Love You
Swimmin' In Quick Sand

The heyday of Black Oak Arkansas,however short,or long in some opinions is finally on DVD.AND I HAVE IT!Such a fun,unique,outlaw rockin' band.They had the sound the typical teenage wannabe wanted.From the raw,grizzled vocals,the guitar army,the machine gun-like thunder of the double bass drums.And what a show they could put on.1974-Frankfort Kentucky-Black Oak Arkansas w/special guest.The special guest was very good,BOA blew them off the stage.All the tunes in the DVD are very memorable to all us forty-somethings.The footage is also very memorable(all fun).When I first viewed this I(as a mature adult)had forgotten what a powerful show they did put on.The one thing that truly stood out in my mind at the live show I saw was the finale that is not on the DVD.A tune called "UP"that featured double lead guitar and probably the best drum solo I ever heard,picks up at the drum solo(a short change).Regardless I am very satisfied with this item and would recomend to all forty-somethings and any curious enough to want to see one of rocks best bands during their heyday.By the was,the special guest mentioned for the BOA concert was LYNYRD SKYNYRD.

One of the most hard rockin Southern raunch n' roll band from the 70's Black Oak Arkansas. When ever someone ask me who is BOA I say picture David Lee Roth fronting Lynyrd Skynyrd. Of course singer Jim "Dandy" Mangrum was way before David Lee Roth. JD was known for his low growl vocals, his mischievous smile and his washboard playing. W/ songs like "Hot & Nasty", "Hot Rod", "Bump & Grind" and "Back Door Man" among other BOA songs.

This DVD was put out by Rhino Home Video and consist of 89 minutes of footage from live to back stage. Although the title says The First 30 Years it really shows BOA from '73 to '75. There is some interviews but not sure what year that was recorded.
Majority is in color w/ a few clips black & white.

Starts off w/ "Diggin' For Gold" playing while footage of the band backstage. The history of the band w/ still photos. From tracks 2 to 9 is from London 1974.
I love "Mutants of The Monster" but they didn't do the intro JD speaks before going into the song. I don't know if it was edited out or he didn't do it at that show. Also BOA does a cover of "Taxman" which is a great number and the famous cover of "Jim Dandy". I say this '74 concert is one of the best on the DVD.

Then you have this documentary of BOA titled "All You Need Is Love". There is a Minister talking about the evils of BOA. Also the band shows their compound in the hills of Arkansas. They talk about this community that is surrounded by a huge wooden fence and inside is a little town from post office to a school.

Next concert on the DVD is North Carolina Motor Speedway from 1974. This is about 2 songs long w/ JD showing you around their tour bus.

A 1975 Summer Tour shows Tommy Aldridge drum solo. Tommy is an amazing drummer who played w/ many artists such as Whitesnake, Gary Moore, Pat Travers, Ozzy Osbourne, Ted Nugent and more.

Then you have 2 interviews one w/ JD the other w/ Butch Stone the Business Manager who tells about the time in '73 he drove a young political couple Bill & Hillary from Arkansas to see BOA in concert.

The last 2 songs are from 1973, Barton Coliseum which is a bit blurry.
For a true show I say the'74 London show is good footage of BOA.

I wish they had the concert form Don Kirshners Rock concert that shows JD jumping over the drummers set.
This is a pretty good collection since there isn't much footage around of BOA.

The band credits are Jim "Dandy " Mangrum, Rickie Lee Reynolds, Stanley Knight, Pat Daugherty, Harvey Jett, Jimmy Henderson, Tommy Aldridge, Wayne Evans and (the late) Ruby Starr. I didn't see Ruby Starr but if she was on film she was somewhere in the background.

Special features include a few still photos.

I almost put this one back on the shelf. I was thinking, Okay- maybe one or two decent clips from the seventies, then on to boring interviews from aging, fat, bald/gray band members...what a pleasant surprise! The main body of this DVD is some killer footage from their 1974 show. I saw them on this tour, and had forgotten just how good they were.
I am extremely leery of film footage of rock concerts from the seventies: most of the time the stage lighting was inadequate for film cameras ( and especially those behemoth video cameras if they were videotaping instead ), the typically monaural audio track is woefully poor...and, biggest gripe of all pertaining to film, the sound and picture virtually NEVER match up! Not the case with this one. The Albert Hall footage is amazingly good quality, with picture and sound in perfect sync, although the subsequent Charlotte footage was disappointing ( by the way, anybody catch the ELP road cases during that backstage shot...Tommy Aldridge and Carl Palmer on the same stage...doesn't get any better than that! ). I had forgotten what a showman Jim Dandy was. If there's a pebble in my shoe about this footage, however, it's that too much of it was spent on JD...and not enough on Tommy Aldridge, arguably the best American rock drummer of the seventies. This guy was twenty years ahead of his time! NOBODY was playing double bass drums the way he did in the early seventies...you can believe that all the "young lions" of today ( Charlie Benante, Mike Portnoy, Lars Ulrich, etc ) cut their teeth listening to TA. The audio mix is pretty good, but of course you can't hear his bass drums the way they mix them today. Check out the end of "Mutants"...I feel sorry for any double bass drummer that had to follow BOAs set. Why did they delete "Up" from the Albert Hall footage, only to cut in from a poor sidestage angle toward the end of TAs solo ( and black and white to boot! )? Overall, though, a very good DVD of this band. Highly recommended!

While this music retrospective won't go down in history, such as The Who, "The Kids Are All Right," it is certainly a unique taste of Southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas, who rose to fame in the early 1970s and continue to perform to this day.

For anyone who missed out on the band's heyday - that includes me - this DVD is an opportunity to relive at least a little of those high times.

The title - First 30 Years - perhaps leads one to look for recent footage of BOA, but the only recent thing I saw was a brief - yet interesting - interview with frontman Jim Dandy (he of the throaty vocals and scrub board playing skills).

Highlights include footage from London's Royal Albert Hall, and an old b & w interview segment, with an inside look at the band's old tour bus. Most of the songs from London are quite good, performed in their entirety. Equally good or better versions of some of these - "Hot And Nasty," "Hot Rod," "Mutants" - can be found on the essential BOA CD - "Raunch And Roll," a killer live set that originally turned me on to the band.

My complaints about the DVD are mostly pretty minor.
1) Could easily have been longer and more comprehensive. How about an interview with original founding member Rickie Lee Reynolds?
2) BOA often played tv shows like "Midnight Special." Too bad rights to some of those clips weren't obtained.
3) Where's Ruby Starr? Her name appears on the DVD case, but I must have missed her footage somehow. Was it that short?
4) More band history - what exactly led to their decrease in popularity as contemporary music moved into the '80s? Where do they fit with contemporaries like Skynyrd and The Allmans, those two pillars of Southern Rock?

In that, BOA is something of a mystery. I think they rock harder, and in a more fun way, than the above mentioned. Obviously - and it's been said by numerous others - Jim Dandy was the forefather to a variety of other showmen, including David Lee Roth and Brett Michaels.

The band's legacy should not be discounted. While perhaps much has changed since the party hearty days of 30 years past, BOA's catalog of original releases are well worth a listen, and I am told they still put on quite a show, even if the venues aren't huge coliseums. I only wish I had been there, for example, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With this DVD, I can pretend, and hope that the Wild Bunch will gallop into a nearby town someday soon!

Hey I knew what I was doing when I was 14 years old. I remembered I had seen Black Oak on TV...maybe it was a late night In Concert show but I remembered I liked it when I was a teen. Hadn't really heard about them for 30 years then I picked up this DVD for some reason. WOW!!! It's GREAT!!!There is a lot of footage that includes Jimmy Henderson. Jimmy stepped in when original guitarist Harvey Jett dropped out. Henderson was a virtuoso on the guitar. He plays a Les Paul through an Orange brand amplifier. Great sound on that thing. Great photography. The camera actually follows the guitarist when they do solos. The riffs are killer and catchy. The songs rock. The best are "Hey Yall" great melody, solos and dancing by Jim Dandy while he's young. "Back Door Man" funky, "Hot & Nasty" drills, "Jim Dandy to the Rescue" rocks like the first time. The band is on target and in their prime. "Jail Bait" has great sounding guitar going through a phaser or flanger along with slide guitar work by Jimmy. Some outdoor footage which is cool but not as good as the London footage. "Bump & Grind" has a world class scream from Jim Dandy that he brings up from the floor. He's a wild man!!! His voice is so unique and the material on this DVD works really well with Dandy's voice. "Hey Yall" reprises from another concert. It's good too along with "Dixie". They also rave it up after a drum solo and bring an outdoor concert to a close by slowing building to a crescendo that is truly dramatic and cosmic with a UFO sounding guitar in the end. I was so impressed with this DVD that I purchased five copies for friends. It is fun to the max! Jimmy Henderson I must say again is truly a virtuoso and really stepped up the quality of BOA. He was a contract player as I understand it. I've listened to this DVD loud almost 40 times. There are very few CDs, DVDs that I can truly get excited about but this one I sure can. The riffs kick, the changes swirl, the dynamics punch, the leads incinerate but with taste. The band is tight and in control and the sound is fantastic! What more can I say? I've listened to it at least 40 times and will probably continue to listen to it, worshipping the sound, and I bought 5 copies for friends which I don't really do to often. I usually give gift cards as gifts but this, I wanted people to hear. Jim and the band are on the money and full of confidence in 1974. Exceptionally good music while they were at their peak 1974.

Not sure what I expected, however over all i was disappointed. I have seen BOA many times in the early seventies and was disapponted that there wasnt more quality footage of the "Harvey Jett" era. I very much enjoyed the early incarnations of the band (different drummer and of course Mr. Jett); Jim Dandy was more like a backwoods shaman and less of a "gigolo". There was a real mystery/magic in the shows and witnessing the band can only be descibed as a "profound experience". The DVD seems to be hastily put together or perhaps not a lot of the film has survived. I agree the sound and film quality of the Albert Hall show is very good considering the technology at the time, it's just not the "lineup" I was expecting.
It was interesting to note how the times have changed, for instance; Jim Dandy says "Stay high because you are high" and of course the waving of the confederate flag might be considered less than appropriate.
BOA is nonetheless an American treasure, I hear the band is still making music and I will forever remember the magic the band brought to the musical landscape in those post-psychedelic days. :)

btw: Harvey Jett will not make a cent from the sell of the DVD. When he walked away from the band he gave up his share of royalties etc... due to the contractual agreements. Personally, i think that is a shame.

Somewhere between the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd was this shameless boogie band that wailed out twin and triplet guitar leads, rauncy vocals and had a huge live following. Ask anyone under the age of 40 if they've heard of this band and chances are good they haven't.
BOA were true road warriors in their heyday, and the video lists the huge number of mid-sized cities the band played their 200+ shows per year. Even if their sound isn't your thing, it's hard not to love this bands work ethic and the fact they kept away from heavy social commentary even while flirting with mysticism before returning to a more straight forward party sound. Interviews with band members and mangement show good ole boys who loved what they did and more importantly seemed to really adore the crowds who came to their shows.Fascinating to hear their manager relate the tale of the bands final years and the advice he received from music giant Ahmet Ertygun.Band members quoting Thomas Jefferson say more about freedom and the spirit of rock-n-roll than a million LiveAid or Live Earth shows could ever.
Some of the video quality is not the best, but limitations reflect the lower standard of the era. Great live footage from Charlotte Motor Speedway with the late Wolfman Jack!

Overall, this is the best Black Oark Arkansas dvd ever. It was put together very well. It contains performances from the 1970's through 2000.
However, you need to know, if you have the DVD Black Oak Arkansas "Live at the Royal Albert Hall", then you'll get a TOTAL REPEAT of that concert here. The songs from that concert include: "Hey Ya'll", "Back Door Man", "Hot & Nasty", "Hot Rod", "Mutants of the Monster", "Taxman", "Jim Dandy", and "Jail "Bait". This film, in this DVD "The First 30 Years" contains the exact same footage. That is the main thing you need to know.

The new footage in this DVD "The First 30 Years", contains some new footage, which includes performances at the North Carolina Speedway in Charlotte, and at the Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas.

This new footage contains performances of "Bump & Grind", "Hey Ya'll, "Dixie", "I Could Love you", and "Swimmin' in Quick Sand".

Plus, you get some documentary material in here, which includes an interview with one of their managers, and with Jim Dandy Mangrum. You get to view their tour bus, and their private compound in Oakland, Arkansas.

Overall, this is a good Black Oak Arkansas DVD, I'd call it their best DVD yet, however, I was hoping for more new previously unreleased material. I already own the DVD of BOA "Live at the Royal Albert Hall". So that was a disappointment, to see it here again. However, the new material is great, I really enjoyed the performances at the North Carolina Speedway. It shows Jim Dandy waving a Rebel Flag, on stage. Anyway, its always nice to watch some good ole Southern Rock. However, since 8 of the songs are taken directly from the "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" DVD, I can only give this one, a 4 star rating. Thanks!!!!

I had forgotten about this band and stumbled upon an old CD. I searched Amazon and found the DVD. I really enjoyed it. Brought back memories of the 70's.