Product Details

• Actors: Yoko Ono, Klaus Voormann, Jann Wenner, Ringo Starr, Dr. Arthur Janov
• Directors: Matthew Longfellow
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0015UKX6U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,066 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #44 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Britain

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 04/29/2008

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential purchase for Lennon collectors, April 11, 2008

By 

Bamiyan (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Albums: John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band (DVD)

The 'Classic Albums' series document the making of seminal pop albums

(Paul Simon's 'Graceland', Bob Marley's 'Catch a Fire', Fleetwood

Mac's 'Rumours', to name but a few of the previous releases) through

interviews with participants and associates and the playing of master

tapes (more on that later). This new 52' feature documents the making

of John Lennon's first 'proper' (i.e. accessible to the public at

large) studio album, 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band', recorded in the

fall of 1970 and released in December of that year.

Although light on the rare video side of things - there appears to be

no available footage of the sessions, so the producers have collected

little-seen (but previously circulating) clips of John attending the

Alexandra Palace psychedelic event in London (29 April 1967) and

sequences from the BBC '24 Hour' documentary (shown on 15 December

1969) -, the real treat for Beatles videos collectors are

previously-unseen excerpts of John and Yoko's appearance on

'Parkinson' (17 July 1971) which, to my knowledge, haven't been seen

since the original transmission. Other clips from that show have been

included in various programmes over the years, notably 'Imagine'

(1972) and 'Imagine, John Lennon' (1988) but the ones on this DVD are

different.

We also get new interviews with people involved in the making of the

album (Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Klaus Vormann, engineers Phil McDonald

and John Leckie), music critics (Jann Wenner, who interviewed Lennon

at length in December 1970 for 'Rolling Stone,' and Richard Williams),

the man responsible for inspiring the album (Dr. Arthur Janov,

proponent of the primal scream theory, whose seminar John and Yoko had

attended in the summer of 1970), Beatle historian Mark Lewisohn

(author of the superb 'The Beatles' Recording Sessions' and 'The

Complete Beatles Chronicles'), as well as Elliot Mintz, who was not

involved with the album at all. My impression is that the latter's

inclusion is due to the fact that he appears to be groomed, as Yoko's

PR man, to take over as guardian of John's legacy the day she passes

away. Here's someone else who'll be ready on day one...

But the main drawing point of this DVD, and what makes it in my

opinion an essential addition to any Lennon fan's collection, is the

playing of the original multitrack tapes at Abbey Road by the

engineers who worked on the album. As they isolate various tracks, we

get to hear John's spine-chilling voice on its own or the various

instruments on the - very spare - backing tracks (which usually

consisted simply of John on guitar or piano, Ringo on drums and Klaus

on bass).

We also get shots of various EMI Tape boxes, indicating the precise

recording dates of various songs on the album. Up until now, the only

known session date for a particular song was 9 October 1970, John's

30th birthday, when he recorded 'Remember'. Here are the dates we now

have:

26 Sep 1970: 'Mother' (take 61 -- possibly an in-joke, as this was the

first day of recording), 'Working Class Hero' (takes 1-9)

27 Sep 1970: 'God' (takes 1-2 of an alternate, acoustic guitar-based

version), 'Well Well Well' (takes 3-4)

30 Sep 1970: 'Hold On' (takes 1-6)

7 Oct 1970: 'Look at Me' (take 1), 'God' (takes 1-8 of a remake, still

guitar-based)

9 Oct 1970: 'Remember' (takes 1-4)

17 Oct 1970: 'Mother' (possibly a vocal overdub session)

24 Oct 1970: 'Mother' (another possible vocal overdub session)

There is another session sheet, but the date is cropped out in the

documentary. On that unspecified date (probably late September), they

recorded 'Isolation' (takes 24-29) and 'Well Well Well' (takes 5-6 of

a remake).

In addition to the 52' documentary, there's 35' of bonus

footage. On many DVDs, this is filled with boring stuff

considered not good enough to be included in the main feature. Here,

though, it's simply more great isolation mixes, two clips from John's

1972 concert at Madison Square Garden ('Well Well Well' and 'Mother'),

and the 'holding up signs' version of 'Instant Karma!' (broadcast on

'Top of the Pops' on 19 February 1970) in pristine quality.

* Spoiler alert! Don't read any further if you want to be

surprised by the musical contents of this DVD! *

The multitracks played are:

- a mostly complete 'Remember' (with some stop-and-starts and a recent

clip of Klaus playing the bass line at home) and an earlier (fun,

faster) take, which was partially released on 'John Lennon Anthology'

in 1998. This multitrack mixdown starts earlier, though.

- isolated tracks of 'Well Well Well', 'Working Class Hero', 'God'

(the released version and an alternate, acoustic guitar-based take),

'Mother', 'Isolation', 'Love.'

Bamiyan

Beatles on DVD

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Primal Therapy Cut Short, May 3, 2008

By 

R. Max Totten (San Francisco, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classic Albums: John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band (DVD)

In watching this program I must say that the bonus material was what should have been the basis of the actual program itself, meaning that both engineers Phil McDonald and Richard Lush gave more insight into the making of this seminal album than that of the surviving performers. A lot of visuals were regurgitated from "Lennon Legend" using in fact most of the videos made for "Mother" and "Working Class Hero" and countless familiar clips used before (although they seemed restored for this presentation), that gave a sense of not exploring personal sentiments further once again proveing that the power of Lennon's voiceover drove this documentary. The moments that stood out for me was Phil McDonald playing back a alternative version of "God" that was slightly play faster and with a different vocal style truly what this program needed to unearth more of.

Still having the alternative version of "Instant Karma" from "Top Of The Pops" and the film segments from "Live In New York City" the One To One concert (pristine quality ones hopes the full concert will see the light of day soon!) is shall we say a redeeming factor that can be justidified in the purchase of this product.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Lennon documentary yet, September 4, 2008

By 

MusicFan101 (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Albums: John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band (DVD)

I love this dvd! I got it 3 days ago and have watched it in it's entirety three times. It could be better... at one point Elliot Mintz nearly ruined the whole thing IMO, at the end when he says "I've always said only that which is real survives and John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band was REAL", or something to that effect, repeating an almost sickingly constant theme of the show that this album was "raw" and "real". Mintz is so amazingly cheesey and lame when he says this, and he looks so un-real which makes his statement even worse! He looks like he's made out of plastic!! His skin looks like it has than artificial tan stuff on it and his hair looks like a wig off a mannequin. Ringo saves the vibe though when he follows this with very kind words of John and thoughts of their friendship before it ends. But throughout the show Mintz never says anything even slightly original or interesting. He looks so bizarre and is so uninformative I have no clue why he was in this at all. Also Yoko says some good things, but comes off a bit annoying as she talks about herself in this as much as she talks about John. Another annoying moment is when the song Mother is playing, only to be interrupted with the talking of Dr.Janov who proceeds to misquote the song saying "I had you, you never had me" changing the meaning of the actual lyric "you had me, I never had you".

That being said this is the best Lennon video to date IMO, better than other docs such as Give Peace a Song, Imagine John Lennon or Lennon vs the U.S. The positives are the interviews with Klaus Voorman and Ringo Starr who are both very insightful and have great comments throughout. The show does a great job of setting up the period and what was going on with Lennon at the time and what led up to the making of this album, and slip in some additional great songs in the process by discussing the singles he made just prior to the album (Give Peace a Chance, Cold Turkey and Instant Karma). The engineers are good. The songs are great! The songs really focused on are Mother, Working Class Hero, Isolation and God, all among my very most favorite ever. Hearing the song broken down is very cool. The bonus material is excellent, highlighted by full performances of Mother from MSG and Instant Karma from Top of the Pops. This is truely Lennon at his peak. I would recommend this strongly to anyone new to Lennon but interested, as well as the most devout fans.