Free at Last - The Music and the Movie (Special Edition) [ENHANCED]

dc Talk

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 10, 2002)
• Original Release Date: December 3, 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Forefront
• ASIN: B00007JGUX
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #263,367 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Free at Last celebrates the first 10 years in the careers of three young men from Liberty University who turned artistic revolution into stylistic revelation, forever changing contemporary Christian music. With concert footage interspliced with band interviews and candid backstage dramas, the DVD documents a group on the brink of massive success as it tours America on the power of a Grammy Award-winning release. Some clips are starkly revealing, such as Kevin "Max" Smith's poignant discussion about being adopted or Toby McKeehan and Michael Tait soberly touring civil rights historical sites in Montgomery, Alabama. The concert footage itself aptly captures the trio's energy and vocal prowess. Of course, it all boils down to the music, and one listen to Free At Last's CD demonstrates how well this gem holds up. With Toby Mac's hip-hop sensibilities and the lush, harmonious voices of Tait and Smith, dc Talk combined seldom-mixed styles and unapologetic Christian lyrics into a voice for a new generation. With hits like "Luv Is a Verb" and "Socially Acceptable," the band showed a conservative industry that it could take chances and still win. Even remakes of classic tracks like Bill Withers's "Lean on Me" and the Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright" sounded fresh and urgent with the group's sonic diversity. In the 1970s it was Phil Keaggy and Larry Norman. In the 1980s it was Amy Grant. The decade of the '90s had dc Talk to thank for transforming the face of Christian music. --Michael Lyttle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars cd okay, movie is a gem, December 28, 2002

By	mark drummer (portland, OR) - See all my reviews

I remember when I first heard Free At Last back in 1993. Up till then, I had never really been into music, nothing really ever interested me. And then one day I heard "Jesus is still alright", and I was intrigued. Not only was Free At Last different musically from most everything I'd heard before (the combination of hip-hop and rock with pop sensibilities was, and is, to this day, rarely acheived as well as on F.A.L. And then I heard even better songs like Say The Words, Time Is, and The Hardway, and suddenly my love affair with music was in full bloom. The Free At Last Tour was even my first concert!
A decade later, I am myself a striving musician, and though my tastes in music are much different from the stylings of Free At Last today, I still find this record very listenable and relevant. When I first saw the dvd of Free At Last The Movie, I was taken back to that first concert...lost in the beauty of the sound of Say The Words played live...and memories of the emotion of that show came flooding back to me, reminding me why I love music so much.
This dvd also offers some revealing glimpses into the lives of the members of DC Talk. There were even a few of those "wow, I can't believe they didn't edit that out" glimpses into the guys flaws...But that was the point of this movie in the first place I believe. They wanted us to see past the stagelights, hear beyond the production, and see a side of a band that struggles to balance art, humility, and success. I won't go into any more detail. Just BUY THIS DVD.......it may be even more impressive than the original CD.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONLY GREAT, December 20, 2004

By	Runnrwood (VIRGINIA) - See all my reviews

THIS IS A GREAT SPECIAL EDITION YOU GET THE 10 YEAR ANNIVERSERY EDITION OF THEIR THIRD STUDIO RECORD FREE AT LAST AND YOU GET THE NEVER BEFORE RELEASED MOVIE WHEN I WAS WATCHING IT I THOUGHT IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE IT WAS NEVER RELEASED.YOU ALSO GET THE VIDEOS TO THE HARDWAY AND JESUS IS JUST ALRIGHT. ON THE CD YOU GET SOME AUDIO COMMENTARY TRACKS AND A NEWLY RECORDED VERSION OF THE HARDWAY WHICH IS MORE UP BEAT I HIGHLY ADVISE YOU TO BUY THIS

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there at the very beginning, August 18, 2003

By	Anthony Mack (Tuscaloosa, AL/Germany/Iraq) - See all my reviews

I remember back in 1993 me and my younger brother would spend time after school at the Christian Family Center where my dad worked at. DC Talk came back to my town because there manager is from here and so the band always starts a new tour at the CFC. The band came and rehearsed here and met me and my brother hanging around. They were the best guys you could concive of. They hung out with us, ate lunch with us and even let us watch rehearsals and come back stage afterwards. I should mention that my brother has special needs and a learning disability. This contributed even more to how floored I was when Kevin Max Smith himself gave my whole family 4 of his personal tickets to the very first Free At Last concert ever,for free.I was only 9 and my brother 7. It was the best, most all time uplifting concert of my life and made me a fan forever.Before the show they played the music video for The Hardway which they shot at the prison in Jackson MI.(20 minutes from my house)I was in owe and bought my first CD that night at the concert. DC Talk Free At Last, the original and still best of them all truly.Boy i'd give anything to see The Hardway video again!