Customer Reviews

Isle of Wight

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

 

 

OK, the sound quality of the recordings is about what you'd expect of an early era outdoor concert, but this collection is worth getting if only for the glimpse into a time of turbulent change in the rock&roll scene. The collection of artists & selections here shows the diversity of music widely enjoyed by rock fans before they had to decide if they were fans of rock, or heavy metal, or folk, or alternative, or adult alternative, or pop-rock, or some other category of interest primarily to the record company marketing staff. This was still (barely) the days of music for the fans, a fact sometimes too aggressively proclaimed by the infamously unruly crowds at this festival. The small club folkies haven't yet figured out how to hold a vast crowd with less-than-ideal acoustics, the power groups haven't yet become addicted to endless decades of self-congratulatory stadium tours for inflated prices, teh guitar players are still playing just to show you what new things they have learned that a guitar can do, and you can even get a glimpse into why there is such a split opinion over the ratings of such clearly talented people as Pete Townshend and Jim Morrison (the Darryl Strwberries of their genre, clearly talented, but not always able to channel those talents into a connection with their audience). If you want an eclectic music collection, you can get a good start with just this set. Obvious comparisons with the Woodstock discs beg, both sets include a great variety of styles and quality levels of performances and recordings, but I find the main difference to be in a perceptible change in the audience. At Woodstock we were still there to groove on the music and the scene and free love; the audience and the performers were equally as starry-eyed about the whole scene. Here we were starting to think everything ought to be free, and we were owed it, man, and those freakin' singers better deliver it. If Woodstock was a celebration of the hippie era, then Isle of Wight was a riot demanding it, audience and musicians on opposite sides, the start of a rapid growth of commercialism in rock & roll, a growing pain of a developing industry. Still, for anyone who likes music of the early 70's, there is a lot of wheat among the chaff here, and it always makes an interesting listen, even if there is a temptation to skip a track now & again. 3+ stars for the music (4 if you're a Hendrix or Alvin Lee fan), 4 for the experience.

This cd gives several brief looks into the great concert that took place back then. From excellent recordings of the Who, to Free's "All Right Now", this cd truly is a great mix of early 70s rock. For any Hendrix fans the two versions of "Foxey Lady" and "Voodoo Child" are awesome, and well worth it just for these two songs

This is a great collection, but where is the great Mountain track
Stormy Monday, that is on the L.P.?? Check it out if you can find
a copy of the L.P., and still have something to play it on.

Though this album is overall very good (I gave it three stars) there are a number of sub-par performances and some less-than-special bands on it. The highlights, though are very special and include Rory Gallagher and Taste who kick ass and ... (above all) Alvin Lee with Ten Years After doing "I Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes".

This is simply the best Alvin ever played and is as good a blues guitar virtuoso performance as I have even heard. 19 minutes of heaven (straight or otherwise).

Great, though the video version has better extracts than the cd

I picked this goodie up in a used CD store - and only because I saw the video of the concert (which is pretty hip but slacking in total music performances).

As with any festival type collections (a la Woodstock, Horde, etc.) there will be some great cuts and some lame ones. So here's my thoughts....
FREE - nice but unneccessary. A 2 chord jam gets boring quick and Paul Rodgers was never anything to write home about.
TULL - Kicks...!!! See the video performance!!
COHEN, KRISTOFERSON, TIM, BAEZ - ..eh!
HENDRIX - not his best but enjoyable
TEN YEARS AFTER - Amazing! Alvin Lee is the guitar man! 10 minutes of mindblowing jaming!
JONI - Phenominal (as always)
ELP - if you dig them you'll love the performance - see the video for Keith playing his keys upsidedown.
DOORS, WHO, DONOVAN, MOODIES - as always, great performers
MILES - the man was incredible. 16 minute free-jazz jam
GREAT AWAKENING - whoever this is does a great rendition of Amazing Grace!
DYLAN - just the studio cut from Highway 61.

Give it a try if you like the performers.

This CD is ok but you are better off getting The Who's cd and Hendrix's cd. It is a good cd if you want to get a mix of what was at the fest.

The music on this two CD set is superb in its breadth of coverage of the performers. In this aspect it is quite a better more diverse than its larger - at four CDs - cousin 'Woodstock.' It's hard to imagine being able to hear the likes of Leonard Cohen, ELP, the Who, a deliciously incoherent Jimi Hendrix and the Great Awakening on one product.

As a depiction what was hot, there is not a better collection.

But, it is also an equally good depiction of what was not in the summer of 1970. You see, there's a bit of a problem here and there with attitude, clearly showing the Summer of Love had passed and was likely - in retrospect, certain - not to return. Whether it's the recordings of songs in lieu of actual performances or nasty, tacky, pretentious comments from performers and concert organizers not happy with the state of the paying and non-paying audience (H*ll, maybe Joannie Mitchell is never happy on stage) , this is not a collection to which one listens to relive the buzz.

This is just skimmimg the surface of the acts who apppeared and the music they did . The video has an interesting segment on ELP , Joni Mitchell begging the crowd to cool out and interaction between the organizers and freebee fans ,someth ing for nothin' , free for all elements. Hopefully additional music can be developed when the tapes are Liberated.

This double-CD's bill has just about everybody who was somebody on the rock scene in 1970, and I must admit - and I'm sticking my neck way out here - it's BETTER than the Woodstock soundtrack!

Ironically Jimi Hendrix's contribution is sloppy and uninteresting. It's too bad he died a few weeks later; even worse that the recordings from the interim will probably never make it onto authorized CD.

ELP and Ten Years After are best left for the history books and if you take a listen to their 10-minute exhibitions you'll know why.

Leonard Cohen is great; Joni Mitchell isn't far behind. John Sebastian (remember him?) gets a torpid couple of minutes in the limelight, and fortunately that's as generous as the compilers wanted to get. Jim Morrison...I don't get it (luckily, I must admit).

The hardest act to follow is Miles Davis and his electric septet, who deliver 16 minutes of cryptic mutant jazz, not a wasted note (alright, maybe a few bars). But the Who don't slouch by any means. Between the two groups you have enough energy to reward your generosity at the checkout counter.

Check out the companion video if you want a "visual aid"