Customer Reviews

Isley Brothers: Summer Breeze - Greatest Hits Live

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This Dvd had a lot of Promise: A Great selection of Songs from a Legendary Band, Ronald Isley is One of the Best Singers in Soul History, and Ernie is Wonderful on Guitar...However, The Concert here is lacking; Ronald's Pipes, though holding up well for Someone in His early 60's are not what they used to be. He struggles on the high notes, of which there are many, and He does the James Brown trick of employing many Stage Dancers too obfuscate His own decline...The Dancers appear too often, and clutter the Stage, and Ronald overdoes the Mr. Biggs routine; too much "Show" and too little Musicality shining through. The Band is Fine, but there is little muscle to the rythm section, and the ending number, "fight the Power" is bogged down by chanting and an almost Disco instrumentation, not the Meaty Licks found on the Recording; Avoid this One and put on Your "Ultimate Isleys" CD, You'll be far more satisfied..

THE DVD HAS GREAT COLOR THE MUSIC IS FINE THE DANCERS ARE OK;
BUT RON ISLEY NEEDS TO RECORD IN THE STUDIO AND LEAVE LIVE
PERFORMANCES TO THE YOUNG FOLKS WHO CAN BREATHE AND SING AT THE
SAME TIME. HE HAD SUCH A WONDERFUL VOICE BUT SEEMED OUT OF BREATH AND COULDNT HIT THE HIGH NOTES IT WAS VERY NOTICABLE AND
EVEN THE DANCERS AND BACK GROUND SINGERS COULDNT HELP HIM. ERNIE NEEDS TO FIND HIMSELF ANOTHER LEAD SINGER.

The first concert dvd by this legendary group is a winner. Ronald and Ernie continuously breathe life into such classics as "Who's That Lady", "For The Love Of You" and "It's Your Thing" by performing the songs as if they were recorded last week. Ronald's enjoyable stage presence is contagious, while Ernie's soaring guitar solos are still amazing after all these years. The female dancers are sexy yet very classy, while the beautiful and talented Johnson Sisters provide cool sweet and sassy background vocals (check out their creative background vocals on "Twist and Shout"). The only minor glitches here is the sound mix on the female vocals on "Contagious" and the fact that one wishes that it was longer than an hour and fifteen minutes. DVD extras feature interesting interviews with the brothers (yay).

The Isley Bothers have a long history, beginning with Shout, which didn't chart for them in the UK but it is the song that later launched Lulu's career in Britain. In the sixties, they recorded some notable songs, notably Twist and shout (later covered by the Beatles and by Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who had a UK top ten hit with it) The Isley Brothers' version was a minor UK hit but isn't included here - it is one of only two UK hits omitted from this collection.

The brothers achieved their first significant UK hits after they switched to Motown. This old heart of mine, I guess I'll always love you and Behind a painted smile all became huge UK hits for them - two of them making the top five and the other stalling just outside the top ten. A fourth Motown single (Put yourself in my place) made the UK top twenty after they left Motown but isn't included here.

Despite their success, they never really liked recording for Motown so they quit and had hits on their own label with a different style partly inspired by James Brown. The most notable of these hits was It's your thing. By this time, the three brothers of the original group had become five brothers and a cousin (whose surname was Jasper, not Isley) and it was with this line-up that the group had its most successful period in America after they came to a licensing agreement with a major label.

They scored several top twenty hits in Britain but only (just) made the top ten once in the seventies, failing to scale the chart heights of their earlier Motown hits - they have nevertheless become classics. Indeed, Summer breeze (one of the best summer songs ever) and Harvest for the world may be better known in Britain than those Motown hits. Their other seventies hits were That lady, Highway of my life, Take me to the next phase, It's a disco night and Between the sheets.

In the eighties, the group split up - the three original members continued as the Isley Brothers while the three that joined in 1969 formed Isley Jasper Isley. This latter group, represented here by Caravan of love (later covered by the Housemartins who had a British number one hit with it), had more success than the original trio.

From a British perspective, this compilation contains all the essential Isley Brothers tracks. Americans will notice a few omissions but this compilation was prepared primarily for the UK market.

After being a long time Isley fan, I treated myself to what seemed like a greatest hits DVD. Ron's voice was ok, but just no energy, very ho hum like. Ernie played ok, but for a live show, I thought he would of ripped the strings like on Who's that Lady or Summer Breeze.

Maybe there's an older DVD concert of them out there??

I watched this dvd and found it to be very well put togather, what would you do is not on the dvd, I love that song. The dancers were great to look at and the back up singer were off the hook in those black dresses, wow ! I wish there more Isley brother on stage, but I guess that would be too much to ask for, as far as the vocals, true he has loss a bit on the high notes, but that's to be expected at his age, however he's still getting it done. The Mr. Big stuff was great, Mr. Big I hope that will never go away. I read a review about the end of the show being bad, maybe his sound system needs to be upgraded. It was a great show only wish it was longer, It made me get up and shake my booty, loved it !!!

Mr. Big aka The Nature boy....

I have many of their CD's and saw them in concert, back in the day and in this decade. Needed something on video and this is all I could find. For those who downed Ron's vocals, don't forget he had a stroke in 2004. He is doing good after that and just to be still in the biz after 50 years. Give up the props to my fave group. Also mad luv for Ernie who doesn't get the credit he deserves for his talent. He is one of the best. The rockers aren't the only ones that can whip that guitar.

When this DVD was purchased, I thought it was "The Isley Brothers". I guess I didn't read the cover carefully enough because you get what you pay for, I guess. As indicated on the cover, you see Ron and Ernest Isley and that's exactly who you get -- Not the Isley Brothers, the group. This DVD also shows several over-aged female dancers who look like they should be at home with their kids rather than dancing on stage. I was very disappointed and not impressed with this DVD at all. I will rate this DVD with two stars, at best. You should save your money and buy a DVD with the "original" Isley Brothers or use your money to buy some other DVD.

I didn't have any Isleys live performances on DVD before I bought this, and this one was terrible. I had seen them in person, and they were good. This seems like a concert they squeezed in, because obviously no energy or no effort was put out there. The Isleys should have never put this one on DVD. The crowd wasn't lively either, so I am guessing they fed off of one another.

This did not sound anything like the Isley Bros. we used to listen to, I thought this was a DVD of one of their older performances but it is actually one of their last performances, and it was horrible. I couldn't stand to listen and watch such poor sound and stage performances.
While I will always love the Isley Bros. if this is the best they can do in this day and age I think they should retire.