Customer Reviews

Last Days of the Fillmore

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was a little bit shocked that this version of the Documentary "Fillmore, the last days" isn't even the complete film.
Rhino what in the world possessed you guys to elminate the best performance in the movie? Was it money? It certianly wasn't due to a time constraint.. Did Boz Skaggs not want any involvement? I find it hard to understand that aspect as there where announcements regarding the release of this months ago on his website.. Why the sudden disappearce of his footage and involvment? The movie itself is just O.K. but when you take out argueably one of the better performances it doesn't make it any more attractive to purchase..There were so many better performances that week that got captured on audio, Only the visuals are lacking.. (where is "Brother can you spare a dime" w/t Tower of Power horns" ... damn what a shame... Rhino.. I guess this probabley is the main reason this release was held up and pushed back..Money , Money , Money, not art.
Also this would have been the perfect type of release that would have cried out for extra bonus footage and important talking heads going on and on about the Fillmore and what it meant to them..Oh well another missed opportunity..I hope Rhinos other ventures into films and their preservation at least have the sense to realize that a film is a piece of art no matter how big or small and deserves to be seen as the director intended..Not cut for time or money concerns..put it out like it was meant to be seen..truly dreadful Rhino..
indeed..

This is not the movie that was in the theaters. This is much shorter and leaves out great bands and substitutes the best parts with filler. Save your money or be prepared to be disappointed.

I've waited for so long for this to be released but there are some major disappointments in what is missing. No Stoneground, no Sons Of Champlin, great songs replaced by jams. Went to all the last shows but one and this does capture the closing of the Fillmore West (not to be confused with The Fillmore) in a somewhat clinical maner. No matter what you do, there is really no way to fully cature any event. I remember being somewhat disappointed when this movie originally came out. It's still a good movie, just not as good as it could have been.

If I could get into an H.G. Wells like time machine and travel back through the years, where would I want to go?....Well heck, Monterey Pop is not a bad place to start. Afterall it's the grand-daddy of rock festivals. Of course Woodstock readily comes to mind...It was the biggest ever and certainly boasts perhaps the greatest roster of artists. There was also Watkins Glen; The Band, The Dead & The Allman Brothers...Not too shabby by anyone's standards. And then there's the closing of the famed Fillmore Auditorium. Admittedly the talent pool is not quite as deep as the aforementioned extravaganzas. But the question that begs to be asked is, how great were the performances by many of the artists at those huge outdoor events? True, there were some real standouts. Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix clearly left it all on-stage at Monterey. Sly Stone, Santana and Joe Cocker were awesome at Woodstock. And The Dead were in their prime at Watkins Glen. But what of the balance of the acts that comprise those seminal events? Crosby Stills & Nash were certainly not ready for prime-time at Woodstock. The Band were racked by thunderstorms at Watkins Glen and played slightly less than forty five minutes before, as Levon Helm put it, "it began to pour like a cow pissing on a rock". And The Mamas & The Pappas were nowhere near the top of their game at Monterey. Their stage monitors were so faint that they couldn't get into their signature harmonies. Even Mama Cass sounded flat, (no pun intended).

So what can be said of the performances at The Fillmore West during those final days?...Nothing short of pure magic!....Just listen to The New Riders enliven the crowd with their old smuggler's tale Henry. The Dead are right-on with smokin' versions of Casey Jones and Johnny B. Goode. Quicksilver, a real bay area favorite wails into Mojo and Fresh Air...What pipes on the young Dino Valenti! And what more can we say of Santana's inspiried treatment of the Miles Davis classic In A Silent Way (actually writen by Joe Zawinul) and Incident At Neshabur? Another bay area band and crowd favorite It's A Beautiful Day perform a mavelous version of their signature song White Bird. While Boz Scaggs positively shines as never before on an amazing nine minute version of the old Steve Miller tune Baby's Calling Me Home. With help from the incomparable Tower of Power, Boz raises the roof and gets the audience on their feet! And let's not forget Hot Tuna's Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burnin'. Papa John Creech was cookin', as were Jack and Jorma....There was Lamb, Elvin Bishop, Malo (Carlos Santana's brother if you didn't know), Tower Of Power, Stoneground, Cold Blood and a memorable finale by Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop and Boz Scaggs that left the audience, as Taj would say "satisfied and tickled too".

Yes, there were bigger events in the world of the rock festival extravaganza. But none can rival the inspiried performances, the sheer energy and all out intensity of the artists that played to a grateful audience those final five evenings. So point my time machine in the direction of San Francisco, set the date for June 30-July 4, 1971. Pack my tie-dyed t-shirts, fadded jeans and sandals and look for me up front and center stage. I'll be smilin' for sure and rockin' out to some of the greatest sounds ever to grace the fabeled walls of the one and only... the original Fillmore Auditorium. Thank you Bill Graham. You sure gave the place a fitting send-off.

P. S. I just recieved notes on the DVD release so I thought I'd ammend my review with the following: Unfortunately There is no footage of Boz Scaggs performing Baby's Calling Me Home. This was a real stand-out in the original audio release. Secondly the only inclusion of The New Riders of the Purple Sage is during a brief sound check with Jerry Garcia. Hot Tuna does "Candy Man" and "Uncle Sam Blues" and not "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burnin'". The wonderful finale by Boz Scaggs, Elvin Bishop and Taj Mahal didn't make its way onto the DVD release and neither did the very underated Malo. And finally there are two songs featured by The Jefferson Airplane ("Volenteers" and "We Can Be So Good Together"). These were not included on the audio release. However keep in mind these are not live performances but the original studio recordings set against a film collage of the Height Ashbury Summer of Love. In light of these omissions I'm changing my overall rating to 4.5 Stars.

I saw this movie when it first came out in the theaters and it was a great send off for the Filmore West.All these years I waited for a video release and got it the day it came out.Its been over 30 years and I didn't remember who all was in the movie but I WAS looking forward to the long Jam of Boz Scaggs'"I'll Be Long Gone", which took my breath away.For whatever reason, it wasn't there....a BIG dissappointment. the performances included are nicely done in 5.1 but it lost a lot of it's magic with the "missing performances". If you are curious about the whole Filmore scene and the band's that made it the venue it was , then by all means purchace this DVD. If you are dissappointed with the DVD try to find the CD 2-disc set. You won't be dissappointed there .

Unfortunately the best part of the original release is NOT on this DVD. Boz Scaggs singing "I'll Be Long Gone" was the highlight of this film when it first came out. I sat there slack-jawed as I watched this version and realized that Boz, for what ever reason, has been cut out. Major bummer.

Although it was nice to see a few of the more obscure bands from that era, and the Hot Tuna, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Grateful Dead segments were done well, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing Carlos Santana's performance with his original band lineup. What a disappointment! The person who filmed that segment must have had a grudge against Carlos, because there was not a single shot of him playing - only the other members of the band were shown during the set. Someone should have taken the camera away from that guy, smacked him upside his head, and filmed the guy who the band was named after!

I certainly don't think that this DVD was what I thought it would be. Avoid it.

Very disappointed! The resolution makes this almost unwatchable..Very out of focus and other than seeing Jerry Garcia in a minute or 2 segment this is a complete waste of time!!

The problem you find with many of the reviews posted on Amazon is the reviewer buys the product with a preconceived notion and then writes the review from a position of what they expected instead of what they got.

I was given a mix tape many, many years ago that contained fantastic live versions of Fresh Air and White Bird. In both cases the live versions were far better than what appeared on the original albums by Quicksilver Messenger Service and It's a Beautiful Day. I always wondered where these live versions had come from, and it wasn't until years later that I got around to seeking them out on the Internet, and purchased the CD. Only recently did I discover the existence of this DVD, and was excited that I would get to see these two great live performances.

As it turns out, this DVD is more about Bill Graham than the performers, and much to my chagrin, he talks over most of the performance by It's a Beautiful Day. Thankfully, Fresh Air is unmolested.

On that basis I could give a one star review, but taking the DVD for what it is, it is very interesting, entertaining and informative. I have many concert DVDs, but this one adds a behind the scenes look at these performances. Being able to watch Jerry Garcia plunking away on a steel guitar while everything is being set up around him provides a view that you would not get from a customary concert DVD. Carlos Santana's prima donna attitude is pretty well known, but watching Bill Graham's boiling frustration in having to deal with it is a true slice of history. Bill Graham himself is a fascinating case study. Although a hard-driven promoter, he was one of these people that thought rock and roll was going to bring peace and harmony to the world. You see his true disappointment that rock was not changing the world, as he talks about the venue and times.

In summary, if you buy this DVD purely as a music DVD, or for performances that are not there such as Boz Skaggs, you will be disappointed. But if you want a very interesting historical DVD cataloging that period of rock history, which includes some great rock performances, this DVD is well worth its price.

I'm a sucker for the 60's and early 70's music. So, whenever something comes out like this, I just jump on it. This video has some great performances by some great bands. Other reviewers can go more into detail about that. My problem with this video is:

1. It seems that they tried to duplicate the Woodstock filming of multiple cameras rolling on the screen at the same time. But... in this movie, they just don't do it right and you lose a lot of screen real estate on your TV. It just becomes irritating seeing all of this blackness, surrounded by this tiny picture in the middle of your screen. And it's not because I have a small TV.

2. Where are the extras??? C'mon... whoever had this film and all of the film stock that I'm sure is still available, they should've included at least a few outtakes. But, no... in fact they shortened the film. OMG, what were they thinking. Make it a double DVD, and give us more Dead, more Quicksilver, more It's a Beautiful Day. How about a bit of Tower of Power? I could go on and on. I would've paid twice the amount if they had included additional songs. It's just a real sin to omit all these great acts in this digital age. I thought Rhino was renowned for doing their research and providing bonus material. Oh well.