Customer Reviews

Live: Real Deal With Ge Smith & Snl Band

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I LIKE BUDDY GUY ALOT AND HAVE MOST OF HIS CD'S, HOWEVER THIS DVD IS NOT THAT GREAT. I GUESS I WAS EXPECTING IT TO BE HIS CONCERT FROM THE CD BY THE SAME NAME, WHICH IS GREAT. THIS DVD IS SHOT AT VERY CLOSE ANGLES AND ALMOST IN BLACK AND WHITE. THE CONCERT FOOTAGE IS DONE IN A KIND OF A DRAB BROWN COLOR. THIS IS A BIOGRAPHY DVD ALSO. LITTLE INTERVIEWS MIXED IN WITH THE SHOW.ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN BUDDY KNOWS HOW INTENSE HE CAN BE IN CONCERT AND THATS PART OF HIS CHARM, BUT THIS DVD LEAVES ME FLAT. THERE ARE OTHER SHOWS ON EBAY THAT ARE MUCH BETTER SUCH AS THE NORTH SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL SHOW IN 2002. IF YOU WANT SOME REAL BUDDY GUY, THATS THE ONE............

Well as I have said many times in my reviews material on most living Blues Legends is very scarce! Buddy Guy has been in other peoples' releases for the last 10-15 years but does not have much of himself in concert format (when will they release the German "Musik Pur" concert!!). I have read the previous reviews and basically agree with them, this concert is short, its in monochrome due to the lighting (but it's a good "club" effect), and the set has no extras or bonus material. Buddy is interviewed over the top of several songs and it's, at first, a bit annoying.

However, the actual set is great and has many of his most famous tunes. The actual presentation is fabulous and the band the SNL group with GE Smith (who played with many people including "Hall and Oates" in the 1980s and was musical director of the excellent "Tribute To Muddy Waters" show with Buddy as a guest) is excellent. The bonus here is Johnnie Johnson, the great blues pianist and Chuck Berry collaborator, is a guest as well and does a couple GREAT solos!! He doesn't get much credit either, as usual (and he was also in the Muddy tribute concert as well!!).

The set is interesting it begins with "I've Got My Eyes On You" (A tune Buddy wrote with Willie Dixon at Chess) from his early days in the 1960s. You can see a very good Black and White film clip of this tune with young Buddy really getting into it in Rhino's Blues Masters Vol 2 DVD. Buddy also gets in to it here and even breaks a string. He switches polk-a-dot strats (this design on Guy's signature start comes from his mother's dress pattern) from Black to Red it's edited look for it! Later in the set he returns to the black axe. "Sweet Black Angel" is of course the risque Blues standard made famous by Robert Nighthawk and others in the 1940s and 50s. "Talk To Me Baby" another well known tune done by Sam Lay and others. See Sam Lay do this tune on the Martin Scorsese series "The Blues" in the "Fathers and Sons" film at the Chicago Blues Festival.

"My Time After A While" is one of Buddy's first hits (he even tells an interesting story about how he recorded it at Chess). It was covered by John Mayall. This number is really excellent and he really does this well. "I've Got News For You" is another good tune from his middle period. "Damn Right I've Got the Blues" is of course from his comeback LP in the early 1990s when he had been without a recording deal for some time. It's one of the reasons he started this Legends club-to have a regular job!!

"The First Time I Met the Blues", which also opens up the film "Lightning In A Bottle" which had an version of this tune, was one of the great tunes from Buddy's famous Vangard recording in the 1960s. It was originally a tune by the great Blues Pianist Little Brother Montgomery. The set ends with "Let Me Love You Baby" a strong Wille Dixon tune and an ode to Chess Records where Buddy was a session guitarist. The set is good. This DVD is interesting and historical. If you are a Blues lover you won't be disappointed and the price is lower than most other Amazon DVDs!

This is a must have DVD for any fan of the blues, and particlarly, a fan of Buddy Guy. There is not really much out there focusing on Buddy, there are some compliations of which he is a part. This is around 1 hour of pure Buddy, along with G.E. Smith, the former leader/guitarist for the Saturday Night Live Band. It was filmed at Buddy's own Legends Club in Chicago. Any fan of Buddy knows how much emotion he puts into his playing, and this recording catches him at his best. He and G.E. are two of the very best in the blues business, and they thoroughly enjoy exchanging amazing guitar riffs with each other. Buddy plays some of his great tunes: Damn Right I've Got The Blues, My Time After Awhile, First Time I Met The Blues, Let Me Love You Baby, Talk To me baby, I've Got My Eyes On you, Sweet Black Angel, and I've Got News ForYou. In between cuts are bits of interviews with Buddy highlighting his career. The audio is excellent, very crisp and bright. It can be played in stereo or 5.1 surround. The video is overall pretty good, although there is a bit of graininess at times when then camera pans into the background stage lighting. My biggest beef with the video is that that color quality is not great. It almost looks like it is done in sepia tone like old photographs. I don't konw if that was done intentionally or not, but personally I think the color could have been a lot better. Ironically the color gets much better during the last song. It's almost as if the camera operator/mixer tech woke up and realized something was amiss with the color quality. It seems to come alive over the last few minutes. As I stated up front this is a must have dvd. My only other gripe is that it was done back in 1996, and it is only now on the market 10 years later. What the hell is up with that??????

This was released on VHS maybe 10 years ago. In 2006 is finally released on DVD. you would think they would add some extra tracks. No!! The same tracks released on VHS are the only you get here. Why? They have many other numbers in the can from the concert Buddy gave with the SNL band. All this time waiting for this? Stick with your VHS tape, nothing new to add here. This concert DVD doesnt even clocks in a hour, not worth the money if you have the VHS.

Dang it! This one started out soooo good - great audio quality, cool video art design and good camera angles, etc. and then... right over the top of the song, we get commentary by the artist himself. Couldn't we have waited until the song was over for that stuff?

The worst part of it is that it happened several more times throughout the disc. I was very disappointed as the playing was excellent by both Misters Guy and Smith. Some of the camera angles on Buddy's hands were great. You could really get a sense that his one-of-a-kind sound comes from those fingers and his playing, not all from his custom artist model Strat or the amp he was playing through.

It's a pleasureable view nonetheless... but it could have been so much more.

I don't know why most people aren't that into this Buddy Guy dvd. This is one of my favorite live concerts to watch/listen to. I know that the video quality was done to resemble an old fashion look but it suits Buddy Guy to a T. Out of the few and far between BG dvds that are out there, this is by far the best one to enjoy. If you are truely a BG fan and love the blues, you are not going to judge this dvd. Yes, there aren't that many songs on here, but you can still get that great feeling from watching Buddy explode onstage with G.E. Smith ans the SNL band. His raw power and killer guitar licks have just what you are looking for. Don't hesitate to buy this if you love the blues and Buddy Guy. Great for any blues fan collection!!! A MUST HAVE!!!

This is a really nice recording of Buddy Guy and the SNL Band live at The Legends in Chicago. The recording is a little raw and unprocessed, which is just fine with me. I hate it when they sterilize these kinds of recordings. Buddy and G.E. interact really well, and the band does a terrific job.

I wish we had more legitimate DVDs of people like Buddy though. There just aren't enough out there, and I hate buying bootlegs because these artists got ripped off enough otherwise, and it seriously bugs me that people will sell the music of people like Buddy Guy without paying anything to the artists. It's a matter of principle for me to not support bootleg sales regardless of how much I like the music.

Okay, I hope you read my review before you make up your mind, due to other "so called, REVIEWERS!" The very first thing "they" should have considered, was that Buddy Guy was the producer! If ya'll don't understand that title, it means that Buddy APPROVED the material, cameras, interviews and sound mix.

Now, there are indeed better concert DVDs than this offering, however, I think Buddy wanted to let the public know his story, the influences of growing up in poverty and the artists that he drew off of to create "The Buddy Guy Sound".

With the intent of the producers considered, I enjoyed the unique camera work (with edited interviews) and the 5.1 surround sound mix is second to none!

If you feel a need for slick productions and could care less about the artists biography, pick a different show from this GIANT'S DVD list. If you'd like to know more about, one of the last true legends of the Louisiana/Chicago blues, buy this one. It contains fine licks from members of the Saturday Night Live Band and a few interviews entwined within the show.

This great sounding and well photographed DVD proves that Buddy Guy is the best blues player and singer living today. His smokin' performance envelopes you into the DVD. The command and strength of Buddy Guy is absolutely phenomenal. His backing band G.E. Smith and The Saturday Night Live Band is tight and they enrich your appreciation of this top blues artist. This is the most incredible blues performance I've ever seen. So if you'd like a real treat and want to show off your entertainment system and impress your friends then this is the DVD to own.

This is not a concert, it is just a kind of documentary. Songs are interupted by pieces of interviews. Does not show the stage quality of Buddy Guy at all. Just a waste of money