Customer Reviews

No Nukes

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

1979. That was a long time ago. We were young. We were worried about nuclear power plants. This was months after Three Mile Island. Now look where we are with Japan after the earthquake. It was a simpler time - Remember, the 60's mostly happened in the 70's, and the late 70's weren't the 80's yet, so we still thought we could change the world :)

But enough about that. This was a great concert (I saw it at the Hollywood Bowl), and a great album. What a lineup! Doobies, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, CSN, Springsteen at the height of his powers, Tom Petty (New guy - he only had two albums out at the time...), plus Gil Scott-Heron, Ry Cooder, and Jesse Colin Young. Chaka Khan (this was when disco still sucked) and Sweet Honey on the Rock, too..

Some great pairings here with Jackson Brown and Graham Nash doing beautiful harmonies on "The Crow On The Cradle" (30 years later, another great version by JB and David Lindley on another fantastic live album - Love Is Strange), James Taylor, Carly Simon, and Graham Nash on "The Times They Are A-Changin" and you gotta love "Stay" with Jackson, Bruce, and the E Street Band! Great versions of Runaway, Angel From Mongomery, Cathedral, You Don't Have to Cry and Captain Jim's Drunken Dream are some of the highlights.

Glad I found this on CD. Thanks Amazon. Can't get it on iTunes and the booklet brings back a lot of memories.

The best live performance by 70s greats. Following the near melt-down at Three Mile Island, a group of musicians banded together to make a statement and raise awareness about the questionable safety of nuclear power. While the qualities of the individual musicians are recognizable, the synergies of combining them in supporting roles and sharing leads produced some amazing raw but beautiful tunes.
The artists are listed on the album cover but not the fact that they performed together during the shows to produce a number of new flavors.

The song "Power", followed by "The Times They Are A Changin'" are remarkable. A diamond in the rough, the songs are from the heart and voices are one. On "Power" James Taylor, Carly Simon, John Hall and Doobie Brothers really shine! That tune alone is worth the price of the album. James Taylor, Carly Simon, John Hall and Graham Nash deliver a raw but classic "Times They Are A Changin'".

Rather than rate the album song-by-song, perhaps it's best to rate the album alone. Yes, Bonnie Raait, Jackson Browne, Springsteen, Petty, CSN, Nicolette Larson, Poco... just too many - they were all fantastic. Of 5 stars, one disk is a 4 and the other a 5.

Also, an unusual find. I have the set on the original cassette media but one no longer plays and I tried the usual iTunes and others for years and couldn't find a replacement. I don't know when it was released on CD but the timing was right with the disaster in Japan. Perhaps it's time to raise awareness again as we do tend to become complacent until it's too late.

The only negative is the quality of the recording and mix. It's not the best but the music makes up for it.

I was told about the CD by a friend of mine
so bought CD and really got to like it
Footso you the Man....thank you all

I was very happy with this purchase. I had this album many years ago but lost it somewhere along the way. There are some great covers and its surprising how timely the songs are with all the stuff happening in Japan.

I suppose just about anyone could find a reason to give a listen to the 'No Nukes' recordings. For many, some of the earliest and most blistering live tracks from Bruce Springsteen, still on his career ascent, which are offered here are reason enough to own these discs, even if he shares CD space with Chaka Khan. Others may find their appeal in the workmanlike presence of Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and The Doobie Brothers, who perform solo and are all over the place singing duets and background for other performers willing to ante-up in the fight against fission. Despite my own appreciation for Crosby, Stills and Nash, what really caught my eye here was what amounts to a cameo appearance by Gil Scott-Heron, offering up one of his finest moments (and as a Detroiter one I can readily identify with) on the ominous yet funkified 'We Almost Lost Detroit'. Next to 'Johannasburg' this is my favorite Gil Scott-Heron composition. Unfortunately, it appears on a wonderful, but unreleased CD Scott-Heron produced in 1977 with Brian Jackson, 'Bridges'. It tells a slightly overblown tale about a malfunction at one of the two Fermi nuclear plants near Detroit. While the mishap could have theoretically progressed into a full-blown meltdown, the generator was quickly shut down and catastrophe was readily averted. So while it didn't come close to producing a Chernobyl, it did produce one funky protest song, and Scott-Heron gives it an inspired treatment on 'No Nukes'

1979 was a strange, transitional year in music. Disco was all but dead, yet it's brief success had ushered in a retreat from the expansive progressive rock that had enshrined the late 1960's and early 1970's. Something new had to be on the horizon, even with Bruce Springsteen assuming the role of heir apparent to those who would proclaim (along with Neil Young) that "rock and roll will never die". No one could have predicted, however, that even for Neil Young, the 1980's would plunge rock and roll even deeper into an abyss of ill-employed synthesizers, and open the door for a reborn Michael Jackson and the birth of a Madonna as the dominant forces on vinyl and cassette.

So 'No Nukes' offers one last gasp for the faithful few from the golden age of rock and roll who had somehow weathered the disco storm. Virtually all of the performers are in their prime, and some, such as Nicolete Larson, Raydio, Tom Petty, and even Bonnie Raitt, are able to truck in some pretty recent hit material. The Doobie Brothers, who open and close the set presented here, are in top form as well. The Crosby, Stills and Nash tracks sound a bit dated, even though they are preceded by Springsteen's covers of four songs that pre-date anything CSN offer up. There is more crowd noise on the softer tracks than one would wish (why would anyone even want to unleash a two-fingered whistle in the middle of a song like 'You Don't Have To Cry' anyway?). But the boys do serve up an edgy 'Long Time Gone', whose lyrics settle well with the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) theme. Some of the tracks, such as CSN's closer, 'Teach Your Children', and Jesse Colin Young's Youngblood's classic 'Get Together' are marred by the dreaded audience sing-a-long... a nice one-time experience for the audience, but torture for the owner of the recording who must listen to a mass of amateurs singing like a tone-deaf choir over and over and over...

While everyone can find something to like on 'No Nukes', it's also likely that it's wide range of artists and genre's will guarantee there is something you won't like. While most of the tracks were either hits (consider James Taylor and Carly Simon belting out a live version of 'Mockingbird') or the main attraction on studio LP's (Jackson Browne's 'Before the Deluge'), some out-of-the-mainstream material also appears, such as John Hall's 'Plutonium Is Forever', which lends a sarcastic twist of the knife into the nuclear power industry's back. Predictably some tracks that look good on paper come across uninspired, such as the James Taylor-Carly Simon-Graham Nash take on Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin' and Ry Cooder's 'Little Sister', which you keep waiting to take off but just keeps circling the tarmac.

The liner notes are extensive, but oriented toward an indoctrination for the 'No Nukes' agenda rather than commentary and anecdotes surrounding these Madison Garden concerts. If this was all the information you had, you would undoubtedly conclude Jimmy Carter was a fool for not installing a line of windmills along the Continental Divide, and a massive array of solar panels covering the southwestern U.S. Oh, well, at least it gave some of these soon-to-be-out-of-work artists one last excuse to fuse their talents before they turned out the lights on the 70's (pun intended). Four stars 'cause Stephen plays some wicked guitar, but I may be straining my credibility.

What an excellent collection of music, and what a performance by many of these artists. I'm overjoyed (but also very sad) to here the late Nicolette Larson perform live on stage.

The other reviewers are right...but, the best tune on this set is "Power" a collaboration of friends making great music. I had the original lp and now am getting the cd... I just love the harmonies here... don't miss this.

What a wonderfull live CD.When this film came out,I went to the theater everyday.Most of the time I was the only one there.When Carly and J.T.started the show with "Mockingbird," I was in heaven.For someone who's afraid to perform,Carly looked like she was in her glory.Bruce Springsteen is the main event.I bought "The River," after watching this movie.In the late 70's,these musican's top the charts. Carly,J.T.,Bruce,Crosby,Stills,and Nash,Jackson Browne, Ratt,and The Doobie Brothers.22years later there still turning out great music.It would be fantastic if they could get together again and tour the USA.I think it would be a huge hit.

With some obvious exceptions, very few of the songs on this set sound dated. I personally gravitate more towards the ballads like Bonnie Raitt and her signature "Angel from Montgomery" (this one sounds better than the original album version). J.T.'s "Captain Jack's Drunken Dream" is another one of my favorites. The covers of various anti-war tunes are also good. Of course all the songs performed by The Boss are awesome - what a great live performer.

This is from back in the day before celebrities got bashed and labeled un-American for making political statements. While by no means depicting the entire show, it's not a bad collection of 70s rock stars, many of whom are still popular and making great music today. For many years (too many) this was the only official source of live Springsteen on record, and still the only place you can find the Detroit Medley ("Devil With A Blue Dress/CC Rider/Good Golly Miss Molly"). This song has been popping up recently in Bruce's setlist, and I don't believe it's too different from the rendition heard here. Bruce's duet with Jackson Browne on "Stay" also makes it worthwhile- you don't often get to hear Bruce with another artist on record. James Taylor, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, The Doobies- all also make excellent contributions and will be sure to please fans of those artists.