Customer Reviews

To Russia with Elton [VHS]

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This is a wonderful look at Elton at an earlier age. Not only is the music wonderful, but the video also offers Elton's and Ray's comments on their trip and its political and social ramifications. Since the performance was only 2 people: Elton at the piano with the fabulous Ray Cooper on percussion, we see Elton's mastery of the keyboard, which is often overshadowed in other concerts by grandiose orchestrations. I even discovered a terrific Elton song I had never heard before ("Part Time Love"). Definitely a good addition to any Elton John video and music collection.

THIS 1979 CONCERT FIL DOCUMENT'S ELTON'S TOUR OF RUSSIA WHEN THE BERLIN WALL WAS STILL SEPERATING EAST AND WEST GERMANY. IT WAS ELTON'S IDEA TO DO A SHOW WITH JUST HIM AND PERCUSSIONIST RAY COOPER. THE FILM KICKS OFF WITH INTERVIEWS BEFORE WE SEE WHAT WE WANT TO SEE AS ELTON PERFORMS CLASSICS LIKE " YOUR SONG ", " 60
YEARS ON ", " BETTER OFF DEAD ", " I THINK I'M GONNA KILL MYSELF ", " CAN'T GET STARTED WITH YOU ", " CANDLE IN THE WIND ", " BENNIE AND THE JETS ",AND A MEDLEY OF " SATURDAY NIGHT'S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING " AND " PINBALL WIZARD ". THIS SHOWS WHAT ELTON JOHN SHOULD BE LIKE. IT'S AN EXCELLENT VIDEO, AND IT'S A " MUST HAVE " FOR ANY " DIE - HARD " ELTON FAN.

This video made in the late 1970's shows the behind the scenes of his tour in Russia with Ray Cooper, the percussionist. We find out how he was able to perform there with the political situation as well as the crew setting up the stage and other things. The best parts though are the concert performances. Elton starts off solo with pretty decent versions of Your Song and Daniel. But When Cooper comes in. The concert takes off dramatically with a high-voltage version of Funeral for a Friend. Along with a great version of Bennie and the Jets and last but not least, Using only the piano and drums, Elton and Ray burst out the best, most high rockin version of Saturday Nights Alright I have ever heard. This video gives a more personal look at Elton behind the scenes and I would recomend this video to any Elton fan.

I had the opportunity to attend a "Single Man" concert in 1979 when Elton played in Israel (right before he flew to Russia. It was the same concert seen in this video. Never before (and after) in my life had I seen such a breath taking Rock performance. Elton John and Ray Cooper mastered the applauding audience with Elton performing his songs via a one grand Steinway piano and an electric CP80 and Ray Using a barricade of drums and percussion instruments. I even had the honour of giving Elton my Watford FC scarf,which he carried with him all the way to Russia (seen in the video!)

Big-time Elton fans -- you already have this tape. For anyone else, this is a great filmed documentary of an amazing live performer, at an artistic peak.

By 1977, Elton John had broken every record in the music business there was to break, played almost every city and venue there was to play. It's easy to forget that Elton-mania swept the US though the early and mid seventies to an extent that only Elvis and The Beatles have approached or exceeded, before or since. He was at that time, simply stated, the world's best known and most commercially successful performer.

The performances on this tape were captured in early 1979 at the end of a self-imposed "retirement" that began in 1977. This short tour of Russia and Eastern Europe so inspired Elton and percussionist Ray Cooper that it blossomed into a worldwide tour, culminating in US stops at relatively intimate venues in the fall of 1979.

This tour is legendary among long time Elton fans, and this tape gives you a taste of why. It's simply the songs, his extraordinary musicianship, and an added element of drama provided by Ray Cooper -- unforgettable to those who were there. The backdrop of the Iron Curtain era USSR -- beautiful, officially unforgiving to outsiders, unofficially curious about the Western World -- is quite interesting; viewed today the film higlights the radical changes that have taken place, and how fragile they must be.

You can't watch this without realizing that his is an enormous talent, and that many of his songs are already timeless classics. This is an "A&E" type docu (but not 'hosted') with heavy concert footage, filmed with 1979 technology. The soundtrack quality is okay but not sensational; that is my only quibble with what is otherwise a gem of a film: you witness a huge talent at peak performance, artistically sparking.

For fourteen bucks, this is a no-brainer.

By 1979, Elton John was in a creative slump. He broke up with his longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin. His hit streek was dwindling vastly, and his 1978 album A Single Man flopped. But in 1979, Elton's career started on an upward swing. He started a
solo tour with just him and percussionist Ray Cooper. They embarked on a world tour that took them to places they never performed in before. Someone said that they should try performing in Russia, which at first they thought was impossible. But they were wrong. Elton became the first pop star to perform behind the Iron Curtain. Elton and Ray's stripped-down
performances of songs like Bennie and the Jets (great version of
the song), Part Time Love, Funeral for a Friend, Tonight, and I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself come alive with flare. Elton does a few performances without Ray. His solo performances of his megahits Rocket Man, Candle in the Wind, Your Song and Daniel are good, but cannot be compared to his haunting version of Sixty Years On, with haunting photos of Russia's poor people. But the highlight is the closing Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting/Pinball Wizard medley. Elton and Ray use just piano and drums here, and they give off a hard-rocking medley of the classic Elton tracks. This tape is an excellent video.

Live in Russia is a real image of Elton carrer this video show how life could be hard for a professional singner.Elton sing most of is hits but the audience don't really seem to enjoy...don't have to tell you that me see the real passion for the signer outside of the stage see people screaming for Elton...a very good moment a video to buy