Customer Reviews

Various Artists - The Singer and the Song DVD

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This dvd has some very cool old footage, both black & white and color, along with some great songs. Especially good are Tina Turner, Richie Havens, and a hard-to-find Tim Rose clip. Also great to see the fashions of the time. Recommended, though I do wish there were some credits at the end!!

I had to sit down and write a quick review for this gem. I have yet to grow tired of this disc as much as I play it. There are so many rare moments that I treasure and most were filmed not long after release. The audio quality is very good from these German TV shows and even the B&W tracks are clear. The video quality seems to get better with each one but all are exceptable. Below is the order of play with a quick synopsis on a few (the first 8 tracks are in B&W & track 13):

1) Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talking - Very rare early Nilsson. Glad I have this one.

2) Joe South - Games People Play

3) Richie Havens - Lady Madonna

4) Tim Rose - Hey Joe - Very rare.

5) Joe Cocker - Delta Lady

6) Robin Gibb - Saved by the Bell - Rare solo hit in the early 70's for the brother. Good performance.

7) Gene Pitney - Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart

8) Cat Stevens - I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun - Rare Cat Stevens before "Teaser" & "Tillerman". Funny song.

9) Don McLean - Vincent - Very good performance.

10) Terry Jacks - Seasons in the Sun - Very good performance.

11) Donovan - Catch the Wind

12) Roger Daltry - Givin' It All Away

13) Scott McKenzie - San Francisco - Great performance.

14) Albert Hammond - It Never Rains in Southern California - One of my favorite tracks. Color and performance are excellent.

15) Van Morrison - Bulbs

16) Ray Charles - Your Cheatin' Heart - Ray at his best. The quality of the film and performance are outstanding. One of the best tracks.

17) Leo Sayer - The Show Must Go On - Interesting and very good performance by Sayer. The theatrics that go along with the song are moving. This is the way Sayer had meant for this song to be portrayed (vs. Three Dog Night which is also good but Pop).

18) David Essex - Rock On

19) Kiki Dee - Amoureuse - Very good performance.

20) Alexis Komer - Get Off of my Cloud

21) Grace Jones - La Vie En Rose

22) Tina Turner - Acid Queen

p.s. - Correction on the time of play. It is approximately 69 minutes in length not 100 as in the "Product Details" above. Still worth the price.

i'm fully in agreement with the editor's review. almost a collector's dvd for our generation. purchased it via a seller who provided excellent and proffesional customer service. hope there'll be more such compilations available in future. true value for money (even with paying custom rates to south africa) thx. andré.

Which begs the question why bother with the video ? Every song is the original studio recording remixed in 5.1 DTS, which is great of course, but you can turn off the monitor, and treat it like a DVD-A, or SACD.

Just a purist that prefers LIVE performances rather than lip-synching.

The "one star" reviewer must have been watching a different DVD than me! While it's true that SOME of the performances are black and white, most are in color, and they don't simply "stand on a stage". Most selections contain music videos of all sort. In my option, the song selection is terrific! The original artists perform the song and the DVD quality is very good.