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Product Description
On Saturday, July 6, 1974, Mississippi-Delta bluesman John Lee Hooker was one of the star attractions at an all-day festival attended by 6,000 people. The event in the town of Gardner Massachusetts was called ""Down in the Dumps"" perhaps the first in what was proposed as a series of musical events to be held in the city landfill area. Luckily, very luckily, Hooker's performance was captured on a three camera shoot and broadcast on cable television in local cities and towns. Tracks: It Serves You Right to Suffer, Sweet Sweet Thing, Boom Booom, Whiskey & Women, Boogie, Encore/Medley
Product Description
DVD Live In Massachusetts 1974
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By buzzy
Format:DVD
Almost deliriously repetitive, but utterly wonderful all the same, and vastly more authentic than his later work with superstar collaborators.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.5 out of 5 stars
4 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A defective master tape, makes this 1974 performance nearly impossible to watch.
11 Jun 2012
By Steven I. Ramm
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
This 45-minute concert video was recorded at a small all-day festival in the town of Gardner, MA on July 6, 1974 when blues legend John Lee Hooker was 57 years old. There were - according to the DVDs notes - 6,000 people there and it was recorded for broadcast on a local TV station. (This was before cable TV.). The packaging - with an insert with background on the concert and a copy of a contemporary newspaper article - is nice. Simple; but nice.
It's when you put this DVD on that you will be disappointed - especially if you excpect "broadcast quality". The folks that recorded this performance - I'm guessing it was the concert promoter - used multiple cameras and there are continuous jump-cuts between Hooker's face, his knees (yep!) and the audience (which seems to be standing at least 50 yards (!) away from the stage behind a barrier. No one is in front of the stage at a reasonable distance.
Okay, so maybe the true JLH fan can accept the above faults. But then there is the real kicker: the black and white videotape has two rolling lines each about one-third from the top of the screen that are there throughout the full performance. This makes it nearly impossible to watch for any length of time. I'm sure my copy is not a defective DVD. This is in the master tape and these defects can't be corrected.
I'm not sure how rare filmed performance footage of Hooker is from this foint in his career but this DVD would really only serve the purpose of documenting his playing style if no other similar footage existed.
What a shame. As I said the packaging is nice. It's the contents that fail.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
It's when you put this DVD on that you will be disappointed - especially if you excpect "broadcast quality". The folks that recorded this performance - I'm guessing it was the concert promoter - used multiple cameras and there are continuous jump-cuts between Hooker's face, his knees (yep!) and the audience (which seems to be standing at least 50 yards (!) away from the stage behind a barrier. No one is in front of the stage at a reasonable distance.
Okay, so maybe the true JLH fan can accept the above faults. But then there is the real kicker: the black and white videotape has two rolling lines each about one-third from the top of the screen that are there throughout the full performance. This makes it nearly impossible to watch for any length of time. I'm sure my copy is not a defective DVD. This is in the master tape and these defects can't be corrected.
I'm not sure how rare filmed performance footage of Hooker is from this foint in his career but this DVD would really only serve the purpose of documenting his playing style if no other similar footage existed.
What a shame. As I said the packaging is nice. It's the contents that fail.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Lee Hooker, Down in the Dumps
10 July 2012
By Philip Leger
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Yes, maybe it's not MTV quality overall, but it does document the only show John Lee Hooker ever performed at an active landfill. The backing band is actually the Fabulous Rhinestones which had regional hits at the time. I was the chair of the Crossroads Concert Group which organized the concert. We were a bunch of 20 somethings and teenagers out to create a musical event and make a little money for our projects. The tape shows all of John Lee's set. He starts off on the guitar and ends up working the crowd w/ just the mic. The band stays w/ him the whole way. It was actually a good show. John Lee even did an encore which he is not known for. He had a gig that night at the Speakeasy in Cambridge, MA, that's how we were able to book him. The filming was the local cable access channel which was new in 1974. The concert went from noon to midnight for a cost of $2.
We ended up at the dump because the newly elected youngest mayor in the state a young republican in the Romney mold was trying to blow us off and offered the dump. We checked in out and said we take it. The rest is history. I never saw any of the footage before. I enjoyed it. If anyone wants info on the event, feel free to email me. phillie@gis.net Phil Leger
We ended up at the dump because the newly elected youngest mayor in the state a young republican in the Romney mold was trying to blow us off and offered the dump. We checked in out and said we take it. The rest is history. I never saw any of the footage before. I enjoyed it. If anyone wants info on the event, feel free to email me. phillie@gis.net Phil Leger
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Lee Hooker at his prime!
11 Jun 2012
By Dee J.
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
Who needs color and hi-def when your talking about the music of legendary John Lee Hooker! Yes, the camera work is only fair and whoever was controlling the switching of the cameras was evidently new(!) at the job, but it's great to watch John Lee performing several of his well-known masterpieces for a appreciative crowd. The sound is better than I expected, thanks to the performance being recorded on videotape. For an almost 40-year-old performance, not bad!
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2.5 out of 5 stars
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