Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A rambling mess but worthwhile all the same, 27 May 2008
I remember seeing this series on televison in late 1977 / early 1978 and to say that it had a major impact on my life is a huge understatement. It was the catalyst that sparked my curiosity and obssession with music that has continued unabated to this day. Therefore it was with great excitement and anticipation that I greeted the news of its appearance on DVD, the first time ever on a home entertainment format. So many of the images of this series had been etched in my mind for a generation now and sculptured the way I feel about music. Now having watched the series again, 30 years on, how does it hold up?
Well, it's a decidedly mixed bag.
The key problem to me is a lack of focus. I just feel that the scope is far too expansive and thus too inclusive when it should have been more discriminatory. Does it really make sense to treat Bing Crosby and Tina Turner as part of the same continuum? There's a palpable difference between Popular or vernacular music and light entertainment. Palmer seems to try and treat them both with the same level of attention and value and this is wrong. There's plenty in "All You Need Is Love" that's simply commercialised junk that exists or existed solely for the pursuit of the dollar . This stuff has no value as a part of any cultural exercise. This is something distinct from real Popular music if we take "Popular" to mean "of the people".
Most of the individual episodes lack coherency as well. In so many of them, Palmer seems to flit from one concept to another, juxtaposing seemingly random images and ideas without trying to explain, however subtly, what their purpose is. For example, in the Rhythm And Blues episode, we see a clip of a Wilson Pickett performance yet we are never told why or what his importance in the development of this genre was. Many episodes seem so disjointed and shambolic that it's unlikely that any newcomer could learn anything constructive. I don't feel that this series could serve as an educational tool for this reason.
And then there's the racial theft angle - a powerful sub-theme that curiously loses steam 2/3rds of the way through. In the early sections, there's passion and anger as this point is rammed home repeatedly yet by the time we get to the modern Pop sections (1950s onwards), it simply disappears. I would have thought it would have been even MORE salient in these times when serious money began to appear. It certainly would have made a more interesting and relevant angle in The Stones episode rather than focusing on their bad boy mythology instead.
And now the good stuff.
When Palmer's over-ambitous attempts to link several narratives together DO work, the results are astonishing. The episode on The Beatles is one of the finest dissections I have ever seen or read on the Fab Four. It simultaneously and effortlessly captures the hysteria of Beatlemania and links the sheer positivity of their stance and music with the early hippie movement and the hopefulness that it originally promised. This episode is worth the price of entry alone as is the Rock 'n' Roll one immediately preceding it which equally captures the excitement and rebellion of Elvis Presley. These are two wonderful pieces that are every bit as powerful as they were 30 years ago.
This is also a series that allows intelligent and eloquent interviewees to articulate their views at a leisurely pace rather than relying on empty soundbites. John Hammond on Jazz, Artie Shaw on Swing, Jerry Wexler on R 'n' B, Jack Good on Rock and Roll and many others again represent some real calibre both as information as well as entertainment. Palmer really got some terrific interviewees and used them to their fullest capacity. And then there are some blinding performances, often shown in full. My personal faves were Bo Diddley recounting his entry into the record biz with his punchy Gretsch guitar sound and Jerry Lee Lewis pounding his piano with unhinged demonic fury. You won't find this stuff elsewhere - these performances and many others were recorded solely by Palmer and his team for the show. That is something truly unique and precious.
On the issue of the quality of the DVD itself, others have mentioned the aspect ratio problem but in addition to that, the actual transfer itself is appalling. Images are blurry and soft - there's no excuse for releasing something so visually ugly in 2008. I can only assume that a very mediocre and untalented company was selected to do the restoration to save a few coins. I'd gladly pay more to get a decent transfer. I wish TV companies and movie studios would understand this. I don't care about saving a few pennies. I want a quality product. However, as I have been waiting for this for 30 years, I'm not exactly going to complain. I'd certainly buy it again if it was done right.
So to sum it up, what you're basically going to get is this: A confusing sprawl that serves little as an educational document but is punctuated by the odd moments of such sheer brilliance that I feel everyone should see this regardless of all the reservations that I've discussed above.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Priceless Archive, 24 May 2008
Author and film maker Tony Palmer has had a long and varied career and a quick look at his Wikipedia biography is a good way to get a flavour of his many projects. I first became aware of him in his role as music critic for the Observer newspaper in the sixties and seventies, his work on the 1967 comedy/music show Twice a Fortnight and his 1968 music and social commentary documentary All My Loving. The later being a trigger for this 17 part masterpiece documenting popular music in the first three quarters of the twentieth century and it's origins going back much earlier than that.
The musical cut off point is just before the emergence of Punk as the next major phenomenon in the late seventies, and covers most major genres in some detail. Palmer's style is very idiosyncratic, and may not suit everyone. A good way to tell if you like him would be to watch the earlier DVD of All My Loving before watching this - if you like that you'll love this.
I watched this series when it was first shown on TV, and still have the accompanying book which has a chapter on each episode. A quaint note on the books back cover says music from the series is also available on records - no CDs VHS or DVDs in those days! The book is long out of print but, at the time of writing, Amazon Sellers have some used copies for sale from £3. It now makes an excellent companion to this DVD set so get in quick!
Other reviewers have mentioned the picture quality of the transfers and it is true that the original 4:3 programme format has been cropped top and bottom to accommodate this current 16:9 one. I really don't know what I would prefer - most DVDs left in an original 4:3 format I tend to watch in 16:9 anyway, with the consequent distortion that in itself causes. I'm never really happy with the distraction of black bars at the picture sides, but it's all a matter of personal choice. These disc transfers have been edited with some care and, on balance, is probably the way I prefer to watch them now.
The NTSC American TV standard has been used for this set, and the discs are Region 0 - I guess this saves having to manufacture different discs for different regional markets. The disadvantage for us in Europe is that the NTSC picture quality is poorer than our own PAL system, but I suppose it helps to keep costs down. Most TVs in the UK can handle the NTSC format, but if you have an older set it may be worth checking first. The audio quality is very good however, especially considering the age of some of the material.
Of the set itself you get five discs - disc one has just the first episode whilst discs two through five have four episodes each. Unlike some of Voiceprint's earlier Tony Palmer reissues there is no bonus material here, no interview or any extra footage - just the programmes as originally transmitted. There is a thin accompanying booklet with a brief outline of each programme, and many brief reviews - universally praising the series!
I doubt that this series, or anything close, could be made today and it's a genuine pleasure to be able to watch it again. The archive footage compliments Palmer's own film perfectly and the interviews are still interesting and valid some thirty years on. Some of the early footage may not be deemed PC enough to be broadcast on TV these days!
Whilst you may not learn everything about popular music with this set, you will certainly learn a lot about Tony Palmer and a lot about film making too. It is as entertaining as it is educational and one popular music lovers will return to again and again, if only to the episodes featuring the particular music they love. To quote John Lennon "A mighty achievement. Thank you"
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful content, badly presented, 17 May 2008
I agree with those here who lament that the excellent content of this series (even that which was run of the mill in the seventies seems fascinating to look back at now) has been compromised by its presentation.
The version I received is NTSC 16:9 ratio (not 1.33:1, or 4:3 as mentioned above). As the original series was 4:3, this means that the top and bottom strips of picture have been lost, with the remaining middle section spread more thinly across the screen. No matter how good the remastering, it is fighting a difficult battle because of this limitation.
I was expecting to see 16:9 menus followed by 4:3 presentation of the original documentary, and would have been very happy with that. We, the audience, know that widescreen is a comparatively recent innovation for television, and understand that programmes from the last century may be in the older full-frame format.
This unfortunate attempt to satisfy the American market (I presume the USA is the prime target because the discs are NTSC) means that not only are we not getting all of the original documentary (those carefully composed frames from the seventies have been topped and tailed) but the remainder is spread so thinly that the quality is noticably poor on some sections.
And yet - the content is so good it is still worth four stars. It is full of surprises. For instance, I admire the music of Joni Mitchell, and in the song 'Furry Sings The Blues' from her 1976 album Hejira she notes the Beale street is being demolished, and that Sweeties Snack Bar is now boarded up. And in the introductory program of this series there is a short section showing Beale Street as it was in the mid-seventies, with a close up of the derelict Sweeties Snack bar! This is but one small coincidence of note to me and perhaps a few other Joni fans, but the series is big, detailed and intelligent enough for any attentive viewer to get some pleasant surprises.
The annoying thing is it could easily have been so much better!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![All You Need Is Love : The Story Of Popular Music - Tony Palmer's Classic Series (5 Discs - NTSC Region 0) [2008] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gBZBVAq4L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Tony Palmer - All My Loving [1968] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517HUrVN2VL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Leonard Cohen - Live In London [DVD] [2008] [NTSC]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fupak39DL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Shine A Light [DVD] [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ko3N17xwL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Tony Palmer - All My Loving [1968] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517HUrVN2VL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Patrick Allen
~ Dennis Wilson
~ Fleet Foxes
~ Various Artists
~ Bon Iver
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home