Dusty's Reviews

The Monkees by Andrew Sandoval

2008-08-25T21:20:00.004-05:00

I got this book for my birthday, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a hardcore Monkees fan. The book goes on a day-by-day, year-by-year, chronicle of their lives. It gives exact dates of recording sessions, including who was there, what was recorded, who played which instrument, that kind of stuff. The book cover mentions the hundreds of "unreleased" photographs, which are included. However, the photographs (which are in color on the front and back cover) are solely in black and white, which really is a drag. There are some pictures (namely a photo of Mickey dressed in the full retro-kitsch idea of what a Native American Indian Chief was at the time, while playing a guitar in the studio. A picture like that, in full page and in color, could be one of the best photographs in the entire lexicon of Monkees photographs.

There's an amazing wealth of photographs included though, including many that need mention. There's a fantastic one, on page 199 of Mickey Dolenz's wedding to Samantha Juste in the backyard of their home in Laurel Canyon. Another is a photo of the group (sans Peter Tork, who had left the group at this point) on stage with Johnny Cash in a still from his show. There's a quite a trove of photographs from the filming of the Head movie that I really enjoyed, and showed quite a few celebrities with the Monkees as a whole or individually. Included are Lulu, June Fairchild, Sonny Liston, Jack Nicholson (pre-Easy Rider) and scores of others.

I would say that for a serious Monkees fan, this is a book that they'll wonder how thy did without, especially those interested in their work in the studio (both recording and television) and those interested in the goings-on around them. For a casual fan though, I think this book would be overwhemling and difficult to get into.

I would rate it a 5 out of 5 but only for the series Monkees fan. For a casual fan, I would rate it 3 out of 5.

Buffalo Springfield TV Collection

2008-08-19T23:27:00.000-05:00

My review today is for the Buffalo Springfield TV Collection DVD. It features a variety of clips of the band in it's heyday, in addition to their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their speeches from the induction (including a funny bit about Neil Young's absence), a live jam at the end of the night with Tom Petty, David Crosby, and Graham Nash singing For What It's Worth, a "Where Are They Now" feature about Richie Furay, a clip from the television show Mannix where the band appeared as a house band at a 'typical Sunset Strip bar where the kids get together', a quick clip of a the band playing For What It's Worth for about 30 seconds, and an outtake from Woodstock of an obviously inibriated Neil playing Mr. Soul. (Could this be why Neil demanded that he not appear in any of the footage in the actual movie?)

The biggest problem most people have with this collection is the quality of the sound and video. And I'm not going to lie to you, they're not great. They vary from clip to clip, some are pretty fantastic (considering their age) and some are barely tolerable. The clip I liked the very best was the best on The Smothers' Brothers show, followed very closely by the band's appearance at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. These were in excellent quality. The black and white short clip from American Bandstand was pitiful, only slightly better were a set of clips from an unnamed program that were also in black and white. On the first clip, Go And Say Goodbye there were cutaway scenes of people (including Mt. Rushmore) attempting (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing) to blow a bubble with chewing gum replacing the band on screen, and with audience laughter piped in over the band's music during these. The second clip, Mr. Soul had cutaways to very beautiful girls styled in the miniskirts and bouffant hairdos of the era, ending with the blonde girl at the end having a missing front as a sight gag.

I'm a big fan of Buffalo Springfield, and they've had a lot of influence on me as a musician and songwriter. It's easy for me to gloss over some of the obvious faults of this DVD because of my love for the band, their music, and the chance to view this incredibly rare material. The biggest fault I would find in this if I was a casual fan (aside from the quality issues that plague a couple of the clips.) is the fact that eight out of the 17 tracks are the song For What It's Worth. However, when you consider that the band was only together for 18 months and that For What It's Worth was their hit, it's not that surprising. My copy had a track listed that wasn't on the DVD, an appearance by the band (sans Neil, but with David Crosby on guitar) from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. After a little research (via Google) I was able to find out that the song was removed from most (but not all) of the DVDs because of the Monterey Pop Festival's release on DVD. This is apparently one of those bootlegs that doesn't benefit from the internet age and existed as a VHS bootleg for years only to make the transition to DVD when the rest of us did. As someone who owns the Monterey Pop Festival on DVD, I didn't really miss the clip because I had it elsewhere. But I can definitely see where it would be a problem (although surely not a deal breaker) for somewhere starting a Buffalo Springfield collection who doesn't have the means to afford the $70 (and up) Monterey Pop collectors set from Criterion.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Buffalo Springfield or Steven Stills. To the Neil Young fan who doesn't have much interest in Buffalo Springfield, I'm not sure that I would recommend this to you. However, to a Neil Young completist, I would recommend it. Neil's appearance in this DVD is fleeting, honestly, but for a hard core fan there's more than enough to satisfy.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Here's a picture of the cover:

(As always, not a copy of my actual copy, but rather one I found posted on the web.)

The Rolling Stones - Big Cocksucker Blues DVD

2008-08-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

This post is going to be much more positive than the last. This is an expanded edition of the original Cocksucker Blues film (as evidenced by the 'Big' at the beginning of the title.) with additions including the Stones mimed performance on the David Frost Show in 1969, Mick & Bianca's wedding, interviews, assorted promos, and live clips from The Saville Theatre (1969) and from the Australian leg of the 1973 Tour Of The Pacific. (A documentary of the Australian tour is included as well. Some copies don't have separate clips from the documentary, although mine does.)

The film itself has excellent sound, although the picture leaves a little to be desired. On my copy, the picture is often washed out and it's sometimes difficult to discern what's going on when there's a strong light source or a lot of white within the picture. Scenes on the airplane suffer particularly badly at points. However, the footage on stage is always nicely viewable, and easy to make out what's what, who's who, and get the feel of what it was like to see the Stones at this stage of their game, on probably their best tour ever.

The extras are all of amazing quality, especially considering the age. Some of the interviews are in black and white, which seems to be a problem for some who purchase or review the DVD, but it wasn't a problem for me at all. When you realize the age of the source material and consider the amazing quality of the sound and picture, the fact that it's in black and white shouldn't (and to me, doesn't) matter.

The film is a document of the 1972 tour of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Stones Touring Party. The first sign we get of how wild the party was is in the opening scene when we're treated to footage of Keith Richards and Bobby Keys throwing a television out of their 10th floor hotel room window down into a swimming pool. As the footage occurs during daylight (although with no clues as to what time of day it was) I can't imagine how they were able to avoid hitting someone in the pool. It's an interesting and indelible image that sticks with you long after the movie's over. Due to the film's Cinéma Vérité style, and a seemingly endless supply of cameras and footage, we're given a first person view into the Stones' secret touring world at that time. There's scenes shot aboard the plane where Mick, Keith, and others drum in rhythm with a roadie servicing a naked and apparently willing groupie. There's various scenes of drug use, frank talk with ticket scalpers, and several scenes of the Stones with their guard down.

At the time of its original release, The Rolling Stones as a unit (allegedly mostly Mick, although the others agreed) that it would be harmful to the band for the world to see them without their tough and intense patina. I would also guess that they felt the scenes of heavy drug use (including scenes of Keith seemingly nodded out at several points in the film) and sex would hurt their chances of work visas in the future. This was probably quite a real fear after the trouble that they had already had with getting into the US due to the various drug busts and arrests that had befallen Mick and Keith, and that would continue into the future with Mick being banned from Japan on the 1973 tour (and forcing the cancellation of several shows at Tokyo's Budokan and the refunding of 55,000 tickets.) and one of the Stones, unnamed, being banned from Australia, but later allowed in on appeal. Rumors of decadence, violence, fan riots, and the assorted jet-set hangers on (including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Terry Southern, Princess Lee Radziwell, and her fiance the artist Peter Beard.) that accompanied them were already rife within the press, but were dismissed largely as rumors by The Rolling Stones themselves. This film however, confirms and expands on many of them.

One of the most legendary tales of the tour, that being the Chicago stop where the band was unable to find suitable lodging negotiated a stay at the original Playboy Mansion was not captured as Hugh Hefner refused to allow the cameras or crew into the mansion. This was an odd period for Hefner, who was rarely went out, and indeed, did not attend the Stones shows while they were his guests. Allegedly the reasoning for his reclusiveness was a Manson-phobia and deep-seated fear of being attacked. Whatever the reasoning, it's we the viewers and fans that miss out the most, although it's quite doubtful that the actual account of what occurred matches our imagination's depiction of the stay.

This film is quite rare, as mentioned above, the Rolling Stones didn't want it released for a variety of reasons, and sued to block it's release. Filmmaker Robert Frank counter-sued and the film is only able to shown if he, or an authorized agent on his behalf is present, by court order. It's a shame because this really is the Stones at their finest. Although there is no official live album from this tour (despite studio work being done to polish recordings and an album cover being designed and scrapped, allegedly due to a dispute with Allen Klein and ABKCO) there are recordings available out there if you look around. It's a shame that they're not readily available, because there would be a large audience for this work.

I would highly recommend this film to ANYONE who is interested in The Rolling Stones, vintage rock and roll documentaries, or the decadence and ebullience of the rock and roll movement of the early 1970's.

I have not seen any other copies of this film on DVD, although I have seen three different copies on VHS. This is by far the best of all of those. The sound is a million miles ahead of any of the VHS releases, and although the picture isn't great, it's still better than any VHS copy that I saw. Considering it's age and the fact that it's not an official release, it's in pretty good quality, especially compared to a lot of the DVDs that are out there.

I would easily give it a 5 out of 5.

Here is an image of the insert of my DVD. (again, as last time, this is not an actual image of the cover of my copy, rather it is an image that I found on the web and posted here.)

The Gram Parsons Story 2-DVD set.

2008-08-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

I hate for my first posting to be a downer, but I guess you have to start somewhere. My first review is for the 2-disc DVD set "The Gram Parsons Story." It's an import/bootleg release. I have an amazing and deep love for Gram Parsons and his music, and have every song that's been released, both legitimately and otherwise, and it's pretty easy to say that I can't be disappointed by anything that he's done or anything that they release of his.

However, today proved that statement wrong. The first disc of this insipid set was a bootleg in it's worst form. I'm all for the fan trading of rare/live/unreleased stuff that's out there, as are many bands. When it gets to selling these items, that's where I become a little disgusted. (Aside from the people out there who only charge their cost for the disc/case/packing, that's completely fair.) However, the people who assembled this, as well as the people selling it, should be disgusted with themselves. I purchased this, at a legitimate record store (albeit a Mom and Pop shop, not a chain.) and it was with the legitimate legal releases. I buy it, get it home, and the two discs both have a plain white top. (That is no label, no printing, no NOTHING, save for a 1 and a 2 handwritten on the inside ring to differentiate each disc.) It was at this point that I became aware that I had purchased a bootleg. (And for $30.00 no less.) I put the first disc in my Mac laptop and after spinning it for about 30 seconds, it spit it out. I was concerned it was a bad disc, and tried it in my regular DVD player. After about 15 seconds it became clear what I had. It was a bootleg of the excellent Gram Parsons documentary DVD Fallen Angel with German subtitles. And to add to the pitiful bootleg quality of the disc, it was zoomed in to eliminate the widescreen format of the original, thus smooshing the image and cutting off the edges of the closed captioning. I honestly only watched about 10 minutes, and it was EXACTLY the same as the legitimate release. I was so pissed off that I stopped it at that point, so I have no idea if it has material that wasn't released on the US release of Fallen Angel or if it's the exact same show. Bootlegging an already available commercial product and then selling it is not only disgusting, but it's also COMPLETELY illegal. It's things like this that give the trading community a bad view in the eyes of the studios/labels/artists/etc.

At this point, I put in the second disc. And it was only more disappointing, if you can imagine that. The disc starts with a brief history of Gram's heroes and small clips of their music, followed by his cover. Then it proceeds to show a photo/video montage to some of the lyrics of Return Of The Grievous Angel while the song plays. The program is narrated by a disc jockey from Florida who introduces himself at this point, and goes on to talk about a GP fan club and does a montage of footage from Las Vegas casinos, circa the late '70s or early '80s to the music of Sin City. The sound quality was awful, the video quality pitiful, and rates at a 3 out of 10 for me, based on the 10 minutes of this I was able to handle. There's allegedly footage of Gram performing later on in the film, but between the pitiful quality of the film and sound, and the unlikelihood that it was actually there, I decided to stop at this point.

Both discs (at least in my set) are lacking in a menu or chapters, making the only way to skip through the disc the scan forward/scan backward settings on my DVD remote, making it not only annoying but also not practice to watch part of these and come back to the point where you left off.

I wanted these to be good so bad that I guess it's my fault for falling for them. The only information on the back of the package was a biography of Gram. The front offered the tag "Two complete documentaries!"

I give it 0 out of 5.

Also, to complete my warning against wasting your money, time, effort, blank discs, or anything else on this worthless piece of junk, here's the cover art:

(note: This is not a copy from my actual copy, but rather a picture I found online.)

An Introduction.

2008-08-16T20:55:00.000-05:00

Hello. For those of you who already know me, this is going to seem like a logical extension of what I already do. For those of you who don't know me, what I plan to do is write about various movies, albums, songs, bands, DVDs, television shows, concerts, and anything else that strikes my fancy. My tastes (as you will soon see) lean towards the vintage and bizarre, and certainly some bizarre vintage examples will pop up as well.

Hopefully this will help people find things they're interested in, get them interested in things they don't know exist, and help serve as a guide for some of the things out there that they might be interested in buying.

Thanks for stopping by,
Dusty