![](/cover/13509/URGHDVD.jpeg)
Lost
Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued
(2015/Eagle Blu-ray)/The
Midnight Special 3-DVD Set w/Comedy
(1973 - 1980/Time Life/Star Vista DVDs)/Urgh!
A Music War
(1981/Lorimar/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
B-/C+/C+ Sound: B-/C+/C+ Extras: C/C/C- Main Programs:
C+/B/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Urgh!
A Music War
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
There
new music titles are ones you should know about if you like good
music....
Lost
Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued
(2015) has some great musicians like Elvis Costello, Jim James,
Taylor Goldsmith, Rhiannon Giddens and Marcus Mumford try to finish a
composition by Bob Dylan (with his approval) in this for-fans-only
piece that runs over two hours when you factor in bonus tracks. The
unfinished work is from a famous Dylan/The Band works from 1967 and
This has its moments, but it was mixed overall when all was said and
done.
Should
they have just left the work alone? If this had been better, I would
not be saying that, though the talent here is inarguable. I just
wish more synergy and fun could have resulted. We'll see how this
ages down the line.
Six
bonus tracks and a paper pullout are the only extras.
The
Midnight Special 3-DVD Set w/Comedy
(1973 - 1980) is a new set of highlight and episodes from the classic
series as Time Life/Star Vista continues to reissue the programs on
DVD. This time, we
get Van Morrison doing Moondance
with guests Carlos Santana, Etta James, George Benson & Dr. John,
Steely Dan in their early glory with Reeling
In The Years
& Do
It Again,
Frankie Valli singing the theme from Grease, Albert Hammond's classic
It
Never Rains In Southern California,
Mary MacGregor's ever-amusing Born
Between Two Lovers,
Yvonne Elliman's If
I Can't Have You,
Jim Croce singing Operator
(That's Not The Way it Feels),
Aretha Franklin with her hit version of Something
He Can Feel,
Gloria Gaynor doing her disco classic I
Will Survive,
Heart in their early days with Crazy
On You,
Etta James & Dr. John dueting on I'd
Rather Go Blind,
a hosting Dolly Parton with her classics Jolene
& I
Will Always Love You,
Linda Ronstadt mighty with You're
No Good,
Donna Summer doing Love
To Love You Baby
with something a little extra, Wild Cherry's infamous hit Play
That Funky Music,
Glen Campbell on Southern
Nights,
The Bay City Rollers' Saturday
Night,
Charlie Daniels Band: The
Devil Went Down To Georgia,
Christopher Cross early hit Sailing,
Natalie Cole's I've
Got Love On My Mind,
Earth, Wind & Fire with Shining
Star,
REO Speedwagon: Keep
On Loving You,
Carlos Santana & George Benson: Breezin',
Spinners' Could
it Be I'm Falling In Love
and Barry Manilow on both Mandy
and It's
A Miracle.
That
makes it different than this set we recently covered...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13022/The+Buddy+Holly+Story+(1978/Sony/Columbia/Tw
The
third Comedy
DVD has classic stand-up comedy by some of the best talent in the
history of the business including Steve Martin, George Carlin,
Richard Pryor, Billy Crystal, Joan Rivers, Andy Kaufman, Flip Wilson,
Freddie Prinze, Red Foxx, Robert Klein and Gabe Kaplan among others.
Amazing set!
If
you don't
include the Comedy DVD,
separate interviews George Benson, David Steinberg and Creator Burt
Sugarman (in a featurette), a paper pullout with text info and a
few illustrations are the extras.
Finally
we have one of the great lost concert films, tied up in rights issues
for eons. Derek Burbidge's Urgh!
A Music War
(1981) is
a stunning, excellent film of some of the most important music acts
of all time from the Punk/New Wave movement whose work remains as
incredible and bold as ever. Save for the band Splodgenessabounds'
Two
Little Boys,
every song in the original theatrical film release is here, finally
back together again after so many bad and chopped prints have
circulated all over the place. The performances in this cut of the
film include...
The
Police - Driven To Tears
Wall Of Voodoo - Back In Flesh
Toyah
Willcox - Danced
John Cooper Clarke - Health Fanatic
OMD -
Enola Gay
Chelsea - I'm On Fire
Oingo Boingo - Ain't This The
Life
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Puppet
Jools Holland -
Foolish I Know
XTC - Respectable Street
Klaus Nomi - Total
Eclipse
Athletico Spizz 80 - Where's Captain Kirk?
The Go-Go's
- We Got The Beat
Dead Kennedys - Bleed For Me
Steel Pulse - Ku
Klux Klan
Gary Numan - Down In The Park
Joan Jett & The
Blackhearts - Bad Reputation
Magazine - Model Worker
Surf Punks
- My Beach
The Members - Offshore Banking Business
Au Pairs -
Come Again
The Cramps - Tear It Up
Invisible Sex - Valium
Pere
Ubu - Birdies
DEVO - Uncontrollable Urge
The Alley Cats -
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
John Otway - Cheryl's Going
Home
Gang of Four - He'd Send In The Army
999 - Homicide
The
Fleshtones - Shadowline
X - Beyond and Back
Skafish - Sign Of
The Cross
UB40 - Madame Medusa
The Police - Roxanne
...and
in the end credits...
The Police - So Lonely
Klaus Nomi - Aria
This
has all aged very well and shows the greatness of the music,
performers, scene and how great music can really be. The audiences
are going nuts and many of these acts are from IRS Records, A&M
Records and smaller labels. Burbidge would direct classic music
videos for The Police, Queen, Gary Numan, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, The
Undertones, The Stray Cats, Billy Squire, April Wine, The
Honeydrippers, Gino Vannelli and even AC/DC. They all have the same
energy and visual cleverness of the best videos ever made and this is
one of the most important concert films of all time.
A
trailer is sadly the only extra, but we deserve an elaborate special
edition down the line, so here's hoping this disc does well enough
for that to happen. Consider it a must-see!!!
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Songs
is not perfect and
can show
both detail and fidelity limits, but is the best transfer on the list
by default and is usually watchable. Both the
1.33 X 1 image on the Midnight
episodes (shot on analog, color NTSC video) and the anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Urgh!
(shot so well on 35mm film) both have better color than the new HD
shoot, but more than hold their own. If we have Urgh! in HD from a
restored print, it would be the clear winner in all kinds of ways.
As
for sound, Songs
has a decent DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix (better than
the PCM 2.0 Stereo counterparts also included) is the sound champ,
but has more than its
share of quiet location audio moments where they just talk. It is
good, but could be better. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on
Midnight
is the decent equal of the previous DVDs we have covered in the
series, just fine, but you'll
often wish for stereo. Urgh!
was an old Dolby A-type theatrical stereo release with mono
surrounds, here in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic-type
surrounds. We get a mix of nice sonic moments, but also some
distortion and warping. Someone needs to go back to the original
soundmasters and think of a lossless 7.1 - 11.1 upgrade of some sort.
The film deserves it.
To
order the
Urgh!
DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo