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