Mark Farner (of Grand Funk Railroad) – Rock ‘N’ Roll Greats
(Concert)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: D Concert: B-
Grand Funk Railroad had a strong run of a dozen albums
from 1969 to 1975 and its guitarist was Mark Farner, who even returned when the
band united. He also went solo,
recording Contemporary Christian music.
Now, 35 years later, he is back doing his old Rock hits again and other
tracks in the DVD Mark Farner – Rock ‘N’ Roll Greats. The tracks are as follows, with Grand Funk
hits marked by an *:
1) Are You
Ready?
2) Rock
& Roll Soul*
3) Foot
Stompin’ Music*
4) Hooked
On Love
5) Judgment
Day Blues
6) He Sent
Me You
7) Call
Yourself A Man
8) Mean
Mistreaters
9) Some
Kind Of Wonderful* (duet with Adriana Lima)
10) The Loco-Motion*
11) I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home
Well, there is more of his voice left than expected, but
it is not as strong or articulate in the prime moments as it needs to be. His cover of Little Eva’s The Loco-Motion
is particularly poor, and definitely the worse hit his band ever had. Fans might like this ands they will be happy
that the accompanying band is pretty good, but those expecting this to be a
surprise comeback for Farner and these hits should not get their hopes up.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in
High Definition, but this downtrade is a tad soft in finer detail, but color is
on the consistent side and there is some depth. If it were worse, you would not be able to tell what video format
it was shot on. The sound is odder,
boasting a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is one of the weakest I have ever heard,
sounding more like classical Pro Logic than anything else. The Dolby 2.0 has Pro Logic surrounds and it
is weak and at a lower volume. I had to
check the register to see if the 5.1 was 5.1 and if these are any evidence of
the sound quality, DTS would not have been able to salvage this playback. There are no extras, so you had better be a
big fan or have a big curiosity to check into this one.
- Nicholas Sheffo
