The British Invasion – 1960s & 1970s Rarities (Passport)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Compilation: B-

 

 

Several labels have put out compilation sets about The British Invasion in music of the 1960s that ran into the 1970s.  Passport’s entry clocks in at less than 45 minutes, but has some interesting material just the same, as follows:

 

1)     ’Til There Was You from The Beatles

2)     Not Fade Away from The Rolling Stones

3)     I’m A Man from The Yardbirds

          4 – 6)  We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, It’s My Life and I’m Crying from The Animals

7)  Go Now by The Moody Blues

8)  She’s Not There by The Zombies

9)  Love Potion No. 9 by The Searchers

10) Can You Feel My Heartbeat? by Herman’s Hermits

11) Imagine by John Lennon

 

 

The Beatles and Stones clips are rare, early performances not usually seen in the big collections, while The Animals’ clips still have their shocking moments of political incorrectness and sexism.  Go Now is the first big hit by The Moody Blues before becoming major album Rock artists (see the SACD import reviews of the albums that immediately followed elsewhere on this site, as is an Animals SACD hits set) and does not surface enough.  Love Potion No. 9 is one of the great Rock/pop records of its time, but the 1965 hit version by The Searchers here cannot match the original 1959 hit by The Clovers, unfortunately not here because it does not fit the theme of the DVD.  This DVD compilation is worth a look.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is soft throughout, but is NTSC videotape in color and more often black and white.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also flat and often is several generations down.  It is worse when you consider they are starting with old monophonic tradedowns of stereo hit records with TV’s notoriously bad audio standards of the time.  That gets al the more frustrating when the song is so good.  There only extra is an interview with Lennon’s sister Julia Baird in three sections.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo