As rock docs go, this is pretty good; As a DVD, it's pretty lame. There are so many of these career retrospective videos that make the same mistake: presenting great vintage clips in truncated form without the option of viewing the entire performance. Obviously, the filmmakers got the rights to use the footage, so why not use the whole clip, or at least offer it as a bonus feature? Here we get the entire version of a few numbers, but others -- the excellent live takes of "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Dazed and Confused," to name but two -- are presented as mere snippets. And that's a drag, because they are unavailable elsewhere. The clip from Antonioni's BLOW-UP is also cut short, but you find that easily enough on the DVD re-ish of that film.
Rhino does a great job with their CD reissues, but this DVD seems to have been slapped together from the original VHS release, with no extras. Also, the sound quality on the vintage TV clips certainly could have been tweaked a bit.
That said, there is much to enjoy here, not least of which is the music made by this great group, which influenced many a teenage garage band here in the US. Not to mention the go-go girls, and the haircuts that inspired a generation. The interviews are also good, and one can't help but notice the resemblance of Jeff Beck to Nigel Tufnel (Chistopher Guest's character in THIS IS SPINAL TAP)!
Rhino does a great job with their CD reissues, but this DVD seems to have been slapped together from the original VHS release, with no extras. Also, the sound quality on the vintage TV clips certainly could have been tweaked a bit.
That said, there is much to enjoy here, not least of which is the music made by this great group, which influenced many a teenage garage band here in the US. Not to mention the go-go girls, and the haircuts that inspired a generation. The interviews are also good, and one can't help but notice the resemblance of Jeff Beck to Nigel Tufnel (Chistopher Guest's character in THIS IS SPINAL TAP)!
