What's new

Classic Album (1 Viewer)

Mike Broadman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2001
Messages
4,950
Not sure if this belongs here or in the Music forum, but...

Has anyone been checking out the Classic Album series? They're these documentary DVDs about some of the biggest rock albums. I just got two of them, and want to get more.

Aja (Steely Dan):

This one was so cool. Becker and Fanagen are at the mixing board, isolating individual tracks and commenting. They show us some of the guitar solos people played while auditioning to play on "Peg." It's also funny to hear the background vocals isloted. The bass player explains his slight deviation from a basic R&B roove. The drummer goes through the pseudo shuffle sound used on Home At Last. And the whole band reunites to play an instrumental version of Josie.

Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden):

Revel in the glory of Heaby Metal history. Adrian Smith plays the guitar parts to Children of the Damned and Hallowed Be Thy Name, and cool interesting interviews with the band and manager. And all should bow down to Steve Harris.

The Aja one gets more in-depth musically, and I like that.

I'm also gonna get the Graceland one, but those are the only three I have enough interest in. There's one for British Steel, an album I like, but not enough to get the DVD. The other ones I've seen are albums I'm not really interested in, but you guys might want to check them out if you're interested in the real "Behind the Music," from an actual musical standpoint.

On amazon.com I saw ones for U2, the Who, Marley, Fleetwood Mac, and Phil Collins

There are a lot of truly classic albums I would love to see these types of documentaries for: Led Zep IV, Sgt Pepper, Master of Puppets, Machine Head, Moving Pictures, Aqualung.
 

Ryan Spaight

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
676
Yep, Who's Next is a winner. Lots of cool background material, and a full acoustic performance of "Won't Get Fooled Again" by Townshend.

The Band's self-titled album is another good one.

Ryan
 

SteveRS

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 8, 1999
Messages
149
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland Classic Album is a must for the die hard fans.
Audio engineer Eddie Kramer is joined by many of the musicians to re-live the sessions.
It is very cool to hear Eddie isolate tracks to point out the creative genius of Jimi. Such as him playing harpsichord, slide guitar with a beer can or whatever was nearby.
The faux DD 5.1 audio has the dialog scattered to the sides with not much info to the center.
The DD 2.0 audio is the best track as dialog can be anchored to the center.
 

Philip Hamm

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 23, 1999
Messages
6,874
A very nice and welcome thing about this series, at least the three that I have, is that they have stereo PCM audio tracks. These sound great.
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,303
I'm also a fan of this series. I have reviews of Metallica, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Who's Next and The Joshua Tree, and I plan to check out Elvis when it hits in February. I'll be very curious to see that one since all the others I've seen include new interviews with the main participant(s); obviously, that ain't gonna happen with Elvis, unless those old Michigan Burger King stories were true.

Anyway, my only complaint about the Classic Albums releases relates to the fact they apparently never cover every song on an album. At times, they focus too strongly on one or two tracks; based on their coverage of Who's Next I felt they should have renamed the album Won't Get Fooled Again and Some Other Stuff No One Remembers. Still, I'm pleased with the series as a whole; they're a genuine treat for music fans...
 

SteveGon

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
12,250
Real Name
Steve Gonzales
Shoot, I wasn't even aware that these existed - thanks for the heads-up! I'm very interested in the Hendrix disc so I'll have to pick up a copy.
 

Steve jc

Agent
Joined
Sep 7, 2001
Messages
28
"Grateful Dead - Anthem to Beauty" is an excellent entry in the classic albums series. Vintage video from the bands acid test days, old and new interviews, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir in studio isolating tracks from the master tapes. Nice menu and decent sound. Worth owning if you're a Deadhead.
 

Gordon Wakim

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 3, 1999
Messages
57
Real Name
Gordon
Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" would make an excellent candidate for the classic albums series, especially with Alan Parsons at the controls. :D
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,712
Messages
5,121,145
Members
144,147
Latest member
cennetkaralowa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top