Al Weisel

 

The 40 Best Music DVDs

By Al Weisel

Tracks, September 2003, pp. 98-102

 

Video may have killed the radio star, but DVD might just save the record industry. Even as CD sales decline, music DVD sales have significantly increased. The success of such titles as Led Zeppelin's DVD has record labels clamoring to jump on the bandwagon. With more than 2000 music DVDs already available and the number of new releases rising dramatically, sorting through them to find the best can be daunting.

 

So we've done the hard work for you and selected the Top 40 music DVDs currently available. Of course, all of them include great music, but simply digitizing the VHS version of a concert film or documentary does not make a great DVD. Most of the titles on this list are not only essential viewing for any fan; they also take full advantage of the unique capabilities of the DVD format, with better picture and sound and a host of extra features, such as audio commentaries, unreleased footage and new documentaries and interviews—all of which should have you shouting, "I want my DVD!"

 

1. THE COMPLETE MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL (CRITERION)

Woodstock may have captured the last hurrah of the hippie era, but Monterey Pop shows its crowning moment. Shot in 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Festival during the Summer of Love, D.A. Pennebaker's documentary includes performances that made stars out of the Who, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Fittingly, the best rock concert film has been turned into the best rock DVD, a dizzying three-disc set. Disc 1 includes a pristine new transfer of the film; disc 2 contains Hendrix's and Otis Redding's full performances; and disc 3 features two hours of previously unavailable outtakes. To quote Mama Cass's reaction to Janis Joplin's ferocious performance, "Wow."

 

2. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (MIRAMAX)

No other rock musicians have made the transition from stage to screen as effortlessly as the Beatles did in this 1964 Richard Lester film. The director's free-form style lets the exuberant personality of each Beatle shine through. The DVD includes exhaustive interviews with virtually everyone who worked on the film (except, unfortunately, the surviving Beatles), as well as the original screenplay.

 

3. THE LAST WALTZ (MGM)

More than a filmed concert, this documentary of the Band's 1976 farewell performance, directed by Martin Scorsese, is an elegiac look at the passing of an era. As the Band says so long to the road, all the guest performers, including Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, play as if it were their own last waltz as well.

 

4. BOB DYLAN: DON'T LOOK BACK (NEW VIDEO)

D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 film invented the rockumentary . Beginning with the now-famous sequence of Bob Dylan flashing through cue cards bearing the lyrics of "Subterranean Homesick Blues"—essentially, the first music video—and climaxing with his triumphant concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the film captures the artist at a pivotal moment: his first major tour of Great Britain, just as he was going electric. The DVD includes full-length audio-only versions of some of the performances—all acoustic—that were cut down in the film, as well as the director's audio commentary and an alternate version of "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

 

5. LED ZEPPELIN DVD (ATLANTIC)

For years the only available footage of Led Zeppelin in concert was in the soporific movie The Song Remains the Same. So this stunning two-disc set—which includes never-before-seen footage from the 1973 Madison Square Garden show shot for Song, as well as performances from 1970, 1975 and 1979 and assorted television appearances—is the rock equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And just as revelatory.

 

6. STOP MAKING SENSE (PALM PICTURES)

Jonathan Demme's stylish time capsule of Talking Heads at their funky best proves that a concert film doesn't have to be cinematically dull. Each of the nineteen songs, shot at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in 1983, is treated as if it were a short movie in itself. Yet the film builds a propulsive narrative, beginning with David Byrne alone onstage singing "Psycho Killer" to the accompaniment of a beat box, and climaxing with a rendition of "Take Me to the River" that reaches heights of ecstasy.

 

7. ELVIS: ‘68 COMEBACK SPECIAL (A VISION)

Elvis Presley was considered a has-been in 1968, when this television show first aired. But after wasting his talent in bad movies, he showed why they called him the King, demonstrating his versatility in every genre from Vegas crooning to down-and-dirty rock & roll. The highlight (available in its entirety on the DVD One Night with You) is a jam session in which a leather­encased Presley cranks out torrid rockers with his old band members Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana.

 

8. BEST OF BOWIE (VIRGIN)

David Bowie was perhaps the first rock star to make visual presentation as important to his art as sound. A video pioneer, Bowie (for better and worse) paved the way for MTV Using television appearances, videos and live performance footage (including a clip from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which was also released this year on DVD), this two-disc, 47-song package makes his CD greatest-hits compilation seem incomplete, because they leave out an important part of the picture—that is, the picture.

 

9. BEASTIE BOYS (CRITERION)

This 2000 DVD was the first to demonstrate the possibilities of the format. Instead of just cataloging the band's videos, the two-disc set becomes an interactive experience. Many of the eighteen videos include alternate camera angles and music mixes, which you can combine to create hundreds of versions  While the videos range from sophisticated ("Sabotage") to amateurish ("So What'cha Want"), the DVD itself is a great technological leap forward.

 

10. I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART: A FILM ABOUT WILCO (PLEXIFILM)

Director Sam Jones set out to film Wilco recording Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. But when the group's record company rejected the album, he found himself with a front-row seat at an epochal clash between the bottom-line -driven suits and the artists they depend on for their profits.

 

11. GIMME SHELTER (CRITERION)

This film, by the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin, about the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour is best known for documenting the band's notorious concert at Altamont, where the murder of a concertgoer by a Hell's Angel effectively ended the short-lived Woodstock era. But it also contains footage of the band at its best—including a rafter-shaking performance of "Satisfaction" at Madison Square Garden.

 

12. MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE (ARTISAN)

No artist has ever been as emotionally naked as Madonna is in this 1991 film, which contrasts intimate black- and-white behind-the-scenes footage with the full-color erotic tableaus she created for her Blond Ambition Tour. Playing herself Madonna gives her greatest onscreen performance so far.

 

13. THE WHO: THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (SPECIAL EDITION) (PIONEER) The 1979 documentary, an impressionistic montage of amazing Who footage and interviews strung together in no discernible order, was already a dazzlingly comprehensive survey of the band's career. But this two-disc set includes more interviews and unreleased footage and restores the performance of "A Quick One" that was inexplicably cut from the VHS version.

 

14. THE HARDER THEY COME (CRITERION)

This powerful 1973 feature film, about a singer who grapple with the corrupt Jamaican record industry and finds himself on the wrong side of the law, introduced reggae to worldwide audiences and made a star out of Jimmy Cliff. The music is still a knockout—and the movie is too.

 

15. WOODSTOCK: 3 DAYS OF PEACE & MUSIC (THE DIRECTOR'S CUT) (WARNER)

Although the performances by such groups as Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills and Nash are disappointing, this film does include Jimi Hendrix's unforgettable deconstruction of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The director's cut includes 40 minutes of footage dropped from the 1970 theatrical release.

 

16. JEFF BUCKLEY: LIVE IN CHICAGO (COLUMBIA)

It's hard to believe that Jeff Buckley released only one full-length album while he was alive. This 1995 concert film, which captures all his wit and musical versatility, gives you an intimation of what might have been.

 

17. PEARL JAM: TOURING BAND 2000 (EPIC)

Instead of hiring a big-shot director to produce a slick concert video, the band handed video cameras to three roadies and told them to shoot performances on its 2000 tour. This DIY approach lends the disc intimacy and spontaneity.

 

18. MICHAEL JACKSON: HISTORY (EPIC)

The Artist Formerly Known as the King of Pop helped turn the music video into an art form. All the evidence you need, from his gravity-defying performance on Motown 25 to the videos that broke the color line on MTV, is right here.

 

19. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN (ARTISAN)

The Funk Brothers, the unsung group that played on all of Motown's greatest hits, finally get their due in this poignant and potent 2002 documentary.

 

20. BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (ARTISAN)

In one scene in this 1998 documentary, directed by Wim Wenders, the late Compay Segundo, then 91, unsuccessfully tries to find the club that gave the film its name. Though the club may be lost to history, the great pre-Castro era of Cuban son lives again in this moving tribute.

 

21. BJORK: GREATEST HITS (ONE LITTLE INDIAN)

Every one of the videos in this collection is a mini-masterpiece that lifts its soundtrack to another level.

 

22. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND: BLOOD BROTHERS (COLUMBIA)

In 1995, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band reunited to record several new songs for his Greatest Hits album. This film is a look at the emotional journey of longtime friends and band mates getting to know each other again—and realizing they shouldn't have spent so many years apart.

 

23. NINE INCH NAILS LIVE: AND ALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN (NOTHING)

To make his records, Trent Reznor may spend years in the studio confronting his demons, but it's during the cathartic release of performance that his songs really come to life. This film, shot during NIN's 2000 tour, has the unpolished authenticity of a bootleg recording.

 

24. PAVEMENT: SLOW CENTURY (MATADOR)

This low-fi but obsessively comprehensive collection seems alternately tossed off, silly, impenetrable and profound just like Stephen Malkmus's songs. Although the two-disc set might look overwhelming at first, it leaves you wanting more.

 

25. THE DIRECTORS LABEL (PALM PICTURES)

This series of DVDs, compiling the work of three important video directors, includes nothing but classics, by Spike Jonze (Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice"), Michel Gondry (the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl") and Chris Cunningham (Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker").

 

26. NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE: RUST NEVER SLEEPS (SANCTUARY)

It's badly lit and shot, but Neil Young was never better than on his 1978 tour. The poor quality just adds to the feeling that we're witnessing priceless historical footage that's been discovered in a dusty vault.

 

27. MESSAGE TO LOVE: THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL (LEGACY)

Joni Mitchell being attacked by a crazed hippie, French anarchists rioting—this long-delayed documentary (it went unreleased for 25 years) evokes the painful death of the hippie dream.

 

28. ELEVATION 2001: U2 LIVE FROM BOSTON (INTERSCOPE)

Segueing from shouting "Bullet the Blue Sky" to practically whispering "With or Without You," Bono shows why U2 is able to connect with an audience better than any other stadium band.

 

29. DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN (ARTISAN)

This 2001 documentary about a Nashville concert that reunited the musicians on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack includes heartfelt performances of traditional American songs.

 

30. THE FILTH AND THE FURY A SEX PISTOLS FILM (NEW LINE)

Twenty years after making The Great Rock ‘n' Roll Swindle, director Julien Temple returned in 2000 to tell the band's side of the story—and a riveting tale it is.

 

31. 8 MILE (UNIVERSAL)

This 2002 account of a white rapper's attempt to get respect in Detroit let Eminem show there was more depth to him than some might have suspected. But the best thing about this DVD is the extra footage of the auditions for the roles of the rappers who opposed Eminem in the film's freestyle battles.

 

32. THE CLASH: WESTWAY TO THE WORLD (EPIC)

A painful air of regret hangs over this 2000 documentary about punk's most innovative and ambitious band.

 

33. STING: ALL THIS TIME (A&M)

It was supposed to be a film of an intimate concert Sting was giving at his house in Tuscany. The date: September 11, 2001. After an excruciating debate about whether to cancel the show, Sting decides to go on with it, delivering an emotional performance that stands as a tribute to the healing power of music.

 

34. SAM COOKE: LEGEND (ABKCO)

This 2003 documentary argues that Cooke was not only an electrifying performer but also a successful songwriter, producer and businessman. Yet he ended up another victim of senseless gun violence. Maybe a change is gonna come—someday.

 

35. JOHNNY CASH: THE ANTHOLOGY (IMAGE)

This 2001 DVD innovatively features two different ways of telling the story of the late Man in Black. You can either watch a collection of well-chosen clips of Cash performing or view a more straightforward documentary about his life and career, Johnny Cash: Half Mile a Day.

 

36. MEETING PEOPLE IS EASY A FILM ABOUT RADIOHEAD (CAPITOL)

Director Grant Gee's ironically titled antirockumentary chillingly evokes the deadening, alienated world of a rock band in the throes of album promotion.

 

37. ICKY FLIX: THE RESIDENTS (EAST SIDE DIGITAL)

The Residents' inventive short films and videos marked them as visual pioneers. Like accidentally picked-up television transmissions beamed from the Videodrome these eerie clips are not easily forgotten.

 

38. WILD STYLE (RHINO)

You won't find a coherent story in this 1983 feature film, but you will find a remarkable document of the beginnings of hip-hop culture, before graffiti artists, break dancers and rappers exploded into mainstream consciousness.

 

39. ED SULLIVAN'S ROCK ‘N' ROLL CLASSICS (WEA)

A warning right upfront: this nine-disc set is incompetently packaged, with songs that are truncated or repeated and insultingly trivial extras. But it's also chock-full of spine-tingling performances, by the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Jackie Wilson and many others.

 

40. THE EAGLES: HELL FREEZES OVER (IMAGE)

Once the Eagles start playing their greatest hits in this 1994 reunion concert, all the conflicts that led to their breakup evaporate, and only the music matters.■

 

Al Weisel is the co-author, with Larry Frascella, of Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, being published in October 2005.

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