Music Blu-rays

Pet

@Urban_Tribesman -- Yes, I have that live B-52's double CD. Also a similar double CD of them live at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.

Pet · Post edited by Pet at 2014-11-09 13:26:31

@iuventus -- As far as I'm concerned YouTube has not eliminated the need for such things. If I try to play a video on YouTube (which I very seldom do, these days) it breaks up (repeatedly pauses during play, mostly -- sometimes just refuses to play). I think that our broadband connection may be too slow for YouTube.

iuventus

Oh, sorry, Pet. I wasn't suggeating you give up your DVDs. I just meant for myself.

iuventus

I'm actually trying to work up the nerve to ditch my movie DVD and CD collections for digitall.

Urban_Tribesman · Post edited by Urban_Tribesman at 2014-11-09 14:51:19

I understand this move towards the digital world but it seems to miss a fundemental point to me and that is one of ownership of the physical entity. In other threads, we talk about our collections of things and this is meaningless without ownership in such a way. You cannot start comparing your digital record collections in the way we compare our physical record collections. An interesting point is that although U2 gave away their latest album on ITunes,, what they actually gave away was the right to listen to it legally for free, and this was part of their point in that a great many people listen to music without paying for it anyway on platforms such as Spotify etc. A similar point was also made by Iggy Pop on his recent John Peel lecture on BBC 6 music. As a demonstration of this, I wanted the white vinyl version of 'Songs of Innocence' for my album collection. U2 were not giving that away as it cost me 25 quid !

Pet

iuventus said:
Oh, sorry, Pet. I wasn't suggeating you give up your DVDs. I just meant for myself.

I understand that. I was just giving one reason why I wouldn't ditch my DVDs in favour of watching YouTube. There are other reasons. One of them is a sense that the Internet is impermanent and unreliable. A good example is what happened to the old GMB. All those posts have just gone. Similarly, I suppose, material from YouTube probably vanishes without trace. Of course, DVDs and CDs (and Blu-ray discs) may not last forever. If archaeologists dig them from the earth, thousands of years hence, they probably won't be able to play the discs, even if they have the players for the purpose. In my fiction, such discs are mentioned from time to time. Nobody seems to know their original function. People hang them as decorations to celebrate the winter solstice, and call them sun mirrors. All of that said, I'm 68 now, and expect the discs to remain playable beyond the end of my life.

Pet

@Urban_Tribesman And, yes, there are the pleasures of collecting and of having a physical collection. (Those two pleasures are both real and, although cognate to one another, are not the same.) The process of piling up treasure, essentially, and of having a treasure pile. Smaug liked to do it, and (in our own small way) it pleases many of we mere humans as well.

Pet · Post edited by Pet at 2014-11-11 05:29:49

So, with a suitably draconian chuckle, back to my treasure pile. Here are another half dozen of my CD plus DVD combinations.

Top left: Fuzzbox: "Look at the Hits on That!!" I love Fuzzbox, The full name of the band was We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It!!! According to the story, when they turned up for their first gig, someone asked what the name of the band was. This was a matter they hadn't considered, and they didn't expect to play a second gig. One of the girls, rather than attempt to answer the difficult question, changed the subject and replied: "We've got a fuzzbox and we're gonna use it!!!" More of a mission statement than a name, but it stuck as their name. I don't know whether that's true, and it doesn't matter. Perhaps, even if you don't know the band, you'll love them on the basis of that story. Anyway, the CD/DVD... The CD contains a generous 21 tracks, including all their vinyl/CD singles and makes an excellent introduction to their music. The DVD contains all 9 of their videos, each of them a gem. The album title and the packaging reveals something about the band members' attitude, as do the discs themselves (as visual objects). Perhaps I'll post pictures of the discs another time.

Top centre: Client: "Heartland". This CD/DVD version is German. Client are another band I love. "Heartland" is my favourite of their albums. This German edition adds 8 videos on DVD -- unfortunately it doesn't include my favourite Client video -- but, even so, this is a great treasure.

Top right: The Donnas: "Gold Medal". I like the Donnas a great deal. I don't love them in the insane way I love Fuzzbox or Client, but I like them a great deal. This late Donnas album comes with a DVD which contains a very enjoyable video for one song, plus a genuinely interesting 'making of the video' featurette. It's not a lot, but it's the only Donnas' DVD I've found.

Bottom left: Dannii Minogue: "The Hits and Beyond". A 20 track compilation CD and a DVD of 16 videos. The DVD (of course) includes both of her really brilliant videos: 'Put the Needle On It' and 'I Begin to Wonder'. The latter, especially, is amongst my favourite pop videos.

Bottom centre: Belinda Carlisle: "The Collection". Caveat vendor: there is also a different a Belinda Carlisle compilation CD with the same title, but which doesn't include a DVD. (The other "Collection" is a different selection of songs, too. Each "Collection" has songs not found on the other.) This "Collection" comprises a 19 track compilation CD and a DVD of 18 Belinda Carlisle videos.

Bottom right: Shakira: "Oral Fixation volumes 1 & 2". This comprises two CDs (in separate jewel cases within a cardboard slip case) plus a DVD (in a cardboard sleeve). The DVD is of 5 videos and three songs filmed at the Hackney Empire in 2005.

Pet · Post edited by Pet at 2014-11-12 15:13:57

Moving on, three (I hope) interesting items from my DVD shelves.

Left: Quite possibly my favourite music DVD. I wrote an Amazon review for this, and I can't do better (or easier) than to quote it:

This is possibly my favourite music DVD, but not really for the Peggy Lee songs. In spite of Peggy Lee's being the only name on the spine, she is not the only artist featured. On the front, Peggy Lee's name is written in a large font, with four other names in much smaller lettering: June Christy, Ina Ray Hutton, Lorraine Page, Rita Rio. There are tracks from all five women.

I found the six Peggy Lee songs a little disappointing. These are good songs (starting with "Why Don't You Do Right?") and Peggy Lee (as always) sings them well. My slight disappointment has to do with the visual presentation, which seemed to me stiff, artificial and uninteresting. The clips, I thought, added little to hearing the songs on CD, which is a great shame. Peggy Lee could be a riveting visual performer, but not as seen here.

The four June Christy songs are presented in much the same way as the Peggy Lee ones. Enough said.

The DVD really hots up with six songs from Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears. Almost invariably, when playing the disc, I start here. Ina Ray Hutton was a band leader of the 1930s and 1940s. You can hear a lot more of her on these CDs: Definitive Collection 1

In the six clips included here, Ina sizzles as she conducts her all women swing band. She dances, she sings, she conducts. She looks amazing, and her band really swing.

Next, just one song from Lorraine Page and Her Orchestra. Another all women swing band (though some men contribute to the singing). Brilliant stuff!

Finally, four songs from Rita Rio and Her Mistresses of Rhythm. Another all women swing band. More knock out performances. As if that isn't enough, Rita Rio may, very possibly, have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived. I've been unable to unearth any other performances from Rita Rio and Her Mistresses of Rhythm, in any form. My searches of the Internet have yielded no information on Rita Rio or her band. Well, at least, I can enjoy her music on this DVD: and I have, many times.

In conclusion: buy this, don't hesitate, your ears and eyes will love you for buying it.

Centre: I love Vanessa-Mae, and this seems to be her only DVD.

Right: Brigitte Bardot's music DVD. You know you want it!!

Pet · Post edited by Pet at 2014-11-12 19:59:22

Another three from the DVD shelves. LA bands -- the The Bangles and The Go-Go's.

The live Go-Go's DVD (right) is brilliant, and seems to be the only Go-Go's DVD. The live Bangles' DVD (centre) is (I think it's fair to say) less of a triumph. It contains some great performances, though. The DVD of Bangles' videos (left) is another for which I wrote an Amazon review:

I own a lot of DVDs and there are (at most) three or four that I play more often than this one (all of them music DVDs). The content is the same as a VHS tape I once owned, and I was extremely pleased to find it on DVD (and thus in a form I could still play). It has the advantage over a tape that one can go straight to a favourite video, or skip a track... although, generally, I play this DVD straight through (which I don't usually with music DVDs).

It comprises the videos for nine Bangles' songs. In this order:

1. Hero Takes a Fall
2. Going Down to Liverpool
3. Manic Monday
4. If She Knew What She Wants
5. Walk Like an Egyptian
6. Walking Down Your Street
7. In Your Room
8. Eternal Flame
9. Be With You

Of those, my favourite video is In Your Room.

A couple of the videos feature guest stars. One is Leonard Nimoy in Going Down to Liverpool. He's driving a car with the Bangles as passengers. The song is on the radio which, after a while, he switches off. Michael Steele leans forward from the back seat to switch it back on. The other guest star is Little Richard in Walking Down Your Street. The Bangles win a competition (best neighbourhood band -- The Love Beats) to open for Little Richard. They arrive at the venue after a long drive and are a big hit with the audience. Little Richard is displeased: perhaps because they're so popular, maybe because they're over-running, or possibly both. He signals them to stop (slicing his throat with his hand) but the Bangles play on. Both guest stars show themselves to be good sports in agreeing to play rather sour roles.

The DVD has a running time of just over half an hour (it says 35 minutes on the box, and I can believe that) which is not very long by the standards of DVDs. On the other hand, if I have about half an hour to spare, and wish to relax with excellent music and some enchanting visuals, this disc fits the bill perfectly. And 35 minutes of material you'll play repeatedly is a lot better value for money than three hours you'll play only once.

Pet

More music DVDs. Garbage and Sophie Ellis Bextor. Enough said!

LuDux

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