ok, this is all about the fancy video (blu ray) version of Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture, look you see. but before i waffle (or ramble) on, i must state something of high importance. thank goodness, or plain old thank f***, no, absolutely none of the horrendous, hideous, insipid and embarrassing "panel discussion" off of the cinema premiere (see here if you wish). with any luck any recordings of that monstrosity have been destroyed. so, what you get is the "enhanced" version of the fancy new cut of it.
further, or for those seeking a quick review, yes this is absolutely worth getting. i may have some issues with this cut, but ultimately the restoration of sound and vision is superb. should this be in any way indicative of the quality we can expect for future Bowie re-issues (or what have you), all looks good. except of course for annoying cardboard packaging what gets damaged easily.
to be honest i don't rightly know if there's all that much i can add to my comments from seeing this at the cinema. same link as above if you are for some reason interested, but here you go if you can't be bothered scrolling up. ultimately it's quite the same as the original 1983 release (the anniversary dates used on releases pertain to the gig and not when the film came out), yet very different. for the business end of this, i am convinced that a great many "alternate angles" have been used here, perhaps just for the sake of it. still, you also get a good deal more Mick Ronson than i can recall. being fair, it's been a fair bit since i last watched it. well, before the cinema visit.
a big step backwards is the lack of lavish packaging what they gone done for the 30th anniversary DVD version. you got an ace box, a poster and a booklet you could actually read. sure, or true, there is a booklet with the new one, but the colour of booklet vs colour of text makes reading impossible. just as well the only think in the new booklet actually worth reading, the bit from director DA Pennebaker, is a direct reprint from the perfectly legible 30th anniversary booklet.
it remains that the major change here is the (it is claimed) full set being presented, meaning the tunes done with Jeff Beck as a guest. for clarity, that's a medley of Jean Genie and Love Me Do (off of Beatles) and then Round and Round, a song Bowie had previously recorded a cover of. again, leaving aside just how excellent the songs are, the main point of interest (if we are honest) is just how uncomfortable and unhappy Jeff Beck is with all the theatrics going on. he is clearly having none of Mick Ronson's boss moves and declines to join in.
pictured above is a section (or "detail") from one side of the poster in the 30th anniversary set. the other side of it (the poster) is indeed below. again, it's kind of weird that for a further (or another) re-release of this what you get for your coins of money is considerably less, or "fewer". hey ho.
with regards to the other "extra" scenes added, well, see other post (again). there's a stack more crowd scenes, which is lovely for them there. a bit of a distraction is the various "behind the scenes" bits, which are inserted and break up the flow of the concert performance. as interesting as it is to see a few seconds of Ringo Starr attempting to peek (or sneak a look) at what David has downstairs (so to speak) maybe such things would be nice as an "extra scenes" option. before, despite comments to come in regards of "best Ziggy Stardust gig released", this one stood alongside Stop Making Sense in terms of being all that a concert film could and should be. now it's a disjointed experience.
how lovely that there has been no revision of history, by the way. one can still very much see as much Angie Bowie here as in the original release. whilst i didn't have a stopwatch on me, it also felt like last year's excellent Moonage Daydream contained more scenes with her than it did Iman.
once more, it is so that the true highlights here (from several) are performances of Time, Width Of A Circle and indeed Moonage Daydream. and loads more. i would argue (and so would many others) that the best "official" recording of a Ziggy Stardust era gig remains Santa Monica 72, which exists in sound only. but that is not to say this is in any way, shape or form bad. a must have in a collection, even if it cost somewhere around £30 to get. Iman has some funny ideas about how much postage costs.
right, after a splurge of Ziggy Stardust things (let us not forget this month started off with this, too), off to other things i suppose. quite odd that we've not had any "super sets" of any albums released since them at Warner Bros spent a lot of money to get the rights, but perhaps soon.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment