Live Dead - The Grateful Dead in Concert (Downhill from Here, Ticket to New Year's, View from the Vault)

Amazon.com

Live Dead: The Grateful Dead in Concert is a great sampler of live performances from the latter third of the Grateful Dead's career. Like all Dead performances, there's a fair amount of chaff with the wheat, but among the three discs--Ticket to New Year's, View from the Vault, and Downhill from Here--fans will find many gems, as well as extra footage not available on VHS. Ticket to New Year's, taped on New Year's Eve 1987 at the Oakland Coliseum, is among the band's best filmed performances, featuring a robust "Terrapin Station," a (blessedly short) Space and Drums that segues sweetly into the stoner fave "Dark Star," and an unflinchingly bluesy "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," sung by Jerry Garcia with clear-eyed wistfulness. View from the Vault, taped July 8, 1990 (16 days before keyboardist Brent Mydland died of an overdose), in Pittsburgh, offers both great versions of Dead classics (including "Eyes of the World," "Let It Grow" and "He's Gone") and an intimate look at the dynamics that few could notice when attending a stadium show, including wonderful interplay between Garcia and Mydland. Downhill from Here, shot in the summer of 1989 at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin, features cheesy, unnecessary video effects. It is redeemed by Garcia's blistering guitar solos during "Deal" and "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider," a spacey pairing of "Uncle John's Band" with "Playing in the Band," and the tender ballad "Standing on the Moon." --Dave McCoy and Anne Hurley

Customer Reviews:

LIVE DEAD.......2006-07-11

THESE THREE CONCERTS ARE JUST SO GOOD. JERRY IS REALLY COOKIN' ON ALL THREE SHOWS. BRENT LOOKED SO HAPPY TO BE PLAYING, AND HE SOUNDED SO GOOD. PHIL AND BOBBY WERE REAALY ON TOO. THESE MUST BE IN ANYONES COLLECTION.

Not Their Best Effort.......2001-08-23

Well, This is the first dvd I bought for my first dvd machine. I excitedly read glowing reviews on this very site for the set. The View from the Vault is fantastic in both picture and sound quality; seriously top notch. The actual show is a different story. Weak versions of everything. It seems as if Jerry just didn't have it together that night. Downhill From Here provides a better effort from the boys, but inferior video (it looks blurry) and audio (not as crisp). Ticket to New Year's I owned on vhs and also features less video clarity, but has the best set list and by far the best actual 'playing' from the band. The 'extras' or special functions on the discs are negligible at best. As a true fan and show veteran, it's cool to own these to get a taste of the good ol' days, but not the audio/visual masterpiece you'd most like to have.

The Beauty of Alpine Valley.......2001-02-22

Deer Creek, Red Rocks, Shoreline are all were wonderful places to see the Dead but nothing captures the experience like spending 4-5 days at Alpine Valley. This DVD lets you appreciate how much the Dead enjoyed it also. Having been to this show, it brought back not just the music but the people and the environment it created. Putting 45,000 people in 37,000 seats without one incident shows you the spirit of the Dead. Bid you good night and standing on the moon are the most powerful in a wonderful show. The three DVD set is a great investment and keepsake. Enjoy!!!

7.5 Hours of Live Grateful Dead Concert Video.......2000-10-16

I had originally wanted the long-awaited release from the Grateful Dead Video Vault - View From the Vault. I was at the Louisville, KY show and the Pittsburgh show, and was interested in having View From the Vault on video. Then, I discovered the DVD boxed set that is known as Live Dead the Grateful Dead in Concert. What accompanies the 1990 Pittsburgh show are 2 previously released video gems, Downhill from Here (1989 Alpine Valley) and Ticket to New Years (1987 Oakland Coliseum). There is no better way to immediately amass a Grateful Dead concert video collection. The video quality is scary, it's like having 5th row seats at each show. Definately recommended to fans and those that wish they'd have seen the Dead live.

So you never saw the Dead (what was all the hype)..........2000-09-21

(For the non-fan) Okay, so you've never seen the Grateful Dead apart from the rather awful press from the media. So maybe a friend or relative played you a few tapes of live performances that still did not do it for you. So you wonder what all the hype is about. This collection will give you an idea. These live performances will show you that just a bunch of guys were better together than they were by themselves. The basic "whole is greater than the parts" idea. This collection showcases the band over an incredible three year period where the music was fresh and inventive, they were pouring all of their earnings (which were amazingly high) into an even better sound and light show, and they walked out on stage like any "Average Joe." Each show has those moments that we, as Deadheads, lived for. Actually, these shows have quite a bit of that magic. Watch the jams unfold that always eluded you on the tapes that my bretheren have played for you over the years. They band isn't exactly perfect, but when they shine, they shine....

Willi Boskovsky: New Year's Concerts 1963-1979

Average customer rating:

Charm, wit and grace characterize this DVD!

Willi Boskovsky: New Year's Concerts 1963-1979
Starring: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Director: Willi Boskovsky
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0002UNQH2
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Customer Reviews:

Charm, wit and grace characterize this DVD!.......2006-01-22

Charm, wit and grace and adjectives I can think of the characterize this 2 DVD set of New Years's Concerts from Vienna, conducted by Willi Boskovksy. Boskovsky (born 1909 in Vienna) was educated as a violist and violinist, and played in the Vienna Philharmonic for many years before becoming a conductor. He played chamber music in a string quartet, and with larger chamber music groups, and was the violinist in the famous recording of the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, with the Vienna Philharmonic/Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954), conductor. Boskovsky began conducting in the early 1950s, and from 1955 to 1979, conducted the January 1 New Years' Concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic in their hall, the Musikverein, performed to a sold out audience every year. Boskovsky conducted the New Years' Concerts more than any other single conductor so far.

Disc 1 contains the complete January 1, 1974 New Years' Concert. The sound is MONO and rather low level, but is acceptable - you'll have to crank up the volume on your amplifier if you have a stereo system hooked up to your TV/DVD, and the picture quality (4:3, color) very good.

Disc 2 is all excerpts from a variety of New Years' Concerts, 1963-1979. Complete selections are provided, but these are not in chronological order: in other words, the first chapter is from 1971, then an earlier date, then a later one, and so on...In every case these are most enjoyable, and the sound level is higher than in the 1974 concert. Mono sound, but very good. Some tracks are color, others black and white, but the picture quality is very clear in all cases. There is humor galore in "Feuerfest" and "Hunting", two of my favorite selections on this disc. In both cases, a percussionist does some comic acting as he performs his part with the Vienna Philharmonic. There is a bandit (comic actor) in the "Bandits' Galop", and a squealing pig carried under the arm of a soldier (in 19th century style uniform) in the March from "The Gypsy Baron" which opens Disc 2. This is evidence to what I've heard: the Viennese have a great sense of humor!

No matter what other New Years' Concerts you have: Karajan (1987), Carlos Kleiber (1989, 1992); Ozawa (2002), Harnoncourt (2003), Muti (2004), or Maazel (2005), you should have this, too. The sound is very good (and I have modest equipment) and don't let the MONO sound indication discourage you.

DVD:

DVD

DVD