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The Who - Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970

The Who - Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970

List Price: $17.99
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I CAN'T BELIEVED HOW THEY BUTCHERED "TOMMY"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Truefully, if there were half stars this DVD would get 2 and half. Being a huge Who guy, I was naturally excited about this DVD. This is no doubt The Who in their absolute prime. So i sat, ready to be blown away by Townshend's thrashing guitar, Moon's energetic,tribal pounding, The ox's endless Bass licks, and Daltrey's flaming vocals ,,,,and i wasn't disappointed. Running through The old Who standards( I can't explain, Magic bus, and My Generation) to their Live Blues favorites ( Young Man's Blues and Summertime Blues), this was definitley The who in their best form. But what turned this DVD from 5 stars to 3 stars was the performance of "Tommy". I never heard a piece of work so butchered in my life....songs were cut in half, lyrics left out, songs left out( i understand time restaints but where was 'Sparks',or 'Amazing Journey' -- these songs should have been there). There is absolutely no reason to edit these songs, I kept expecting Roger to wail out the next verses but instead found that the song was about to end or skipped ahead to the guitar solo or another verse...What started out as one of the best concert footage I have seen, was utterly ruined. The first 10 songs is worth it though, but I don't think i can stomach watching that version of "Tommy" again. Maybe one day an unedited version of this concert will be released, one can only hope.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Concert-Terrible Film
Review: We have here what could have been the ultimate document of a Moon-era Who show but instead get a concert film that is barely watchable. Not only is song order altered and numbers deleted, but some of the songs themselves are actually edited down. Also, the presentation really needs to be in letterbox format like the "Message to Love" DVD. I got dizzy watching this claustrophobic display. Skip the video until it gets a better treatment. In the meantime buy the CD. It doesn't compromise as much.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: GREAT CONCERT. NO BONUS FEATURES. OK SOUND. B-
Review: Well, I really and honestly DO love this DVD. Then again, I am a huge fan and am completely biased. But I'll try to be objective.

The Isle of Wight Festival was another milestone in the Who's career and the performance is utterly fantastic. However, this DVD release is really lacking. When compared to Led Zeppelin's 2DVD release last year, it is easy to see that the Who's Isle of Wight concert was quickly pasted together and thrown onto DVD in order to capitalize on their reunion gigs.

Where the Led Zeppelin 2DVD took years to put together and has incredible 5.1 stereo sound, Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 sounds like a discount job. Entwistle's bass should BOOM, but it doesn't. The sound mix is very average.

If you are a total fan, then get it...you'll like it. If you are a fan of earsplitting, booming WHO tunes, then you might wanna get one of their newly Remastered reissued CD's, because this is going to leave you shrugging your shoulders asking, "Where's Moon? Where's Ox? Where's the BEEF?!"

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: GREAT CONCERT. NO BONUS FEATURES. OK SOUND. B-
Review: Well, I really and honestly DO love this DVD. Then again, I am a huge fan and am completely biased. But I'll try to be objective.

The Isle of Wight Festival was another milestone in the Who's career and the performance is utterly fantastic. However, this DVD release is really lacking. When compared to Led Zeppelin's 2DVD release last year, it is easy to see that the Who's Isle of Wight concert was quickly pasted together and thrown onto DVD in order to capitalize on their reunion gigs.

Where the Led Zeppelin 2DVD took years to put together and has incredible 5.1 stereo sound, Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 sounds like a discount job. Entwistle's bass should BOOM, but it doesn't. The sound mix is very average.

If you are a total fan, then get it...you'll like it. If you are a fan of earsplitting, booming WHO tunes, then you might wanna get one of their newly Remastered reissued CD's, because this is going to leave you shrugging your shoulders asking, "Where's Moon? Where's Ox? Where's the BEEF?!"

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Who-Hum
Review: What could have been a definitive document of the Who at the height of their powers as the world's greatest rock n' roll band is instead presented as a nearly-unwatchable mess of a film. Songs are obtrusively edited (sometimes in half), key numbers are missing (Tommy without "Amazing Journey/Sparks"?), and the whole show is shown out-of-sequence, as if we wouldn't notice.

And to add insult to injury, many songs contain footage from other songs, ostensibly edited in to cover for missing footage. It happens with disorienting frequency, until you're no longer sure of what you're watching... "Overture," in fact, seems to be contructed entirely from footage taken from other songs. You don't have to be a musician -- or even be particularly fluent in the Who's music -- to notice when what you're seeing doesn't match what you're hearing (just watch Keith).

All this adds up to make this video a singularly infuriating viewing experience. It's hard to know who this video is targeting -- only relatively hard-core Who fans will likely be interested, and such fans will be driven to distraction by its egregious inadequacies. Stick to the 2-CD audio set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh My God - Oh My God - Omigodomigodomigod
Review: wow. Wow. WOW WOW! WOWWWW! I can't even put a sentence together, I'm so utterly slain by this DVD. When The Who walk on stage at 2am at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, they are four scrawny, vaguely nerdy British boys who might be working on your car. When they walk off, what feels like a sweet, sweet eternity later, they are ten feet tall and hewn out of marble.

If you were wearing peg-leg cords, penny loafers and a crew-cut in the 60's, if you thought Nixon was doing a pretty good job in Vietnam, if you felt that the military industrial complex was good for the country because it provided jobs, you will hate this CD. You will hate everything it is about. You will hate it now as you did then. Go away. But...

If you thought we were standing on the brink of a brave new world where Love was no longer in chains, where the souls of humanity were no longer imprisoned in the shackles of conventional thinking... if you stood at a concert like this and thought you could see a better tomorrow, buy this DVD, because about 15 minutes into it you'll be seeing it again; you'll be throwing chairs through your windows, wanting your hair to grow faster, running up to the attic to find those old bell-bottoms and those calfskin boots, you'll be turning it up louder and louder, you'll go out to the front of your conformist suburban house and you'll break out a step ladder and you'll spraypaint a gigantic "peace" sign on the front of that two-story colonial and your wife and you will make love on the front lawn and get arrested and... just buy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Is new version coming out on Aug 10, 2004?
Review: You can't help but agree with reviewers who condemn the producer and editors of this DVD for butchering this concert. A quick comparison with THE WHO's Isle of Wight 2CD release tells the sad tale. Missing from this DVD are:
"Substitute" (2:11)
"Naked Eye" (6:34)
"1921" (2:25)
"Amazing Journey" (3:19)
"Sparks" (5:10)
"Smash the Mirror" (1:16)

And while this concert certainly bears witness to the awesome power and genius of THE WHO, that we do not have the concert as it was performed is criminal. That said, what we do have is THE WHO in all their intense ragged glory. And as a bonus, a priceless short tribute film of Moon the Loon in clown face and headgear while "Tommy Can You Hear Me" plays. It doesn't make up for what is missing, but it is 59 seconds of pure Moon, and a wonder to behold.

Hopefully, one day, a remastered, unadulterated, complete version of this landmark concert will be released. Until then, this will have to do.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MAXIMUM WHO
Review: You can't help but agree with reviewers who condemn the producer and editors of this DVD for butchering this concert. A quick comparison with THE WHO's Isle of Wight 2CD release tells the sad tale. Missing from this DVD are:
"Substitute" (2:11)
"Naked Eye" (6:34)
"1921" (2:25)
"Amazing Journey" (3:19)
"Sparks" (5:10)
"Smash the Mirror" (1:16)

And while this concert certainly bears witness to the awesome power and genius of THE WHO, that we do not have the concert as it was performed is criminal. That said, what we do have is THE WHO in all their intense ragged glory. And as a bonus, a priceless short tribute film of Moon the Loon in clown face and headgear while "Tommy Can You Hear Me" plays. It doesn't make up for what is missing, but it is 59 seconds of pure Moon, and a wonder to behold.

Hopefully, one day, a remastered, unadulterated, complete version of this landmark concert will be released. Until then, this will have to do.


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