Best of Musikladen Vol. 1 & 2

Rating:
Summary: Musikladen is laden with great music!
Review: Featuring great sound and crystal-clear picture, this compilation of 1970-1972 live performances from the German music TV show Musikladen has some great moments. Tops is a blistering version of Walk Away from the James Gang, Joe Walsh looking for all the world like Kurt Cobain, and the 3-piece dynamics on this cut rivals any power trio one could name. Another standout is Nazareth's electric cover of the folkie classic Morning Dew - an eye-opener to anyone who has heard only the Hair Of A Dog-era heyday material. Not to be missed. The Procul Harum reading of Simple Sister has the incendiary playing of Dave Ball, successor to Robin Trower, and drummer BJ Wilson has to be seen to be believed. Jethro Tull and Santana also make good showings. Booby prize goes to Humble Pie for their interminable acoustic cover of the Yardbird's For Your Love. Steve Marriot over-emotes his way through this one; bassist Greg Riddley looks like he'd rather be anywhere than on that stage. Truly awful. Overall, a fun purchase worth the money. I just ordered Best of Vol. 4; where's Vol. 3?

Rating:
Summary: Musikladen is laden with great music!
Review: Featuring great sound and crystal-clear picture, this compilation of 1970-1972 live performances from the German music TV show Musikladen has some great moments. Tops is a blistering version of Walk Away from the James Gang, Joe Walsh looking for all the world like Kurt Cobain, and the 3-piece dynamics on this cut rivals any power trio one could name. Another standout is Nazareth's electric cover of the folkie classic Morning Dew - an eye-opener to anyone who has heard only the Hair Of A Dog-era heyday material. Not to be missed. The Procul Harum reading of Simple Sister has the incendiary playing of Dave Ball, successor to Robin Trower, and drummer BJ Wilson has to be seen to be believed. Jethro Tull and Santana also make good showings. Booby prize goes to Humble Pie for their interminable acoustic cover of the Yardbird's For Your Love. Steve Marriot over-emotes his way through this one; bassist Greg Riddley looks like he'd rather be anywhere than on that stage. Truly awful. Overall, a fun purchase worth the money. I just ordered Best of Vol. 4; where's Vol. 3?

Rating:
Summary: interesting and disappointing
Review: I watched this DVD last week and the best thing about it was that i could remember watching some of these performances on tv in the early seventies when i lived in Holland and watched the German live music show Beatclub on saturday afternoon, beatclub later on became musikladen, but i think the majority of these clips were from the beatclub era. From memory there should be much better material available than what we get here. Some of the clips are ok, but on the majority the sound is dreadful and it only has historical an sentimental value. I was thinking of buying other musik laden titles but after this I think i'll give them a miss. If you want good sounding historical stuff buy Woodstock orthe Great Whistle test compilation. Highlights for me were Santana and Procol Harum with an outstanding performance by BJ wilson, their drummer.

Rating:
Summary: "Coulda Been Better......."
Review: One or two great songs, a number of fair entries and a couple of stinkers is how I'd sum up this disc. The James Gang is probably the best here followed by Santana and some early Alice Cooper. Nazareth's "Morning Dew" is of marginal interest. (Maybe it's my wacky sense of humor but I prefer the Grateful Dead version from their first album...with Pigpen's cheesy organ frills.) Jethro Tull, usually one of my favorite bands, started out alright doing "With You There To Help Me" but it degenerated into a lengthy chamber music ego trip for the piano player. By the time they picked it up again, they'd lost me. Also Humble Pie's version of The Yardbird's "For Your Love" deserves special kudos as one of the most boring performances from this, or any other, era. Steve Marriot, what were you thinking? Minimal fun, not really worth the money. Buy the 'Dr Hook And The Medicine Show' and 'T.Rex/Roxy Music' DVDs in the Musikladen series instead.

Rating:
Summary: a look at where rock video started
Review: this is a great dvd if you never got to see a lot of bands you like live you can look at this very good bands in the early days