The Byrds - Special Edition EP

Rating:
Summary: Oh dear
Review: ...if you want to be technical. i don't think the band you speak of was even canadian! only neil young and bruce palmer have been noted as canadian members of the band. as far as i know, rick james is american (born in new york state) and was not part of a canadian band, but of an american/canadian band. right? damn, that's tough, my friend. i guess you must feel silly for sticking your neck out like that. holmes. yeah. mmm.

Rating:
Summary: actually, mister jerk mc-elitist...
Review: ...if you want to be technical. i don't think the band you speak of was even canadian! only neil young and bruce palmer have been noted as canadian members of the band. as far as i know, rick james is american (born in new york state) and was not part of a canadian band, but of an american/canadian band. right? damn, that's tough, my friend. i guess you must feel silly for sticking your neck out like that. holmes. yeah. mmm.

Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: I can only agree with the previous review posted by mnyby: this DVD is a major disappointment. Not only short on Byrds material, but poorly presented with distracting features. Anyone who buys this is likely to know who the Byrds are, so we don't need the intrusive captions. This is NOT the original Byrds, by the way, the reviewer who said it is doesn't know what he's talking about. This is the "Skip Battin era" Byrds when Roger McGuinn was the only original member. Hopefully one day Byrds fans will get something better than this on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: I ordered this DVD before it was released, so I had little information as to what was on it. This DVD has the Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons, and Skip Battlin line-up on it, which is not a bad line-up for later Byrds. But the main disappointment I had with it was that there are only 4 tracks of Byrds performances. The first is "Black Mountain Rag", an acoustic instrumental which shows off Clarence's skillful flatpicking. However, the camera effects are very distracting during this track. The second and third tracks, "So You Wanna Be A Rock-and-Roll Star" and "Chestnut Mare" are much easier tracks to watch, and they show good close-ups of the band. The main problem with these tracks is that the names of the band members very slowly pan down the screen during the performance, covering up some of these close-ups. The biggest disappointment, though, was "Eight Miles High". I had thought at least I will get a long track (13 minutes!) to listen to and enjoy. However, they never sang the song during this 13 minutes! It was 13 minutes of instrumental, mostly Bass solo. A little from Clarence and Roger, but this was Skip's time to shine, and it was way too much time! The vocal part was never sung and no apologies made. It was sad to wait through 12 minutes of instrumental to have no reward of the great vocals of this song! Following these four tracks, are four "pop-up" tracks, as they are called, which are the exact same four songs with some trivia being marched across the bottom of the screen. This was a waste..the information which have been much better displayed on a separate information only screen. Most of the DVD seems to be devoted to promoting this company's other DVDs. There is a lot more time spent on previews and other promotions than there is to the Byrds. (Especially if you subtract the 13 minutes devoted to the instrumental, non-vocal version of "Eight Miles High".) I am a long-time Byrds fan, and I would encourage other Byrds fans to save their money and not buy this DVD. Let's hope that McGuinn can eventually come up with something on DVD. I know it would be better than this.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't know Rick James used to lead the Byrds!
Review: I ordered this DVD before it was released, so I had little information as to what was on it. This DVD has the all-time classic original Byrds lineup of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, and Rick "Super Freak" James on funky bass! There are four tracks of Byrds performances, all featuring lead vocals by Rick James. It's mind-boggling to think what the Byrds might have been if the other members hadn't become jealous of the attention Rick received as leader, bassist, and chief songwriter (not to mention ladies' man who got all the fly white women). I never realized, until seeing this DVD, that Rick James was a founding member of the Byrds and the undisputed leader until he was kicked out in 1965!

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: I ordered this DVD before it was released, so I had little information as to what was on it. This DVD has the Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons, and Skip Battlin line-up on it, which is not a bad line-up for later Byrds. But the main disappointment I had with it was that there are only 4 tracks of Byrds performances. The first is "Black Mountain Rag", an acoustic instrumental which shows off Clarence's skillful flatpicking. However, the camera effects are very distracting during this track. The second and third tracks, "So You Wanna Be A Rock-and-Roll Star" and "Chestnut Mare" are much easier tracks to watch, and they show good close-ups of the band. The main problem with these tracks is that the names of the band members very slowly pan down the screen during the performance, covering up some of these close-ups. The biggest disappointment, though, was "Eight Miles High". I had thought at least I will get a long track (13 minutes!) to listen to and enjoy. However, they never sang the song during this 13 minutes! It was 13 minutes of instrumental, mostly Bass solo. A little from Clarence and Roger, but this was Skip's time to shine, and it was way too much time! The vocal part was never sung and no apologies made. It was sad to wait through 12 minutes of instrumental to have no reward of the great vocals of this song! Following these four tracks, are four "pop-up" tracks, as they are called, which are the exact same four songs with some trivia being marched across the bottom of the screen. This was a waste..the information which have been much better displayed on a separate information only screen. Most of the DVD seems to be devoted to promoting this company's other DVDs. There is a lot more time spent on previews and other promotions than there is to the Byrds. (Especially if you subtract the 13 minutes devoted to the instrumental, non-vocal version of "Eight Miles High".) I am a long-time Byrds fan, and I would encourage other Byrds fans to save their money and not buy this DVD. Let's hope that McGuinn can eventually come up with something on DVD. I know it would be better than this.

Rating:
Summary: worth seeing at least once
Review: Rick James never fronted the Byrds. He was in a Canadian band called the Mynah Birds with Neil Young, but never the Byrds.

Rating:
Summary: When???
Review: When can we Byrdmaniacs get a DVD compilation that includes all of the Byrds early appearances on shows like Ed Sullivan, Hullabaloo, Shindig, Big TNT Show, Ready Steady Go, etc? There must be some footage of the Byrds at Ciros or during their tour of England, something, ANYTHING with the original Byrd line-up? A worthy DVD is due for one of the most innovative and ground breaking rock bands there ever was. Until then, I guess this will have to do -- A somewhat sloppy scrapbook of some 70's era Byrd performances. Oh well.