A Night at the Family Dog 1970 (The Grateful Dead / Jefferson Airplane / Santana)
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Movie Reviews of A Night at the Family Dog 1970 (The Grateful Dead / Jefferson Airplane / Santana)
Movie Review: Classic performance by the Grateful Dead
Summary: 5 Stars
Any fan of the Dead must purchase this DVD just to see the band rockin' with Pig singing Hard to Handle (complete with his gracious "thankee" at the end of the song).Then come the classic China Cat/Rider jam. Absolute perfection! Seeing Mickey and Bill on drums,a thin Jerry with black hair,Phil and Bobby front and center and in full support of Jerry's lead,and a "healthy" Pigpen is so awsome.
This is how they looked and sounded when I first attended a Dead show,and this is the most perfect film document of their early days. In full color,complete with dancing hippy-chicks,all you need is some good weed to complete this time capsule.
The Santana performance is also classic post-Woodstock perfection. I love their original band. Excellent latin heat from the acid era.
Speaking of the acid-era,enjoy the original Airplane in full flight.They were one of the loudest bands of that era,and Jorma and Jack provide their best of the that time.Also good harmonies between Marty/Grace and Paul. I loved that band,and I think they're over-looked today when people talk about rock legends.
Movie Review: It's Not the 60's
Summary: 4 Stars
I had no problem getting an unopened or re-shrinkwrapped copy of this DVD. There is so little visual record of these bands, it is a must-have for fans of this era. Santana cooks, the Dead chug, and the Airplane sound like nobody else but the Airplane. The video quality is quite good, considering color videotape was only a few years along, and the extrapolated Dolby 5.1 Surround is phenomenal, since this was originally recorded in mono. There is a sense, however, as a previous reviewer noted, that these bands were about to leave the period that had been their most formative and creative. The Airplane degenerated into Starship, the Dead became a noodling nostalgia act for Haight wannabees, and Santana became, well, Carlos Santana. There's a big messy"Super Jam" at the end, where nobody can stay in the groove, and if anything symbolizes how the 60's ended, this jam does. Still, these groups really said something in their time which has yet to be equaled. If you liked these bands in your youth, this is a tasty fossil from this era. If you weren't born when these bands were playing, well, too bad, this isn't even their best stuff. But to paraphrase Bruce Springstein the night after Lennon was shot, if it wasn't for these guys, we'd all be someplace else.
Movie Review: I have the 2007 Release
Summary: 4 Stars
Performances are HOT HOT HOT. Plenty of crowd shots, which I like. Only bummer is that this must have been shot on video and whoever put this out did not even attempt to clean this up at all... which is a real shame. Somebody out there with some skills should have a go at fixing this and posting online somewhere. Is that hot acid dancer during Airplane's set Marilu Henner? Looks like her and she would have been about 18 but she was supposed to be in Chicago during this time I think. You need this if you are a fan of any of these bands, regardless of quality. Oh Grace!Movie Review: How the hell can we rate something that's non-existent?
Summary: 1 Stars
Amazon. Please. This thing has been sitting here forever, listed as not available. You owe it to your loyal customers to post an update. It's not that hard to find out what's up with this release. Hung up in litigation? Artists in disagreement? A few phone calls and/or e-mails by you guys could clear this up, already. Some people are encouraging us to "be patient." Right. Any year now. Sheesh.Movie Review: Amazing Performances
Summary: 5 Stars
These performances were actually taped at the Family Dog in San Francisco in February, 1970, not September, 1970 as indicated in the blurb accompanying the Amazon entry. The late Spencer Dryden was still drumming for Jefferson Airplane, and had yet to be replaced by Joey Covington, who joined the band in the spring of 1970, so that gives a clue as to the performance date. I have a nth-degree-generation, very-poor-quality VHS of the original TV broadcast, which I saw at least a dozen times on PBS channels 13 and 21 in New York between 1970 and 1972. The intensity of all 3 bands is startlingly good, and the bands are in fine fettle, but the gig represents a sort of swan song for the 60s-era-iterations of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, as both bands would change directions in the coming months---the Dead towards country/bluegrass/folk, and the Airplane towards its well-documented splinter into the Slickantner and Hot Tuna factions. But, oh, the memories! btw, the JA version of "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" that is part of the Family Dog show is also included in the recently-released "Fly Jefferson Airplane" DVD.