AC/DC - Family Jewels
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Movie Reviews of AC/DC - Family Jewels
Movie Review: World History 101
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1979 I went to a "Day On The Green" at Oakland Coliseum. The day-long show was entitled "Monsters of Rock." There was a vast audience, as Bill Graham opened up the grassy area for the full-on stadium concert experience. The warm-up band was Mahogany Rush, then a little-known band named AC/DC and then Aerosmith. The headliner was Ted Nugent.
Suffice it to say, I don't remember much that happened after AC/DC. AC/DC was the most incredible event I have ever witnessed in my life. These guys came out and just blow-torched 60,000+ people with the most staggering sonic pulsations known to man. There was this weird chemistry between the crazed guitarist--who was obviously posssessed by one or more demons--and the singer, who was obviously on parole for some hideous crime spree. The guitarist, later identified as one "Angus Young," went down into the audience on the shoulders of security personnel. Mr. Young was doing a crazed guitar solo which lasted maybe ten minutes. His sweaty, pimply back was slapped by hundreds of maniacal onlookers. Mr. Young kept playing, he didn't miss a frenzied note. The singer--later identified as one Mr. Bon Scott--had his extremely tight blue jeans rip-out up to the crotch. He didn't seem concerned. He appeared older and more worldly than Mr. Young, who appeared as if he was just a mere child. At one point Young and Scott collided on stage as Young had been running about so frenetically, dangerously deranged and negligent. They both fell to the stage floor, laughing. They got up, and continued their felonius assault upon the enthralled masses. It was an amazing thing to see 60,000+ fists up in the air with every person chanting "Angus, Angus..."
The next day I checked the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, certain to read a banner headline about this amazing development in World History. For what I had seen the day before was not a mere concert, it was a Divine Event. To my surprise, there was no headline (but there was an extremely flattering review in the entertainment section). Lest you think I exaggerate, should you spend any time in the San Francisco Bay Area, it will only be a matter of time before you meet someone (because there were so many) that was there that day, and they will tell you what I've told you. I've seen hundreds of concerts since then, and nothing has come close. I saw AC/DC a few times after this show, and they were awesome, but Bon Scott had died. There was just something totally magical about that combination of Angus and Bon, a yin-and-yang thing, that created a musical tension and synergism beyond human comprehension. This is primal-stuff here; you don't cognate it; you neurologically process it in your spine or in some primitive, low-order portion of your brain.
So, this set, "Family Jewels," what does it do to explain the inexplicable? What it does is take you back 25+ years to where these guys were at, where they came from. It answers so many questions, satisfies so many curiosities, as to who these guys were then, who they are now, what they were like before they became "famous." No, there are not any interviews here. But, you get the far more fundamental and important information: What did they sound like and look like in smaller venues before they were anything bigger than a garage band? Answer: they sounded fierce and deadly, sinister and deranged. But they have never taken themselves seriously. Just the video clip of "Let There Be Rock" is worth the cost of this entire set (Bon is dressed up as a preacher; it's hilarious; it's perfect).
With Bon's death, there was an enormous gap to be filled. No one on Earth could have done it better than Brian Johnson. Whatever praise people sing about the legendary persona of Bon Scott, I have never heard anyone intend it as criticism of Johnson. To him, an enormous debt is owed. He has made an amazing contribution to the legacy of this band.
The footage in these two discs is quite simply priceless. I personally consider it some of the best music in the world, and in saying that I am making every effort to avoid exaggeration or hyperbole. But it is simply true: these guys are great; they are historical figures; the only debate would be whether they are on the "Top Five Best Bands of All Time" or Top Ten. For me, they are on the Top Three, if not The Top. Watch these discs and you'll see why.
How much would I pay for these discs if they were bootlegs? Hundreds? Thousands? Answer: as much as I could beg, borrow, steal.
Movie Review: Resurrected the AC/DC fan in me! I also underestimated just how great Bon Scott was.
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember being 8 years old in 1983, when I saw a video on Mtv that strangely frightened me. A dark stage, a screaming singer with a cap pulled down over his eyes, loud music whose structure I couldn't place, with a loud electric guitar coming from a guy in knickers who moved with as much energy as any human could move. The credits revealed that it was it AC/DC with "For Those About To Rock".
Two years later at the age of 10, "Sink the Pink" and "Danger" were in good rotation, and that's what prompted me to make one of my earliest music purchases, the "Fly on the Wall" album (I remember having to give up my allowance that week and the money in my pocket that night so that my parents would buy it for me).
So fast forward 20 years. I've long since bought every AC/DC album on either cassette or CD, in some instances both. I saw them twice in concert (1988, 1991). I had loved them, but at some point just lost interest in the band all together. Maybe I just got sick of them. Then after renting the movie "Thunderstruck", my interest was renewed, and I ran out and bought this DVD set, "Family Jewels". Well, they re-sold me! This DVD reminded me of how many damn great songs they had, and the reasons why I liked AC/DC in the first place.
Each disc is packed with 20 videos, one from the Bon Scott years and one from the Brian Johnson years. For the record, I've always lived both singers. But geez, I didn't realize just how great of a showman Bon Scott was. Sporting a wig and giant mallet in "Baby Please Don't Go", a straw hat and cane in "Show Business", bag pipes in "It's A Long Way To The Top", or even without any props, this guy was a full-fledged icon. This ain't a case of a dead rock star being remembered just because he's dead. Scott had this commanding presence and demented sneer that just screamed with carnal rock power.
The second disc brings us to the Brian Johnson years. These videos include the ones that really introduced me to AC/DC, so they have a special value to me. The live video clips from the "Back In Black" album and the "For Those About To Rock" video are here, as is "Flick Of The Switch" with the similar-looking "Nervous Shakedown". Also included are contents of the "Fly On The Wall" and "Who Made Who" home videos (which I had owned on VHS), and the videos from "Blow Up Your Video" and "Razor's Edge". People can criticze the "Fly on the Wall" concept video collection all they want, but I absolutely love it. Watching AC/DC play in a dive of a bar, with the 1-dimensional characters playing their parts (papparazzi photographer in Columbo trench coat, hack MC comic, rich couple who get the wrong drink order, etc.), just fits the music so well and is downright fun to watch.
A couple of things are notably absent from this collection. The videos for "I Put The Finger On You", "Big Gun", and "Hard as a Rock" aren't here. They proabably had more that I'm not aware of. I also remember the Mtv version of "Sink The Pink" being different than the home video version, where Angus uses his guitar to knock in the ball at the end, but that version doesn't seem to exist anywhere. (Yet to think that this video convinced me as a kid that the song was really about billards!) There are also no bonuses like audio commentaries or interview clips. And of course the "Let There Be Rock" documentary is not here, but that really deserves its own DVD release.
Still, this collection offers a generous 40 videos, many of which I've never seen. And to those fan too young to have been around in the days when Mtv actually played AC/DC videos (or any significant number of videos, for that matter), this might be their first time seeing these too. I couldn't stop my head from nodding along, in fact I just wanted to headbang in some parts! Most rock videos made after this era seemed to just be blurry scenes of guys whining in public bathrooms. AC/DC's music is just no-B.S., no pretentiousness, high energy rock n' roll, and these videos show that the band likewise knows how to have a loud, fun time.
Movie Review: Bon Voyage
Summary: 5 Stars
Props to Brian, but it was Bon voyage after 1980.
Bon Scott sang his heart out. He didn't try. He just did it. No effort. Never straining. Always on. He was the ultimate rocker.
Disk 1 of this DVD captures the awesomeness of a rock band that is unduplicated. The Bon Scott years was the definition of what "real" hard rock was in the late 70s to the tragic death of Bon in 1980. And that definition lives on , and is immortalized, through this DVD and the music that AC/DC created during Bon's time.
This DVD is a keeper. A collector's item. Songs like Dog Eat Dog, Sin City, Riff Raff, a total of 20 live performances on disk 1 alone with the ultimate final song on disk 1 being the cruel irony of Highway to Hell...the highway that Bon took in 1980.
Okay, enough of the dramatics.
Buy this for disk one alone. If you grew up listening to AC/DC during the Bon Scott years you will be in awe when you watch this and clearly realize what an inspiration this band was to Metal. Watch Bon as he sings; there is no effort in his performances...he is simply having fun and doing what comes naturally to him.
Almost all of the songs on disk 1 are actual live performances. And you know that you are watching one of the best frontmen ever because even most of the promos are not lip synced.
Watching disk 2 will really make you appreciate what AC/DC had prior to the stupidity of rockers like Bon and (John) Bonham. They had a band chemistry that you can't duplicate...NO MATTER WHAT.
Brian Johnson "tries to sing." Okay there are some cool AC/DC tunes (awesome even) with Brian. But the guy is straining to get the vocals out...especially live. That was not an issue for Bon Scott.
Disk 2 is all Brian, and I'd have paid the price of this DVD collection for just the Brian stuff. So don't think that this review is a Brian dis. It's not. This review is a tribute to the awesomeness that was the original AC/DC, and the awesomeness of the complete AC/DC story that this DVD captures. I just happened to grow up in the 70s, and my bias is with an amazing singer (Bon Scott) that I have never, ever seen anything like since.
If you buy this collection you perhaps will appreciate what I am saying.
Angus...well...he is Angus...the guy never runs out of energy. He jumps around like a hungry monkey in every clip...both disks. Phil Rudd is one of the most simple drummers ever, but make no mistake, I'd trade drumming talent for Phil Rudd's instinct to make an awesome song any day of the week.
I feel like I'm rambling here, so let's leave it at this: If you liked the Bon Scott years, there's no question that you should buy this DVD. If you like the Brian years, you get a bonus DVD of the inspiration for it all.
So just hit the buy button. There is no way you won't be satisfied.
Movie Review: A great singer at last gets his due
Summary: 5 Stars
Though they're undoubtedly best known for Back in Black, anyone who's been to an AC/DC concert will know they have an incredibly strong back catalog. Up until now they've never released a best-of CD, though maybe you could use their Live release from 1992 for that purpose. Now, however, we have this DVD. More than just a list of singles from 1975 to 1992, what we've got is a snapshot history of the band.
Disc 1 has the Bon stuff. I could describe all the cheesy gimmicks on display here - Bon dressed as a schoolgirl; the band playing in an old quarry with explosions going on around them; riding through central Melbourne on the back of a truck with a three-piece bagpipe band, etc... but that would detract from the three things that need to be said:
1. Bon Scott's stage presence. He had this cheeky wink, and intense stare. To be able to focus the audience's attention on you when your lead guitarist is Angus Young is no mean feat, but Bon pulls it off. And his singing on the live tracks is fantastic - passionate and rock solid.
2. Angus Young. In every clip on this disc, he just bobs up and down and will not stop moving. You can't take your eyes off him, cause it looks like he loses a pound of sweat each performance.
3. The music. All these tracks are the latest Sony remasters, and the PCM audio is better than CD quality. Honestly, I've never heard some of these songs so good.
The tracks are all arranged in chronological order, and accordingly the settings change - from Australia, to Britain, and finally America. And the progression seems like the most natural thing in the world, they were just that good.
Disc 2 covers the Brian era, in particular the years from 1980 to 1991 when they were at their commercial peak. Proceedings start appropriately enough: the Back in Black clips are all straight live performances, honoring Bon Scott's memory with plain simple hard rock. Thereafter, however, things scale up. The clips feature ever-larger arenas full of ever more frenzied fans screaming at an AC/DC on ever larger stages playing under ever larger props. (Only Thunderstruck, with its towering set and Angus duckwalking, really pulls this trick off). It's a pity because it's like these clips are trying to sell you something - the cheekiness, the fun is gone.
Still, the music sounds as good as ever. The remastered audio even manages to make Fly on the Wall sound good, that's how much of a revelation it is.
There are things missing, but the minimalist presentation works well for a band like AC/DC, who were always content to let the music do the talking. And this is a better documentary record of one of the greatest bands ever than anything else you're likely to come across.
Movie Review: Long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.
Summary: 5 Stars
AC/DC are one of the best rock bands of all time so when they released this 2 dvd set I just had to buy it immediately upon its release and when I got this dvd I was not disappointed. Family Jewels is a truly awesome music dvd, it has quite an impressive amount of music videos from the band throughout the years starting of on disc 1 with singer Bon Scott performing the song "Baby please don't go" live on Australian television with Bon Scott in drag looking absolutely demented and Angus rocking out in his trademark schoolboy outfit which is great, Bon Scott had a great stage presence and was a cool singer. Other highlights include "It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll" where the band are performing on a platform to a large crowd on the street with a Scottish group playing bagpipes. "Let there be rock" has Bon Scott as a priest and its pretty good, there are other great videos as well like "Highway to hell", "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap", "If you want blood you've got it" etc. this is mostly live footage from the 70's and promo clips which then ends with the rare Spanish television performance taped ten days before Bon Scott's death.
Disc two traces the classic 80's and 90's videos and features Brian Johnson as the lead singer starting off with "Hells bells" from the album Back In Black which happens to be one of the best selling rock albums of all time, the problem with the second dvd is that it wasn't as good as the first but then again some people might disagree. I'm a Bon Scott fan but I still like Brian Johnson (Bon Scott had the charisma whilst Brian had the voice) however I consider Fly On The Wall to be one of the worst albums by AC/DC so I didn't really care for the Fly On The Wall video, the music video was way too corny especially when that little animated fly comes along (oh dear!)its one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen but still the rest of the videos were excellent and I especially liked "Thunderstruck" along with "Shook me all night long", "Heat seeker" and "For those about to rock" those were the best videos in my opinion. Overall theres some great music videos included in this dvd which you can't afford to miss especially if your an AC/DC fan, the picture and sound quality are absolutely brilliant and it has a nice 1.5 surround sound mix and it lasts for 2 and a half hours. This is the best music dvd I have ever seen and its a must for any true AC/DC fan.
For those about to rock.....We salute you.