Best Music DVDs
Superfly, Don't Look Back, and Other Cool Concert DVDs
Rolling Stone released a list of the best music DVDs. Find out here what they missed.
Rolling Stone recently released a list of their top twenty-five music DVDs. Their list does a nice job of running the gamut of contemporary music. Although rock dominates, pop, rap, metal, and reggae also receive nods. However, here are five overlooked items that music lovers shouldn't be without.
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
This features 320 minutes of the greatest hard rock band, and covers their entire decade of dominance (1969-1979). It succeeds in most of the areas where The Song Remains the Same (their first official release of concert footage) fails, including better sound quality, production, no bizarre cut scenes, and most notably, better vocals from Robert Plant.
Superfly - Superfly
Superfly isn't a particularly impressive movie, and several of the notable movies with impressive soundtracks on the Rolling Stone list (Purple Rain, Hard Day's Night, The Harder They Come) are vastly superior. However, this film features an outstanding soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield, and the use of these tracks to serve as the primary backdrop to the story makes it certainly worth seeing.
Don't Look Back
Kudos to Rolling Stone for giving a nod to No Direction Home, Marin Scorcese's wonderful four hour documentary on Dylan's life up to his motorcycle accident. However, D.A. Pennebaker's impressive Don't Look Back focuses on a much shorter period in Dylan's life (his tour of Britain following the release of Bringing it All Back Home) and offers plenty of candid Dylan footage, including an impressive dismissal of the music artist Donovan. The film is admittedly light on music, but still worth seeing for a glimpse into Dylan's life at this pivotal point in his career.
The Grateful Dead Movie
While this one suffers from the lack of polish of many of today's music DVD releases, it does offer one of the most popular live bands of all time. It also includes 300 minutes of Dead footage. Obviously, dDeadheads already have this in their collection, but its worth a watch for the average fan as well.
Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music Vol. 1-5
Saturday Night Live has been showcasing bands for over thirty years at this point, this collection gives the best of the best of the first twenty-five years. In addition to popular live performances, it also includes many hilarious music related skits. If there's one volume that stands out, it's probably the first, featuring some outstanding performances by Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, and The Band, and some hilarious comedy featuring Bill Murray, Steve Martin, and even Paul Simon.
So, supplement the Rolling Stone list of top twenty-five DVDs with this additional list, and you'll be well satiated with DVD music glory for a long time.
