Inside the box you'll find four discs.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)The Rolling Stones really were the world's greatest rock and roll band in 1969. That was 40 years ago, but if you need proof to verify the ancient claim, check out the "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert--40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set."
The Stones' live shows of the '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s were spectacles of frenzied energy, extravagant sets, video projections, and lots of flash, but "Ya Ya" was the real deal. The five Rolling Stones were the show, and that was more than enough. If you're going to only buy one live Stones CD, get "Ya Ya."
The original album was recorded over two nights at Madison Square Garden; I was there at one of those shows. I had a great time and bought the LP as soon as it came out. Still have it.
Keith Richards and Mick Taylor's yin vs. yang guitar styles meshed perfectly on "Midnight Rambler" and "Sympathy For The Devil." Mick Jagger and Richards paid tribute to the man who invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry, with a romping "Little Queenie." The new box set includes the original version on CD, plus a five-song EP from the same shows, with unplugged performances of "Prodigal Son" and "You Gotta Move." Sound quality is really good for a 1960s-era live recording, but I prefer the sound of the single disc "Ya Ya" SACD that came out in 2002, at least when it's played on a SACD player.
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The box is jam-packed with stuff, but is a little short on unreleased musical content.
It's pricey. The "Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972" Blu ray box goes for $349; the DVD is $250; and the CD set a mere $100. The Blu-ray box contains a sprawling 11-disc collection. Young's been working on this set for what feels like decades; was it worth the wait?
There's a beautifully bound, embossed-"leather," covered book with tons of cool pictures. Hard-core fans will love it, everyone else will look through it once and be done with it.
There's only one unreleased live disc, "Live at the Riverboat 1969." The Blu ray box also includes "Live at Canterbury House" (not a Blu-ray, just a DVD and CD), "Live at the Fillmore East 1970," and "Live at Massey Hall 1971," which have been individually released over the past couple of years. I already bought them, as I'm sure many fans have. What a rip off to make us buy them again.
Most discs have music running times of under 60 minutes, so why oh why didn't Neil fill up more of the discs' capacity, or did he just need to justify an exorbitant MSRP? $350 for 11 discs? Strange, Hollywood movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make retail for under 20 bucks a pop, so why does Neil charge $31 for a disc for music he made nearly 40 years ago? Rip off.
The Blu-ray features ultrahigh resolution 24-bit /192 kHz stereo sound, which you can play over some newer AV receivers, but I'm not so sure that any high-end electronics can access the superduper-sounding PCM tracks. Surround sound? Only one disc has surround. Blu-ray sound quality is about the same as the previously released 24 bit/96 kHz sound on the DVDs that came out years ago. Don't buy the Blu-ray box for the sound; the DVDs are fine.
I had a rough time navigating the Blu-rays' stupidly designed menus and accessing some of the "bonus" material and "hidden" tracks. Hey, I paid my money, why do I have to go round and round to find the music I paid for?
As for video "content," I don't know about you, but watching an LP playing on a turntable or reel-to-reel tapes spinning gets old really fast. Reading pages of text off my TV is also less than entertaining. The photo galleries are nice.
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So much to watch, so little time.
What are the chances you'll actually watch a DVD/Blu-ray more than once or twice?
I know a lot of folks who never watch most of the discs they buy. They've already seen the film when it was in theaters, and enjoyed it, so they buy it. Sure, little kiddies can watch a flick over and over again, but if you're over 12 it's a rare film that bears repeated viewing.
Box sets are even worse. OK, it's one thing to buy a three-disc box like Law & Order - The Second Year, but who's gonna watch all 33 DVDs in The Sopranos - The Complete Series, or the 32 discs in Seinfeld - The Complete Series? These shows are still on TV virtually every night for free, but I'd bet HBO is raking in tons of loot with the Sopranos box, it retails for $400 (and around $260 online)! I wonder how much they'll charge for the complete Blu-ray box.
I guess people buy these things to prove their love. They're physical keepsakes of their memories, and maybe the boxes look good on the shelf. Oh, and this time of year they make great gifts.
Gifts are one thing, but the question is, why do we continue to buy these things, why not just rent 'em? I'm the audio guy, so I'd like to point out the money you would save not buying discs would add up, and you could invest that dough in better speakers and/or electronics. Something you would actually use on a daily basis.
CDs on the other hand are repeatable pleasures. When I buy something new that I like, such as the Paul McCartney/Fireman Electric Arguments CD, it stays in heavy rotation, with 10 or more plays within two to three weeks. After that, I'll probably slow down, but I'm still playing Beatles LPs and CDs I bought decades ago on a regular basis.
I watch concert DVDs and Blu-rays over and over again, so it's not like I have something against the formats.
Maybe I'm missing something here, please tell me why you buy movie or TV show DVDs or Blu-rays.
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