Blondie-Greatest Video Hits (1981)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Music Video-(3) Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1981
Running Time	47:31 (Case: 60)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Chrysalis EMI Music	Starring	Deborah Harry Chris Stein Clem Burke Jimmy Destri Frank Infante Nigel Harrison
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Blondie

    Formed in 1974, Blondie emerged from the renowned New York club scene, and more particularly the famed CBGB club, in 1977 on the strength of the single In The Flesh. Culled from their debut eponymous, the band was in some quarters derided for the fact that the lead singer, Deborah Harry, was a bloody stunning woman as well as being a former Playboy Bunny. However, anyone who knows music of this period knows that the CBGB club did not suffer talentless bands at all well, and for a band to emerge from that club circuit at the time were generally very talented. Blondie of course went on to prove how d*** good they were! By the early 1980's they had amassed an impressive collection of number one hit singles - impressive not so much in number but in the range of the music. Whilst they emerged at the height of the New Wave era, exactly where to classify the band remains the subject of conjecture today.

    I remember well the impact that the video for In The Flesh had when it appeared on Australian television. It is probably not understating the situation to say that Australia was the first country where the band achieved any degree of success, and they toured down here almost immediately. I will long remember their visit to Perth - their show at the Perth Concert Hall was hardly a sell out and they still had a lot of development to do as a live band. Notwithstanding that however, they showed plenty to indicate that the band had a bright future - and it was not simply because of the gorgeous Deborah Harry being lead singer (although no one will deny that she certainly made it easier to "sell" the band). The other memorable part of that visit to Perth was that my sister literally ran into Deborah Harry at the band's hotel, and got Deborah Harry's autograph for me. Still have that autograph, which I carried for many years in my wallet! Nowadays it resides inside the CD of the debut album Blondie. That album is represented in this collection by the two singles, In The Flesh and X Offender.

    Whilst it is fair to say that debut album was a bit variable, the follow up Plastic Letters was perhaps even more variable, as the band was still really developing their style. That variability is amply demonstrated by the tracks included here: the punkish Detroit 442, the willowy (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear and the wonderful single Denis. The third album, featuring the classic line up of the band as detailed above, was the big one for them. Parallel Lines is about as good as it gets with music and albums of the era. Selling in numbers that would be envy of the biggest names of today, the album spawned number one hits Hanging On The Telephone, Heart Of Glass and Sunday Girl. But it is the depth of the songs on the album, such as Picture This, that make this a genuine classic, and this remains arguably the band's finest moment on record. Which is not to say that the follow up was not a good album! Eat To The Beat is my choice for their best album and featured some superb songs: Dreaming, Union City Blue and Atomic amongst them. The hugely underrated album Autoamerican followed, with the reggae-styled Tide Is High a number one single and Rapture one of the songs that epitomised the variety in the band's music over the seven year journey to its release. Illness and dissension saw the band complete one more album, The Hunter, before going into something of a hiatus (well okay, they broke up) from which they emerged in 1999 with a new album No Exit and another hit single in Maria.

    Twenty five years is a long time in the music business, but for a band to be able to make hit records - singles and albums - over that period of time whilst constantly changing direction and style is almost beyond belief. Whilst the program here is basically chronicling the band up to the release of The Best Of Blondie in 1981, we only get to see a small sampling of what the band did after that time. However, for those of the younger set that weren't even born when this band was going into hiatus in 1982, this is as good a way as possible to see what made Blondie so special. For me as a big fan of the band, this is a wonderful trip down a memory lane of the video clips that we used to lap up on Countdown seemingly every week for years. The one unsurprising thing is how fresh the music remains to this day, and that ultimately is the indicator of a great band. Not only did it sound great back when it was released, but twenty odd years on it still sounds great. Enjoy the trip down memory lane or discover for the first time the music and imagery that made Blondie one of the great bands of the New Wave era - even if they were not perhaps a prototypical New Wave band.

Video

    As we would expect for promotional videos made in the 1970's and 1980's for television, the transfer is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is of course not 16x9 enhanced. The clips themselves are quite snappily cut together, so you don't get to watch seconds of black screen between the clips - but it also means that you might not get to see the entire film clip either. The entire program is itself also bookended by video footage shot around New York, and there are also such snippets inserted into the program at times as an introduction to the clips. It is reasonably well done, although I am not sure whether my view would remain the same after twenty or so viewings! Note that the intro has Call Me playing over it (sort of an audio only track) and the epilogue has Sunday Girl playing over it. For fans of the band, they will now recognise that the program is actually a straight port of the VHS tape The Best Of Blondie.

    Obviously the New York footage was specifically shot and is of significantly better quality than the earlier film clips: the comments hereafter relate solely to the video clips, as there is sod-all wrong with the New York footage. The transfer is quite variable, reflecting the varying degrees of adequacy of the source material. Some of the early stuff looks pretty ropey, soft on definition and not exactly oozing detail out of every frame. The later stuff is better but really there is nothing here that approaches sharp definition and detail. The transfer is adequate as far as clarity is concerned and there really is nothing much in the way of grain. Shadow detail is a reflection of the age of the material - some not so good, some quite good - and the nature of the clips (some are inherently quite poor). There doesn't appear to be any issue with low level noise.

    The colours are similarly all over the place. The early clips feature woeful colour with plenty of problems - Deborah Harry's blonde hair is often tinted green in the earlier clips for instance. The later clips are better. Some of the colours get a bit garish, which also does not aid the situation as they are prone to slight over-saturation. The later clips are much more acceptable with nice clean colours, well balanced and decently saturated.

   There are all sorts of small nasties in the transfers, but probably most are inherent in the source material. In The Flesh features some ghosting of the image that looks at times like an aura - I know the band were good, but a god-like aura is a bit much! This can be seen at 5:20. At 10:50 you will see quite noticeable flaring in the hair and this appears at other times too. If I confine myself to obvious film-to-video artefacts as a result of the mastering process, then I would have to say that aside from the odd instance of minor shimmer, there are no obvious problems. There were a few film artefacts floating around, but nothing unusual for material of this nature and age.

   This is a single sided, single layered DVD and there are no subtitles available. I always find this disappointing on music DVDs.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are just two soundtrack choices on the DVD: a full bit rate English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. You know where I headed first...

    Promptly regretting that I did so, as the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a shocker. Some engineering b****** has completely screwed up the bass channel in the mix, which at times destroys the music completely. I nearly cried, it was that bad! Sure there is bass to the music but in many cases the bass is very specifically used in the songs. In this mix it has just been thrown into the mix as a diffuse thudding mass that completely works against the music. Switching to the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack was blessed relief in every way - the rattling around the house stopped, my head stopped pounding and I could finally hear the great vocals and instrumental work.

    Since these are video clips for promotional purposes, there is the obligatory attempts at lip synching. At least Deborah Harry got better at this as time went on...

    I think I have said nearly all that I need to say about the 5.1 soundtrack. Nearly you note, for there is still one more complaint about it: what the heck happened to the surround channels? There is virtually no rear channel use at all, and I would be very much tempted to suggest that they are in fact completely silent. Maybe they forgot to put them in the mix because the bass was too overpowering and they did not hear that the rear surround channels were missing? The overall result is a very frontal sound with rumbling, grumbling bass that is completely inadequate in every way. This is just a very bad soundtrack - and one that I would suggest being avoided.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is in comparison an absolute gem. Yes, it really is not, but in comparison it is. There is nothing really wrong with the 2.0 soundtrack that a bit more openness would not have fixed. I thought the sound was just a little compressed and that took away some of the bite to the songs. However, it is a minor quibble - what we have certainly is not at all bad and does enough to show the quality of the songs.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Considering the body of work of the band, I would have thought that the promotional opportunities afforded by the format would have ensured a vastly better offering than this. Where is the discography? Where is the history? Where is... oh never mind, you get the idea.

Menu

    After an animated introduction, albeit rather too quick with respect of the album covers, the main menu features some audio and animation enhancement. The audio is a little too quick to loop - why not play the whole song?

Music Video - The Hardest Part (3:41)

    Coming from 1979, this features Deborah Harry as a brunette rather than as a blonde. Good song, good quality video, a nice addition a to the package. The presentation, like all three of the bonus music videos, is the same as the main feature.

Music Video - Island Of Lost Souls (3:49)

    From 1982 and the generally lamentable The Hunter album, this is not a great example of the promotional music video! The technical quality is on a par with the later offerings in the main program.

Music Video - Maria (4:16)

    From the 1999 album No Exit, this was a surprise hit for the rejuvenated band. The artistic choices involved in the way the video is presented are counter-productive to a great technical presentation, but it is exactly as it is intended to look.

Credits

    As far as I can ascertain, this is the same DVD as issued in Region 1 - to almost equal disdain from fans of the band.

    One consistent comment made with respect of the Region 1 release is the lack of production values employed by EMI for the release. Whilst I suppose there is nothing inherently wrong with doing straight reissues of old VHS tapes, it does mean that the opportunities afforded by DVD are ignored - as is the fact that DVD is a heck of a lot more exacting upon transfer standards. Ultimately it is this lack of attention to quality that drags down Blondie - Greatest Video Hits. As a fan of the band, I was so looking forward to this DVD that my disappointment borders almost on disgust over the lack of respect given the release. I cannot really recommend this to even fans of the band - EMI needs to do something a lot better than this to celebrate the band. The one positive from the DVD? That the music is still as good as ever - and if EMI ever get their act together and release the entire Blondie discography with respect on DVD-Audio, I would be in there with a pre-order so quick it would not be funny.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall