Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records (2001) |
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Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records (2001) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Discography Trailer-Road To Nashville (1:00) Trailer-Johnny Cash-An Anthology of the Man In Black (1:34) Trailer-Gene Vincent-At Town Hall Party (1:11) Trailer-Bob Luman-At Town Hall Party (2:07) Main Menu Audio DVD Credits |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
| Running Time | 109:18 (Case: 112) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (58:32) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Bruce Sinofsky |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Umbrella Entertainment |
Starring | None Given |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
If you don't know what 706 Union Avenue, Memphis was all about then I have to strongly suggest that you have no interest at all in rock and roll. If the name Sam Phillips means absolutely nothing to you, then you cannot call yourself a fan of rock and roll. That address and that man are inexorably linked with one musical institution that will endure for as long as there is rock and roll music: Sun Records, one of the birth places of rock and roll. It is not possible to really say for sure where rock and roll was born, although logic dictates it would be from the home of the blues - New Orleans. The blues was the underpinning structure of what became jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. However, if you need to know where rock and roll first started to explode, there is little doubt about that: 706 Union Avenue, Memphis. This small, very independent label was formed in the early 1950's by Sam Phillips and soon became a Mecca for all musicians looking for an outlet to record this newly burgeoning craze. Initially, it was of course very much an African-American art form, for they were and still are the most fundamental practitioners of the blues. But after going about as far as could be gone with the African-American talent pool in the Memphis region, Sam Phillips was looking for someone to really take the blues out of purely the African-American South and make it a universal art form.
The date was 5th July, 1954 and two legends were born - Sun Records and Elvis Presley. From that day, the blues found its greatest child in rock and roll and the world has never been the same since. Whilst Elvis Presley certainly went onto much bigger things than he achieved at Sun Records, what he achieved there would have been enough to ensure some recognition as a major artist in the pantheon of rock and roll. The experimentation that resulted in his early successes literally did change the world. Conservatism in the post-war American basically went out of the window as American youth found the spark they needed to become a force of change in American society. Those winds of change were taken overseas by young Americans and became the forces of change in the musical life of Europe and especially Great Britain and France. To this day the two biggest influences in popular music remain the United States and Great Britain.
Even though Elvis Presley went onto RCA Victor (in one of the best business deals ever - his contract cost RCA Victor just $35,000: they probably make that much profit in a few hours from the sales of his records even today) and achieved the sort of mega-status that is unlikely to ever be approached again, it was not the end of Sun Records. Despite not having more than a single decade of its active existence, Sun Records continued to sign and record pivotal talent in the rock and roll genre. A look through the all time roster of Sun Records reads like a veritable who's who of rock and roll. Legends such as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, Rufus Thomas and Charlie Rich all at one time graced the Sun Records roster of artists. Even amongst the lesser names there were artists of importance: Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee Riley, Malcolm Yelvington, and Howlin' Wolf amongst others all made their mark in some way. Many of these names of course went onto bigger things with other labels (such as Johnny Cash at Columbia) but without the start they got at Sun Records they may never have surfaced at all.
It does not take much to realise that Sun Records is one of the pivotal record companies in rock and roll, and therefore makes an interesting inclusion in the American Masters series from the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. Whilst ordinarily dealing with single artists, this episode looks at arguably the most famous record company in the world. The reason for this retrospective look at the label, with founder Sam Phillips providing much of the guidance to the documentary, is the fiftieth anniversary of the label. The bulk of the documentary comes from interviews with artists and others associated with the label. This is in itself rather interesting and it becomes obvious that despite the success of Sun Records, Sam Phillips did not develop everyone equally. Billy Lee Riley clearly had some issues with this and certainly these are made known during the course of the programme, making this something of a warts and all effort. Mixed in amongst the thoroughly interesting interview material is some archival performance footage of some of the names that have graced the Sun Records roster.
The other focus of the documentary is the recording of a fiftieth anniversary tribute album produced by Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. The tracks that we see here are:
Each track is preceded by a performance of the original song, setting up a nice counterpoint to the interpretations recorded for the tribute album. Unusually, only one of the songs is recorded at Sun Records - the others are recorded in New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles. The programme finishes with a gathering of the clan so to speak, with the fiftieth anniversary reunion of artists and other personnel at the Sun Records studio.
There really is nothing much wrong with the programme itself and it does provide an interesting potted history of the legendary company, as well as the influence its artists have had on rock and roll since the 1950's. Whilst there are some obvious low points (take a step forward Kid Rock - or should I say Kid Jerk), on the whole this is enjoyable stuff. By the way, Sam Phillips died last week - a great loss of one of the truly great independent record company owners of all time.
Considering that the bulk of the programme is relatively recent interview material, this has to be considered something of a disappointment overall. I was certainly expecting to make allowances for the archival material as I had seen some of this before and knew that it was hardly the best stuff you would ever see. I was not expecting to make allowances for material barely a couple of years old.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.
Whilst on the face of it, there is nothing really wrong with the transfer, closer inspection reveals some deficiencies that hardly demonstrate what DVD can do. The main problem is that there is just the wrong sort of softness to the image such that when the camera is motionless everything looks fine, but once the camera moves the transfer exhibits varying degrees of problems (of which more anon). An indication of the problem is best evidenced by the lack of sharpness whenever the image is paused. Indeed, at times the image demonstrates what is almost a large degree of gross ghosting. In all other respects the transfer is quite decent - it is fairly detailed with ample clarity and plenty of definition. There is something in the way of minor grain at times but nothing to get irate about and, for most people, will be barely noticeable. Shadow detail is decent but not spectacular. The archival material is infinitely worse in all respects but certainly as was expected.
The recent interview material is really great to look at colour-wise: beautifully saturated in general and very nicely vibrant. There is no evidence of oversaturation however, nor any issue with colour bleed. The archival material used is fairly ropey in "colour" and could do with serious improvement in the black and white tones.
The more anon arrives! There is a constant problem in the transfer with loss of resolution on any movement involving the camera. Examples can be seen at 15:10 and 17:08, with some really eye-poppingly bad examples at 31:38 and 75:50. Indeed, the latter two are so bad that the image becomes almost unwatchable and in the case of one almost exhibits break-up of the picture in the process. Whilst I was tempted to suggest the problems are in the source material (as it was shot on Super 16), I would be hard-pressed to understand how such recent source material could be so bad and therefore can only conclude that it is all evidence of some rather sloppy compression compounding some moderately imperfect source material. Thankfully that problem is the only really lousy one we have to contend with. There appears to be little evidence of aliasing and what is extant is very mild indeed. There are a couple of blatant instances of moiré artefacting in the microphones at 58:51 and 59:53. There are no film artefacts of note in the recent source material, but the archival material is liberally affected by the usual issues.
This is an RSDL formatted DVD, with the layer change coming at 58:32 apparently. I could not detect the layer change but others have indicated that this is the place.
There are no subtitles on the DVD, which is extremely disappointing.
Please note that there two glitches in the DVD: at 61:39 and 65:41 the picture locks up. Judicious swearing had little effect on the problem, nor did throwing the remote control at the television. Pushing the fast forward and fast reverse keys, along with the play button might just get the DVD to restart playing after a bit of a jump in the video. Since this has been reported elsewhere too, this clearly is not an isolated problem and affects a number of different players. As such, it represents a fairly lamentable piece of quality control.
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There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
The dialogue and vocals come up very well in the soundtrack and there is no issue with audio sync in any of the recent source material. Obviously there is just some slight evidence in the much older archival material, but nothing really noticeable.
The soundtrack suffers from a major problem - the bass has been mixed far too forward and prevalent in the mix. It reaches an especially intolerable level in the songs performed by Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler, for the simple reason that it is inappropriate for the songs. However, to some extent it affects all the songs recorded for the tribute album. Other than that, there is not much wrong with the soundtrack. I would have liked a bit more in the way of surround encoding, especially through the rear channels, but I guess with the predominant interview bent of the programme this is hardly a great issue. The sound is quite open and very clear.
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Not a whole lot going on here, more is the pity as this represents an opportunity lost.
Nothing terribly exciting at all.
Seven pages running to a total of forty two releases definitely falls into the category of "selected" only. A crying shame that there was not more effort made here given the priceless nature of some of the original Sun Records releases over the years.
Collectively going by the title of Umbrella Propaganda, they are all presented in a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced and come with varying degrees of ropey Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Colours tend to be oversaturated, occasionally tending towards colour bleed whilst the sound is at times hissy and distorted. In some instances the video is quite grainy and blighted with film artefacts. Overall, be glad it is propaganda and stuff that you probably will not check out more than once.
DVD Credits
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
From what I can find out, the Region 1 release misses out on:
Since the extras are hardly of great value, the issue will come down to video and audio transfer and from what I can read in the few Region 1 reviews located, the Region 1 release sounds to be better. However, this may not be a definitive basis for choosing the Region 1 release. Call it even but with a strong caveat over the Region 4 release.
If you have any interest in music, you should know about Sun Records. As such, ignoring the tribute album stuff, this is an excellent look at the history of the company from both the owner's perspective and the artists' perspectives. If this were to be decided solely on content, you should indulge in this effort as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it is not solely down to content and the quality of the transfer does become an issue. Whilst I am happy enough to live with the audio transfer despite the bass problem, the video transfer leaves me very disappointed and as such this garners only a qualified recommendation.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Denon DVD-1600, using S-Video output |
| Display | Sony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795 |
| Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |