Boogie with Canned Heat (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	139:51
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:21)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Rajon Vision	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    Many years ago, early in my days of record collecting, I was chatting to a work colleague about my love of blues and blues related music when he said to me ‘So you must like Canned Heat then?’ I looked at him with some confusion and said ‘Who?’ He then proceeded to pull out an old copy of The Canned Heat Cookbook (an early greatest hits compilation) and play Going Up the Country and On The Road Again for me. I was immediately hooked and now own many albums by this very long lasting and hard living blues and boogie band.

     They initially formed in California in 1965 with a core of Bob ‘The Bear’ Hite (Vocals), Al ‘Blind Owl’ Wilson (Vocals, Harmonica & Guitar) and Henry 'Sunflower' Vestine (Lead Guitar). To these three they added a bass player and drummer, however, these were soon replaced by the bassist and drummer who still play with the band today, Larry ‘The Mole’ Taylor & Fito de la Parra. During their over 40 year history as a working band they have gone through many line-up changes but these five are generally considered the classic Canned Heat line-up. The only other member to challenge for a place in this bracket would be Harvey ‘The Snake’ Mandel who has been in and out of the band replacing (and then being replaced by) Henry Vestine. Unfortunately, the big three, Hite, Wilson & Vestine have all passed away over the years mostly seemingly related to their hard living. Wilson committed suicide in 1970, Hite died of a drug overdose in 1984 and Vestine passed away more recently in 1997. All were in the band at the time of their deaths. Fito de la Parra has been the one continuous member of the band since he joined in 1966. He plays a large role in this documentary providing much of the interview material on the inner workings of the band.

    The band itself is named after an old blues song from the 1920s Canned Heat Blues by Tommy Johnson. The song was named after an illicit beverage which gave a high similar to alcohol but was made out of Sterno which is a canned cooking fuel for small camping burners. Drinking this combined with soft drink has been blamed for the deaths of many poorer people in the first half of last century.

    The show contained on this disc is a detailed and exhaustive history of the band starting from their formation in 1965 through to the present day incarnation (well up to 2004 when it was made anyway). It includes significant amounts of interview material with the drummer Fito de la Parra and the Bass Player, Larry Taylor along with their manager throughout the 60s and most of the 70s, Skip Taylor. Additionally, and of great interest to fans, it includes many live performances of their songs from festivals such as Woodstock & Rotterdam along with things recorded for German television and other concerts, including one with John Lee Hooker. This material is excellent to have and significant portions of songs or whole songs are included. Many of the band’s big hits and well known album tracks are included such as On the Road Again, Going Up the Country, Future Blues and many others.

    Besides the music there are also many fascinating anecdotes about the band’s problems with internal bickering, drugs, alcohol, customs (esp. in Australia), suicide, mental instability, accidents and lots of other things. Also covered are some of their better known live shows and happenings. Considering that most of the anecdotes come from band members or people very close to the band this makes for authentic and interesting stories. My only minor criticism would be that at 140 minutes approximately it is a little long with some interview sections telling too much detail of a story. The live footage never outstays its welcome though.

Video

    The video quality is very good considering its television heritage and including lots of archival footage.

    The feature is presented mostly in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, non 16x9 enhanced which I would presume is the OAR. There are some inserts in 1.78:1 which are also non 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was surprisingly sharp and clear throughout even most of the archival footage looked pretty good.

    The colour was bright and generally artefact free although there was some colour bleeding and flaring on the archive footage. There was only some black & white footage.

    There were a few film artefacts during the archive footage.

    There are subtitles in French & German but not English.

    There is a layer change at 69:21 which was not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is pretty good considering the source.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was very easy to understand and clear.

    The music is all off the archival recordings so you cannot expect too much, however, it certainly sounds pretty good.

    The surround speakers were not used.

    The subwoofer added bass to the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu includes music and some animation. It allows for scene selection and subtitle control.

    The Region 1 release seems to have been discontinued however would seem to be the same configuration other than being in NTSC.

    The video quality is very good considering its origins.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall