Elton John-Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Classic Albums) (Warner Vision) (2001) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Documentary |
Main Menu Audio Featurette-Bonus Interviews (10) |
|
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
Running Time | 49:22 (Case: 90) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Bob Smeaton |
Studio
Distributor |
Warner Vision |
Starring |
Elton John Nigel Olsson Davey Johnstone Gus Dudgeon Bernie Taupin |
Case | Soft Brackley-Transp | ||
RPI | $39.95 | Music | Elton John |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
|
||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
French German Dutch Italian Spanish Portuguese |
Smoking | Yes, it was the '70s! |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
As with previous entries in the Classic Albums series, this presentation features interviews with all of the people involved in the production of the record. Not only are there interviews here with Elton John and Bernie Taupin, but band members Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone also get to have their say. Producer Gus Dudgeon and engineer David Hentschel are also featured, as are latter-day Elton collaborator Tim Rice and many record company executives and journalists. Even the president of the Elton John fan club gets an interview. The only person missing is bassist at the time Dee Murray who passed away in the early '90s.
The information presented is a fascinating look into the production of the album, and the general way in which albums were produced in mid '70s Europe Probably the most interesting sequences are those that involve Gus Dudgeon and David Hentschel at the mixing desk revealing the many layers that went into the forming of the tracks, and highlighting some of the background work that is not particularly obvious when simply listening to the album.
All that I can really say here is that this DVD is a must buy for anyone who owns a copy of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and is still worth a look for anyone interested in how albums are put together in general. This presentation shows exactly why Elton John is as successful as he is - he is simply a genius.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the transfer is 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness of the transfer differs vastly between the archival footage and the new interviews. The archival footage is extremely blurry, often making it difficult to make out even medium detail, let alone fine detail. The newer footage however, is quite sharp (although still not overly so). The archival footage is almost uniformly afflicted with a serious grain problem, the screen coming alive at times (such as at 8:29-46), and is so noticeable as to draw obvious attention. The new interview footage does not escape the grain problem either, although it is the interviews with Elton John and Bernie Taupin that exhibit the worst of the problem. Fortunately, the problem in the new interviews is not anywhere near the levels reached in the archival footage. Shadow detail fares considerably better, being very good for the new interview footage. The archival footage is all brightly lit, and shadow detail never really comes into play. There is no low level noise in the transfer.
Colours are, as with most of the other problems, dependent on the source. The older footage ranges from luscious and vibrant (the snippet from the Jamacia Jerk-Off video) to quite washed out. The new footage displays nice colour rendering, although there appears to be a problem with the intensity levels on a green light behind Bernie Taupin's head during his interview, resulting in a constant throbbing of this light which becomes quite annoying as the feature progresses.
Impressively, the high grain levels cause no real problems in terms of MPEG artefacts, as there were none to be seen in this presentation. There are only two major causes of aliasing in the transfer, but they are both quite major. By far the worst problem occurs with the rows of knobs and dials on the mixing desk during the interviews with Gus Dudgeon that, while subtle, cause the entire desk to shimmer slightly. This can become quite annoying once noticed. The other major instances of aliasing are caused by Davey Johnstone's guitar. The archival footage is also heavily marred by film artefacts. While they occur throughout the transfer, the worst cases are to be found during the sequence 6:25-7:15. The newer footage is thankfully free of film artefacts.
There are no English subtitles present on this disc.
This is a single-layer disc and is therefore free of a layer change.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There is only a single audio track on this disc, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track encoded at the higher bitrate of 224 Kbps.
Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. The music, when presented, has a very good presence and is certainly not lacking for missing out on a full surround mix.
The only issue with audio sync on this disc occurs when pre-recorded music is faded over the top of performance footage - and given that the two are obviously not meant to match, this is not a problem at all.
Being a straight stereo mix, this disc obviously made no use of the surround channels.
While the subwoofer did receive some re-directed bass at times, it was only a minimal effect at best, and really did not come into play at all.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is extremely variable, thanks to the combination of archival footage and new interview footage. None of it is of spectacular quality, and some of the older footage is quite ordinary.
The audio quality is much better, carrying the interviews with perfect clarity, while delivering the music perfectly as well.
The single extra is really an extension of the main documentary, and is just as interesting, if not more so in some parts.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | RCA 80cm. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS787, THX Select |
Speakers | All matching Vifa Drivers: centre 2x6.5" + 1" tweeter (d'appolito); fronts and rears 6.5" + 1" tweeter; centre rear 5" + 1" tweeter; sub 10" (150WRMS) |