David Bowie-Best of Bowie (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Booklet Easter Egg-8 DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	204:15 (Case: 252)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mick Rock David Mallet David Bowie Various
Studio Distributor	EMI Music	Starring	David Bowie
Case	Gatefold
RPI	$34.95	Music	David Bowie

    What we have presented here in this double DVD package is a comprehensive catalogue of (just about) all of Bowie's singles clips, from the earliest known and recently resurfaced TV appearance footage on a 1972 episode of BBC's legendary music show "The Old Grey Whistle Test", through all of the commercially-made music video clips covering singles all the way through three decades right up to and including the 1999 album 'hours...'. (Note the DVD stops short of the 2002 album "Heathen"). The only two gaps I can see absent from this DVD are 1/ the Tin Machine material of 1989-1992 - which is fair enough, given that this was the band Tin Machine and not David Bowie as such, and 2/ the 1981 collaboration with Queen, Under Pressure - which is also fair enough, given this is viewed more as a "Queen track, featuring David Bowie" rather than the other way around and, in any event, there was no performance clip made for the song at the time. Apart from these two understandably deliberate omissions, I can't see any gaps at all in the extensive catalogue of Bowie's music clip material as contained on this DVD. (Some Bowie fan out there may care to correct me if I'm wrong in saying this.) 

    The video clips are presented on the DVD in chronological order, but note this is the chronological order in which the clips were produced/aired, not necessarily the order in which the songs were originally released. That is why, for example, the song Space Oddity, Bowie's earliest well-known single from the 1969 album of the same name, is pushed back to track number 7 on this DVD, as the video clip for it was not shot until some three years later in December 1972. I think presenting all the clips on the DVD in this order, rather than sticking religiously to the original song release date, was indeed a wise idea, so we can witness Bowie's steady progression in terms of both visual style and confidence of performance. In any event, it is not a big issue, as only a few songs are shuffled around at the beginning of the running order to accommodate any discrepancies, before it settles down to the clips being made as and when the songs were released.

    A comment on the nature of the presentation on DVD here. Many readers will probably be initially disappointed that this DVD has not been updated with a new 5.1 or even 2.0 Surround audio remix. Instead, Bowie and EMI appear to have made a conscious and deliberate decision not to muck around with the source material at all and simply present it all on DVD as it was originally intended to be presented - and that means stereo audio. But you can't really fault the artist for this decision. The trouble is we are often spoilt by other music artists releasing their old music videos or "Greatest Hits" compilations on DVD now with the benefit of a newly created surround audio remix, most times because they feel they have to update the audio for its new DVD/home theatre format. That's great if the new surround sound remix works well, but many times it does not and instead just comes across as a new surround remix for the sake of it. And it is an inconsistency in logic to update the audio for the modern DVD/home theatre environment but not update the video for the same reason. To radically change and enhance the audio source for home theatre presentation without also considering enhancing the video source for home theatre too (i.e. making it widescreen) screams out as an inconsistency, and the resultant marriage of a "big soundstage" with a "small visual" can in fact be jarring. Now most purists out there would immediately argue that any video source originally shot in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (full frame) should be left as it is thanks very much and not cropped and enhanced to 1.78:1 just for the sake of widescreen TV presentation. Quite right and I agree. What I  don't agree with is an inconsistency in logic as applied to both audio and video. Artists like Bowie and Queen understood this modern-day DVD dilemma perfectly when approaching their respective "Greatest Hits" DVDs; they just tackled the problem differently. Queen opted to update their material for today's technology by providing radically enhanced new 5.1 audio mixes for the songs as well as enhancing the video for widescreen - perfectly consistent and it worked very well. Bowie on the other hand took a more purist approach and opted to leave both the audio and video in the format in which it was originally intended to be presented - so giving a faithful historical snapshot of the material as released. You cannot really argue with either approach - both are at least being consistent. So if you are at first disappointed and put off this DVD simply because it does not have a new 5.1 surround remix, then I would urge you to remember that the clips were never intended to be presented that way, and so the DVD should not be judged because of it. What is much more important however, and what we can all be grateful for, is the fact that the stereo audio track accompanying this DVD is a ripper and won't disappoint.

Video

    The video clips are for the most part presented on this DVD in their original aspect ratios. Nearly all of them are 1.33:1 full screen. Only a handful (7 out of 47 clips) are exceptions to this rule, where letterboxing has been used to give the clips a slightly wider - and at times unconventional - aspect ratio. For the record, the handful of non-1.33:1 clips are As The World Falls Down in 1.50:1, Loving The Alien and Buddha Of Suburbia in 1.66:1, Jump They Say in 2.15:1, and the last 3 clips, I'm Afraid Of Americans, Thursday's Child and Survive, all being more modern productions made with the intention of widescreen presentation in the more conventional ratio of 1.85:1. Understandably enough though, this handful of clips has not been presented here 16x9 enhanced, as to do so would be disruptive to the full frame presentation dictated by the majority of the material.

   As with any DVD mastered from multiple sources (in this case 47 of them), the luminance and chrominance of the video transfer is somewhat variable. The good news is that ,compared to many other music video DVDs with source materials dating back to the early 1970s, this one holds up well, principally because in this case nearly all of the early 1970s clips are sourced from BBC TV shows - all shot on film and well preserved. It is not until the late 70s/early 80s that we start to hit the dreaded "video era" where the luminance and chrominance suffers in the source - see Heroes, DJ, Ashes To Ashes and Fame. Thankfully though, once we're passed this early 80s flirtation with video, Bowie seems to have had enough clout and artistic integrity (read money!) to insist on going back to film for many of his subsequent clips. So what we have here is the overwhelming majority of the 47 source materials taken from film and the earliest of those materials being well preserved. This leads to sharpness and shadow detail being more than satisfactory on this DVD, with nominal low level noise (check out Absolute Beginners). Foreground and background resolution is for the majority quite sharp, revealing startling clarity and detail in the face of a very young David Bowie in Oh! You Pretty Things, for example. Grain is apparent in some clips and is of course exacerbated in those clips that employ low-light shoots - see for examples Cat People (very grainy video), John, I'm Only Dancing, Space Oddity and Drive-In Saturday. Be My Wife appears to have been shot on 16mm film and intentionally overexposed, also with grain apparent.

    Colour is striking in most clips, with blacks for the most part very solid, healthy colour saturation levels and no bleeding. Exceptions are to be found in the aforementioned video source clips. (It's wrong to penalise a clip like Ashes to Ashes for colour bleed and oversaturation however, as these are obvious and intended by-products of a clip showcasing the dawn of the then new video era - to brilliant effect. What an innovative and fresh-looking clip it remains even now.)  Colour bleed is also noted in Miracle Goodnight and Strangers When We Meet, among a few others. As a rule though, most of the earlier BBC clips and most of the post-1986 clips - that means the good majority - all exhibit very deep and bold colours. Black Tie White Noise, for example, employs a striking use of colour.

    No MPEG artefacts are noted. Film-to-video artefacts also scores well. The only film-to-video artefact manifesting on my setup are a couple of trivial instances of aliasing, the only obviously distracting one being on the Venetian blinds during DJ. Some minor edge enhancement also appears to have been employed, but again nothing too distracting on my setup. Film artefacts consist of some minor film flecks and marks sprinkled here and there, but again nothing distracting.

    There is no subtitle stream available.

    The discs are single-layered.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The mix for most songs is excellent. Vocals are crisp and prominent in the mix, instruments are all well defined and the audio transfer has been sourced from remastered audio recordings, breathing new life into the tracks with clarity and separation across the range. The stereo soundstage is full and powerful, with great stereo panning effects and precise left-right instrument placements employed in many mixes. There are only a few songs that provide an exception to the above glowing report: Drive-In Saturday seems to suffer from a compressed dynamic range, and Young Americans, filmed for NBC's "Dick Cavett Show", appears to come with live audio from the TV broadcast and is an overly harsh/bright mix. At the other end of the scale though, songs that I noted as stand-outs deserving special mention for great mixing and range are Ashes To Ashes (for its stereo panning and clarity, including some great slap bass), Fashion (stereo panning and rhythm guitar) and Let's Dance (overall dynamic range). The mix of many other songs also impresses.

    There are no problems with audio sync.

    The only two notable issues in respect of sound clicks/pops/dropouts are the audible audio hiss during Loving The Alien and one or two others, and some audio clicks noted in Day-In Day-Out (one click at 22:33) and the Miracle Goodnight Easter Egg version (several annoying clicks here). These are isolated instances, however, and other songs are all fine.

    There is more than a moderate call made on the subwoofer to help fill out the bottom end in this audio transfer. Among the many songs that could be cited for great subwoofer use are: Never Let Me Down (for bumps, trembles, and other LFE), Look Back In Anger, Underground and Modern Love (bass guitar), Day-In Day-Out, Time Will Crawl and Ziggy Stardust (kick drums) and China Girl and Loving The Alien (subwoofer use generally). This really is a great LPCM transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Booklet

    A 16-page booklet is provided,  It is colourful but pretty useless, simply providing a long list of the credits for each song clip and the DVD itself. A cool collage picture is provided on the back cover, but all-in-all this booklet is a complete waste of time seeing that all these credits are available on the DVD itself. Some nice collectable pictures and a short essay on the strange and elusive rock star would have been much more preferable.

Easter Eggs

    At first glance this DVD appears to have absolutely no extras at all. That is, until/unless you check out the "Credits" menu on disc 2 and see that several Easter Eggs have in fact been included - they are clearly stated as Easter Egg inclusions and you can see exactly what they are, as the credits for them are listed. Now of course this menu doesn't tell you how to actually access them!......

    Personally speaking, I simply hate Easter Eggs, as I hate the concept of "hiding" valuable material that, if widely known, would be of at least passing interest to most potential viewers. Here the Easter Eggs are mostly alternate takes or alternate versions of different songs, either with a different audio remix over the same video clip or in some cases a completely different video clip as well. It is a crime that all this worthy material is not readily accessible via a main menu icon, and therefore that many viewers will never know they are there and miss them entirely.

    The Easter Eggs are:   

• Egg #1, Disc 1: Oh! You Pretty Things (Take 1):  This is the initial run-through for the version that was filmed immediately afterwards for the broadcast on "The Old Grey Whistle Test". The first take is very similar indeed to the final broadcast edit, but take 1 does differ in one material respect in the audio - it has a more raw, live vocal which it must have been decided to drop for the second take.
  To access: Select "Play All" from the main menu and once Oh! You Pretty Things starts, go back to the main menu via the "menu" button on your remote and re-select "Play All" once again. This time it will play with take 1. (To go back to take 2 again, simply exit and select "Play All" from the main menu a third time - the disc will recycle back and forth between the two takes each time you continue to do this.)
• Egg #2, Disc 1: Russell Harty Interview snippet after Drive-In Saturday TV performance:  This is a fascinating (but all too short - just under 2 mins) snippet from the interview with a very young David Bowie, in January 1973 immediately after his performance of Drive-In Saturday on the "Russell Harty Plus Pop" TV show. I would have loved to have seen this interview in its entirety - as it is we only get two minutes, which is a tease.
  To access: Go to the "Track listing" screen from the main menu and then down to Drive-In Saturday, then right arrow, which will highlight a line after the song title, select it and enter.
• Egg #3, Disc 1: Jazzin' For Blue Jean (full length version):  This is by far the meatiest and coolest extra on the DVD - and it is the extra that most fans will be looking for. This is the full length, 20 minute short-film version of the Blue Jean clip. It sets up the story of a young lad named Vic (played by Bowie), trying to impress his new date by pretending that he not only knows the (fictitious) rock star "Screamin' Lord Byron" (also played by Bowie), but that he can get his date backstage to meet him. This short film is not only very entertaining and funny, but also confirms Bowie's talents as a comedic actor. If this was indeed the only extra included on the DVD, then most fans would still be very happy.
  To access: Go to the "Track listing" screen from the main menu and then down to Blue Jean, then right arrow which will highlight a bracket symbol after the song title. Press enter and then the boxed image of Screamin' Lord Byron on the right hand side of the screen will change to a picture of Vic instead. Right arrow again to highlight this image and the extra will automatically play from here.
• Egg #4, Disc 1:  Blue Jean (Alternate version for MTV):  This one is rather inventive; an Easter Egg within an Easter Egg, accessed within the full length version of  Jazzin' For Blue Jean!  It is an alternate video clip for the song Blue Jean, shot for MTV - a mock live version of the song "performed" at the SoHo Club. It beats me why MTV would actually want a different version and why they wouldn't be happy to just air the better, original video clip, but anyway here it is. None too exciting in comparison to the original, but still, interesting to see it and great that it has been included on the DVD as an extra.
  To access: During Egg #3, when the girl goes to the video jukebox and selects Blue Jean, press enter as soon as the song starts and a white line around the jukebox image will highlight, automatically taking you into the alternate clip from here.
• Egg #5, Disc 2: Miracle Goodnight (Remix version): The video clip remains the same, but the mix of the song differs.
  To access: This is the most annoying Egg to access. You have to go the relevant "Track listing" screen that contains this song and then without pressing any button at all wait. And wait. And wait. After a good 5 minutes, the clip will finally launch all by itself. But it's hardly worth the effort when it does really, as the remix version is pretty ho-hum, with the original version better in my view.
• Egg #6, Disc 2: Day-In Day-Out (Extended Dance Mix):  It's stretching the imagination to call this one an "extended mix", when it actually runs for a shorter run time than the original clip (!), but anyway this is an entirely new clip and version of Day-In Day-Out.
  To access: Now these Eggs start to become even more annoying. This one is only accessible after you've watched Egg #5, and even then it is extremely temperamental as to whether it wants to play or not. After watching the previous Egg, select the song Day-In Day-Out from the "Track listing" menu and it should (hopefully) play. I had to try several times before it worked, and I must say I didn't find it worth the effort as again I found the original clip/version better.
• Egg #7: Seven Years In Tibet (Mandarin version):  Bowie re-recorded this particular song in Mandarin and here is the alternate clip for it. It is basically 90% the same as the original clip, just with some occasional "pick-up" shots inserted so that the visuals match Bowie singing the song in Mandarin.
  To access: Much easier to access this time; just with the disc playing normally under the "Play all" option, on the title screen for this song you will notice the Mandarin subtitles for the song title at the bottom of the screen - simply press enter when you see it.
• Egg #8: Survive (Live):  This is a live clip of this song.
  To access: Do the same as you did to access with Egg #1, that is recycle through the menu and "Play All" to swap back and forth between the two clips. It doesn't always work, however and is another highly temperamental Egg wanting to start (and another one not really worth all the effort when you do, in my opinion, as the original is better).

    All-in-all, a comprehensive list of alternate versions and alternate clips. OK, some of them are boring and not really worth the effort, but the inclusion of the Jazzin' For Blue Jean full-length version and the very short Bowie interview snippet alone grant this DVD a high rating for extras. Just next time, EMI, can't we please have the extras clearly visible on the main menu and save the hassle of encoding and accessing them? We're all extremely impressed with your inventiveness here, honestly we are, but just next time...

DVD-ROM Link

    The DVD offers the clips in the formats in which they were originally presented, serving to preserve them as an important snapshot in rock music history. Both video and audio transfers are well handled and breathe new life into old source material. Extras are hidden but plentiful. This is a comprehensive music package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall