THE DICK CAVETT SHOW - JOHN & YOKO COLLECTION is yet another great installment in the Dick Cavett series. It captures John Lennon during one of my favorite periods of his solo career - right after the release of IMAGINE (both the album and the movie, which also featured Dick Cavett). Although there are three complete episodes shown there were actually only two taped. But, there was enough from the first taping to create two episodes. Although John is nervous at first, he quickly warms to Cavett's style, which always included relevant questions (which I'm sure John enjoyed) and was sure not to leave Yoko out of the conversations. Lennon displayed his trademark humor at many points of the show, at one time saying the he didn't want to be "playing 'Yesterday' when I'm 50" (how ironic that McCartney has been doing that for well over 13 years past the 50 mark!). I was also surprised by his comment about 'overpopulation', which Cavett challenged him on. One of the great surprises of this collection was that two of Yoko's films were shown during the episodes, "Fly" and "Erection". Although they were only shown in part, I had never seen them before. I've got to say that I was impressed by their (John & Yoko's) ability at filmmaking. On the second appearance of the Lennon's on the Cavett show, they played two songs (with Elephant's Memory): John's "Woman is the Nigger of the World" and Yoko's "We're All Water". There is a disclaimer prior to the airing of John's song, which is further explained in the bonus featurette "Cavett And The Lennons". In my opinion (yes, I am a HUGE Beatles fan), this is the best Dick Cavett collection so far and a "must" for Beatles/Lennon fans!
O.K. - I've got good news and bad news for Who fans regarding THE WHO: TOMMY AND QUADROPHENIA LIVE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS DVD. Actually, some "great" news, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First let me talk about the bad news - two of the three discs are disposable as far as any real Who fan is concerned. Disc One contains a 1989 Los Angeles performance of TOMMY with special guests such as Phil Collins, Billy Idol and Elton John. I remember MTV screening one of the two TOMMY performances from 1989, but I'm not sure which performance they showed. While I once loved the original TOMMY album, I believe the project has been beaten into the ground! In addition to the original Who album and live performances, you also had: Lou Reizner's production, the TOMMY movie, the TOMMY Broadway production, etc. However, not all is lost on Disc One as I really enjoy Phil Collin's performance as 'Uncle Ernie' (as well as Billy Idol as 'Cousin Kevin'). We hit the bottom of the barrel on Disc Three: LIVE HITS. It is basically a collection of The Who's greatest hits performed live at various venues from the 1989 and 1996-97 tours. Yawn!!! You can't top THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT and it seemed ludicrous to try. Ahh, but the 2nd Disc: QUADROPHENIA! This disc alone makes this set worthy of purchase. While TOMMY doesn't resonate well with my generation (the '70s/'80s), it is quite the opposite with QUADROPHENIA - that album seemed to perfectly capture teenage angst (one of Townsend's great talents). While it concentrates on a strictly U.K. phenomenon of the mods, the theme of QUADROPHENIA resonates well with any teenager. QUADROPHENIA never quite got its full justice during Keith Moon's life. Sure, the album was played live in the U.K. (where it hadn't even been released yet) and U.S. in 1973, but that was it. The project wasn't touched again until after Moon's death, where it was made into a feature movie in 1979. And while that was a great movie, the focus was more on drama that the actual music itself. Fast forward to 1996, where The Who finally gave QUADROPHENIA the full treatment it deserved! In addition to the full album being played live, there was a video screen with added continuity to the story, narrated by Jimmy the mod. As with the TOMMY shows, there are special guests including: Billy Idol (making his second appearance as the 'Ace Face' - MUCH better than Sting's movie performance of the same role) and P.J. Proby as the elder. Luckily, I saw The Who on the Quadrophenia tour and this DVD is a great flashback to one of the exceptions to the rule: a band going back and presenting an old theme with effective success. (Click here for my 1997 review of The Who's Quadrophenia show in Atlanta) All in all, the 1996-97 tour was the best presentation of the QUADROPHENIA concept and it is fabulous to now have it captured on DVD! One of the great bonuses of the film is the interactive visual commentary by Roger Daltrey & Pete Townsend, explaining the concept of the project. While the fabulous QUADROPHENIA DVD alone makes this 3-disc set worth the purchase, I can't help but wonder if a QUADROPHENIA themed DVD set would have been better (including the 1979 movie and a collection of their 1973 tour)? But at least in the case of The Who, Roger Daltrey (who produced this set) runs rings around the lethargic Apple Records and their snails-pace of releasing Beatles DVD's (many of which already saw official VHS release in the '80s). This is definitely the case of "one out of three ain't bad"!
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"The Dick Cavett Show- John Lennon & Yoko Ono Collection"
"The Who: Tommy and Quadrophenia Live"