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Reviews (7)
30 Jul, 2009
jamboree (DVD, 2005)
Technical quality of this DVD is good, new off the shelf. The content of the DVD is unfortunately typical of 1950's "teen movie" schlock, in this case a lousy story line as an excuse for introducing the talents of many of America's then up and coming young stars of rock and roll music fame. Buddy Knox and Fats Domino give great performances of their own songs that actually became hit records; those two guys make the DVD well worth the price of purchase. The other performers gave renditions of songs that never made a blip on the national music radar screen: I know, I was a teenager in the fifties and loved that music genre. Puzzle for the film makers: why was Connie Francis only heard/featured(but not seen)as the talented voice of an absolutely unknown unmemorable actor in the film story? Advice: buy the DVD but fast forward until you get to Buddy Knox and Fats Domino. I'd give it an eight, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it (well, some of it anyway). (It was a mumbling teenage boy who made that immortal statement on Bandstand; I know, I saw and heard him!!)
17 May, 2009
Rick Nelson "Lonesome Town" CD 1995
Rick's CD opens and closes with two of his most famous upbeat rock'n'bop recordings (Believe what you say, and, Waitin' in school - this latter is so fast paced that you wonder how Rick or anyone kept the words up to the pace of the music, maybe the voice track was slightly speeded up who knows). Overall, "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it.I'd give it an eight" (anonymous teenage boy on American Bandstand, Record Review, 1957). In my opinion, the CD would have been much better if "I'm in love again, You are the only one, If you can't rock me" (far from Rick's best recordings)were replaced with "Am I blue, I'm confessin', and Poor little fool, or Teenager's Romance". Nelson had a tremendous positive impact on young people of my generation (his generation). It's seems unfortunate that many of Rick's current compilations/CD's seem to be assembled by people who weren't there when Rick was at his youthful peak of vitality. Myself, I prefer the old vinyls because they capture Rick as he truly was at any point in time; too bad that those oldies aren't just straight-up transcribed to a CD format. Oh well, maybe they are, somewhere...
02 Aug, 2009
dick clark's best of bandstand - the superstarsVHS 1987
Technical quality of this item was excellent. It included the only Jackson5 performance that I ever saw. Unfortunately, like most of these Bandstand videos there is very little of the actual dancing by the teenagers (despite the "promisary note" often touted on the video case/sleeve). Back in the 1950's that was why we watched the program EVERY SINGLE TIME: to see other kids our own age, to learn new dance steps or hair styles or clothing variety, to have our own dance parties, to share vicariously the joy that those Philadelphia kids brought into our living rooms. The lip-synchronized performances by the young recording "artists" were interesting, but we knew they were faked, and we usually left the room to get a snack, returning only when we could hear the dance music start up. I expect that the "nostalgia" attraction of these bandstand clips is for the good old days when we were kids and for the other kids who were lucky enough to "get picked" to participate as the dance crowd on the air; not particularly for the "professional performers/singers" who got free publicity for their commercial product. Well, it does have a good beat and you can dance to it. I'd give it an 8.