Woodstock Directors Cut for Blu-Ray

You can play it. Warner doesn't use Wee-jun limiting kodes. I wish the rest of 'em would follow suit!

 

"Sorry if this has already been answered and I missed it. Does this UK Blu-Ray version play on all US players or do you have to have a region free one?"

Plays on my american sony fine

 

I have to say that I've always had a wee bit of trouble with Neil's "don't film me" Woodstock story, mainly because the cameras were indeed filming during Neil's first number "Mr. Soul". There was at least one camera on Neil, so therefore he must have been able to see that they WERE indeed filming. And of course in the circulating "Long Time Gone" outtake we do get to see Neil, if only briefly at the end of the clip.

I think it is equally plausible that Neil refused permission to use his material in post-production. Clearly Atlantic wanted him on the Soundtrack album, and were willing to use a non-Woodstock version of "Sea Of Madness" to keep him happy there!

 

I feel the same way, but I think Neil was being Neil and wound up getting the best of both worlds: he doesn't want to be filmed so he makes a snap judgement at the time, but then rethinks things and later gets one of his songs on the lp, giving him huge exposure. Thus, he gets to appear quirky and arty (ie, being typical Neil) by not being filmed, but gets a song on the soundtrack after the fact that probably netted him tons of exposure. I have to admit (shamefaced) that I heard Sea of Madness well before I heard any Neil lps.

 

I never "got" Canned Heat UNTIL the director's cut of Woodstock appeared and they inserted some of their live footage. They were so infectious...jumping around like they were playing a house show instead of for hundreds of thousands. I love when the guy comes up and bums a cigarette from Bob Hite mid-song. Was he a friend of the band or just some guy from the crowd?

I'd always heard stories about Bob Hite and Alan Wilson, but I was shocked to learn that their bass player (the one who headbangs for the entire set and resembles a crazed short-order cook) was Larry Taylor, who has played with everyone from the Monkees to Tom Waits.

 

BRush,

Were you involved in the making of the new Rhino box set as well?

I've noticed--for you fetishists out there--that QVC's version of the 6-CD box contains a bonus disc with 5 unreleased tracks. Wonder if any more "bonus discs" will appear. I'm sure!

 

Me too actually--and I actually think that "Sea Of Madness" was an odd choice for that album anyway. Maybe they should have used a "Mr. Soul" from a different live show. I really like the authentic Woodstock version.

 

Yea, one good thing about Warner, but Warner has got to be one of the few still doing Dolby Digital as the top-of-the-line soundtrack on some disks still ... including the new Pushing Daises Season Two.

And of course the entire Disk 2 from Woodstock is Dolby Digital too.

 

No I wasn't involved in the new Rhino Box set. I did help Eddie locate some of the master tapes. I offered a few song suggestions, but they were rejected.

I was involved in the 25th Anniversary Atlantic Box set, I helped get CCR on it, and was involved in some of the remixing and some of the song selections. Also restored "Soul Sacrifice" and "I'm Going Home" to their full length.

Apparently the QVC Bonus disk has: Sweetwater "Why Oh Why", Paul Butterfield Blues Band "Morning Sunrise", Arlo Guthrie "Amazing Grace", &
Quill "Waitin' For You" on it.

"Morning Sunrise" was included on the new "Woodstock: Untold Stories" DVD. There is footage of the Quill, Arlo, and Sweetwater songs, but they weren't cleared to use on the DVD.

 

Great! Good to know the footage exists at any rate. I assumed that maybe Alan Douglas didn't use the complete "Waitin' For You" because the footage was simply unavailable, but being Alan Douglas I shoulda known better!

 

new "Woodstock: Untold Stories" DVD......What is this??

 

That is the name of the bonus disc included with the "box set" version of the new Woodstock Film DVD reissue.

 

BRush,

You gave the producers (Andy Zax?) of the Rhino CD set some song recommendations that were rejected. Were you given a reason for the rejection? It almost seems like the producers are leaning toward material that hadn't previously circulated among collectors. Any thoughts on this?

 

I made a couple of casual recomendations to the folks at Rhino, I was in no way a consultant. It was no big deal that my suggestions were turned down.
Andy Zax was a big help on WB's DVD project, we both did a lot of research for these projects. I provided Andy with some audio tapes held by the film studio. Andy, Cheryl, and Mason at Rhino put the CD project together. It was a very massive project. we shared lots of information. Both WB and Rhino wanted to present material that had never been released.

 

It appears, from what I read in the liner notes of the new Rhino box set, that the multitracks for the Ravi Shankar and Melanie sets are lost. Ravi re-created his performance in the studio for the 1969 LP release "Ravi Shankar At The Woodstock Festival".

One of the great mysteries of Woodstock for me is this: Who was Eric Blackstead? Other than the his role as the producer of the Woodstock and Woodstock Two albums, what work has he done in music?

Anyone have any idea?

 

BRush, have you any knowledge as to whether or not the Keef Hartley Band set was recorded and/or filmed? Supposedly their manager would not give the OK for the set to be filmed, but Keef & co. are not on the Rhino box set either, apparently due to "inability to license the material".

Why on earth would Keef Hartley say no to royalties? The mind boggles!

 

By the way, the Alan Douglas-produced "Woodstock Diaries" programs have been released yet again on UK DVD. This is the third UK DVD release.

I have the 2002 UK DVD which is badly pixelated due to the decision to pack 3 hours of material onto a single-layer disc. There are also videotape tracking issues at the upper edge of the picture.

Could any of you UK forum members tell me if the new(August 2009) release is of better quality?

 

So this has been released 3 times in the UK, but not once in the U.S.? Unreal .........

This was never released on VHS in the U.S., was it?

 

No, the only NTSC editions were three(subtitled) Japanese Laserdiscs.

 

Thanks, Phil.

 

I don't have the 2002 edition and I'm not British (except for distant Irish ancestry on my mother's side of the family and a deep appreciation for British TV fare that is often better than much of what we produce here), but I received my copy of the Region 2 PAL Woodstock Diaries several days ago from Amazon and so far I'm very impressed.

I've only had time to watch the first day, but have not seen any pixilation or tracking issues over my Oppo DVD player. The film is presented in anamorphic WS which probably means that the original 16mm footage was cropped to fit the 16:9 image, but the performances do not appear to suffer for it.

There is occasional dirt and speckling (very slight and random), but not as much grain as I would've thought for a 40 year old 16mm film (originally shot with 4:3 cameras and cropped to fit 16:9 televisions for this release). In short, this is in much better shape than I was expecting even though it isn't true to the composition of the original camera image.

BTW, the sound is also excellent from my subjective perspective (there is a choice of Dolby AC-3 stereo or Dolby surround 5.1 soundtrack). The bottom line: If you don't expect similar quality to the restored Blu-ray presentation then you should be quite happy with this upgrade!


Cat

 

I have been assured by Wienerworld(the company that released the new Uk DVD edition of "Woodstock Diaries") that their disc is dual-layer, and is newly remastered. The picture quality problems on the 2002 UK DVD(on the "Direct Video" label) stemmed from trying to put 3 hours of material onto a single layer disc.

 

By the way, if Amazon.com is to be believed, there will be an American NTSC DVD of "Woodstock Diary" on September 22nd.

 

If you have a multi-region player (apparently you do if you own the earlier release), then I'd suggest snapping that puppy up now!

There may be a U.S. release planned, but rights issues could delay or force the removal of some performances for stateside release (remember what BRush stated earlier about trying to acquire the rights from some performers for the BD bonus material).

The fact that this material may have come out earlier in another format (VHS, LD, etc.) doesn't mean that it won't require renegotiation with all parties to acquire permission for DVD and/or BD release in the U.S.

Just my opinion; YMMV, but it is food for thought.


Cat

 

Fantastic news ......... if true.