Woodstock Directors Cut for Blu-Ray

Here's a link to the packaging and artwork. I am so jazzed about this release!

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6643496.html?desc=topstory

 

So there is no overlap with hthese bonus cuts and the "Woodstock Diaries" tv specials/UK DVD thing that came out in the mid 90's?

 

Yes there is some overlap from "Woodstock Diaries". Mountain "Southbound Train", Johnny Winter "Meantown Blues", and The Who "My Generation" were also in Diaries, but the new versions are complete. Diaries cut them down, some times several minutes were cut out. Obtaining clearances was really difficult, which is why there is no additional Sly, Band, Janis, Richie, Arlo songs. Very happy to have gotten the Dead and CCR on the new DVD.

 

Hey, that's neat packaging! Can't wait.

 

I'm in.

 

Is there any chance they've cut out anything out that used to be in it, to fit in the new stuff? That would highly annoy me if so.

This is one time I may went to rent first.

 

Not to thread-crap, but one other positive thing may be gleaned from this release, if one chooses to read between the lines: it would appear John Fogerty 'may' be mellowing a bit towards his former band-mates in their long standing feud.

Cat

 

Yeah...even an old Rock 'n' Roll curmudgeon like Fogerty can't hold a grudge forever. Whatever his reasons, though, the CCR archival footage for this release just made my year!
It's nice too, to see him finally embrace his musical legacy in full!

 

Based on my press release, this will offer the almost four-hour Director's Cut on its own and include the bonus performances separately:

Disc One

· Film (Director’s Cut), Part 1 128:38 min

· The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock



Disc Two

· Film (Director’s Cut), Part 2 95:34 min



Disc Three

· Woodstock: Untold Stories 18 Performances as never before seen

· Woodstock: From Festival to Feature Interviews of the sights and sounds of the 3 day event, from concert goers, promoters, crew and musicians


FULL DESCRIPTION OF 18 BONUS PERFORMANCES

· Joan Baez “One Day at a Time”

· Country Joe McDonald “Flying High”

· Santana “Evil Ways”

· Canned Heat “I’m Her Man” and “On the Road Again”

· Mountain “Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train”

· Grateful Dead “Turn On Your Love Light”

· Creedence Clearwater Revival “Born on the Bayou”, “I’ve Put a Spell on You” and

“Keep on Chooglin’”

· The Who “We’re Not Going To Take It” and “My Generation”

· Jefferson Airplane “3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds”

· Joe Cocker “Something’s Coming On”

· Johnny Winter “Mean Town Blues”

· Paul Butterfield “Morning Sunrise”

· Sha Na Na “Teen Angel”

 

A bit late for Tom though I suppose.

 

True, but Creedence toured both with and without Tom, so the core group still remains active, and since it's pretty much agreed that John was the creative force or talent, if you will, that made the group gel, his reconciliation with the remaining members would be essential for any future projects under the name Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don't necessarily look for that to happen other than the possibility of long anticipated archival performance footage finally seeing the light of day, but if anything were to transpire along those lines it would be nice.


Cat

 

John Fogerty's wife plays a big role in his current decisions. She's his manager. I've personally heard stories from a couple people involved in his tours.

There'll be a slow trickle of CCR archive material over the next few years. be like Springsteen & Neil(Dylan?), where you leverage archive releases against having them promote new stuff. Though I don't think they have anything earth shattering. There's a modest amount of video already out there.

 

This is, hands-down, the most excited I've been about a blu-ray release thus far.

 

There is a short video preview about the audio restoration of Santana's Evil Ways, featuring Eddie Kramer & Santana's percussionist Michael Carabello:

http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-Dir...ef=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1236944422&sr=8-4

Yes, they did go back in the studio and re-record some stuff. I'm really looking forward to Woodstock blu-ray.

 

That can't be good.

 

I'm a bit split about that too, although Kramer did state that some sounds weren't recorded due to the nature of how the festival was recorded. A part of me thinks it's placing more of an emphasis on a need for audio with appropriate visuals, in other words, we see the timbales but are we hearing them?

Then again, it is known that the sound of the thunderstorm on the soundtrack album (end of Side 3, beginning of Side 4) and in the film was pulled from the Warner Bros. audio vaults. In fact, the entire soundtrack album was heavily edited and pieced together in a fashion that's not unlike today's cut and paste techniques, most notable the rain storm segment.

When I saw that video on Amazon, I too thought "wow, they're messing with the formula" but they've always messed with the perception of how Woodstock was seen and heard, at least as an audio and video document. At least they were able to get Michael Carabello, along with Jose "Chepito" Areas' son, for the dubbing sessions. Sure, for real authenticity they could have recorded it in an open field in crude conditions, but that field is owned by someone else.

I mean, with any and all existing footage that exists, anyone could create their own version of what Woodstock was, especially if you were actually there. I've not read too many articles about the Black perspective, the Asian perspective, or the gay perspective, or maybe the one or two lone Hawaiians who hopped onto a VW bus from the Bay Area and never came back. Plus, the musicians who were there have talked about it countless times, talking about the myths and truths of the Woodstock generation, which appeals to those of us who were born after the fact and appreciate the festival from afar, as part of something we didn't experience but wanted to.

Anyway, this is getting me hyped.

 

Woodstock

There were audio overdubs in the original "Woodstock" film, and even some songs on the soundtrack that we're recorded at other concerts.
I worked with Eddie on the new overdubs, believe me there are not many, maybe 3, and a couple of pro-tools fixes, but we tried to keep everything as real as possible. We located the original musicians to re-create their parts. Eddie had no communication with the Stage Crew, so many times he was not set up for the bands when they came on stage. Unfortunately the film crew started filming the first songs, so we had some songs that had a few technical problems. "Evil Ways", besides "Soul Sacrifice" was the only other Santana song that we had good footage on. Santana had not even released their first lp yet, so not a lot of people knew who they were. The group was not going to let us release the song with the technical problems, so we had to do some fixing. I also got Larry Taylor from Canned Heat, to re-record part of a bass track for one song. We tried to keep this as organic as possible, but also put out some great new material.

 

Now this is something I'd like to get more in-depth with you later on but... that's interesting.

 

It looks like I know what to put on my wishlist for Father's Day, this year. It also might help tip the scale for me to finally purchase a BD player.

 

I watched some the bootleg CCR footage of youtube and it is really quite good. Fogerty is great on I Put A Spell On You. Looking forward to seeing it in good quality.

I also watched the Incredible String Band footage on youtube and they were awful. I can see why their footage won't be used.

Anybody familiar with Quill? Possibly the most obscure band on the bill. I've never heard anything about them other than seeing the name on the woodstock iteniary. About 60 seconds of their set is at the link below.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=23271621

 

I wasn't familiar until I watched that snippet; maybe it's just me, but I think I know why that group is so obscure (hey, my spirit was willing, but the Quill was weak)!


Cat

 

Reminded me of that group that plays "music" on garbage cans, whoever they were. Quill uses scrap lumber instead.

 

Noticed on Amazon that they mention an "Amazon Exclusive Bonus Disc" on this but no details on what is on that bonus disc. Also noticed that in the info section down below it refers to the release as being two discs. Obviously, that may be wrong as this is still awhile from being released but it will be interesting to see what the real story is. The earlier posts refer to the standard release as being three discs yet the Amazon listing acts like they have an exclusive disc despite their listing saying it is two discs. I guess we'll find out...

 

By the way, this will definitely prompt me to finally cave in and get a Blu-Ray players...so Neil if you're listening...I'm now ready for you to release the Archives!

 

Ironically, Neil denied permission to show up in the Woodstock bonus clips. But the Archives are still being dangled like a carrot on the end of a stick.