The Cars Live - Musikladen 1979
by David Robinson
from Rhino / Wea
This complete, live, television concert, recorded for the long-running German pop music series Musikladen, captures the Cars in their late '70s ascendancy, offering ample evidence of the young Boston quintet's rock-solid performing skills and formidable instincts as writers and arrangers. Poised between arena-rock bombast and punk aggression, the Cars were canny, concise stylists who proudly unleashed hit singles in an album-dominated era, an achievement that could mislead serious-minded rock aesthetes to assume the band was a studio invention. In fact, their major-label deal arose only after the band had honed its playing in Beantown clubs and cracked local airwaves with self-produced prototypes of the songs that popped up on their self-titled debut album.
The 11 songs here tilt toward that collection, with a nod to its sequel, and all share the band's shrewd synthesis of tightly crafted songs that explore a tension between romantic yearning and neurotic anxiety. Principal songwriter Ric Ocasek swaps vocal leads with bassist Ben Orr, establishing their familiar yin and yang, with Ocasek mining neurosis while Orr plucks the heartstrings. David Robinson's muscular, uncluttered drumming transcends its frequent use of electronic drums, Greg Hawkes's keyboards deftly stretch the sci-fi possibilities of then- primitive synths, and not-so-secret weapon Elliot Easton, a southpaw guitarist, tightens the clockwork interplay between his versatile lead guitar and Ocasek's crisp rhythm work. If the band's choral work sounds thinner than on their recordings, it's less an indictment of the band than a measurement of how far producer Roy Thomas Baker carried the heavily layered vocal stamp he had refined with the Cars' labelmates, Queen.
The original program source confines the audio to a monaural mix, and the video transfer suffers from some intermittent raster patterns. Such artifacts are minor handicaps given the caliber of the performance. --Sam Sutherland
T-Rex & Roxy Music - The Best of Musik Laden Live
Part of the MusikLaden Live Series, live concert footage for this double feature was filmed in Germany at the television studios of Radio Bremen. Included arevthese hits from ROXY MUSIC: Do The Strand, Editions Of You, In Every Dream Home A Heartache, Remake Remodel, Virginia Plain, and All I Want Is You. As well as these live performances from T-REX: Jeepster, Life's A Gas, Ride A White Swan, Jewel, and Twentieth Century Boy. NTSC Region 0 (code: ALL) DVD is an officially licensed release from South Korea with a full hour of great music.
Best of Musikladen - Ladies of Rock
from Geneon [Pioneer]
The Best of MusikLaden Live Volume 1
from Pioneer Entertainment
Pioneer Artists presents the first in a series of classic rock concerts from Musikladen. Featuring classic rock hits of the early 70's from Deep Purple, Santana (Black Magic Woman), Jethro Tull, Joe Walsh (Walk Away), Johnny Winter, Procol Harum, Free, Nazareth, Humble Pie, Alice Cooper, and Badfinger. Part of the MusikLaden Live Series.
Best of Musikladen - The Osmonds
from Geneon [Pioneer]
The Osmonds, the musical brothers from Utah who enjoyed a blockbuster bubblegum career in the 1970s, are captured in 1972 performances taped in Germany as part of the MusikLaden program. Fronted by pinup king Donny, the brothers appear onstage sporting leather (or is it vinyl?) jumpsuits bespangled with rhinestones and color-coordinated silk scarves. Singing frothy pop songs, they even occasionally play their instruments. Those who couldn't stand the Osmonds back then sure won't be won over by this trip into the archives. In fairness, though, if it's viewed as a cultural document, there is a certain innocent charm to the proceedings. There is squealing galore for Donny, who naturally ventures into the audience to kiss a young girl before breaking into dance moves that make him look like a pubescent Elvis. The Osmonds serve up a sugary child's helping of '70s rock, such as during "Crazy Horses," when one of Donny's older brothers fronts the band and cuts loose with a bizarrely awkward if exuberant imitation of Mick Jagger's stage strut. Proof that this was a less cynical time: despite all the artifice, no one seems concerned about hiding the band that's actually playing the instruments, and at times the camera even focuses on the frazzled hippies doggedly wailing away behind a stack of amps. --Robert J. McNamara
Ike & Tina Turner - The Best of MusikLaden
by Robert Berlinger
from Geneon [Pioneer]
This compilation which features all of their appearances on MusikLaden includes Proud Mary, Get Back, and Honky Tonk Woman.
Super Hits of the '70s - Have a Nice Day
from Rhino / Wea
Culled from the video archive of Germany's popular MusikLaden TV show, this compilation of live performances offers the proverbial something for everyone, from the blue-eyed soul of Hall & Oates to the three-chord thrash of the Ramones. It's an incongruous mix, united only by the chart-rising popularity of each selection, spanning the 1970s and presented, with mixed results, in remastered Dolby 5.1 sound. The hilarious low point is Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's drunken, unruly romp through "The Cover of the Rolling Stone." And while you're trying to reconcile such ethereal hit-makers as Melanie and Bonnie Tyler with more seasoned performers like Van Morrison and Jethro Tull, you can be grateful that these vintage clips, several including extended jams, have been so faithfully preserved. By the time the Ramones fittingly close the disc with "Blitzkrieg Pop," you'll be having a very nice day, indeed. --Jeff Shannon
Break out your polyester shirt and platform shoes and get ready to party! There was no escaping these "outta sight" songs in the '70s--some of the most memorable live performances of the "Me" generation. Far out, man! Songs: Eighteen (Alice Cooper), Horse with No Name (America), What Have They Done to My Song Ma (Melanie), China Grove (Doobie Brothers), Sara Smile (Hall & Oates), Year of the Cat (Al Stewart), Warm Love (Van Morrison), Nothing is Easy (Jethro Tull), Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones), You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), All Right Now (Free), The Cover of the 'Rolling Stone' (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show), Brand New Key (Melanie), Come and Get It (Badfinger), Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu (Johnny Rivers), Ventura Highway (America), Rich Girl (Hall & Oates), With You There to Help Me (Jethro Tull), It's a Heartache (Bonnie Tyler).
The Best of Musikladen Live - Stephen Stills & Manassas
by Michael Leckebusch
from Geneon [Pioneer]
Stephen Stills had graduated to solo stature after central roles in two influential but internally combustible bands, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, when he opted to form the short-lived Manassas in the early '70s. The band was a sensible compromise--a platform that provided Stills with a versatile ensemble of instrumental peers posing far less threat to their leader's ego. He had wisely chosen one of California rock's most dependably tasteful musicians, former Byrd and Flying Burrito Brothers cofounder Chris Hillman, as his de facto lieutenant, providing a solid vocal foil and a capable songwriter. Stills designed a lineup that could move convincingly from country-rock to swaying, percussive grooves with a Latin thrust.
This 40-minute live studio performance, taped without an audience for a German broadcast, captures the essence of Manassas's debut album Down the Road, confirming the strength of Stills's choices as well as the ultimately slight value of the songs written for and with that band. At its best, Manassas sketches a warm Stills-Hillman vocal stamp that's pleasing if still generic, and the instrumental interplay is likewise confident if only fleetingly inspired. The production injects some now dated, even corny visuals, including solarized psychedelic shots used as backdrops. But the original mono sound quality is detailed and well-mixed, confirming the superior equipment and more sympathetic ears of the German crew. This is a satisfying document for aficionados of California's laid-back '70s wing. --Sam Sutherland
Black Sabbath - The Best of Musikladen Live
by Terry Hughes
from Geneon [Pioneer]
Satan had a smaller budget upon first entering the music business, judging from the low-rent look of these 1970 Black Sabbath performances from German TV. Replete with cheesy post-psychedelic graphics and stonily blank facial expressions, the clips nonetheless put across the power of Sabbath's rudimentary metal on ace versions of "Black Sabbath," "Paranoid," and "Iron Man." One is more frightened for Ozzy Osbourne than of him, though, during the hilariously awful rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes" that closes this well-mastered DVD. --Rickey Wright
In 1970, Black Sabbath made two appearances on the Beat Club/Musikladen television series. With their original line-up featuring Tony Iommi on guitar, Terry "Geezer" Butler on bass drums, and Ozzie belting out the vocals. These rare appearances highlight enormous energy projected by this popular rock band. Includes Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Iron Man and Blue Suede Shoes.
+++
