Search - The Midnight Special: 1974 on DVD

Not a bad set of performances; one of the better ones in the

James Zinn | Kansas City, MO | 09/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For a more general review of the series as a whole, refer to my review of the "Legendary Performances 1973". Other reviews preceding mine have some good points too.

This is one of the better ones in the series overall; more consistent than most of the others. It still can't beat either of the first two volumes of 1973, but there's lots of variety here. As in all the volumes of the series, the sound is muddy but not terrible. Why they did a Dolby 5.1 mix is beyond me. Overall video quality is good in this volume. As in all volumes, most performances are live but there's always a lip-synch or two.

Ike & Tina Turner put in a good workhorse version of "Proud Mary". Not their most exciting performance caught on video but still enjoyable.

Barry White puts in a reasonably good performance of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe". Barry looks like the jolly disco giant on stage with a bright loud multi-colored suit of the period. He looks just huge on stage, as everyone else looks like they're half his size. Like Gulliver in Lilliput.

Sly & The Family Stone put in a pretty good performance of "Thank You For...". He actually seems to be reasonably straight, although he does look like he gets lost a bit in his guitar solo, but I could be wrong. It's still better than what is on the 1973 volume.

David Essex "performs" "Rock On", a la lip-synch.

The O'Jays do a decent live performance of "Love Train". Their suits are kind of cheezoid sci-disco of the period. Bet they can't fit into those anymore.

Marvin Gaye performs a pretty good version of "Let's Get It On". Get a bottle of bubbly and cuddle with your woman on that one.

I was kinda excited when I thought I was going to see a rocking performance of "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, but unfortunately, it is a lip-syncher. What a disappointment. They don't even bother to have guitar cords. The backup sounds like it's the original studio LP track.

Unfortunately, Golden Earring's "Radar Love" is a poorly acted lip-synch.

Bill Withers gets a full string section/band backup on his song "Ain't No Sunshine" and it's good.

The James Brown performance of "The Payback Pt. 1" is a reasonably good performance, but not exactly full of sparks.

The Gordon Lightfoot performance of "Sundown" is one of the more polished sounding peformances of the whole DVD series. Compared to how fragile he looks now when playing, he looks pretty healthy. Interesting how most people may not know that song is rumored to be about heroin addiction and the heroin dealer girl who is the same one that allegedly shot up John Belushi with the cocktail the night he died. Guess she got around. I crack up when I hear that song in nursing homes and doctors offices, and most people don't have a clue that's what it's about. Just listen to the words. Makes sense.

The B.B. King & Gladys Knight performance of "The Thrill Is Gone" is an OK performance, it's just that Gladys really adds no value to it, and it gets cut off after just a few verses, almost like they told them they only have a 3 minute time limit or something. No great long soloing, so kind of a letdown.

Ditto for Maria Muldaur's performance of "Midnight At The Oasis". Sounds pretty good but suddenly gets faded out and cut off. Why I ask?

Strangely, the Neil Sedaka performance of "Laughter In the Rain", is not bad at all. I'm not really a fan, but his charm in the song sort of won me over as a pretty decent performance. I'm not running out to buy any CDs though...

Probably one of the most retarded songs of the era, Redbone's "Come And Get Your Love" is performed pretty well. They do a bit of a Native American dance routine to start it out. I will have to admit for such a retarded song, it is pretty catchy and may be a guilty pleasure for some people.

Aerosmith puts in a pretty good rocking performance of "Train Kept A Rollin'". They were pretty young and hungry then, and they play pretty solid. The song ends too short. I could have used more of a jam-out at the end, but that's just me.

The comedy routines feature Freddie Prinze and David Brenner. They arn't bad but as in all the series, the comedy sketches are only a portion of the full skits."