Search - Beat, Beat, Beat on DVD

Interesting vintage live performances

James Zinn | Kansas City, MO | 02/13/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD features bands playing live on the German TV show "beat beat beat" that ran from 1966 to 1969. All are in black and white.

This particular disc contains performances from the bands Episode Six and Eric Burdon & The New Animals.

Performances included are:

Episode Six - Morning Dew, I Hear Trumpets Blow
Eric Burdon & The New Animals - Tobacco Road, Roadrunner, C.C. Rider

So there's only 5 songs total in black and white. Sound quality is really good and video quality is good considering the age of the source.

A bit short for a DVD, but great for people who don't like just short clips and a bunch of chit chat. These are full song live performances, no lip-synching.

Note the band Episode Six includes a pre-Deep Purple Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. The song "Morning Dew" actually is pretty good. Both songs are of the "flower power" genre, like what was played by San Francisco bands of the era, with crazy colorful clothes.

The New Animals include Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Danny McCulloch, and Barry Jenkins, and must have been very early in this lineup of outstanding musicians. Very bluesy and garage-y, before they became more psychedelic. I like C.C. Rider the best of their songs here, and it sounds just like their arrangement from the original Animals version of the song, only with a twin guitar attack and no organ. This must have been before recording the "Winds Of Change" album. Very good rare performances that make you yearn for more.

Highly recommended to Deep Purple collectors and Eric Burdon fans.

I only gave it 3 stars due to the short running time and a lack of any other video from the TV show, such as an interview. Don't get me wrong; I gripe about documentaries that just include song clips, but this one is the polar opposite of that. I actually had an interest in hearing some commentary from the artists from the show, if there was any."