Search - The Byrds - Special Edition EP on DVD

Don't waste your money.

mnyby | North Hills, CA USA | 06/09/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered this DVD before it was released, so I had little information as to what was on it. This DVD has the Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons, and Skip Battlin line-up on it, which is not a bad line-up for later Byrds. But the main disappointment I had with it was that there are only 4 tracks of Byrds performances. The first is "Black Mountain Rag", an acoustic instrumental which shows off Clarence's skillful flatpicking. However, the camera effects are very distracting during this track. The second and third tracks, "So You Wanna Be A Rock-and-Roll Star" and "Chestnut Mare" are much easier tracks to watch, and they show good close-ups of the band. The main problem with these tracks is that the names of the band members very slowly pan down the screen during the performance, covering up some of these close-ups. The biggest disappointment, though, was "Eight Miles High". I had thought at least I will get a long track (13 minutes!) to listen to and enjoy. However, they never sang the song during this 13 minutes! It was 13 minutes of instrumental, mostly Bass solo. A little from Clarence and Roger, but this was Skip's time to shine, and it was way too much time! The vocal part was never sung and no apologies made. It was sad to wait through 12 minutes of instrumental to have no reward of the great vocals of this song! Following these four tracks, are four "pop-up" tracks, as they are called, which are the exact same four songs with some trivia being marched across the bottom of the screen. This was a waste..the information which have been much better displayed on a separate information only screen. Most of the DVD seems to be devoted to promoting this company's other DVDs. There is a lot more time spent on previews and other promotions than there is to the Byrds. (Especially if you subtract the 13 minutes devoted to the instrumental, non-vocal version of "Eight Miles High".) I am a long-time Byrds fan, and I would encourage other Byrds fans to save their money and not buy this DVD. Let's hope that McGuinn can eventually come up with something on DVD. I know it would be better than this."

When???

Everyday Jo | Bean-Town, USA | 09/01/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When can we Byrdmaniacs get a DVD compilation that includes all of the Byrds early appearances on shows like Ed Sullivan, Hullabaloo, Shindig, Big TNT Show, Ready Steady Go, etc? There must be some footage of the Byrds at Ciros or during their tour of England, something, ANYTHING with the original Byrd line-up? A worthy DVD is due for one of the most innovative and ground breaking rock bands there ever was. Until then, I guess this will have to do -- A somewhat sloppy scrapbook of some 70's era Byrd performances. Oh well."

A major disappointment

Douglas Whittet | Albany, NY United States | 09/04/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I can only agree with the previous review posted by mnyby: this DVD is a major disappointment. Not only short on Byrds material, but poorly presented with distracting features. Anyone who buys this is likely to know who the Byrds are, so we don't need the intrusive captions. This is NOT the original Byrds, by the way, the reviewer who said it is doesn't know what he's talking about. This is the "Skip Battin era" Byrds when Roger McGuinn was the only original member. Hopefully one day Byrds fans will get something better than this on DVD."

Too awful not to watch. The Byrds, nevertheless.

Stephen Moore | Bethesda, MD | 06/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"True confessions: I am a life-long Roger McGuinn fan. I also greatly admire the late Clarence White. I agree with all the reviewers here that this 4-song "EP" is practically a "how not to" lesson on producing a successful music DVD. Adding insult to injury I am pretty sure that Roger was seriously hung-over when this thing was recorded. He doesn't look good.

However, I believe it is still a "must see" for all true Byrd fans. Not sure if there's much recorded showing Clarence White in action, so that's one reason to own it. The other is having a pretty good live version of "Chestnut Mare."

Yes, it's bad. But even bad Byrds is good."