Last Days of the Fillmore
by Various
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DVD details
Actor: Various ArtistsDirector: Various
Brand: Dig
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Compilation, DVD, Live, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 160 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino Records
DVD Reviews of Last Days of the Fillmore
DVD Review: Blast From The Past
Summary: 5 Stars
I had not seen this for a very, very, long time. Living in the San Francisco Bay area
all my life, the memories of all the music and bands I use to go see on one DVD is
about as cool as it gets.
DVD Review: Nice *Footage* Of The Fillmore West!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know about whether or not original footage was cut from LAST DAYS OF THE FILLMORE DVD, since this is the first time that I've seen it, so I can't say if it's complete or not, but it's a very cool documentary on the last five days that the legendary Fillmore (West) concert hall/nightclub remained open.
The Fillmore was opened in the Fillmore district in San Francisco, CA, by Bill Graham during the mid-60s and was the launching point for many Bay area bands like "The Grateful Dead" and "Big Brother And The Holding Company." It was one of the many hangouts of the hippie period along with the "Haight-Ashbury," and as famous as "Owsley Acid." Graham moved locations and ended up calling it "The Fillmore West" to differentiate from his "Fillmore East" in NYC. Graham was instrumental in creating a "scene" for the counter-culture by giving musicians and artists a chance to shine. Not only did rock bands get their start there, but so did the graphic artists that designed the famous psychedelic posters that advertised the acts.
This documentary features some of the musical acts that called San Francisco home at that time, some famous like the Grateful Dead and Santana and others a little more obscure like Cold Blood and Lamb, but "Last Days..." really shows off Bill Graham as he wheels and deals on the phone and scurries around trying to get the last five days off the ground.
There's great footage of Graham walking around outside the Fillmore with shots of the cool people standing in line, driving around SF, the SF "Mime Troupe" who did free satire shows in the park, and of course the bands performing on stage and in rehearsals.
Graham also describes the scene and how he started out, and why the Utopian dream of the "Flower Children" died out.
Picture quality is fine and is shot and edited similar to Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut (40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition with Amazon Exclusive Bonus Disc) with split screens etc.
There's no extras, unfortunately, but it does come with a foldout poster with band line up and liner notes written by Ben Fong-Torres(former editor at Rolling Stone). There's also info on the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation.
I think this DVD is another great historical nugget that provides a visual and audio record of the 60s counter-culture--albeit at the very end. Recommend for those into the 60s or Counter-Culture/Hippie era. I love it.
DVD Review: Good DVD for History, Not So Much for the Music
Summary: 4 Stars
The problem you find with many of the reviews posted on Amazon is the reviewer buys the product with a preconceived notion and then writes the review from a position of what they expected instead of what they got.
I was given a mix tape many, many years ago that contained fantastic live versions of Fresh Air and White Bird. In both cases the live versions were far better than what appeared on the original albums by Quicksilver Messenger Service and It's a Beautiful Day. I always wondered where these live versions had come from, and it wasn't until years later that I got around to seeking them out on the Internet, and purchased the CD. Only recently did I discover the existence of this DVD, and was excited that I would get to see these two great live performances.
As it turns out, this DVD is more about Bill Graham than the performers, and much to my chagrin, he talks over most of the performance by It's a Beautiful Day. Thankfully, Fresh Air is unmolested.
On that basis I could give a one star review, but taking the DVD for what it is, it is very interesting, entertaining and informative. I have many concert DVDs, but this one adds a behind the scenes look at these performances. Being able to watch Jerry Garcia plunking away on a steel guitar while everything is being set up around him provides a view that you would not get from a customary concert DVD. Carlos Santana's prima donna attitude is pretty well known, but watching Bill Graham's boiling frustration in having to deal with it is a true slice of history. Bill Graham himself is a fascinating case study. Although a hard-driven promoter, he was one of these people that thought rock and roll was going to bring peace and harmony to the world. You see his true disappointment that rock was not changing the world, as he talks about the venue and times.
In summary, if you buy this DVD purely as a music DVD, or for performances that are not there such as Boz Skaggs, you will be disappointed. But if you want a very interesting historical DVD cataloging that period of rock history, which includes some great rock performances, this DVD is well worth its price.
DVD Review: why no Boz?!!
Summary: 3 Stars
The most dynamic performer is left out of the movie, tempting me to return it for poor product advertising. Boz is sorely missed and has a lot of fans in this neck of he woods. We were all set to enjoy his performance and it never came...Otherwise the material is how I remembered it with Hot Tuna being one of my favorites.DVD Review: Where's Boz?!!!!!
Summary: 3 Stars
I too have fond memories of this film, having first seen it with some buddies in a theatre in 72. And I too remembered the Boz Scaggs performance as the highlight. When this new DVD release suddenly ended, I said, "Huh? It's over? What the f*** happened to Boz?!!" And I agree with the other reviews written here that the footage is way too overedited, with so many performances, if they didn't get cut completely, getting cut short. What was the point of that? I don't give a fig about the brevity of the film. In fact I wish it was four hours long! The early 70s in the Bay Area was a time when the music matured and became more polished. There was an overabundance of great music at that time and personally, I couldn't get enough. Boz, Jerry, Tower Of Power, Cold Blood, Taj, Elvin, they were everywhere.
The film misses an opportunity to fully revisit this golden era. The camera work is often very maddening. Being a guitar player myself, I want to see the guitar player and what he is doing when he is playing a guitar solo! So often, Santana, or Neil Schon, or Ciopolina, or Garcia, or Elvin Bishop are not seen at all when they are wailing away, while the camera languishes on another band member out of the spotlight. But in its favor, the footage of Barbara Mauritz and Lamb is great, great stuff! She is maybe one of the hottest singers of that time with exceptional vocal chops, and is unfortunately often disregarded. (I fell in love with her all over again.) Lydia Pence and Cold Blood certainly bring it as well.
What is so frustrating about this film, however, is knowing that there are probably miles of vintage, priceless footage that was left on the cutting room floor. There truly should be an effort to re-edit this and restore all, or most of the deleted footage for the sake of rock history. The complete soundtrack is absolutely loaded with classic performances, and the DVD has only a fraction of it. If Rhino or Bill Graham Productions have control over the film, then they owe it to us as curators to release it all. Free The Last Days!
Description of Last Days of the Fillmore
Legendary rock impresario Bill Graham closed the Fillmore West in early summer 1971 with five nights of all-star concerts, the last curtain going down on July 4. The storied San Francisco venue had become an institution, an integral part of the West Coast music scene of the '60s and, now, an essential element of themythology of rock 'n' roll. Always the showman, Graham made sure the Fillmore West was sent off in a blaze of glory, spotlighting bands - including the Grateful Dead and Santana-that rose to fame at the hall. The madness leading up to the
shows and the concerts themselves were filmed for FILLMORE: THE LAST DAYS, a gritty, behind-the-scenes look at a fascinating moment in rock history and a showcase for great performances by iconic artists who epitomized 'the San Francisco
Sound.' Originally released in 1972 and long out-of-print, the documentary film makes its DVD debut with Rhino's landmark reissue.
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