The McCartney Years

The McCartney Years
by Dick Carruthers

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DVD details

Actor: Paul McCartney
Director: Dick Carruthers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Best of, Box set, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered
Running Time: 180 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino Records

DVD Reviews of The McCartney Years

DVD Review: A Great Disappointment. What did I expect?
Summary: 2 Stars

I purchased the McCartney Years hoping that I would find a lot of unreleased music videos and behind the scenes.

The thing is I am a Beatles fan. I was more before than I am today, but I still regard the Beatles with a lot of respect. However, Paul McCartney's career is unfortunately mostly shameful. He has some good songs here and there. And you must understand, I like Paul. He wasn't my favorite Beatle, but I liked them all. It seemed that in his solo career, he never played with good musicians. He only wrote simple tunes with one-dimensional lyrics. At least, for the most part. His solo music career lacks a lot of depth. I believe he's very talented, but he can't just do it on his own. I don't know why he never collaborated with great artists!

In any case, the 3 DVDs have a lot of things, but musically the songs are not up there with Paul's work during the Beatles! In other words, the McCartney Years doesn't embellish Paul's shallow music... it emphasizes it.

DVD Review: DVD FANTASTIC
Summary: 5 Stars

Paul is a very HUMAN PERSON, GREAT MUSIC AND A GREAT ALBUM. PAUL IS A GREAT PERSON AND deserve all this success.

DVD Review: Very nice, but more could have been great
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a very nice 3 DVD set. The music videos are all great to see and hear. Most of them are very nicely reproduced and cleaned up (one or two could have used more). Only a couple of the videos I could live without (the one with Michael Jackson . . . but I just don't like him after the jackson 5, Ebony and Ivory, and London Town) but there are really kewl ones on here. Some of them are Maybe I'm Amazed, Coming Up, No More Lonely Nights, Pipes of Peace, and Fine Line (there are secretly 2 versions of this video, you can play both of the first 2 DVDs, which contain the videos, one way chronology and a personal playist Paul made, watch Fine Line in both to get 2 versions of the video). The commentaries are nice too!

Now the third Disc is where it could have been better. You get an edited version of Rockshow and Unplugged. I don't know why he didn't give the full versions (maybe not enough room for the DVD and didn't want to make it a 4 DVD set) but what we have is still good. Then the Glastonbury one is superb.

If you are a McCartney or Wings fan, this will make you very happy.

If the full performances were added, I would have given it 5 stars.

DVD Review: A clear view.
Summary: 4 Stars

If you want great resolution, here it is.
Lots of extras too. Don't expect any
surprises here, Paul controls the content,
start to finish.
The commentaries are still enlightening.

DVD Review: DVD a must have for McCartney fans
Summary: 5 Stars

A very excellent DVD of McCartney, showing live clips of his performances with Wings, and other scenes. The DVD quality is excellent, and it shows the brilliance and sagacious insight of the quality of his music. A must have for all McCartney fans.

Description of The McCartney Years

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 11/13/2007 Run time: 266 minutes

It's rather incredible to ponder the fact that with the release of The McCartney Years in late 2007, Paul McCartney has now been making recordings in various mediums for the better part of 40 years--and that's not even including the decade he spent as a member of the world's greatest band. And while some may quibble about certain details of the content and presentation, this three-disc set, packed with videos, concert footage, interviews, documentaries, and more, will surely satisfy the vast majority of Sir Paul's loyal subjects. The dozens of videos, occupying the first two discs and spanning the years from 1970 ("Maybe I'm Amazed," ten years before the emergence of MTV) to 2005 ("Fine Line"), can be viewed in either chronological order or as programmed by Macca himself. Ranging from straight lip-synced performances to various conceptual films, they are a decidedly mixed bag. In some cases (e.g. "London Town"), the songs are superior to the clips, while in others, the reverse is true ("Coming Up," a lightweight tune but a delightful video in which McCartney portrays everyone from Buddy Holly to Sparks keyboardist Ron Mael). Sometimes both the song and the video are terrific ("Take it Away" features Ringo Starr on drums, producer George Martin on piano, and a cameo by actor John Hurt; "Band on the Run," a creative pastiche of photos, film effects, and other media, suggests that the band in question was the Beatles, not Wings), while some fail on both counts (John Lennon might have had the likes of "C-Moon" in mind when he referred to McCartney's '70s output as "all pizza and fairytales"). Of the three concerts included on Volume Three, the best (and shortest) comes from a 1991 Unplugged show and features lovely versions of "Every Night" and "And I Love Her"; Rockshow spotlights Wings on tour in '76, and the 2004 gig in Glastonbury, England features McCartney's excellent current band (a good show, but the playlist isn't nearly as adventurous as, say, 2005's Live in Red Square). Extras include McCartney's commentary on several of the videos; footage from Live Aid in '85 and the Super Bowl in '02; and, accompanying every DVD menu, various raw and unreleased live and studio performances of obscurities like "Blackpool." The late Linda McCartney is featured throughout, of course, and if The McCartney Years is a de facto tribute to his first wife, as one reviewer has suggested, it's a more than fitting one. --Sam Graham

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