The Who Album: “Thirty Years of Maximum R&B Live [Video/DVD]”

The graphics on this DVD set are better than the original. Nice version of WGFA from Shea '82.

The entire Essen '81 show is here in 5.1 sound. Better than the crummy bootleg out there. Why would a Who fan not want this at so low a price? Its better than the original in every way. The only thing missing is Tanglewood 70 ...but who cares, if you have the original...you have it. Plus there are enough shows from the 69/70 era out there anyway.

I would pay 16.99 for just the remastered 5.1 Essen show alone. Everything else is just a bonus. People were paying 50 dollars (and up) on Ebay just for the used original disc........ why not pay 16.99 and get more!?

People wanted a re-release... here it is...buy it. Enough complaining.

A true Who fan already owns the Jeff Stein classic "The Kids Are Alright," but there's ample reason to add "Maximum R&B" to one's shrine. The difference here is that the band interviews (minus the late Keith Moon) between concert footage show the group in later years, with plenty of reflection and musing over their place in rock and roll pantheon.

The songs, culled from sets spanning over two decades, are a good mix of The Who's Mod, Pop Art, and hard rock catalogue, and each performance is riveting.

A sample of my favorite moments show how much the band evolved from their debut in 1964: the anarchic jamming of "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" (with screaming teenaged audience), to the overdriven pop of "So Sad About Us" where I could swear John Entwistle's bass sounds like a demonic piano. The best (in my opinion) era is the post-"Tommy"/Woodstock appearances at Tanglewood and Isle of Wight, where the band burns through "Heaven and Hell," "I Can't Explain," "Water" and "I Don't Even Know Myself." The abandon and power in The Who's playing was never equalled and seldom surpassed even by the group's later efforts.

The later years, of course, show the band getting bigger (chalking up a Guiness world record for attendance at Charleton concert in 1974) yet still game, mixing songs from "Quadrophenia" with 60's hits like "Substitute." I was surprised at how powerfully they pulled off the "Quadrophenia" set, loaded as it was with synthesizer tapes and technical booby traps. When The Who rocket through "Drowned " and "Bell Boy" it's clear that their chemistry was partly fired by Moon's mania; when he died, something of the old Who died with him. But "Maximum R&B" is as good as any tribute to this excellent band.

If you want to watch the Who performing, this is the video to have. The Tanglewood Music Shed performance is SUPERB!!!, then the Isle Of Wight, Holland 1972, the Charlton concert 1974 is AWESOME !!!, the excerpt from the unrealesed movie "Who Are You" is very interesting, The Chicago Ampiteather concert in 1979 is excellent. A MUST-HAVE for WHO FANS and ROCK fans. The greatest live band ever, and here's their testimony. Nice interviews between set of songs too. PERFECT compilation of WHO live history.

Nancy from CA, don't be so funny please. One Star 'cos you couldn't watch the video 'cos they sold it to you in bad shape??? what's that please. Such was the need to type a review? Don't Do It if you couldn't see it. Plain and simple.

The only problem with this filmed collection of live performances is it doesn't go on forever. Especially mesmerizing are the Charleton mid-seventies show and the Shea Stadium show in 1982. Both very important periods for the band, beautifully filmed, yet not released as solo packages to the audience yet. The 70s show is post-TOMMY, post-Daltrey's influential hair and attire, setting the trend for all the other rock groups and singers of the decade, and pre-Moon's sad departure. The Shea Stadium show is when the band thought they'd really be gone from live performances forever, and the style changes from their seventies look is visually striking. The only problem with interlinking the segments are the portions which appear oddly dated - and you have to remind yourself the collection was put together in the mid-nineties and band relationships - as ever with Daltrey and Townshend - are in perpetual motion. There are several stinging, sarcastic pure-Townshend moments that come off as insulting and insensitive to his fellow WHO bandmembers. People who are only casual fans of the band - not knowing the history - may be put off by Townshend's ascerbic attempt at wit. On the whole, it is frustrating realizing how much rehearsal and live concert footage must be available and yet the public doesn't yet have access to it. It's obvious the bandmembers were consumed by their own legacy even while they were creating it, making the individuals and the band itself, really the most provocative in the history of rock.

I own the laserdisc version and eagerly anticipated the DVD release. I am sad to say that it falls far below the standards we've come to expect from "fully loaded" DVDs. The video quality and sound, even given the quality of the original source masters, is far below what can be achieved with a proper remastering job. For a comparison with what COULD be achieved from an old Rock 'N' Roll movie, rent or buy the Criterion Collection's DVD release of "Gimme Shelter"; it'll blow you away. Furthermore, although the packaging promises an "eight-page booklet", it is nowhere to be found. I'm glad I have the "Thirty Years" CD box set which came with very thorough and beautifully written reference material. That said, this collection of Moon-era (and dispensible Kenny Jones-era) live performances are sure to make wish you were: a) alive in the mid-seventies, and 2) at a Who concert. They were THAT good!