31 October, 2014

THE DARK HORSE YEARS – George Harrison

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002Y69RC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002Y69RC&linkCode=as2&tag=billablog-20&linkId=ZM6MFCXE6Y3GKMMKAs a bonus feature of The Dark Horse Years box set, this was a wonderful addition. Now that it's been released as a standalone DVD, there is something vaguely unsatisfying about it. And it's mainly down to the fact that the program stays true to its brief of being the Dark Horse years which, apart from being the lifespan of George's record label, is a rather curious way of defining his career. It means there's no mention of All Things Must Pass, The Concert for Bangladesh, the Travelling Wilburys or the Beatles Anthology. Okay, so you already knew that, but there's something slightly incongruous about the disc starting in 1976, flipping through to 1992 and finishing in 1987.

That quibble aside, it's quite a treasure trove. We get all the Dark Horse videos, each with a brief excerpt from an interview by means of introduction. The four songs from Live in Japan, remixed in 5.1 surround, only leave you hungry for more. There's also short film on the beginning of the Dark Horse label and a perfunctory piece from the making of Shanghai Surprise, the ill-fated Madonna/Sean Penn vehicle that produced by George.

Highlight: Crackerbox Palace and When We Was Fab, two of the greatest examples of the art of film clips.
Feature: * * * ½
Extras: it's all extras really.
Audio: LPCM Stereo throughout, Dolby 5.1 and DTS on the live tracks




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