Casey Kasem's Rock n' Roll Goldmine (2004) [5xDVD-5 Boxed Set]

Calling it a "goldmine" is a stretch, but there are certainly some gems to be found among the five discs contained in host Casey Kasem's celebration of the popular-music explosion of the 1960s (the five programs themselves were compiled in 1987). There isn't a whole lot of music–each disc has less than a dozen full clips (The San Francisco Sound has just six), the longest clocks in at under 50 minutes, and there's no bonus material. Nor is the quality uniformly high, in terms of both performance (all too frequently lip-synced) and audiovisual elements. Still, there is a greatness here, including fascinating (and often rare, as advertised) live performances by Traffic and the Kinks, both on The British Invasion; Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and the Who (The Sixties); Van Morrison (The San Francisco Sound), and others. The Soul Years is the best of the lot, with fantastic clips of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding, while at the other end of the spectrum is Elvis: The Echo Will Never Die, which adds little of interest to the Presley legacy. As for Kasem, well, he's always been a bit on the square, smarmy side, but while he often fails to mention the date or origin of a particular clip, he does supply some context, social, musical, and political. In the end, Casey Kasem's Rock n' Roll Goldmine Boxed Set is unlikely to change the world…

–Sam Graham

The title says it all: Elvis Presley's "echo will never die," and no matter how many times the legend is re-told, it won't alter the fact that he was the most influential single figure in rock & roll history…

–Sam Graham

Chapters:

1. Introduction [4:25]
2. Memphis Roots [3:21]
3. The Big Break [1:50]
4. Army Life [1:57]
5. Movie Star [8:08]
6. Musical Comeback [8:49]
7. The Final Years [5:04]
8. Keeping the Echo Alive [4:59]
9. Legend [4:13]
10. Blue Suede Heaven [3:28]
11. Credits [:55]

One of rock music's golden eras is spotlighted in The San Francisco Sound, which features some of the artists who emerged from the Bay Area in the mid-to-late 1960s. There's no arguing that various trappings of San Francisco culture at the time (the hippies and their flower power; the rampant consumption of LSD) now seem "dated," as host Casey Kasem puts it. But even if these performances aren't great from a purely audiovisual standpoint, there's a certain timeless appeal to songs like Van Morrison's "Domino" (the Irish-born Morrison relocated to Northern California early on in his career) and the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'" (others featured include Steve Miller, Santana, Country Joe and the Fish, and Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company)…

–Sam Graham

Chapters:

1. Introduction [2:52]
2. Van Morrison "Domino" [5:08]
3. Bog Brother & The Holding Company With Janis Joplin "Ball and Chain" [8:30]
4. The Grateful Dead "Truckin'" [6:13]
5. Santana "Jingo" [6:12]
6. Country Joe and the Fish "The Fish Cheer"/Feel Like Im Fixin' to Die Rag" [3:25]
7. The Steve Miller Band "Livin' in the USA" [4:07]
8. Credits [1:03]

In the mid 1960’s a wave of British rock groups crossed the Atlantic to rule the charts in America. Ranging from hard rock to bouncy pop, with catchy melodies and ringing guitars, the British Invasion changed the sound of rock and roll forever…

Chapters:

1. Delta Lady (Joe Cocker)
2. You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
3. He Ain't Heavy (The Hollies)
4. Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)
5. How Do You Do It? (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
6. World Without Love (Peter and Gordon)
7. Mighty Quinn (Manfred Mann)
8. Salty Dog (Procol Harum)
9. Wild Thing (Troggs),
10. 40,000 Headmen (Traffic)

A mixed bag of live and lip-synced performances by artists both legendary and long-forgotten (to many folks, anyway) is again the order of the day in The Sixties, one of five discs in the Rock n' Roll Goldmine boxed set, hosted by the eternal Casey Kasem. Included here are a few genuine classics, like Jim Morrison and the Doors playing "People Are Strange" on Ed Sullivan's show and the Who smashing through "My Generation" on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1967 (an infamous incident in which the extra gunpowder Keith Moon added to his drum kit resulted in an unexpectedly loud explosion at the end of the tune). Elsewhere, we see live concert footage of Eric Clapton and Cream (jamming on "Sunshine of Your Love"), Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze"–the sound and picture quality are poor, but it is Hendrix, and the interviews after the song are priceless), and a post-Big Brother Janis Joplin ("Try"); and if the lip-synced bits by the Small Faces ("Itchycoo Park"), proto-heavy metallurgists Blue Cheer ("Summertime Blues"), Canned Heat ("On the Road Again"), and others are somewhat less enduring, it's still pretty cool to have them at all. What's more, what could be bad about having footage from a Beatles interview in which John, Paul, and George are joined by Jimmy Nicol, who replaced Ringo for a few days when the drummer fell ill and was unable to tour?

–Sam Graham

Chapters:

1. White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane)
2. People Are Strange (The Doors)
3. My Generation (The Who)
4. Sunshine of Your Love (Cream)
5. Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
6. Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf)
7. Summertime Blues (Blue Cheer)
8. On The Road Again (Canned Heat)
9. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
10. Try (Janis Joplin)

Easily the best of the five discs packaged together in host Casey Kasem's Rock n' Roll Goldmine Boxed Set, The Soul Years features riveting performances by some of immortal black musicians who helped define the decade of the 1960s. Taking nothing away from their rock & roll contemporaries, the fact is that many of the soul and R&B artists of that era (along with their musicians, producers, and songwriters) were more experienced, more professional, and simply more entertaining than their rock counterparts. The live turns by the likes of Aretha Franklin (a febrile "Respect"), Otis Redding ("Try a Little Tenderness," recorded not long before his death in a '67 plane crash), Ike and Tina Turner ("River Deep, Mountain High"), and James Brown (check out the Godfather of Soul's dancing on "I Feel Good"), among others, are galvanizing and charismatic. Even lip-synced numbers by (Little) Stevie Wonder and the Temptations have their charm, as do some brief interview excerpts (Brown in the early '80s: "I'm 54 now… hope I don't look it… but I feel good!"). At 42 minutes, there isn't enough of this stuff–but what there is is great.

–Sam Graham

Chapters:

1. I Feel Good (James Brown)
2. Try A Little Tenderness (Otis Redding)
3. Respect (Aretha Franklin)
4. My Girl (The Temptations)
5. Stand By Me (Ben E. King)
6. Fingertips (Stevie Wonder)
7. River Deep Mountain High (Ike and Tina Turner)
8. Hold On I'm Coming (Sam and Dave)
9. When A Man Loves A Woman (Percy Sledge)







All thanks goes to: YWM1957

See Also:
VA - Rock Icons - 2003 [3xDVD5]