A brief review of the 68 Special DVD

[jbgude]

Guys here are some ramblings after watching the 68 Comeback. I shal post this on the FECC reviw too if you dont mind.

First off :

Fantastic,Fantastic, Fantastic :worthy:
The picture quality is superb and the sound is clear: I heard (and understood )converstion I did not catch before. Elvis' voice is prominent and clear and it has a nice bass line that I am partial to.

The covers are nice but I really wish we had a great action shot, in fact the pic on the back cover is nice. Here was a chance to show Elvis at his physical peak and with a swinging Red Guitar - if I can dream .....
The booklet is nicely produced, but could have had a few more pictures and details. I would have appreciated if the timing of the tracks had been included.

The original show is itself need no review....as also the sit down shows which have at least been out as "One night with you" so I shall skip those.

The stand up shows was a revelation there are bits I had never seen before. Ladies, I notice that Elvis wore an V shaped black T-shirt under the leather jacket. ( More clearly visible in one of the sit down shows).

It was a surprise to NBC did indeed let in children below 12 for the show despite what the ticket said there were a few lucky women & men who managed to get into both the shows. I can swear the Red guitar has Elvis' signature on the top of the bridge(below the tuning keys) - and it was nice to see that Elvis recorded a song called "If I could dream " (sic) as mentioned on the clapper board!and a couple of takes of "If I can dream" has Elvis almost out of the frame for most of the takes.

Interesting was Elvis not knowing "upstage from downstage" ..."14 years and I still dont know upstage ..." he mumbles there are a few other relevatory comments both from E and others in the cast.Intersting too is the body language of the woman/moll in the "It hurts me " sequence, she was no Elvis fan: it would have been nice to hear the whispers between E and Susan Hennings... and even Elvis "rhearslas" have been rehearsed ...even is " I have to do this sooner or later so might as well do it now ..." to kick of the show. Ole E tended to repeat comments and jokes that got a positive response from the crowd.

Minor irritants that I hope is only my player related - a few digital "freezes" and distortion at 3 places on various discs . I cannot access some of the "if I can dream" "Guitar man " rehearsals directly: my player shows "error" as also on the reverse skip.....will try it on my other player before I complain.

Man, these stand up shows are good enough for the price for me -after the prices I paid over the years for various qualities of the "import" versions and versions is the operative word !

A minus is the ommision of "It hurts me" and the inordinately long blank screens(sometimes with people talking -not very clearly) between the takes on DISC 3,they could have very well ommited that and ( for me personally) the relatively less attractive and overly bulky cover. I would have prefered a thinner case, after all we need space for out other stuff! Wish they had put the numbers on the discs,it is black,white and red and subject to confusion till it all sinks in

But this a special collectors edition so I wont nit pick.

On the whole I give a 9 for this set.
jb

PS : I have removed several smilies , as the board says I have put in too many :=(

[Jungleroom76]

But, do you like it jb??

Sounds like they did a good job overall, although I am a little concerned with these "minor irritants" you mentioned, like freezing, distortion and inability to access certain things....considering this is supposedly the "end all, be all" DVD release, you would think these things would have been caught during production and taken care of. Same goes for the aforementioned glitch in the helicopter arrival sequence of disc one of the ALOHA DVD set!! Considering the price tag on these sets, these kind of errors and glitches seem to be unexcusable, in my opinion!!

Thans for the review jb! Can't wait to see mine when it arrives....HOPEFULLY glitch-free!!

TCB!
Mike

[jbgude]

Hey you are welcome Mike, BTW I gave the set a 9...does that not say it all ? I love it especially the stand up shows.

I hope the minor irritants are player related ....yesterday I had a minor scare at work, I had an alergic reaction to Prawns(shrimps) and was rushed by my colleagues to emergency treatment: I could not breathe ...anyways was too wasted to watch the discs yesterday.

Will try them on my 2nd player tonight and maybe even the 3rd(sitting inside a cupboard: long story on how I got 3 players ! will tell it some other time but basically the reason was Elvis )

You guys will be getting them today - have fun!
elvisly,

jb

PS I have inserted some more bits into my original review.Why does it say I have posted too many images ...I had to remove 3 before I posted this successfully-when some guys have 10 or more in their posts?!

[Jungleroom76]

Hey jb:

Thanks for the reply!! I guess giving the set a "9" really does say it all!!

As you might have read elsewhere on the board, I haven't had time to watch the '68 stuff yet! But I did watch all of the ALOHA set and it is just TOP NOTCH!! Excellent packaging, quality of video and sound...the whole thing is just OUTSTANDING!! And best of all glitch free!!

Hopefully my '68 DVD set will be the same way....will let you know as soon as I watch it!

So sorry to hear about your recent health scare...I hope you are on the way to recovery now!!

As for the image issue you mentioned, I don't know why that is! I can certainly bring it up to the other moderators for you!! I will let them know and see if they know what is going on!

Thanks again jb!
TCB!
Mike