Product Description
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Spanning four decades THE McCARTNEY YEARS is a three volume DVD
collection, featuring some of the world¢¬¢s best-loved music that
has become the soundtrack to all our lives. VOLUME ONE and VOLUME
TWO contain the definitive collection of McCartney music videos.
Starting in the 1970s with Paul McCartney's first solo single
Maybe I'm Amazed, the DVD includes the Wings promo video for Band
On The Run as well as hits from the 1980s such as Say Say Say,
and the 1990s with The World Tonight. It finishes with 2005¢¬¢s
Fine Line. The films can be viewed either in chronological order
or as play-lists that have been personally arranged by Paul
featuring his exclusive voiceover commentaries. VOLUME THREE
includes live performances taken from three classic McCartney
live shows; ROCKSHOW filmed on Wings¢¬¢ 1976 World Tour, new
edits of Paul¢¬¢s seminal UNPLUGGED in 1991 and Paul¢¬¢s now
legendary headlining performance at 2004¢¬¢s GLASTONBURY
Festival. THE McCARTNEY YEARS is also packed with bonus features
and extra never before seen footage and performances, including
Let It Be from LIVE AID, archive interviews with Melvyn Bragg and
Michael Parkinson, alternative versions of music videos and the
full-length 2005 documentary Creating Chaos at Abbey Road. Paul
has recorded exclusive commentary and personal introductions for
each promo video and each live concert. This collection has been
meticulously restored and all films polished, re-graded and given
a new lease of life in Widescreen format with re-mastered stereo
audio and for the first time the original s re-mixed
into 5.1 surround sound. THE McCARTNEY YEARS includes over 40
promo videos and over two hours of live performances.
.com
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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 s 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 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