Product Description

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 11/13/2007 Run time: 266 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12129 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-11-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Best of, Box set, Dolby, DVD, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.com
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 recordings 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 Bowl 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

Customer Reviews

Press release & tracklisting


New McCartney DVD Set for Release 'THE McCARTNEY YEARS' LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- On November 13th, 2007, 'THE McCARTNEY YEARS' will hit the stores from MPL/Rhino Entertainment. This first time ever DVD includes the definitive visual collection of Paul McCartney's amazing career featuring solo music videos, career-spanning live performances, personal commentary by Paul McCartney and exclusive footage that tracks his incredible musical journey as never before.

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 on life in Widescreen format with re-mastered stereo audio and for the first time the original recordings re-mixed into 5.1 surround sound. 'THE McCARTNEY YEARS' includes over 40 promo videos and over two hours of live performances.

DISC/TRACK LISTING DISC 1 1. Tug Of War 2. Say Say Say 3. Silly Love Songs 4. Band On The Run 5. Maybe I'm Amazed 6. Heart Of The Country 7. Mamunia 8. With A Little Luck 9. Goodnight Tonight 10. Waterfalls 11. My Love 12. C-Moon 13. Baby's Request 14. Hi Hi Hi 15. Ebony And Ivory 16. Take It Away 17. Mull Of Kintyre 18. Helen Wheels 19. I've Had Enough 20. Coming Up 21. Wonderful Christmastime Extras 1. Juniors Farm 2. Band On The Run 3. London Town 4. Mull Of Kintyre 2 5. The Southbank Show

DISC 2 1. Pipes Of Peace 2. My Brave Face 3. Beautiful Night 4. Fine Line 5. No More Lonely Nights 6. This One 7. Little Willow 8. Pretty Little Head 9. Birthday 10. Hope Of Deliverance 11. Once Upon A Long Ago 12. All My Trials 13. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man 14. Press 15. No Other Baby 16. Off The Ground 17. Biker Like An Icon 18. Spies Like Us 19. Put It There 20. Figure Of Eight 21. C'Mon People Extras 1. Parkinson 2. So Bad 3. Creating Chaos At Abbey Road

DISC 3 Rock Show 1. Venus And Mars 2. Rock Show 3. Jet 4. Maybe I'm Amazed 5. Lady Madonna 6. Listen To What The Man Said 7. Bluebird MTV Unplugged 8. I Lost My Little Girl 9. Every Night 10. And I Love Her 11. That Would Be Something Glastonbury 12. Jet 13. Flaming Pie 14. Let Me Roll It 15. Blackbird 16. Band On The Run 17. Back In The USSR 18. Live And Let Die 19. Hey Jude 20. Yesterday 21. Helter Skelter 22. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Extras 1. Live Aid 2. The Superbowl XXIV
Check out www.paulmccartney.com for the latest news and information.

Allllmost...
A good effort. More than I expected. But why is it incomplete? Why are some videos missing and instead we get incomplete concert "teasers"? Rockshow and Unplugged should simply be released on their own. Period. It's not that hard- they already exist. I don't get it. Instead of this silly third disc, we could have had missing videos, such as:

1. Mary Had a little Lamb
2. Jet
3. Listen to what the man said
4. Letting Go
5. Let `em in
6. Getting Closer
7. Spin it on
8. Old Siam sir
9. Arrow though me
10. Only Love remains
11. Stranglehold
12. Ou est le soleil?
13. Party Party
14. We got married
15. Get out of my way
16. Young Boy
17. The World Tonight

And while I'm at it, just present them all in chronological order. Doesn't that make more sense? But then again when have Paul's videos or concert releases ever made much sense? I might even be missing some more recent videos as well. And as far as bonuses, how about including the TV special from '73 or the unreleased film One hand clapping? Anyway, I know, I know, we should be grateful for anything they toss to us fans, but I couldn't resist pointing out how they messed things up AGAIN!

Nearly a third of the original picture lost...
I wasn't going to write a review because M.Chesman added one which perfectly summed up my thoughts on this DVD a few days ago. However, as others seem to rate this DVD highly I've felt compelled to in order to add my 1-star rating. This could and should have been so good - a splendid collection of videos from McCartney's post Beatles career and on the face of it, it is. The BIG issue with the whole thing though is the loss of nearly a third of the original image area of the "restored" videos and films. Why they thought that cropping everything to widescreen was a good idea I'll never know. The Directors' of the 4:3 originals must be gritting their teeth to see heads chopped off, tight framing and other areas of the original picture lost in the conversion process. Then, as if to rub salt in the wound, two videos in the extras section (they obviously escaped the "restoration" work) "London Town" and "So Bad" have been left as original 4:3 and consequently look a whole lot better! If you're not sure what I'm talking about please check the customer images. It's extremely disappointing that this decision was taken. It makes me thankful that the Beatles' Anthology was produced in the mid 90s before everyone got "widescreen fever" otherwise all the archive footage in that would be chopped down.