Renaldo & Clara Concert Clips

No stars for what is unargueably a great 5 Star+ collection ?
Before the hatchets start flying, and wails of "there's that idiot again, must'a' lost his 1-5 star buttons along with his mind"; let's elaborate.
Bear with me a while while I try to explain why i think "R&C-Xtra-Lite" isn't good for you.

One of the unintended consequences of the coming of CDs in the '80's was the ability for us the consumers to choose what tracks to play, OK you you always do it with LPs, (and cassettes- though it was a damn sight more difficult), but the effort and inconvenience involved meant that for most of the time the only choice was Side 1 or Side 2. CDs changed all that, now you threw the disc into the machine, pressed a couple of buttons and you heard only what you wanted to hear. Fast forward to today and iPods etc, you never need to even own a track you don't fancy.
Now cast your minds back to your own youth, what origionaly attracted you to an artist is most likely not what's keeping you interested in him/her today. The snappy single ?, the sing-along track ?, no, it's more likely to be a side 2, track 3 that you only listened to because you were waiting for track 4. We wouldn't be here on DvDylan if we'd stopped at Blowing, Hard Rain, or Maggies Farm. It's those "what-on-earth-is-that" or the "God, that's-boring" tracks that ultimately have proved the real winners, the most rewarding, far more rewarding indeed than any collection of Hit Singles could ever be.
(Just what this means for the future of music, artists, record companies, I'll leave to another time, but in brief, I think it's turning into one of the most spectular own-goals in history.)
What keeps us here as collectors ?, why do we fill up our houses with Bob Cds/ DVDs ?, Listen/Watch Bob 2-3 hours a day ? It can't just be the "squirrel" instincts that seem to affect middle aged men. No, for me anyway, it's the constant search, a wade through all the average, and sub-average, performances for that gem, that moment, maybe if I'm lucky once a concert, maybe a whole concert once every few tours, when some "old Favourite" (or a Not-a-favourite-at-all) clicks, suddenly comes to life, takes on a deeper meaning, takes on a new meaning. (Still waiting for something, anything, to happen with Tweedle Dee..) Sure it's fine to hear/see the other stuff, but ultimately as unsatisfying as any '60s Reunion Package tour.
But back to R&C. Here's Bob's longest "work", 4 hours of it. Bob conceived it, "wrote" it, directed it, starred in it, and mixed/edited it. It's as much his as is Maggies Farm, and we should treat it as such, approach it as such. As many commentators have noted,(eg Paul Williams in Performing Artist) every song has it's place, it means something not just in itself, but in it's placing in the film, even how it's filmed, performed (and by who), cut, ..I could go on, but you get my point. It's not "just" a song/performance.
Now, I dont "get" R&C. I've struggled with it since my first cassette of the s/track in the '70s through various videos, and now DVDs. Sometimes I get an "ah-ha" moment or two, but they never seem to connect. Some folk obviously do "get" it, and a lot say they do, (though that's not quite the same thing).
That there's something to "get" I'm fully confident, it's Bob after all, and that yes, I'm certain that it will be rewarding.
That's why I say this dvd is bad for me, and by extension, you. I/you won't "get" R&C through this, and even those who profess to understand it, can you be sure ?, again, it is Bob we're speaking about.
Like looking at Guernica with a curtain over an unknown portion of it, a chunk of Homer without the last few chapters. Doesn't matter how beautiful the part you've got is, however satisfying it feels, the whole has at least the potential to be so much greater. Just how much, you don't know, you can't know.
Only by watching this you're denying yourself even the possibility of greater rewards, going for the quick-fix instead of much more difficult option. R&C for the iPod.

(By now you might have figured that I tend toward the Give-them-what's-good-for-them doctrine, rather than the give-them-what-they-want school.)

So there, for completists only, you should have to submit something like a 10,000 word essay on R&C before you're allowed to own this.
(I suppose by that reckoning I shouldn't have this either; fair enough, - first essay get's it,... any essay get's it)

I really love the Rolling Thunder material, but although the sound on this DVD is really really good, there are some disappointing things. The picture ist not very good, yeah I know, old sources etc, but the picture quality on the Watchdog RTR Edition is better, and not just a bit! But all in all, it's a great compilation!

I just got this and it is my first "RENALDO & Clara" DVD. I can't stop watching it! It's sooooooooooo good.