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Classic Albums - Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
:Description:Taking more than two years from conception to release, Stevie Wonder's classic 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life, is now generally considered his finest creative hour in an enduring, influential career of nearly four decades. Songs in the Key of Life is also regarded by many music fans as one of the outstanding albums to appear in that entire timespan. Released in October 1976, Songs in the Key of Life entered the U.S. Billboard album chart at No. 1 and remained there for 14 weeks, topping off a 44-week chart ...
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Classic Albums - Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
:Description:GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD gave Elton John his second number one album in both the American and British charts and provided him with four top ten singles. Interviews with Elton John himself, as well as with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, there are contributions from musicians Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson, Gus Dudgeon (producer), David Hentschel (engineer), Del Newman (orchestral arranger) along with comments from Sir Tim Rice and Paul Gambaccini amongst others. Featuring new and archive performances from Elton John as well as rare archive footage from the original recording sessions, this program ...
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Classic Albums - Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell
:Description:The songs and story of this classic album with contributions by Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, Todd Rundgren, Ellen Foley and Karla DeVito. Since its release in 1977, Bat Out of Hell has gone on to sell an estimated 30 million copies and become one of the top five biggest selling albums of all time. Released during the days of the disco boom and the advent of punk rock, Bat Out of Hell totally bucked those musical trends, yet as Meat Loaf recalls, the record is 'more honest than 99% of all records released.' The ...
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Classic Albums - Lou Reed: Transformer
: :This installment of the Classic Albums series looks at the making of Lou Reed's seminal glam-rock solo album, Transformer, featuring a relaxed Reed (though decidedly less glam than he was in '72) looking like he's having the time of his life as he reminisces and isolates separate tracks to illustrate how the album came together. Bassist Herbie Flowers demonstrates how he recorded the swingy, impossibly catchy bass riff in 'Walk on the Wild Side,' and coproducer David Bowie makes a brief appearance, as do many of Reed's contemporaries and fellow musicians. Many express ...
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Classic Albums - The Grateful Dead: Anthem to Beauty
:Description:The Grateful Dead are a unique phenomenon. One of the most successful live touring bands in the world, their longevity is founded on their desire to play music their way, coupled with an extraordinarily close relationship to their huge following. From Anthem to Beauty tells the story of the band and their journey from the experimental 'Anthem of the Sun' (recorded in 1967/1968) to the accessible, countryish 'American Beauty.' It is told in the band's own words and includes a rare interview with lyricist Robert Hunter. The film also features a wealth of ...
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Classic Albums - Paul Simon: Graceland
:Description:The story of Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album, Graceland. Recorded in New York and South Africa, Graceland not only sold 14 million copies, but it was also named Album of the Year at the 1986 Grammy Awards. It brought the sound of South African music to audiences around the world. This acclaimed film shows how a career setback for Paul Simon precipitated the inspiration for Graceland, how he learned so much from the South African musicians he met, and how, in collaboration, a triumphant album was created. 75 minutes.
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Classic Albums - Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast
: :Iron Maiden's 1982 breakthrough, The Number of the Beast--its first with leather-lunged vocalist Bruce Dickinson--remains a heavy-metal watershed, and this Classic Albums program reunites the major players (including producer Martin Birch) for the undoubted pleasure of longtime Maiden fans. The interviews with band members and rock journalists in the 50-minute program touch on Maiden's early career, then delve into the creation of songs that have become hard-rock classics: the title song came about from a nightmare that bassist-songwriter Steve Harris couldn't shake, 'The Prisoner' was inspired by the Patrick McGoohan television series, and ...
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Classic Albums - Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
:Description:This is the definitive story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, with specially recorded versions of Christine McVie's 'Songbird' and Lindsay Buckingham's acoustic version of 'Never Going Back Again.' 75 minutes. :Oh, the heartache. Oh, the drug intake. And oh, the sales records they did break. It's all here in this 70-minute, 1997 chronicle of the making of one of pop music's biggest albums ever, Rumours. All five members of Fleetwood Mac's most successful incarnation are interviewed, and their comments are even more candid than the confessional songs ('Dreams,' 'Go Your Own ...
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Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree
: :An outstanding entry in the Classic Albums video series, this hourlong documentary, produced in 1999, assembles the creators of U2's The Joshua Tree to comment about the musical magic that occurred a dozen years earlier in a home studio in Dublin. Merging past and present, coproducers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, mixer Steve Lillywhite, and guitarist The Edge isolate separate tracks on the album's master tapes to illustrate how some of U2's greatest songs were layered with each individual's crucial contributions. Bono listens in while Lanois deconstructs the masters, appearing genuinely shy about ...
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Classic Albums - The Who: Who's Next
: :Originally produced for cable and home video as a documentary project, the Classic Albums series offers in-depth profiles of enduring rock and pop albums built around first-person interviews with the artists, producers, and musicians that created them. Their strong sonic debt makes their DVD issues problematic, since the segments aren't intended to replace the original audio recordings, only to expand on them. If you haven't heard these albums, nearly all of them landmarks in late-20th-century pop, then this isn't the place to start. If you know the originals, however, these smartly written, well-produced ...
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