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Charlie Gracie – Fabulous! An Intimate Portrait of a Rock Pioneer (DVD)

This documentary highlights the meteoric rise and fall of Charlie Gracie; the early guitar pioneer who has thrilled audiences for over fifty years. Today, Charlie is acknowledged as a vital early inspiration by rock heroes such as Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Graham Nash and Van Morrison. Charlie still plays the same model six-string that brought him to early stardom and his signature sound will secure him a place in rock and roll history.

Sympathy For The Devil (DVD)

On October 21, 2003, Jean-Luc Godard’s film Sympathy For the Devil, originally titled 1 Plus 1, was released on DVD. Using the leitmotif of the Rolling Stones at work on the song at the original 1968 recording sessions at London’s Olympic Studios, the film is both a documentary of the band’s creative process and a narrative of revolutionary thought and action.

Featuring the original Rolling Stones line-up of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones, the film, Godard’s first English language feature, was originally released in 1968 at the culmination of a year of political and social upheaval throughout the western world. As the band – augmented by Nicky Hopkins, Rocky Dijon, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg — work to nail down the definitive version of the song, the film’s plot casts a jaundiced eye on U.S. politics as viewed through the prism of the counter culture and Black Power movement. The film is revolutionary both in terms of the themes covered as well as the precident breaking way Godard constructed it.

The High Definition transfer from the original 35mm negative make the picture quality on Sympathy For The Devil DVD better than that seen on the prints originally screened in art houses around the word in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Letterboxed enhanced for 16X9, the DVD is also a sonic treasure chest. Uncompressed PCM audio derived from the original 8-track masters of the “Sympathy For The Devil” recording sessions that ran from March through June of 1968 provided for unsurpassed sound quality.

Bonus features include the original 1 Plus 1 trailer, as well as a new video clip directed by British filmmaker Alex Derakoff and set to the recent remix of the track by The Neptunes.

Sam Cooke: Legend

This is the first documentary (an expanded version of the acclaimed VH-1 Legends special) that has ever appeared on the man who is said to have invented soul, one of the original inductees into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Everyone knows the perfection of Sam Cooke’s voice and music; his influence persists right up to the present day, while his songs have been featured in movies like Witness, Malcolm X and Ali.

What is less well-known is his story: how he went from being the #1 gospel singer of his day to having a #1 pop hit with “You Send Me”, his very first record under his own name. How his music developed from the pure charm and instant accessibility of “(What A) Wonderful World” and “Having A Party” to the social relevance of “A Change is Gonna Come”, which became a kind of anthem of the civil rights movement.

This biography takes on a scope of greater dimensions than music alone. Sam’s good friend Muhammad Ali plays an integral role, while Malcom X and the Beatles, to share the world stage with Sam in Miami at the time of the first Ali-Sonny Liston fight.

This DVD is accompanied by eleven bonus chapters, taken from illuminating interviews with Aretha Franklin, Lloyd Price, Bobby Womack, Lou Rawls, Lou Adler, legendary disc jockey Magnificent Montague, Luigi Creatore, and Sam’s brothers, sister and daughter, all of whom speak with rare candor and insight about a man whose contributions continue not only to be recognized by to grow long after his death.

In 2003, the film won a Grammy for Best Long-Form Music Video.