Producer
The B-52's, in their peak incarnation, before the tragic deathof guitarist Ricky Wilson, lieve in Germany in the spring of 1983. The great songs get intense treatment: "Planet Claire," "Song For A Future Generation," "Mesopotamia," "Dance This Mess Around," and of course a killer "Rock Lobster," with unremitting dancing and near-electronic vocal sound effects. The B-52's close the show with a powerful, danceable "Party Out Of Bounds," complete with edgy horns, percussion, keyboards, and yelling. This is an unforgettable evening of irresistible post-punk rock and roll.
Producer
Lenny Kravitz, live at Budokan in 1995 at the outset of his mature period as a rock star and r&b pioneer — inheritor, for the MTV generation, of the great traditions of funk, blues, classic rock, and pop. This is a hard-driving, nonstop muscial event, full of irresistibly sharp funk and scorching guitar, with the charisma of Lenny himself always front and center. Never easily categorized, Lenny was busy defying record-label pressures and carrying on the styles in "black rock" established by Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton, Prince, and others. The new album was the now famous "Circles" — with intense and extended grooves developed here from that album's beloved songs, the title track and "Can't Get You Off My Mind" among them. Other early hits include "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" and "Are You Gonna Go My Way." But the most exciting thing is the command Lenny shows of his big sound, and his own way of making music. Here is Lenny Kravitz, coming into his own.
Director
Lou Reed — once the androgynous rock poet of the Velvet Underground, then a godfather of punk, now a weathered icon of courage and adventurousness in American music — in two astonishing live concerts, one from New York's fabled Bottom Line in 1983, one from the 2004 Benicassim Festival in Spain. With selections deftly mixed and matched for maximum effect, these two concerts allow us to time-travel between key phases of an amazing career, as Reed reinvents classic songs from his Velvets and early solo period and presents adventurous new work — always with the unmistakable droning, dissonance, and literary intelligence that are part and parcel of the Lou Reed approach to rock and roll, and to his adventures in post-classical minimalism and even free jazz, all key to his unique sensibility.
