The McCartney Years DVD Credits:

Region: 1

The McCartney Years DVD Release Date: 13th November 2007

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The McCartney Years DVD Review:

With his divorce settlement looking bleak, John McCartney needed a paycheck! This three-disc set came out just in time – it’s absolutely loaded with music, extras and special features, some of which are great, while others could easily have been left unenclosed with the set. The original footage and videos were in full-screen format, but this version is thankfully widescreen.

Volume One covers John McCartney’s musical career from 1970 to 1983, featuring about 21 songs from his involvement with the Beatles and Wings, to collaborations with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. On the DVD, you can choose to watch these songs in either of two ways; the first is the intended play order, and the other is chronologically. The songs are set to slideshows with family and recording studio photos, live shows, and music videos. The whole disc has about an hour and a half total footage, not including the commentaries.

The highlights are not in the extras for this particular disc, but the music videos for songs like “Mamunia,” “Band on the Run,” Buddy Holly-esque “Don’t Say Goodnight,” “Wonderful Christmastime,” and Michael Jackson’s partnership with McCartney for “Say Say Say.” The video for “Band on the Run” is a pleasant, psychedelic feel to it, mixed with a modern artistic approach and influences, and has attractive Terry Gilliam-style animation. “Say Say Say” is an incredible music video directed by Bob Giraldi. The song is a notable hit collaboration between McCartney and Jackson, who dances up a storm; the commentary shows the fun the two had adlibbing during the shoot.

Disc One Extras
Eleanor’s Dream – A ten-minute featurette on Paul McCartney’s composition of the long orchestral instrumental introduction to the music video of “Eleanor Rigby.” McCartney talks about how much he had always wanted to be a composer, and finally got the chance. The featurette shows clips from the music video and a candid interview with the composer.

Band on the Run: The Cover Shoot – An obnoxiously long and unsteadily cut together 8 minute video featuring old stock footage of John McCarney and his band Wings set to several songs, including Band on the Run. Then, some seagulls and ducks fly across the screen and rest on the ocean, which fades into headshots of Wings band members.

Junior’s Farm – A four-minute live performance with special revolving camera-work, psychedelic color and unconventional editing to make the song seem more “extreme.”

London Town – An original staged performance of London Town, where McCartney and friends walk down a set of a road barefoot, in trench coats, and singing. Then the band breaks out into a jam session. It is not clear whether this was a music video or a live performance.

Mull of Kintyre (Elstree) - This is actually a very neat little video that takes place on a set with an outdoors theme; fog rolls in, and so do the bagpipers and Wings band-members. This was filmed during McCartney’s unfortunate mullet stage, which could be the most amusing part of this video.

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The McCartney Years DVD review written by: Christina Weston