Long before Justin 'Trousersnake' and any number of so-called teen idols of today were even born, there was Ricky Nelson, later abbreviated to Rick Nelson. Already a familiar face to American television audiences as the son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, young Ricky was an extremely good looking boy-next-door type who all parents long to raise and countless women wanted to 'date'. When he debuted his song, I'm Walking, on his parent's show, the result was a million-seller for the 16-year old Nelson and the start of a very successful musical career.
Unlike Elvis Presley, his main 'pretty-boy' rival, Nelson had access to millions each week by keeping up his appearances on his parents' show, and as any performer will tell you, the key to longevity, apart from talent and variety, is exposure. His catchy and melodic songs, combined with his good looks beamed weekly into so many households, meant Nelson was never short of an audience.
Of course, every bubble bursts, and Nelson eventually faded into relative obscurity, to be coaxed back to Madison Square Garden in 1972 for a rock and roll reunion that gave rise to one of his more respected songs, Garden Party, following his less than warm welcome. The Garden show was a disaster, but he did mange to salvage his career somewhat and kept on rockin' with the Stone Canyon Band up until their untimely deaths in a plane crash in 1985.
This tribute was cobbled together in 1986 from vintage black and white performances and some more recent colour footage. It includes tributes form the likes of Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Randy Meisner, John Fogerty, Waylon Jennings and his bouffanted twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, who open and close the trubute.
It is not a tribute show in the normal sense as these artists do not perform any songs, and is more of a short video biography, with interview footage from his artist friends and Nelson himself, and back-slapping for the recently deceased idol.
Nelson's songs are either bordering on rockabilly or the typical '50s teenage love songs. Either way they are enjoyable and this DVD contains some rarely seen footage. However, the tribute falls short of expectations. Some of the perfomances are interrupted by interview footage and none look or sound particularly impressive, though it is not because of poor performances, but rather the technical limitations of the source.
As this DVD is compiled from various sources and decades, it is full frame and features a mixture of black and white and colour footage. The black and white footage is quite good, and is generally better than the colour which suffers from serious interference from noise, colour banding and bleeding. It is also extremely soft in appearance, looking quite fuzzy and almost out of focus at times. There are also flares and comets, tape glitches and other artefacts that make the whole thing look very cheap. The black and white footage is a lot clearer and more defined. Blacks actually look black whereas in the colour footage, blacks vary wildly from blue/black/grey to black/green.
Aliasing and shimmer is virtually non-existent and there is no layer change; it is pretty safe to assume that this has been mastered from tape and was originally a television broadcast. The complete lack of restoration really reduces the worth of this 'tribute'.
Sadly, the digital remastering to Dolby Digital 5.1 adds nothing, and this actually sounds better if you can pipe the signal to just your front left and right speakers. The 5.1 is a little thin with no separation or depth. By piping it to stereo, it still sounds a little flat and muddy, but it does cut down on the hiss and makes it sound a little fuller.
Most annoying is the poor audio synchronisation that never actually falls in place, but does catch up a little by the end of the 43-minute performance. The interview/tributes are short and sound like they were recorded underwater and the performances, mostly live, just have no cut or presence. The older performances in black and white sound a little better.
The selected discography lists a few pages of Rick(y) Nelson albums available, and Umbrella Propaganda includes four trailers for other 'vintage' artists; Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, The Collins Kids (who?), and Marty Robbins.
This tribute is heartfelt and deserved, but as a package sadly it doesn't do justice to the memory of Rick Nelson.
