The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Concerts - Legendary Live Performances Collection | Music Lovers Gift | Perfect for Parties, Home Entertainment & Rock Music Fans

Four discs 74,73,49,43 minutes each approximately. The sound is crisp and immediate sounding. For live recordings these tracks have a spaciousness to them, oftentimes missing from live recordings. Each disc is slipped, bare, into a cardboard niche inside the four-fold cardboard holder. There's a number of b&w photos from the concert inside the holder. On the back of the cardboard slipcase is a list of the tracks/performers. If you purchase the 4 CD set you get a "free" poster advertising the concert, with signatures from a number of the attendees. On the back of the poster is a list of the tracks and the artists. There are no other notes whatsoever, nor a list of individual musicians who played at the concert. It would have been nice to have an essay or overview of this momentous occasion from a knowledgeable writer-oh well.Normally I stay clear of sets like this because they're usually bloated with lackluster performances, but since I saw a large part of this concert on TV, I had a good idea of what I was in store for. Boy, was I right. This set has so much good/great music it's difficult to know where to start. The following are just some of the highlights you'll hear on this collection. "Almost Cut My Hair" by CROSBY STILLS & NASH is full of fire. Likewise "Love Has No Pride" with CS&N with Bonnie Raitt is simply beautiful. Her lead vocal is full of emotion and the harmonies from CS&N make this something special. Jackson Browne with CS&N gives a fine performance of "The Pretender". Browne's vocal isn't any rote performance, you hear the commitment in his voice. James Taylor is a fine fit with CS&N, the combination of solo/group vocals gives "Mexico" even more interest than the original-likewise "Love The One You're With", with both Stills and Taylor trading vocals with Crosby and Nash filling in vocally. "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" sounds close to the original, including the whistling solo. A tough "The Wanderer" with Simon and the great Dion DiMucci has an updated sound without losing the feel of the original. Simon & Garfunkel have several songs here, with "The Sounds of Silence" and "Mrs. Robinson/Not Fade Away" standouts among the duo's many. Stevie Wonder does a fairly straight rendition of "For Once In My Life" with a lively pleading vocal. The same can be said for "Singed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours", and "The Tracks of My Tears" with Smokey Robinson.Disc 2 begins with both Wonder and John Legend singing "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)", with both giving fine vocal efforts. One of the giants of the blues, B.B.King, does a fine rendition of "The Thrill Is Gone" with Stevie Wonder helping (as if King needed help) out on vocals. King's guitar plays all the right notes with just the right amount of space between that gives this song so much feeling. Stevie Wonder begins his awesome tune "Superstition", only to introduce someone helping him out instrumentally-Jeff Beck. Beck takes a solo that will melt your ears, yet it fits seamlessly into the soul/r&b feel of the song. This song rocks and is certainly a highlight (among many) of this concert. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND are up next with Tom Morello adding his own powerful vocal sound to the band, on "The Ghost of Tom Joad", and the guitar solo has to heard to be believed. Likewise Springsteen and his band with John Fogerty on an incendiary "Fortunate Son". Wow. The veteran singer Darlene Love sings "A Fine Boy" with the E street Band backing her to the hilt. Springsteen and his band continue with "London Calling", with Tom Morello once again joining the band with ensuing fireworks. Billy Joel steps out with Springsteen and band for a suitably moody "New York State of Mind". Joel's vocals have more emotion than he's usually given credit for, and he and Springsteen trade choruses with a great honking sax in the background for extra mood. After that bit of a rest, Springsteen and his band come roaring back, with Joel, on "Born To Run" in all it's glory. The disc finishes up with a tribute to the great soul singer Jackie Wilson (if you haven't heard him you're missing some great music), which as those kind of things go, isn't bad at all. Darlene Love, John Fogerty, Sam Moore, among others, put some life into "High and Higher".Disc 3 begins with Jerry Lee Lewis, even at his age, giving a good performance of "Great Balls of Fire". His piano work is still great, with only his vocals suffering the ravages of time. The great spiritual "People Get Ready" is sensitively done by Jeff Beck on guitar, with Sting singing with more emotion than usually associated with him. Beck continues his shredding with "Let Me Love You" with Buddy Guy giving one of his usual emotion wracked vocal performances. Guy's guitar is every bit the equal of Beck, and it's a real treat to hear these two giants of guitar trading riffs back and forth. Beck continues his portion of the concert with (a short) "Rice Pudding" from the early days, and his tone is still as powerful. The song then shifts into "Foxey Lady", with Beck and ZZ TOP's Billy Gibbons giving a good example of rock/blues guitar, with Gibbons' vocal sounding as if he means it. The Lennon/McCartney tune "A Day in the Life" has Beck all alone with a rhythm section subtly backing his crying, pleading guitar-another highlight. From there things go into overdrive with METALLICA on fan favorites "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and Bob Seger's "Turn the Page", with the band putting out their house leveling barrage of sound that sets things up for the next several tunes. Lou Reed (known primarily in the VELVET UNDERGROUND), steps up to sing "Sweet Jane" (from the VU days) with METALLICA backing him both instrumentally and vocally. This is another highlight-the combination was inspired-and it rocks! With Ozzy Osbourne fronting the band, "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" drain the energy from the crowd. A (on the surface at least) seemingly odd pairing, is Ray Davies (KINKS) singing "All Day and All of the Night", with METALLICA showing that they're a garage band underneath it all.The final disc begins with U2 blasting out "Vertigo" from the start. The Edge's guitar is front and center here, weaving in and out of Bono's vocal. They continue with "Magnificent", and the band play to the excited crowd to the maximum. With U2 still on stage, Patti Smith, Springsteen and Roy Bittan sing a great version of "Because the Night". With Smith and Springsteen trading vocals, and then singing in unison, this makes for some exciting rock 'n' roll. The pairing of U2 with THE BLACK EYED PEAS on "Where Is the Love/One" was a good idea-their combined sounds/vocals give the music more depth-especially with the pertinent lyrics about whats going on in the world. With U2 still on stage, Mick Jagger comes out to sing, with Fergie and WILL.I.AM, a slightly different yet powerful version of "Gimme Shelter". With U2 as a back up band (especially Edge's guitar), this is an electrifying performance. Fergie, not known for singing like she does here, puts out a lot of emotion, and is the equal to the other vocalists. Mick Jagger steps out for a suitably slow version of "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", along with Bono helping out vocally. This stands in contrast with all the previous fireworks, and has a sound and feel all it's own. To finish things off, U2 is on stage, alone, performing "Beautiful Day". It's a usual fine performance by the band, and brings things to a good close.There's so much great music here that it will take a long while to fully appreciate it all. For once, the hype is correct-this is a one time concert, never to be repeated again with the same talent. The performances are truly one of a kind. As often happens with things of this sort, some artists almost sleepwalk through their performances-well, not this time. This is well worth purchasing by anyone who likes great rock 'n' roll performed by several generations of artists from several genres-artists who still care and can create that fire and excitement on stage. It doesn't get much better than this. Listen and hear for yourself.