Product Description
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Go backstage with the Emmy Award-winning, landmark concert film
and documentary PAUL McCARTNEY IN RED SQUARE, and experience the
hit songs, rare performance footage and exclusive interviews that
marked this watershed moment in rock and roll history.
Though the Beatles were banned from Russia in the 1960s, their
music offered hope and inspiration to an entire nation for years.
Finally, on May 24, 2003, Paul McCartney satisfied decades of
anticipation with his first-ever concert in Russia--wowing a
crowd of over 100,000 people in Moscow s Red Square.
PAUL McCARTNEY IN RED SQUARE--plus Bonus Concert Paul McCartney:
Live in St. Petersburg features live performances of more than 30
songs, including:
Yesterday / We Can Work it Out / Fool on the Hill / I've Just
Seen a Face / Two of Us / Maybe I'm Amazed / She's Leaving Home /
Can't Buy Me Love / Birthday / Live & Let Die / Get Back /
Getting Better / Hey Jude / Got To Get You Into My Life / Sgt.
Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band / I Saw Her Standing There /
Flaming Pie / Drive My Car / Penny Lane / Jet / Let It Be / The
End / Band on the Run / Back in the U.S.S.R. / I ve Got A Feeling
/ Helter Skelter ... and more
DVD Features: Bonus Concert: Paul McCartney: Live in St.
Petersburg; Behind The Curtain: Memories from Red Square;
Featurette from THE HISTORY CHANNEL: Russia and the Beatles: A
Brief Journey; Song Selection; Engilsh Subtitles for the Hearing
Impaired... and more!
.com
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The Beatles Anthology may be the motherlode for fans of the
Fabs, but among other Beatle-related video offerings, only The
Concert for George matches Paul McCartney - Live in Red Square
for sheer emotional and musical impact. It's no coincidence that
the latter two chronicle not just concerts but significant
events--a memorial for Harrison (he had died a year earlier), and
Sir Paul's first visit to the former Soviet Union.
For the Russian audience, McCartney's appearance in Moscow is
little short of a miracle. The Beatles were banned for decades by
the Soviet government, which regarded their music as the epitome
of Western decadence and propaganda, and the fans' only access to
the group was through the occasional photo or black market album.
Their reaction to his 2003 visit is a mixture of frenzy and
rapture; in interview after interview, what one fan calls the
Beatles' "gentle intervention" is credited with helping to bring
down the whole Soviet system, simply because they represented a
creativity and freedom that had been almost totally silenced. And
that's all before McCartney plays "Back in the U.S.S.R.," which
inspires a response that simply must be seen and heard to be
believed.
Elsewhere, Macca and his superb band perform a variety of
Beatles tunes, along with some highlights from his solo career
and stint with Wings. Considering the dozens of classics in the
Lennon-McCartney catalogue, the majority of them never performed
live by the group, he could hardly go wrong. Still, the choices
are almost unerring; along with "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," and "Let
it Be" are some unexpected treats (including "Getting Better" and
"She's Leaving Home" from the Sgt. Pepper album, as well as "Fool
on the Hill," "I've Just Seen a Face," and "Two of Us"). And
that's not all: additional footage from a show in St. Petersburg
features "Drive My Car," "Helter Skelter," and a powerful medley
of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" and "The End." The
sound and visuals are good, and the extra features (including a
brief parallel history of the Beatles and the U.S.S.R. in the
'60s) are interesting. No, the Beatles will never reform. But
Paul McCartney - Live in Red Square ain't a bad substitute. --Sam
Graham