Rock Hall Anniversary Concert DVD a Must-Have for Music Fans

by Julian Spivey
The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts are now available on DVD and are an absolute must have for all fans of rock ‘n’ roll.
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The 25th Anniversary concerts took place on Oct. 29 & 30, 2009 at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York and were later broadcast on HBO.

The HBO Entertainment production of the concert was so great that the two-night concert was nominated for five Emmy Awards this year, winning three technical awards.

This once in a lifetime concert, that surely only rivals Woodstock and the Monterrey Pop Festival when it comes to rock greats together at one concert features performances from rock hall of famers like Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Mick Jagger, U2, Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, John Fogerty and Crosby, Stills & Nash among many other greats.

The concert is spread over three discs that feature more than five and a half hours of thrilling performances and wonderful rock classics. The first two discs are performances that were seen on the HBO special. The third disc is bonus footage of performances that were edited out of the HBO special for time. Some of the bonus performances are so great that it’s almost startling that HBO decided to edit them out for time. Some of these performances include Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello performing The Clash’s classic “London Calling,” Metallica performing Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” Crosby, Stills & Nash singing “Teach Your Children” with help from Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, as well as Simon & Garfunkel doing a medley of their classic “Mrs. Robinson” along with the Buddy Holly tune “Not Fade Away.”   

If you’ve ever wanted to see Jagger perform with U2, Springsteen perform with Fogerty and Joel or Metallica perform with Ozzy Osbourne than this is likely the only place to see it. The three discs from the rock concert combined feature an incredible 61 performances.

All of the performances on this three disc set are truly timeless, but there were of course a few that stood out to me as the best of the best. The best performance of the entire concert was easily Springsteen and Morello’s collaboration of Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” I’ve seen some great guitar playing from Jimi Hendrix on the “Woodstock” documentary and from Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and others on YouTube, but Morello’s guitar playing on ‘Tom Joad’ is simply the jaw-dropping best. Morello does things with a guitar that I have never seen before nor knew were possible.

Other amazing performances included the opener of the show when Jerry Lee Lewis, well into his 70s, thrilled the crowd with “Great Balls of Fire” and in his usual “Killer” style emphatically kicked his stool across the stage, the pairing of Springsteen, Bono and Patti Smith on “Because the Night,” Paul Simon’s lively performances of his solo hits “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “You Can Call Me Al,” then the beautiful synching of voices with Art Garfunkel on “The Sound of Silence” and “The Boxer.” That’s not even half of it. Stevie Wonder and Sting were unbelievable in their medley of “Higher Ground” and “Roxanne,” Wonder’s teary-eyed tribute to Michael Jackson while performing “The Way You Make Me Feel,” Browne singing his classic “The Pretender” with David Crosby and Graham Nash serving as backup vocalists and Springsteen and Joel collaborating on “Born to Run.” 

The only negative thing about this concert DVD is it is kind of pricey at around $30 at most retailers.