Live In 84: Back To The Bone

This a nice compilation with pretty good video and sound. It's nothing to write home about but obviously most issues are with the source material itself. The video (4:3) is pretty good for its age and the 2.0 audio sounds good. The 5.1 mix (which doesn't even show up as an option on the disc itself but is present) is not very good. Apparently the original 24 track tapes are long gone so it's simply an attempt to give it some semblance of surround...stick with the 2.0 version. I'm also not pleased that the DVD manufacturers could not be bothered with showing track numbers or elapsed time as the disc plays, but I guess that's minor.The performances themselves are mostly good but not as good as earlier Whitesnake incarnations. Having only one guitarist in the band leaves a big hole in the sound. John Sykes is a good guitarist but too flashy compared to the brilliant Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden combo. The keyboards (played by someone offstage?) are somewhat weak, too (just listen to the few cuts with Jon Lord to hear the difference). The cuts from Slide It In (which is what most of the performances consist of) sound like what you'd expect but as I'm partial to the U.K. version of the album (over the U.S. remix), I still think John Sykes was too much for Whitesnake (don't even get me started on Adrian Vandenberg, Vivian Campbell, or Steve Vai). Songs like Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City sorely miss two guitars and don't compare to the vastly superior performances on Live...In The Heart Of The City and Live At Hammersmith, but oh well.The companion CD consists of different live recordings of mostly the same songs that are on the DVD. The slideshow on the DVD is a nice bonus with some commentary from DC and some demo versions of songs. The slideshow is the only place you'll actually hear the song Slide It In (in truncated demo and live form), btw, as it's not on the DVD concert or companion CD for some unknown reason.Overall this a nice package to be able to own and it's worth the money but don't expect 16:9 high-def video with an amazing 5.1 mix.P.S. Don't expect to see much of Jon Lord in the Final Jon Lord Performance section of the DVD either. He's not visible at all in the wide shots of the band and I saw only one close-up of him through the first two songs...for about two seconds. Oh, you get to see his hands for another 5 seconds at one point, lol.

Gotta be honest. I expected a rough release but it is rougher. The sound on the first concert (not the Jon Lord last concert) is pretty good. Video is just a couple cameras. No lightshow, just white static spots. You hear keyboards but there is never a keyboarder in sight. Fine.I didn't expect wonders. However, audio and video are noticeably out of sync. That shouldn't have happened. That makes Cozy Powell's solo very odd to watch. I mean who does that in 2014?Another bad thing is that they couldn't resist the temptation to interrupt the songs with waffleing from interviews blended in. Please don't do that. Luckily they only ruined the first song with it. Otherwise the interview clips are between songs. Still annoying. I want the concert as a concert and then extras with interviews.I will be able to make this enjoyable by cutting out the nonsense and correcting the A/V offset. At least the sound is pretty good. But I shouldn't have to.The Jon Lord's Last Concert part has worse sound but is more in A/V sync. On the audio CD the sound is disappointingly bad. This is more for documentation value I suppose. The video now has a hectic MTV style camera (usually at the back of the neck of Sykes' Les Paul, nice Grover tuners) and there is lots of fog and colored lights. There isn't much to see of Jon.Overall more of a release for fans. Not what you show your date the first time in your place. I've seen worse. It's "working" in that it has decent enough sound and a well performing band.Having said that, there seems to be a real problem with the audio CD which is supposed to have 16 tracks only giving me 13 tracks on two different devices. If that persists I would send it back as defective.There also seems to be a mess with different product pages on Amazon around the same product.

The video does include an awesome Sykes guitar solo... but the CD doesn't have the unaccompanied solo. I was disappointed by that. I'm not even sure if the CD has the songs on the video... it was confusing. But other than that... solid release. Great if you are a WHITESNAKE/SLIDE IT IN fan. In the videos, Coverdale does a little too much in the way of suggestive moves. Uneccessary, I thought. I kept hoping for the camera to move to Sykes so we could see him jamming out those awesome guitar licks.Kudos to Coverdale for putting this out... so we could get some awesome Sykes/Powell/Murray musical action.

as a big fan of pre-hair whitesnake and drummer cozy powell, I was not disappointed. the cd has a very good mix and played through my good earbuds you are there live. this was a great version of whitesnake possibly the best. you get some previews of re-made crying in the rain etc. the dvd is also very good sound and picture quality. if you don't mind coverdale over touching himself in the first few minutes it really is entertaining and a great "take me back" concert. gotta love sykes and powell. I have been listening to the cd on my mp3 player non stop. what a great tribute to possibly the best version of whitesnake!!

Where has this album been??!!! It has been long overdue, the John Sykes lineup is what kickstarted Whitesnake in the US! This is the man you hear on the tracks "Still of the Night", "Bad Boys", "Is this Love?", & these are the tracks that broke Whitesnake in the States! The fact that David Coverdale made it a memorial of sorts to Mel Galley,Jon Lord, & Cozy Powell with the Deluxe edition DVD extras make this worth every cent! The album sounds great, the time & equipment taken into consideration! I highly recommend this album to those who were around when the 'Snake was the biggest, baddest band around!

Typical i wait months and months and months before decidibg to buy this and i had it a few days and old Cov' announces a 'Slide It In' box set,of which some of this will feature again.The dvd is of its time and while not brilliant its worth the occasional watch and the Cd , my main reason for purchase.. well its to quote Mr Coverdale 'Rough and Ready' really only for the completist.This era was a line in the sand for many a 'Snake fan,me included, in my humble opinion 1980 -84 will never be bettered, yes i've got all the albums that came after and there are many great indeed outstanding tracks but nothing matches the consistency of 1980-84 for true snake pure in every sense..If your a die hard this is worth getting if a casual maybe not.

Another excellent (live) album by a classic band and from the era when they were in their prime & on top of their game; again, exactly as described/advertised and arriving exactly on schedule.

Such potential in the slimmed down and refreshed 1984 lineup, and such a shame that it wasn't carried forward after David Coverdale's voice problems and the 1987 album. Highly recommended!

excellent ...whitesnake live as they should be

good item