The city of San Francisco, California is one of the most notable municipalities in America. It is home to the famed Golden Gate Bridge, one of the greatest engineering accomplishments in America and the world. It is also home of two championship professional sports teams in the form of the NFL’s 49ers and Major League Baseball’s Giants. These are just some of its claims to fame. Along with being known for these items, San Francisco is also known for being the center of one of the most important movements in the history of modern music, the psychedelic rock movement. Now in a new, forthcoming presentation from Mercury Studios and Jazz Casual Productions, Inc. a renewed focus is being placed on the bands that formed the genre’s foundation. A Night at the Family Dog/Go Ride The Music/West Pole is scheduled for release Friday through the companies’ partnership. The three-part presentation finds itself worth taking in partially through its “liner notes” printed on its insert. The information in the liner notes will be discussed shortly. The concert presentation, A Night at the Family Dog builds on the foundation formed by the DVD’s liner notes. It will be examined a little later. Go Ride The Music and West Pole collectively make up another key part of the overall presentation and will also be examined later. Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of this overall presentation. All things considered they make the presentation in general one that any rock fan will find watching at least once.
A Night at the Family Dog/Go Ride The Music/West Pole, the new three-part examination of the bands that formed the foundation of the psychedelic rock movement, is a presentation that any rock fan will find worth watching at least once. The engagement and entertainment guaranteed by the program comes in part through its “liner notes.” Printed on the inside of the case’s insert, the notes were crafted by famed producer/critic Ralph Gleason’s son, Toby Gleason. Gleason, who also contributed notes to another recent release from Mercury Studios and Jazz Casual Productions, Inc. – Love You Madly/A Concert of Sacred Music at Grace Cathedral was the sole writer of this presentation’s notes. He writes of A Night at the Family Dog, was his father’s final music television production. The concert, of sorts, hurt his reputation in the jazz community, according to the younger Gleason. He writes that this did not bother his father because as he points out in the notes, the featured bands – The Grateful Dead, Santana, and Jefferson Airplane each were influenced by famed figures in the jazz community. Not only that but he writes of Marty Balin, that the Jefferson Airplane vocalist was himself influenced by classical music and the blues. This is something that many viewers themselves might not have known. As a result, such revelation could actually encourage audiences who otherwise might not listen to such music to perhaps give those sounds and styles a chance. The jazz, classical and blues influences on each band’s sound and style is in fact audible to audiences who listen closely to each act.
In his writings about Go Ride The Music and West Pole, Toby Gleason notes the programs were his father’s first steps into covering the psychedelic rock movement. He lays the groundwork here, pointing out that the features are meant to exhibit the tie between psychedelic rock and television. The groundwork that all of this information creates forms a solid foundation for the overall presentation and in turn does plenty to encourage audiences to take in each separate presentation.
Moving deeper into the presentation, A Night at the Family Dog in fact proves fully engaging and entertaining. The concert recording, which features performances from the likes of Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead, feels like such an intimate presentation, thanks to the setting. That seeming intimate setting creates such a great sense for audiences. Much the same can be said of the recording’s production values. The grainy footage creates a welcome sense of nostalgia. Even presented on a 4K UHD television, the footage still looks mostly positive, and the sound mix is just as enjoyable. This is a credit to those charged with resurrecting the footage for this presentation. Clearly the footage was not spit shined, but it was cleaned up just enough to make it look and sound just like it did when it was originally presented. The positive general effect that results from that positive overall production is a welcome viewing experience and equally positive sense of nostalgia that makes the concert presentation fully worth watching.
Go Ride the Music and West Pole are of their own interest in that they are documentaries of sorts, but not necessarily documentaries in the purest sense of the term. Rather, as the younger Gleason points out, they are meant to exhibit how the sounds created by the psychedelic rock genre’s founding bands played into a very specific style of visual presentation on screen. They collectively look like the earliest music videos, and in hearing the elder Gleason talk briefly about the impact that the music had on its on-screen presentation makes for more appreciation for such visualization. That is because it helps viewers understand this was not just videographers or filmmakers trying to be ironic or anything. Rather it was an artistic approach meant to coincide with the style of music. It really is interesting. When the content featured in Go Ride The Music and West Pole is considered along with that in A Night at the Family Dog, the whole of said content makes the entirety of this presentation worth watching at least once.
A Night at the Family Dog/Go Ride The Music/West Pole, the new hybrid concert/documentary presentation from Mercury Studios and Jazz Casual Productions, Inc., is an intriguing new offering from the companies. Its interest comes in part through its liner notes. The notes, crafted by Ralph Gleason’s son Toby, lays a solid groundwork for the unique overall presentation, previewing the content featured in each show. Each presentation offers audiences its own unique content, with the first offering audiences an intimate concert performance of sorts. The other two programs are their own unique music video/documentary shows produced by Ralph Gleason. They are their own works separate from one another, each serving well to show the influence of the psychedelic rock movement on screen. Each element examined here is important in its own way to the whole of this presentation. All things considered they make A Night at the Family Dog/Go Ride The Music/West Pole a unique overall presentation that is worth watching at least once.
More information on A Night at the Family Dog/Go Ride The Music/West Pole and other titles from Mercury Studios is available at:
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