Vote for why you think it jumped
Legends term used loosely
Pink Floyd is a Syd Barrett tribute
Never Jumped
Too many repeats
U2
Shark Bytes
I have to agree that the JTS moment came with the Pink Floyd feature which paid too much attention to Syd Barrett. After all, Barrett was the group's driving force for only the first album and one track off the second. More time should have been spent on the remainder of Floyd's career, covering the 70s Roger Waters era and the 80s/90s David Gilmour era. Pink Floyd's career actually took off after "Dark Side of The Moon" although I especially like "Meddle" (their best pre-Dark Side disk), "Animals" and "The Division Bell".
If the producers wanted to dedicate so much time to Barrett the segment should've been expanded to two hours. Floyd's full story was an example of "barely scratching the surface".
Judging from past posts, I have to say let's not be so abrasive when judging other performers. I may be an aging baby boomer, but I happen to like U2's music.
If the producers wanted to dedicate so much time to Barrett the segment should've been expanded to two hours. Floyd's full story was an example of "barely scratching the surface".
Judging from past posts, I have to say let's not be so abrasive when judging other performers. I may be an aging baby boomer, but I happen to like U2's music.
Legends is the typical VH1 meets History Channel Rockumentary. Really hasn't jumped yet. As far as the idiot Bono basher, I'm not sure if your comments are anti-Irish or anti-American. So Americans are to blame for all that is wrong with rock music? Maybe you should go live in a country that embraces your "daring" music. You'll have your daring music, but maybe not little things like clean water or healthcare! U2 is talentless? I'm not a huge U2 fan, but I'm wise enough to know that they are probably the most influential rock act since the Beatles. That takes some kind of talent. So yuppees shouldn't rock? Why not? Maybe if your job at 7-11 paid a little more, you wouldn't be bitching about ticket prices. Stop crying, and go listen to some U2!
This show can be ok at times, although it sort of smacks of "Behind the Music". I'm really gearing my review to the moron that chose to make this JTS a personal anti-Bono, anti-U2 forum. Sounds like you don't like Legends because you hate U2. Well, I'd like to offer a rebuttal to your insightful dissertation. First of all, U2 is NOT popular because Americans are afraid of daring music, as you stated. U2 is popular because they have consistently recorded great music over a period of 25 years. Many people enjoy listening to them, and it has nothing to do with fear. This band has an amazingly loyal fan base, now counting in the tens of millions. As far as the absurd comment about U2 killing rock, well, that's odd given that the band has spent their lives emulating performers like the Beatles, The Clash, Elvis, and Patti Smith. As for a U2 show, well, given your extreme distaste for the band and the high ticket prices (which is due to scalpers and ticket agents, not U2), I'm betting you haven't seen a lot of U2 shows. A U2 show is a true all-ages concert, with attendees ranging from pre-teens to silver haired rockers wearing their ragged "War" concert shirts. The band offers a well balanced mix of old classics and new hits, and they give 110% every night, and the fans leave happy. Is that not what a great performer should do? If you are one of the enraged, alienated fans who is furious whenever a yuppie attends a concert, here's a tip: blame Ticketmaster, not the artist. If you don't care to hear Bono's politics, then change the channel, but don't bash VH1 because you don't agree with their example of a legend. And please, don't blame U2's success on Americans being stupid and afraid, - that logic is just plain ignorant. Sorry JTS folks, I'm now off my soapbox.
VH-1 really screwed up the Pink Floyd episode by basing it all on Syd Barrett, the original leader/genius/unfairly overrated drug addict, for those people who think they're Floyd fans because they've heard Dark Side and The Wall. They based the whole episode on Syd's tripping, just like everybody else who's heard of him, but hasn't taken the time to listen to his work. If you check at the end credits, I think it mentions that VH-1 collaborated with the BBC. Turns out they didn't collaborate, they STOLE footage and interviews from the BBC. Evidence: If you watch the BBC Special on Barrett called Omnibus, there's the exact same stuff. The Legends episode is Omnibus with rearranged footage and re-dubbed voiceovers. It is a nice change to actually see some recognition of Barrett on TV except major homage to the Dark Side-Wall period, though.
When they had Pink Floyd up for a LONG overdue Legends, and it turned into a Syd Barrett tribute. Granted, he was important to the early Floyd sound. But three-fourths of the way through the show, they had only just mentioned Dark Side of the Moon. Hmmm...that leaves 15 minutes to cover 1975-1994 (or arguably 1975-1985). VH1 dropped the ball by giving so much time to a potentially talented, VERY overrated acid casualty.
The fact that they devoted an entire hour calling U2 "legends". U2 is the most over-hyped, talentless band in the history of modern music. They've got the biggest self-important, bullshitting self-promoter in Bono. They're only huge because most of America (which is where they achieved all their fame, they went BACK to Europe to find out that they were huge there just because of all the hype the US gave them) is afraid of truly daring music, and U2 represent everything that's "safe" with music these days. The same thing with Dave Matthews Band. Look into the audience of any U2 or DMB concert...it's all preppy yuppies with their cell phones going off while they dance rhythmlessly in their $450 seats to the most uninspiring music ever. If people like U2 fans ran music, rock n roll would never have been born, and neither would have any other new, daring art form. Thumbs down on generic music. Thumbs up Bono's ass.
When they they tried to make Aretha Franklin appear attractive even though she has ballooned big time. And dear lord why does she insist on showing off her cleavage? If one of those 2 tons ever got out it would take out the entire first rows eyes. For a true union of divas I'd like to see Nina Hagen, Dame Shirley Bassey and umm..well those are the only 2 I can think of right now.
Legends and Behind the Music are great shows. The stories are so interesting and I could watch the same ones over and over. But why do a "Legends" and a "Behind the Music" about the same artist? (Tina Turner, Elton John) Focus on artists that have not been done. Also - ditch BM2.
My sentiments exactly. I can understand "David Crosby: Behind the Music" and "Legends: CSN&Y" or, for that matter, "Legends: the Who" and "Keith Moon: Behind the Music." But doing both a "Legends" and a "Behind the Music" on the same artist, as they did on Tina Turner and Elton John, is ridiculous. But I guess that's me being hypocritical being that, as I've said before, they should do "Legends" on the Police, Bonnie Raitt, Madonna, Quincy Jones and a few others.
When William Baldwin started narrating every episode of "Legends," they jumped the shark, though it is still far superior to "Behind the Music." Baldwin is not as bad as you would think judging by how I'm going to put him down. But you would think that they would be able to afford more narrators being that VH1 is ultimately paying for this show. But I guess that they want to waste all their energies on driving BtM into the ground. It's bad enough that he narrates every new episode (as rare as they may be). But then they replace old tracks on old episodes with his voice, especially on the episode featuring Eric Clapton; I rather liked John Platt's narration; he showed so much emotion and joy when he told the story of "God." Then - maybe since it was an updated "Legends" and they couldn't track John Platt down - they get Baldwin to redo the track. They did the same with Bruce Springsteen, U2 (though I didn't really mind there because James Justice - I don't know who he is, but he must work for VH1 - sounded dead for the most part on the Boss and U2) and Aretha Franklin (which really saddens me because Frankie Crocker had a very smooth delivery and sounded like he had a sense of Lady Soul's history). But I guess I'm being hypocritical being that I liked Kris Kristofferson's narration of Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield (what I caught of his episode) and Johnny Cash. Not that I don't like Baldwin - he does a good job; in fact, he was perfect for the Bee Gees being that they were brothers and William's part of an acting family (Alec, Billy, Adam, etc.); it's just how does he get the gig narrating the Pretenders, George Clinton, the Clash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young?
VH1 Legends has never jumped the shark, though it has come close a couple of times. It is a hell of a lot more interesting than either Behind the Music or BTM 2. Though I'm not saying that it should be used to beat people over the heads (the BTMs do that quite well on their own) because VH1, like MTV, should concentrate more on music videos and reserve shows like BTM, BTM2, Legends, et. al to the weekends, it should get a lot more exposure than it's getting. Legends doesn't beat you over the head with sound bytes like BTM does. And rarely does it ever use pictures within an episode more than once. Though I realize that VH1 is trying to make Legends rare, so as to give those who are lucky enough to be featured on this fine program a certain aura, I do wish they would make more of them, though I wish they would get off this dependency they have on William Baldwin; he was the perfect fit for the Bee Gees, being that he is from an acting family which features Alec, Daniel and the guy who was in that Flinstones prequel, Viva Rock Vegas whose name escapes me right now; now, he is beginning to wear out his welcome. But, he does a fine job regardless, so that's no grounds to say that they've jumped the shark. It saddens me that Legends (those that have been featured, that is) like Janis Joplin, BB King, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton, the Clash and a few others, don't get to be shown as much because, perhaps, they're not "sexy" enough to be shown in saturation mode. And it really sucks that artists like Bonnie Raitt, Quincy Jones, the Police, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, Peter Gabriel (former Genesis lead singer) and Willie Nelson don't get to be featured because they've been passed so that VH1 can pad their BTM library. And it totally sucks that VH1 did an about-face on Legends Tina Turner (just so they could say that she was BTM's 100th episode) and Elton John. I don't see why they couldn't have updated those episodes of Legends. Since VH1 is looking to make money on BTM, wouldn't it have been cheaper to have updated those episodes of Legends instead of making two totally superfluous episodes of BTM? They didn't seem to have a problem updating the story of the Legendary Eric Clapton!!! Bitching aside, I hope that they one day reverse themselves on those BTM artists that I mentioned, plus do Legends episodes on Stevie Wonder (who just turned 50 the other day - I can't believe VH1 let his 50th pass them by), Santana and (maybe) the Sex Pistols, among others.
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