Legends of Rock - Live at Castle Donington
Disc 1
- Sky Overture 7:36
- Aranjuez 3:00
- Let It Roll 4:45
- Rock Bottom 11:58
- Sunshine Of Your Love 7:18
- White Room 5:08
- All Along The Watchtower 5:13
- Little Wing 4:33
Disc 2
- Trail In The Wind 1:43
- Midnight Train 5:12
- The King Returns 2:25
- Spoonful 10:15
- Doctor Doctor 7:06
- Fireworks Jam 10:24
Linear Notes
Dear Friends,
Thank you for allowing me to introduce to you my latest project, LEGENDS OF ROCK. It all began when I was asked to do a concert with special guests at the Derbyshire ROCK & BLUES FESTIVAL 2001 at CASTLE DONINGTON.
In order to make the evening more memorable I invited some of my friends to take part in the concert with me. During the preparations, certain ideas gradually began to emerge in my mind and this process continued afterwards when I was involved in producing this CD and DVD release and while preparing for the first LEGENDS OF ROCK tour.
Gradually things became clearer to me and began to take on a definite shape. About half-way through the project I knew I was onto something. There was an untold story which needed to be told - musical places, lyrics and songs from an era long-gone-by needed to be revisited, questions needed to be asked and answers needed to be found.
The result was a celebration of that style of music in concert.
With your permission, I would like to explain to you the idea behind this concept.
Having spent many years mainly in the field of classical music I realized that - just like re-interpreting the music of the greats of classical music with a fresh view - it could be exciting to look at classics of rock and perform them in a new way by tuning back into the very heart and soul of this music. I felt it would be great to reconnect directly with the spirit of that music and to perform a choice of rock's classics together with my friends on stage.
I was inspired by the idea to reconnect with certain aspects of the original spirit of rock. For many years I had felt that rock music in general had gone stale and repetitive; nobody seemed to be taking chances anymore - it seemed to me that many people in the music industry - including the musicians - had allowed themselves to be in artistic straitjackets and blinders. Almost everyone seemed to end up beholden to and held captive by industry standards that had been ordained by all powerful record company executives and the media. Soon after the end of the seventies a point was being reached where image became more important than essence and quality of invention - the era of glossy marketing began - bands were being judged more by their looks and hair styles than by the quality of their albums and performances - image began to win out over substance- the era of the big hype had begun and there was no turning away from it. Rock musicians started to produce 'hamburgers for the masses' in a big way.
The result was what we see today: a musical fast food industry: bands and stars are being manufactured artificially by media moguls who play this whole thing like an amusing game. Careers are being created and destroyed in a flash by high-powered campaigns, which treat the artists or talent like expendable toys. The media are gloating in their realization of how easy it is to manipulate the audiences if only enough money is pumped into advertising.
It has now virtually become the norm for musicians to perform onstage, or even on albums, with little or no technical or musical ability whatsoever and to get away with it, because the young audiences, who are being spoon fed nothing else can't even spot the difference. At the same time, real talent is being stifled and suffocated and not given a platform to develop; young and budding talents face a stark choice: they are either forced to conform to these standards and practices, or to sit at home without any real chance of ever being heard. There is very little else they can do.The result of all this is an almost complete absence of honesty and inspiration. Everything has become surface level entertainment while the spirit of music lies down on Broadway and is comatose in the gutters, urgently in need of resuscitation.
The impact of this on rock music meant that something essential seemed to have gone missing, which had been there originally - the sparks of spontaneity, the element of daring and complete freedom - everything seemed to be polished ad infinitum to the point of making rock music tame, lame and utterly predictable.
For myself I made a conscious decision to quit that business in the mid-eighties, when it became apparent to me that the whole thing had long turned into a farce. I stepped outside of everything and turned inwards to discover new music away from the public eye for over a decade. When I re-entered the arena a few years back I realized that it IS possible to survive 'the circus' artistically AND live to tell the tale, but I was also lucky to have the experience that allowed me to understand the game without being crushed by it. Unfortunately many a great talent has fallen by the wayside - crushed by the pressures of this game. LEGENDS OF ROCK is about survivors and those who have changed rock history and lived to tell the tale.
LEGENDS OF ROCK is also about artists who did not conform to the mainstream and who refused to sell out their musical integrity - artists who choose to perform the music they believe in. It is also about performers and their songs which changed the history of rock.
LEGENDS OF ROCK is also about the music of an era long gone by.... An era in which music was still expected to be full of feeling and emotion..... A time in which music was still allowed to be free and the sky was the limit.....
Please, join us on this journey....
Uli Jon Roth
[This written piece was originally available at the defunct website: http://www.legends-of-rock.com/welcome.htm.]