Starting in the early 70s, well before MTV came on the scene, John Ré spent ten years assembling video collages of found footage to accompany his favorite songs. I fell in love with Re’s unapologetic celebration of rebellion on first watching. What genius to pair B.B. King’s“The Thrill is Gone” with footage of the 1967 Harlem uprising, or Janis Joplin’s haunting rendition of“Summertime” set to images of the police attacking protesters at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1969.
The disc has a supplementary section comprised of 1600+ photographs of underground newspapers, posters, leaflets and pamphlets and from all over the U.S. and the UK.
Except for the odd used VHS copy, the videos on the disc have not been available for twenty years. The still photographs are only on the videodisc which has been out of print for 25 years.
The over and videos are below. The supplementary section, produced by Sandra Mueller is HERE.
The Thrill is Gone, B.B. King
I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Marvin Gaye
Summertime, Janis Joplin
White Bird (Changing Horses), Incredible String Band
Incident at Neshabur, Santana
Wild Thing, Jimmy Hendrix
Gimme Shelter, Rolling Stones
Dark Star, Grateful Dead
Freedom, Richie Havens
Going Up Country, Canned Heat