Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1971
Sweet Toronto
Buy Sweet Toronto now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Sweet Toronto' (sometimes referred as 'Sweet Toronto Peace Festival') is a documentary by D.A. Pennebaker of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, a one-day festival held September 13, 1969 at Varsity Stadium on the campus of the University of Toronto and attended by some 20,000 persons. The event was produced by John Brower and Ken Walker. John Lennon, who seven days later would unofficially resign as a member of the Beatles, played as part of the Plastic Ono Band, whose members also included Yoko Ono, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Eric Clapton. Their set was released as the album 'Live Peace in Toronto 1969'.
The video also features a selection of other acts: Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley. The actual concert lasted twelve hours and included Alice Cooper and Chicago Transit Authority among other acts, but Pennebaker's documentary focuses mainly on the final hours of the concert. At the time of the performance Yoko Ono's popularity was sufficiently low that the audience booed and left the Plastic Ono Band performance. There was a similar response from film reviewers at the time. The performances "and this film have grown in interest and watchability since that time, particularly given the rarity of such thorough documentation of these key performers' work in concert."
The film is available on DVD from Shout! Factory, under the name 'John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band: Live in Toronto'.
Track listing
# "Bo Diddley"
#* 'Performed by Bo Diddley'
# "Hound Dog"
#* 'Performed by Jerry Lee Lewis'
# "Johnny B. Goode"
#* 'Performed by Chuck Berry'
# "Lucille"
#* 'Performed by Little Richard'
# "Blue Suede Shoes"
# "Money (That's What I Want)"
# "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy"
# "Yer Blues"
# "Cold Turkey"
# "Give Peace a Chance"
# "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)"
# "John, John (Let's Hope for Peace)"
#* 'Tracks 5-12 performed by The Plastic Ono Band'
The complete sets by Berry, Little Richard and Lewis were subsequently released as their own films.
References
Category:1971 films
Category:Films directed by D. A. Pennebaker
Category:Concert films
Category:Films about John Lennon
Category:Documentary films about Toronto
Category:Documentary films about the Beatles
Category:Documentary films about music festivals
Category:Plastic Ono Band
Category:1970s English-language films
Buy Sweet Toronto now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1971