Tribute Concert DVDs Go Beyond Being Footnotes

“America: A Tribute to Heroes” on DVD is a reminder of how much the nation was in shock in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. That element alone establishes “Tribute” as one of the great concert documents ever.

The power of the DVD shows that many of us have been wrong in assuming that neither the music on CD nor the accompanying visuals on DVD could recapture the drama of the moment when, just 10 days after the attacks, some of our most celebrated musicians gathered in Los Angeles, New York and London for a telethon to rally our spirits and raise money for families of the rescue workers and others who died in the attacks.

That assumption may be the reason the telethon album has met with such tepid commercial response.

Despite featuring some of the biggest names in the pop world, including U2, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion and Dave Matthews, the two-disc “Tribute” set has only sold about 600,000 copies and has slid to No. 59 on the sales chart.

The second charity disc--”The Concert for New York City,” which is from the Oct. 20 spectacular at Madison Square Garden that featured such celebrated rock veterans as Paul McCartney, Elton John and the Who--has sold only about 400,000 copies and is languishing at No. 130.

Even the DVD and video versions of the telethon, which have been available since late November, have sold only about 100,000 copies--on a par with the latest Britney Spears and U2 videos. The DVD and video editions of the New York City concert arrive in stores today.

Believing that the “Tribute” DVD would be just a footnote to the original broadcast, I even waited until receiving an advance copy of the “New York City” DVD over the weekend to watch it.

My surprise was immediate.

First, the sound and picture quality is so extraordinary in the “Tribute” and “New York City” packages that it’s like seeing the programs on a new, absorbing level. Most remarkable, however, is how many details I had missed in the telethon by focusing on the artists’ messages of healing and resilience.

I was concentrating so hard on the words to Springsteen’s unreleased song, “My City of Ruins,” that I didn’t even notice that three members of the E Street Band were among the background singers. Neil Young was so captivating on John Lennon’s “Imagine” that I was oblivious to the live orchestra. I even missed that U2 had a fifth member for the night, guitarist Dave Stewart.

Most of all, I had missed Bono’s lyric change in “Peace on Earth,” which U2 used as a prelude that night to “Walk On.”

On the band’s latest album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” the tone of “Peace on Earth” is bitter--a statement of despair over the continuing use of violence to solve disputes between countries and religious factions. On the album, a disillusioned Bono sings, “Sick of sorrow/Sick of pain/Sick of hearing again and again/That there’s gonna be peace on earth.”

To provide more hope on the telethon, he turned the line upside down by making it a slap at disillusionment, “Sick of hearing again and again/That there’s never gonna be peace on earth.”

Equally surprising is how some artists who aren’t as acclaimed as U2 and Young rose to the occasion. Faith Hill sounded unusually soulful on “There Will Come a Day,” while Celine Dion showed surprising restraint on “God Bless America.” Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, often portrayed as the poster boy of goofball rock, was strikingly tender teaming with the Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.”

Also contributing to the continuing punch of “Tribute” is the imaginative staging, which achieved a gripping intimacy and starkness by eliminating such customary elements as a studio audience and even the introduction of the performers.

By contrast, the nonmusical factors are often the most touching elements in “The Concert for New York City” DVD, notably the repeated scenes of widows, children and co-workers talking about or holding up photos of colleagues or loved ones among the police, firefighters and rescue workers killed in the attacks.

It’s still moving to see Yankee manager Joe Torre standing next to a youngster who speaks about missing his father and Jim Carrey holding up a photo of a missing rescue worker and saying, “That’s what a hero looks like.”

Years from now, we’re still likely to marvel at the sight of Billy Crystal trying gallantly to make us feel that it was OK to laugh again.

Life has moved on since Sept. 11, but these concerts show a moment unprecedented in American history, and my new assumption is that they’re going to maintain their power for decades.