This is a wonderful look at Elton at an earlier age. Not only is the music wonderful, but the video also offers Elton's and Ray's comments on their trip and its political and social ramifications. Since the performance was only 2 people: Elton at the piano with the fabulous Ray Cooper on percussion, we see Elton's mastery of the keyboard, which is often overshadowed in other concerts by grandiose orchestrations. I even discovered a terrific Elton song I had never heard before ("Part Time Love"). Definitely a good addition to any Elton John video and music collection.

This video made in the late 1970's shows the behind the scenes of his tour in Russia with Ray Cooper, the percussionist. We find out how he was able to perform there with the political situation as well as the crew setting up the stage and other things. The best parts though are the concert performances. Elton starts off solo with pretty decent versions of Your Song and Daniel. But When Cooper comes in. The concert takes off dramatically with a high-voltage version of Funeral for a Friend. Along with a great version of Bennie and the Jets and last but not least, Using only the piano and drums, Elton and Ray burst out the best, most high rockin version of Saturday Nights Alright I have ever heard. This video gives a more personal look at Elton behind the scenes and I would recomend this video to any Elton fan.

Big-time Elton fans -- you already have this tape. For anyone else, this is a great filmed documentary of an amazing live performer, at an artistic peak.

By 1977, Elton John had broken every record in the music business there was to break, played almost every city and venue there was to play. It's easy to forget that Elton-mania swept the US though the early and mid seventies to an extent that only Elvis and The Beatles have approached or exceeded, before or since. He was at that time, simply stated, the world's best known and most commercially successful performer.

The performances on this tape were captured in early 1979 at the end of a self-imposed "retirement" that began in 1977. This short tour of Russia and Eastern Europe so inspired Elton and percussionist Ray Cooper that it blossomed into a worldwide tour, culminating in US stops at relatively intimate venues in the fall of 1979.

This tour is legendary among long time Elton fans, and this tape gives you a taste of why. It's simply the songs, his extraordinary musicianship, and an added element of drama provided by Ray Cooper -- unforgettable to those who were there. The backdrop of the Iron Curtain era USSR -- beautiful, officially unforgiving to outsiders, unofficially curious about the Western World -- is quite interesting; viewed today the film higlights the radical changes that have taken place, and how fragile they must be.

You can't watch this without realizing that his is an enormous talent, and that many of his songs are already timeless classics. This is an "A&E" type docu (but not 'hosted') with heavy concert footage, filmed with 1979 technology. The soundtrack quality is okay but not sensational; that is my only quibble with what is otherwise a gem of a film: you witness a huge talent at peak performance, artistically sparking.

For fourteen bucks, this is a no-brainer.

Live in Russia is a real image of Elton carrer this video show how life could be hard for a professional singner.Elton sing most of is hits but the audience don't really seem to enjoy...don't have to tell you that me see the real passion for the signer outside of the stage see people screaming for Elton...a very good moment a video to buy