Rock and Roll Documentaries

[dav4463]

I just watched "The Kids are Alright" again. It is an incredible documentary about The Who. I watched it again just to remind me how great they really were. I also watched The Who Live at the Isle of Wight and the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter". Next up, I want to watch the Kinks "One for the Road". I like the British invasion bands of the sixties even though I wasn't old enough to see these bands in their prime.

What are some of your favorite rock and roll documentaries?

[blind squirrel]

just watched the BOB DYLAN documentary "NO DIRECTION HOME" on PBS.
it was incredible.directed bt MARTIN SORCESE.

he also directed "THE LAST WALTZ" about "THE BAND".

did you hear that MIKE MEYERS{AUSTIN POWERS}is going
to potray KEITH MOON in a movie?i

[DJofSD]

I found "No Direction Home" interesting and mildly entertaining. It told a good story about Dylan's perspective of the entertainment industry. But I was left thinking there was more of a story about Dylan himself as a person that was not being told instead of just the musican.

The acid test will be if I drop it onto VHS tape from my TiVo or just delete it.

DJofSD

[kenwoodallpromos]

"Head", Monkees. includes Carol Doda.

[chickenhead]

I thought the Dylan story was interesting, I am still curious as to exactly what the motivation was behind the song writing. How did those verses get written? Hard to believe someone without strong feelings about the subject could write them. Interesting character...but mainly I was just reminded of what a great songwriter he was.

"Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

I'd trade whole legions of popular musicians today for a person of his talent to be on the scene.

And I loved when he went electric for the first time, first song out of the box is Maggie's Farm...with the crowd booing.

"Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more."

Brilliant.

I'd like to get the soundtrack for that documentary, there were a lot of interesting songs on there that I wasn't familiar with.

[DJofSD]

And I loved when he went electric for the first time, first song out of the box is Maggie's Farm...with the crowd booing.

"Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more."

Brilliant.

I'd like to get the soundtrack for that documentary, there were a lot of interesting songs on there that I wasn't familiar with.

Being boo'ed by the crowd reminded me of the John Mayall album (Jazz/Blues Fusion?) when the crowd wanted him to play 'Room to Move' and his retort was something like 'what'd you come here to do listen to old records?'

The PBS program soundtrack is available. Saw it at Tower last weekend (Borrego - cha-ching).

DJofSD

[Tom]

There's one floating around on cable - can't recall the name - about John Lee Hooker.

If you like real deep blues, this one's a must. The guy was/is fantastic.
He also made a double album with Canned Heat that was dyno-mite.

[bettheoverlay]

I loved No Direction Home. I'm not sure Dylan himself understands where the words came from. In a time of celebrity slickness, Dylan's inscrutability and contrariness seem almost profound.

Another good rock doc is Mad Dogs and Englishmen, starring Joe Cocker, before the treacly ballad duets, and Leon Russell as the mad impressario.

[dav4463]

I had forgotten about "Head" ! I saw it on AMC one night. Very strange !

[Hosshead]

Being boo'ed by the crowd reminded me of the John Mayall album (Jazz/Blues Fusion?) when the crowd wanted him to play 'Room to Move' and his retort was something like 'what'd you come here to do listen to old records?'...[/I].DJofSD

"Room To Move" was a good one. I would have been disappointed had he not played that one.
I'm always amazed at artists that don't want to play the songs that made them rich and famous. The hell with what the people who bought their records want to hear.

I had that happen in Vegas. Went to a concert by a famous recording artist, who had written countless hit songs, and he didn't want to do them. He just wanted to play honky tonk blues type of stuff that any "house band" could have done. The crowd, thinking that towards the end, he would play some of his famous songs, cheered for an encore after he left the stage.
Well, he left the crowd hanging, and just left. Never coming back on stage.
This guy didn't give a damn what the crowd wanted.

[OTM Al]

This Is Spinal Tap. It just says it all :)

[blind squirrel]

This Is Spinal Tap. It just says it all :)

uh,i don't want to bust your bubble but SPINAL TAP
wasn't a "real band".

[OTM Al]

You are kidding, right? :) Besides, it wasn't a documentary. It was a rockumentary.

[Hosshead]

It was a mockumentary.

[Valuist]

This is Spinal Tap---one of the great comedies of all time.

[OTM Al]

No doubt about it. Used to hang with a bunch of rock musicians and as far as they were concerned there was more truth in that movie than all the real rock documentaries combined. Most of the filming was completely without a script. Rumor has it there is a 7 hour bootleg version that has everything that was filmed, much of it to baudy to make the final cut. It was pretty entertaining to get several extra scenes on the DVD release explaining the ever moving "cold sores" on the lads' lips.

[Valuist]

Still wonder what bands they were spoofing. I think the M & Ms scene in the dressing room was Van Halen; supposedly they had it in their contract they had to have a certain amount of M & Ms in their dressing room. The Stonehenge scenery bit was from Sabbath. I think Nigel looked a bit like Ozzy and the Harry Shearer character looked like Geezer Butler.

[OTM Al]

Absolutely everyone, though some are easier targets than others....I saw a whole lot of Led Zeppelin in there for example

[Buddy Love]

A good blues documentary is 'Searching for Robert Johnson' on either Ovation or Trio. John Hammond and the other Blues musicians are really great. Theres's a good scene in a little Mississippi town where they are 'Cuttin' Heads' - playing on street corners to get a crowd.

By the way, John Hammond is the son of the John Hammond who helped Bob Dylan get his first recording contract as shown in 'No Direction Home' - another great documentary.

Dan

[Buddy Love]

Spinal Tap is a great and funny movie. I think that was the first movie for that group of actors like Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy who have done 'Waiting for Guffman', 'Best in Show', and 'A Mighty Wind.'

Dan

[falconridge]

it was incredible.directed bt MARTIN SORCESE.

he also directed "THE LAST WALTZ" about "THE BAND".
Dateline: Thanksgiving Night, 1976. Scene: San Francisco’s Winterland Theater. On stage: Robbie Robertson, guitar; Levon Helm, percussion; Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel, keyboards; Rick Danko, bass. The event, billed by legendary rock impresario Bill Graham as “the last supper”: the final concert by an ensemble that had performed together since 1960, a four-fifths Canadian group (Helm being Arkansan) first known as the Hawks, but since 1968—and forever after—as The Band.

The significance of The Band’s going-away gig did not elude—well, it certainly did not elude whoever it was (Graham?) who arranged for a veritable constellation of the most luminous lights that ever shone in rock’s firmament to appear amidst and amongst The Band’s members on this night of stars: Bob Dylan, many of whose compositions had their first airing in The Band’s debut album, “Music From Big Pink” (1968); Eric Clapton, to whom Robertson gleefully demonstrated his own considerable skills on the guitar; Neil Young, whose ear-to-ear grin would seem to indicate that this countryman was having the time of his life; Van Morrison; Joni Mitchell; Dr. John; Ringo Starr; Ron Wood; the Staples Singers; and even a bemused-but-grateful-to-be-there Neil Diamond.

Also present were Beat legend and Baghdad-By-the-Bay fixture Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and a New York native named Martin Scorsese. The director, who had just completed Taxi Driver and was still at work on New York, New York, had brought with him a 300-page script, story boards, and seven 35-mm cameras lugged, waved, swiveled, and pointed by the likes of cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider; Five Easy Pieces; New York, New York), Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, The Deer Hunter), and John Toll (Urban Cowboy, Braveheart, Vanilla Sky). The sound mix took four months to complete; the film editing, two years. The consensus opinion—certainly among The Band’s devotees, but also according to a great many others who never counted themselves among the group’s legionnaires—is that The Last Waltz is well worth the wait, the trouble, the extravagance.

This isn't going to win me any friends or fans, but I found The Last Waltz positively excruciating. When I say the manner was way too much for the matter, I could be talking about any number of movies directed by the most overrated filmmaker in America. But here especially, with his script, story boards, and high-profile cinematographers in tow, Scorsese uses a sledgehammer to kill a fly. Undoubtedly my own musical tastes (I've always counted myself among the shaggiest of the longhairs; despite growing up in the Bay Area during the heyday of Fillmore West and Winterland, I never once infiltrated those Carnegie Halls of rockdom) have prejudiced me in this judgment. That leaves me in the strange position of recommending The Last Waltz to anyone who enjoys that sort of thing, while at the same time giving a wide berth to any venue at which it is screened.

--Falcon the K(illjoy)

[Valuist]

Al-

Definitely true on Zeppelin. Michael McKean's character looked a bit similar to Robert Plant.

[dav4463]

Spinal Tap was very funny. Does anyone remember the Beatle spoof called "Meet the Rutles"? Now, that was a funny "mockumentary"!

[kingfin66]

Still wonder what bands they were spoofing. I think the M & Ms scene in the dressing room was Van Halen; supposedly they had it in their contract they had to have a certain amount of M & Ms in their dressing room. The Stonehenge scenery bit was from Sabbath. I think Nigel looked a bit like Ozzy and the Harry Shearer character looked like Geezer Butler.

The reason Van Halen and other bands make strange requests is so that the promoters will read the contract rider. It's really the important things they are interested in, so if they don't get their M&M's sans the brown ones, then they know that the promoter didn't totally do their job.

Spinal Tap is just a classic. Their are so many funny scenes...Stone Henge baby! Ours go to 11. The thing with the sandwiches in the dressing room. Just funny stuff.

[OTM Al]

I got a copy of Meet the Ruttles at home too. Very funny as well. My favorite part is the Blind Lemon Pie scene

[Valuist]

Was the Rutles somehow related to Monty Python? I vaguely remember it and thought Eric Idle was one of the Rutles.

[falconridge]

Was the Rutles somehow related to Monty Python? I vaguely remember it and thought Eric Idle was one of the Rutles.
Eric Idle was indeed one of the Rutles. In the mock-rockumentary, also known as All You Need is Cash, Idle played the Pre-Fab Four's left-handed bass guitarist, Dirk McQuickley. His mates were Stig, Barry, and a John Lennon-sound alike named John Nasty, played by Neil Innes. PA members might remember Innes as the principal of the Bonzo Dog Band, a 1970's ensemble best known for "Monster Mash"--though many of their songs, notably "Hunting Tigers out in India," were far superior to "Mash." Innes also composed, performed, and supervised others' performances of much of the music featured in various Python projects.

Several of you must also own the by now highly collectible LP of Rutles favorites. A few of the songs on the album were not performed in the film. One that was performed in the movie, but for some reason wasn't among the LP tracks, is "Get Up and Go," a hilarious, spot-on spoof of "Get Back."

The Rutles' parodies of Beatles tunes, from harmonies to solo voice characteristics to ensemble singing, was so accurate that often it's difficult to tell a Rutles send-up from a Beatles original. Once, at a college party, I slipped the Rutles disc in among a stack of other LP's. Almost no one seemed to notice the prank, though I did hear a few comments, during Nasty's covers of "Cheese and Onions" and "I Cannot Stay Another Day" (in which Innes springs, in the song's refrain, or "hook," a near-perfect rhyme for "pusillanimous'), such comments as "What album is that from? It's obviously Beatles, but I just can't remember it being on Yellow Submarine . I [i]know it's Beatles."

Idle's fellow Pythoner Michael Palin also appeared in the film, as did the late George Harrison. Several of the original Not Ready for Primetime Players filled out the cast, though they contributed few laughs to this otherwise very funny movie.

F. Ridge
Alumnus, Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band
1964 Finchley Rd
Rutland, UK

[Tom]

I have the Rutles album - it's actually quite good.

[Tom]

A good blues documentary is 'Searching for Robert Johnson' on either Ovation or Trio. John Hammond and the other Blues musicians are really great. Theres's a good scene in a little Mississippi town where they are 'Cuttin' Heads' - playing on street corners to get a crowd.

By the way, John Hammond is the son of the John Hammond who helped Bob Dylan get his first recording contract as shown in 'No Direction Home' - another great documentary.

Dan

Nothing like good blues..."It in us. And it got to come out. Let that boy boodie woogie." :ThmbUp: :kiss:

[falconridge]

... "I Cannot Stay Another Day" (in which Innes springs, in the song's refrain, or "hook," a near-perfect rhyme for "pusillanimous'
"You're so pusillanimous, oh yeah;
Nature's callin' an' I mus' go theah."

Just one Rutles album, Tom? The liner notes of Meet the Rutles list and show the cover art of the lads' recorded legacy: Let it Rot, Yellow Submarine Sandwich, Shabby Road, Tragical History Tour, Rutle Soul, Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band ... Sharp-eyed Rutles aficionados will note several hints of Stig's demise on the album cover of Shabby Road. Dirk, Barry, and Nasty step in stride whilst crossing the eponymous avenue, but Stig is ... pants-less.

Other great Rutles tunes: "(Please, Please) Hold My Hand," "I Am the Waitress," "Twist and Rut," "Rut Me Do," "Doubleback Alley." Then there are the title songs of the Pre-Fab Four's two feature-length motion pictures, "A Hard Day's Rut" and "Ouch."

From the minds of the unsurpassed songwriting team of Nasty and McQuickley:

"Get Up and Go"

Working up a fever in a one-horse town
was a jockey by the name of Joe.
He didn't have a lot of you might call luck,
but he had a lot of get up and go.

Get up and go
Get up and go
Get up and go back home
Get up and go
Get up and go
Get up and go back home.

Tall in the saddle in a one-horse town
Joey knew someday he'd hit the road.
He traded with a dealer for a pick-up truck
And went looking for a medium load.

Get up and go [etc.]

Cruising down the highway doing sixty-five
in the middle of the double white line,
his foot down on the gas and his head in the clouds,
he didn't see the one-way sign.

Get up and go [etc. (repeat refrain twice)]

Time I zipped up my Rutle boots, got up, and went,

F. Ridge
Rutlemania Forever

[Valuist]

Anyone ever see "Return of Spinal Tap"? Its mostly concert footage but there are some funny bits. Nigel goes into a guitar solo and meanwhile Derek goes out for dinner and David gets a makeover. I thought their music wasn't bad.

[kingfin66]

The three guys, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael(?) McKean, are actually all musicians and took Spinal Tap on tour. They had some interesting songs; Big Bottom ("talk about mud flaps my girls gottom"), Christmas With the Devil ("the elves are dressed in leather, the angels are in chains, there's someone up you chimney hole, Satan is his name").

[Valuist]

Don't forget the classics "Sex Farm" and "Bitch School".

[Wiley]

This isn't going to win me any friends or fans, but I found The Last Waltz positively excruciating.

I have to disagree here. Think 'The Last Waltz' is a great movie with great music, all the top names of the era and filmed/framed/set nicely. Clapton's blues guitar playing is amazing and he shows Robertson how it's done, all of the performances are top notch and you even mention what fun all are having which I think really comes across. I am not necessarily a big Scorcese fan but so what if he overblew the production that shouldn't have anything to do with how you perceive or how much enjoyment you get from the final product.

One not mentioned that I really enjoyed was 'Stop Making Sense' the Talking Heads concert film. I have only seen it once when it came out at a theatre but the perfomances, energy, mood and music were so great that people were up dancing in the aisle's. David Byrne is quite the energetic performer and 'Why the big suit'?

[OTM Al]

I was more a fan of early Tap. Clasics like Listen (To What the Flower People Say) and Gimme Some Money are truely.....nostalgic.

[Buddy Love]

Nothing like good blues..."It in us. And it got to come out. Let that boy boodie woogie." :ThmbUp: :kiss:

Tom,

Hey, another blues fan. :cool:

So I find an old Big Bill Broonzy album for a dollar at a flea market. I was in the process of learning his version of 'Baby Please Don't Go' on my guitar (i.e. Spankin' the Plank') and then Katrina hit.

BL

"Baby, please don't go
Down to New Orleans
You know I love you so."

[Kreed]

Hey, guys, a VERY COOL THREAD. I learned a lot.

[falconridge]

Here's another for you. Not exactly my cup of tea, but if you're a Wilco fan, you'll probably like this one. Herewith ...

Stark as the pewter-gray skies that hover above the wintry Chicago cityscape that frames I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, the high-contrast black-and-white imagery of debuting director Sam Jones’s account of the travails of the rock band Wilco amply justifies the title of this extraordinary “rockumentary.” Nor does Jones stint on the sang-froid of Wilco’s lead singer and principal composer, Jeff Tweedy, whose abrupt dismissal of guitarist Jay Bennett creates much of the dramatic tension that drives this chronicle of the creation of Wilco’s critically acclaimed fourth album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.”

Chilly, too, is the band’s treatment by its record company, Reprise, whose rejection of “Foxtrot” ultimately produced some of the essential circumstances by which the album became at least a minor rock’n’roll legend. As Wilco devotees are well aware, the band eventually sold the completed album to Nonesuch (which, ironically, shared with Reprise its corporate parent of Time-Warner, Inc.), whose production and distribution resulted in platinum-status success.

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart does much more than rally critics and fans appalled by record companies’ bottom-line mentality. It also shows the delicate balance that the musicians must maintain between realizing their artistic intentions and making allowances for the reality of the business. In one scene, Tweedy exultantly performs songs from the album at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, only to be put through all the dreaded back-stage rigamarole with retailers, radio executives, and glad-handing stagedoor johnnys.

Jones brings to his first feature-length (92 minutes) effort the trained eye of an accomplished celebrity photographer (his work has appeared in such publications as Vanity Fair and GQ) and veteran maker of television commercials. Of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (which Rolling Stone ranked among the ten best music documentaries ever made) Dave Kehr wrote in The New York Times that it “finds an effective middle course between fan club worshipfulness and the studied detachment of journalism,” and of its distinctive imagery he observed that “the city [Chicago] has seldom looked better than it does here, in its chilly, minimalist beauty.”

f'ridge (all rights reserved)