I watched a couple of rock documentaries in some holiday break down time.
I love a great musical documentary. I like the ones that reveal a great musician or let me get inside of something and wish I had been a part of it. My current favorites:
Long Time #1: Hail Hail Rock and Roll
Chuck Berry had a unique sound and rose to fame in a tough time to be a black artist. In his twilight years he was still doing 200 shows a year and the format was simple:
- He showed up
- You paid him his fee (sometimes in cash)
- He met the backup band you had pulled together for him for the night
- He did his show
The documentary centers around a concert Chuck was putting together for a 60th birthday celebration. At the heart of the concert is Keith Richards who wants to get “one more great show” out of this King of Rock and Roll. Keith recognized Chuck Berry’s impact and importance, but also acknowledges that meeting your band 20 minutes before a show doesn’t always create the tightest set. For the 60th birthday concert Keith assembled an A-list of band members who practiced for two weeks leading up to the show.
Their are a ton of great things about this doc:
- Interviews with other black artists of Berry’s era (like Bo Diddley) talking about selling records out of their trunk and getting to keep 3¢ on the dollar.
- Watching Keith Richards play, his hand is like an incredible coked-up spider scurrying up and down the neck of a guitar
- Interviews with random musicians who got the call to play for Chuck Berry – one guy was working as a mechanic and got a call saying they needed a lead guitar player for a band that night. When the guy was reluctant – he needed the shift money – the bar manager said “It’s for Chuck Berry” and the guy made a beeline for the venue. It was Bruce Springsteen.
Favorite #2: Sound City
This is a documentary about a sound board, or more specifically the Neve 8028 Analog Mixing Console, a one time state-of-the-art device largely displaced by digital successors.
The doc comes from my musical-man-crush Dave Grohl and his experience with one of the final “Neves” in use at the Sound City Studios in Van Nuys.
Here’s what’s great about this doc:
- It reveals underlying love for music and the work that musicians do
- Iconic vignettes about albums recorded at Sound Studio like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
- The full story of Nirvana driving down (and living) in a van from Seattle to record Nevermind during the cheaper midnight-to-6am shift and how that board unlocked the grit of Nirvana and defined a generation of music
Doc #3: A Great Day in Harlem
In 1958 Art Kane was trying to pull together a black and white photograph of the Jazz Greats of the era on a stoop in Harlem. The personalities of the artists were all revealed in how they “showed” for the photo. You don’t have to like jazz to love this doc, you have to love musicians and the warped personalities that seem to go hand-in-hand with genius.
After the top two, there’s “the rest”:
- I like a good Temptations movie as a universal metaphor for the tension that is part of any group of adults and how sometimes incredible talent can navigate the tension and sometimes it can’t
- The “Wrecking Crew” is about a handful of incredible session musicians and “unsung heroes” from the LA music community and their role in hundreds of incredible albums. It’s worth it just to see all the stuff they backed and think “ooh, I loved that album.”
- “What Happened Miss Simone” I just couldn’t care enough about to like
- “Standing in the Shadow of Motown” is another in the lines of the “Wrecking Crew”, but this is about the Motown House Band. Again, you watch it just to hear a dozen Motown classics roll by and reminisce
- “Foo Fighters: Back and Forth” — predisposed to like anything from Dave Grohl. Gave a great window into how much hard work and road work it took for even “the drummer for Nirvana” to build Foo Fighters. A little more FACTS than EMOTIONS, but good.
- “Hired Gun” is about high-end musicians for hire that big bands hire for tours and session work. It was good because it revealed this elite set of musicians I didn’t know about but it felt more like a doc made to thank this group more than give some insight into them.
My Netflix queue is full of more, hopefully a gem waits.