Band/artist documentaries.
These types of films may not be for everyone, but I’ve been on a viewing kick recently and encourage your recommendations for all to enjoy. It’s been interesting to see the stories of the various subjects and get some great insights, stories, and entertaining anecdotes firsthand. Listed below are a few I’ve seen and can recommend. Please follow suit with yours - and enjoy!
Music from the inside out
The Last Waltz (of course)
Lost Angel (Judee Sill)
Sound City
Neil Young - Journeys
David Crosby - Remember my name
Linda Ronstadt - The sound of my voice
Rumble
Once Were Brothers (The Band)
Muscle Shoals
The Wrecking Crew
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Seymour: An Introduction
YMMV, but having a full blown home theater set up with a 9 foot projection screen sure does enhance the experience...
- The Band. About the making of their 2nd (brown) album (Rhino Home Video) - Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm - Rockpile: Born Fighters - Muscle Shoals by Greg Camalier - Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel - Elvis ’56 (narrated by Levon Helm) - Professional Drum Shop’s 50 Years - The Wrecking Crew - The Last Of The Blue Devils: The Kansas City Jazz Story - Standing In The Shadows Of Motown
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Steely Dan the making of the iconic album Aja. Geniuses at work. https://www.amazon.com/Steely-Dan-Aja-Classic-Albums/dp/B07JQWS5F4 |
Ooh here is a great documentary I totally forgot about - Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003). It's not about specific musicians but rather the life of rock impresario and longtime KROQ DJ extraordinaire Rodney Bingenheimer. It's also a great reflection on fame and success and time and the fleetness thereof. Anyone who was in the music scene in LA around 1980 ought to watch this. |
I cannot remember how long ago (sometime post summer of '15) I was surfing the streaming channels and as that piqued my interest I watched it. I'd never heard of Bingenheimer and I was most definitely not in any music scene, let alone the LA scene in the '80s, but I still found that interesting. On an aside, wasn't that about the same time and area that the Wonderland murders happened?
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In the 90’s I lived in Burbank, and one restaurant in the neighborhood that I occasionally ate at was located on the ground floor of the building in which was the KROQ studio (somewhere near the top floor). One Sunday night I was having a late dinner, and saw Rodney come in and sit down at a table. I had never seen or heard a word about his physical condition (though I had seen photos of him), and was kind of shocked by what I saw. He was extremely skinny, and walked in a way that suggested pretty severe disabilities. I gained a new level of respect for a guy who didn’t let that stop him from pursuing his Rock ’n’ Roll dreams.
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