Sorry; Just saw Michael had previously added No Direction. Still a favorite; but redundancy is unnecessary in turning on fellow forum members to something they hadn't been aware of. The same holds true for my redundant recommation of Chasing Trane.
Just reviewed the thread and saw Scope had previously added Tracing Trane. I'm getting lazy in my reading.
Gimme Shelter has been mentioned a good bit, that’s a must. If you’re a big Stones guy, there’s also The Stones in Exile and the infamous ********er Blues to get a good (or shall I say disturbing) sense of the behind the scenes of the ‘72 tour. Jimi Hendrix (A Film about Hendrix, from ‘73) is great. When You’re Strange is also great. The Wrecking Crew. Chasing Trane. Jaco. History of the Eagles Part 1 & 2. There’s all those VH1 Behind the Music documentaries like of CCR (more on John Fogerty), CSN&Y, Neil Young, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc. This got me thinking, someone really needs to do a documentary on The Dominos. They’re just briefly covered in Clapton’s Life in 12 Bars. That’s a group I’d love to see covered more in depth. I know there’s a book being written about them write now, but I’m afraid the author is going off of Bobby Whitlock’s account too much (and personally, I believe he twists the truth sometimes—and no document of a group or event should be based off of one person).
Today it is the commentary section of the Stones R&R circus DVD, just upgraded from my old VHS. Yesterday it was the Doc disk on the 4 Flicks set. 2 days ago it was the Lennon classic albums POB DVD... I guess my all time favorite is the Beatles Anthology set as a whole.
Jane Birkin - The Mother of all Babes. TV documentary 2003. Chasing Trane I Called Him Morgan Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Well, if you have Amazon Prime, there are really terrible documentaries available. Most of them are rock critics I've never heard about. A lot of them are British. Not that the British can't know things, they certainly can, but, they can't know everything either. This is definitely true if you are speaking of American 70s bands and they were sitting around in their London office at the time. And it gets really annoying when they are all Brits because the film company making the documentary just couldn't be bothered to go any further than down the street to record a talking head blabbering about music. That being said, most of the ones "Free" with Prime are terrible. Passable is the Stevie Nicks: Through the Looking Glass. To be fair, it's not a very good Stevie Nicks documentary. But, it's actually a very good Fleetwood Mac documentary if you are primarily interested in Buckingham/Nicks era. With the exception of Christine McVie all the band member contribute to commentary. It does have some talking heads that are Brits, but it's limited to tolerable degree. Mostly the interviews are band members or actual production crew who were actually present. This isn't a great film, but there is some insight to be gained. Mind you the perspective will be from Nicks point of view. But to me her solo career because of the success of her early solo career had the most impact on when Fleetwood Mac could get the band together to record a new album. Again not great, but you won't feel like you wasted your time either. If you want to see a really good documentary that is on Amazon Prime watch Sound City. It's about the now defunct recording studio. The film goes over the history of the music that was recorded there and the people that worked there, both staff and the musicians. This is actually a great film. Highly recommended even if you actually have to pay money to watch it. No talking heads, just people talking about their experiences at the studio.
Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel The Turtles: Happy Together The Lovin' Spoonful: Do You Believe in Magic Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll Humble Pie: The Life and Times of Steve Marriot Badfinger: A Riveting and Emotionally Gripping Saga Bobby Bland: Two Steps From The Blues
Top Three: Townes Van Zandt: Be Here to Love Me Dylan: No Direction Home Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage Others: Stones: Crossfire Hurricane Harrison: Living in the Material World Petty: Running Down a Dream Ronnie Lane: The Passing Show
Not much love for the Making of the Dark Side of the Moon? Covers everything from recording techniques, trying to write a more universal lyric, band dynamics, Alan Parsons, cutting tape loops/Money coin intro into 7 equal pieces forming a 7/8 time signature, on and on. I found it fascinating and one of the better music docs for sure.
Tom Petty's Runnin' Down a Dream Dave Grohl's Sound City All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records Tom Dowd and The Language of Music
"And his life was spinning out of control..." Heard in every BTM ever made, usually at around the 2/3 mark
I generally try not to hold being British against people. But I could go w/o ever seeing Bono interviewed in a documentary again: "Yes, Pavarotti was a great influence on me... Wait, you're not the opera documentary crew? You're doing one on The Troggs? OK, let me start over... Yes, Reg Presley was a great influence on me..."
I realize that someone was harping on redundant picks earlier, but I find that to be somewhat inevitable in threads such as this one. I’m not going to change my favorite(s) just because someone else has already called it out. With that in mind, I too would have to note “Runnin’ Down A Dream” as have plenty of others. There are also lots of other great documentaries that others have listed. Has anyone already mentioned the HBO series “Sonic Highways” about Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters’ album of the same name? It details how they went about recording each song in a different city along with the musical heritage of that city and how it impacted and inspired the song that was ultimately recorded there. Very creative and informative.
I liked that up until he started jamming. Awesome cheers, I'm on a Macca high after watching The Love We Make
Well stated. It’s really incredible just how much video (film) footage Petty shot back in those early days. I believe that’s a real testament to just how much confidence he had in himself and ultimately in his own success. My favorite moment was the bit about how Petty actually convinced Tench’s father that he should leave school to tour with the band. Awesome decision. The entire documentary was incredibly entertaining at so many different levels. Not a moment wasted as you noted.
