Best Music Documentaries?
- Thread starter Chater-La
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guitaristic
prophet of Dave
Another vote for Sound City. Amazing stuff and so fun to watch!!
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
I thought Sound City was cool for about an hour, but it really dragged after that. Never once have I wondered what Rick Springfield is up to these days. And then dragging out Paul McCartney's doddering bedraggled corpse. He looked like they plucked him from the med line at some nursing home 15 minutes earlier. I'm a huge Beatles fan, but that was just pretentious and exploitative. And that "song" they threw together was the most forgettable midtempo filler ever. "Why isn't it always this easy?" asks Grohl. "It is.", says Macart backed by yoda-music. Yeah, it's easy cuz it's a crap tune.
dobro
Well-known member
I like how he does the vocal buildup like he was inventing it just at that moment. I think Twist and Shout was the first time he did it, which was about fifty years ago. But 'here's my good pal Paul who just dropped in to lay down a track in my new studio' is the price Grohl makes us pay in exchange for what he laid out for the board. Fair enough. But I liked the bit about Springfield, cuz I'd known zero about him up until that point. I hadn't known how popular he was. And Mannilow. It's cool to peep in on scenes you'd otherwise know nothing about.
CoolCat
Well-known member
Of course it is long because he did so much, sold millions of record with his wife Mary Ford, created the solid body guitar, Multitrack-recording innovations, recording techniques. I mean man, he did more for music than any other person except for Thomas Edison, so yea it is going to be long! The dude was still playing at 91
I liked that one so much and the guitar playing is like another form that boggles my mind. I tired playing some and thought wtf? pretty fast tempo and weird. He was the HR multi-track dude!
I want to watch SoundCity again, maybe wont fall asleep....it sucks getting old, you get less and less awake hours, and everything is in hindsight.
Someone mentioned the Grammy awards and it was the Paul and RIngo thing and the Nirvana reunion, which was sad in comparison to the BEatles heyday, but then for me 1,000 times better than listening to 25 rappers out yelling each other on stage and grabbing their crotchy baggy pants... I think Def Punk robots got the the highest crowd movement, I felt sorry for them having to wear that gimic robot outfit at the awards, pretty cheesy.
guitaristic
prophet of Dave
But that's what Daft Punk does. They wear those every single time. It's their thing.
dragonworks
Banned
fear of a black hat
I always enjoyed watching Pink Floyd live at Pompeii, the version of Echos is spot on and the studio footage of Dark Side of the Moon is interesting to see those artist in action in the Studio.
One of the worst is the video of the Beatles doing Let it Be...it was obvious that the band was near the end of the ropes with each other
One of the worst is the video of the Beatles doing Let it Be...it was obvious that the band was near the end of the ropes with each other
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
I just realized that Buena Vista Social Club was not mentioned once either in this thread or, maybe more surprisingly, the original Audiofanzine article.... Come on, Dig!, Anvil, and It Might Get Loud but no Buena Vista Social Club? What kind of yuppies are you??
CoolCat
Well-known member
Rutles! Let It Rot! Rutles was a great movie... Alan Decline, what a documentary
Let It Be had horrific movie soundtrack, couldnt hardly understand what they were saying.
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
And it's Some Kind of Monster, singular. Not Monsters. Do the kids think you're hip yet?
dainbramage
New member
Nobody mentioned "DiG!" yet? Awesome documentary about the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Dandy Warhols following them for years. Those people are so full of themselves, yet make so much great music. You don't really have to like the music to appreciate the documentary.
dainbramage
New member
dainbramage
New member
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
They were both in the original AFZ list. I mentioned them only because any music documentary list featuring those movies and SKOM, and not Buena Vista Social Club can't be trusted. Have you seen SKOM? Borderline unwatchable. Lars crying cuz Kirk got a birthday party and he didn't... Dave crying cuz Metallica got famous without him... Gross man-feelings all over the place, but supposedly more listworthy than BVSC.
And Dig!... Pretty sure most of BJM has come out against that movie, saying hundreds of hours were shot and only the most sensationalistic footage used, and the plot was basically forged by the filmmaker to come off like Jerry Springer..
dainbramage
New member
Yeah, I got the context.
I've watched half of SKOM and couldn't take one more second of it.
About Dig, I know it is sensationalist and that especially Anton hated it. But it is fucking funny nevertheless. I'm a big BJM fan and I really appreciated the scene at the Viper Room and there is a lot of great footage besides that. No matter how it was cut, the events happened. There is also a lot of live clips which I think many documentaries lack. The people being interviewed said the things we hear them say (of course in many cases completely out of context, but still). As long as you're aware of that, you can enjoy the documentary without thinking too much about whether or not it reveals a true image of the artists.
I liked It Might Get Loud much better than Bueno Vista Social Club, but that might be as a guitarist and a big fan of Jimmy Page and Jack White. The Edge, not so much, but it was really interesting to bring him in there as he has such a different approach to making sounds with the guitar. Brilliant stuff IMHO.
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