Summer of Soul

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countertext
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Summer of Soul

Post by countertext » Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:51 pm

Just saw this article about a ?uestlove-produced documentary on the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969 and I am stoked. There have been a few low-quality videos of Nina Simone from that event floating around for years and they are some of my favorite musical documents of all time.

Read the article. I hope it’s an amazing film. I am very excited to see it.

Here’s some Nina.
Last edited by countertext on Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:14 pm

I know about it because I've heard some of the Sly and the Family Stone stuff from it, and I see that article has Sly right there in the lead picture. I'm a huge Sly and the Family Stone fan, always have been, thanks for the article.
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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by countertext » Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:14 am

:bored: Finally got a chance to sit and watch this on Hulu last night. It’s more talking than music, and I was mad by the end - I want to see the damn sets, not interviews with attendees! They have 40 hours of musical footage somewhere, and there’s more time spent on Jesse Jackson talking than Sly Stone playing in this documentary.

Also, and this was infuriating, the levels were all fucked up. Every time they cut to music footage, the volume dropped out. I would turn the TV way up and still not be able to hear it clearly, then some commentary would blast over it, and I would rush to turn it back down. Really frustrating, and a consistent problem all the way through. I’m baffled as to how the film got released with that kind of flaw.

Where’s the concert film, Questlove? I don’t want to watch the Ken Burns version!

Edit: I understand that Questlove made this to be informative. It was a major event, and the memory of it has been effectively suppressed by our racist society. That part is important, and I can appreciate it from that perspective. But still!

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:43 am

Fuck! That's bad news!!

I've been meaning to see this one for a while.
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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by pawnzito » Tue Jul 13, 2021 6:08 am

It was a good documentary as it captured the event from the perspective of the people and context that it happened in. I enjoyed it, and also hope they release the footage of all the performances. Too much good stuff there to not.

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by countertext » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:23 pm

I’m watching it again on another TV, and the sound is great, unlike last night on our “good” TV. I wrote that long post in anger about the sound. The movie is great. There is some INCREDIBLE music in it.

However, somebody has got to put together the series of sets in their entirety. GOT TO.

Also, why the fudge would my TV lower the volume on the music segments and raise it on the narration? How is that possible? It definitely did it. How? Why?

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by pawnzito » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:49 pm

countertext wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:23 pm
I’m watching it again on another TV, and the sound is great, unlike last night on our “good” TV. I wrote that long post in anger about the sound. The movie is great. There is some INCREDIBLE music in it.

However, somebody has got to put together the series of sets in their entirety. GOT TO.
Definitely, even just the audio would be amazing. I would watch every minute!

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:51 am

countertext wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:23 pm


Also, why the fudge would my TV lower the volume on the music segments and raise it on the narration? How is that possible? It definitely did it. How? Why?
If you have a modern flat panel of some kind, you might have some kind of setting applied on your television that is adding compression. Like, do you have a setting under the audio settings panel that is "cinema" or something?
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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by countertext » Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:37 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:51 am
countertext wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:23 pm


Also, why the fudge would my TV lower the volume on the music segments and raise it on the narration? How is that possible? It definitely did it. How? Why?
If you have a modern flat panel of some kind, you might have some kind of setting applied on your television that is adding compression. Like, do you have a setting under the audio settings panel that is "cinema" or something?
Yeah, I will need to sit down and go through the settings. We tend to leave closed captioning on for various reasons, and I’m wondering if that could affect the settings, too.

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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:09 am

Sucks to hear that it's a lot of talking, though. I guess maybe it tells a coherent story that is interesting.

We almost went to see it in the theatre (gasp!) but ended up running out of time. I guess I'll watch it at home at some point.

It would really be nice to see Sly and the Family Stone at their prime, or close to it, anyway. They had great studio albums down the road from this point, I don't know that the live performances were as solid after the Stand! album and by the follow up There's a Riot Goin' On the band was in some turmoil.

These Family Stone performances had been up on Youtube for a while, I think I've seen a fair amount of them. They are very good.

Incidentally, when I went looking to see if they are all still up, I came across this article called "Albums That Should Exist" which is emphatically about how this Sly and the Family Stone live stuff should be compiled. Maybe it will, although I think that Sly and the Family Stone is kind of fading in relevance quite a lot.

I noticed in the Summer of Soul trailer that they used the outro horn riff from the Family Stone's "Hey Music Lover", which is not a great song of theirs, and they seemed to know that, since they recycled all the good ideas into better songs down the road (namely "Dance to the Music").

With the notable exception of that outro horn part, which is just sublime... it comes at about 3:30 in that video.

Anyway, that's my Sly and the Family Stone TED talk or whatever.
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Re: Summer of Soul

Post by luau » Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:27 pm

We watched it last night. It was really enjoyable and well done, but yeah. I'd love to see some entire sets, both for the music and the gear.

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