Good Music Docos / Documentaries

[Maggieo]

The Voices of ...

It's a series of radio documentaries on BBC Radio 4 featuring artists ranging from Robert Wyatt, to the Unthanks, to Hannah Peel, to Anne Briggs, to Sharon Von Etten.

Quality!

D

Fantastic! What a find. Thanks again for you vigilance.

[shadowplay]

The Voices of ...

It's a series of radio documentaries on BBC Radio 4 featuring artists ranging from Robert Wyatt, to the Unthanks, to Hannah Peel, to Anne Briggs, to Sharon Von Etten.

Quality!

D

Fantastic! What a find. Thanks again for you vigilance.

Maggie you might also like;
The Synthesizer. Hannah Peel, Peter ZinovieffThe Listening Service

Tom Service investigates the rise of the synthesizer. How did this initially crude assemblage of electrical components develop in a few decades to become one of the most ubiquitous and flexible of musical instruments? He consults Peter Zinovieff, inventor of the first British commercially-available synthesizer (the VCS3, made in his garden shed in Putney); and also young composer/performer Hannah Peel, who likes to work with the sound of vintage analogue synths.

Really excellent and well crafted radio. Radio 3 is pretty much a classical station and they slant it slightly to this audience but in many ways this is the making of it with some really toothy and florid descriptive language and frankly the FULL BBC! Hannah is her usual hyper charming self on it too and I'd super recommend checking out her The Voices of*, it's just brilliant and a real insight into her musical life going right back. It was not only covering her background and her brilliant records but looked at her other life** as an arranger, composer and performer (they looked at her working on music for a theatre production of Brighton rock).

The Unthanks one was brilliant too and would bring tears to the eyes of a tottie*** as my granny would have said.

I really like radio documentaries, they generally have to create original content and not rely on archive footage that all too often you've already seen and it's always a bonus to avoid a bunch of manspread rawk talking heads.

D



*also on soundcloud

** i'm guessing her record sales don't pay the rent

***potato in Scots+

[scottT]

I just caught Scorsese's Dylan documentary "Rolling Thunder Review" currently on Netflix. I thought it was really good until I started reading reviews about being pranked and such. I mean it's still good, but now I'm not sure what the point of inserting fictional accounts is all about (if indeed that is the case).

For instance, among the talking heads reminiscing, Sharon Stone is obtrusively inserted. She tells of her and her mom going to a show in 1975 and being noticed by Dylan for her KISS t-shirt which lead to a brief conversation about them, and then floating the idea that Dylan's white face paint on that tour having something to do with KISS. Later, she supposedly meets up with him again (hey, KISS!), and he invites her to join the tour. I've even read that the promoter who is interviewed throughout is a fictional character. So basically the idea is that this is a sort of spinal tap built around a real tour circa 1975 with real period footage. I don't know.

But all that aside, I found the concert footage really compelling. In fact I have never seen Dylan like that. I think I've seen a live performance of Tangled Up In Blue which is obviously from the same tour, but he was really intense here. I always associated the white face paint with some crazy coked-out phase he was in (it was the 70s). But man, for what he does, I don't think anyone could touch him. Layers and layers of lyrics delivered rapid fire with a focused aggression. Joan Baez comments on his charisma and I have to agree. I could not take my eyes off him. That must have been some show for those who caught that tour. Oh and Mick Ronson was in the band as well as an incredible violinist named Scarlet Rivera. (Think the song Hurricane). She is also all over the contemporary "Desire" album. She's like a muse onstage, weaving amazing lines in and out of the lyrics. If you are at all a Dylan fan, check it out.

[Maggieo]

David- thank you for the BBC radio doc links; that's is some fantastic stuff. Once again, I tip my hat to you.

[shadowplay]

David- thank you for the BBC radio doc links; that's is some fantastic stuff. Once again, I tip my hat to you.

Pleasure.

You might like;

The A to Z of Psychedelia on 6 Music. I've not listened to much of this but I was round at my neighbours and he had it on while he was cooking and I'm sure it's decent since Marc Riley (once of the Fall but probably best known for this) is affable enough. Looking through the episodes I don't think you'd be learning much but I guess you'll be entertained.

And

The A to Z of Punk on 6 Music again more for the beginner but possibly entertaining.

At the moment I'm following New Weird Britain and episode three 'Radical Rural' was IMO the best so far with sections of Gazelle Twin, Folklore Tapes and Richard Skelton.

D

[PJazzmaster]

Guitar related content (German only version, sorry)
Die Gitarre - Revolution, Kult, Leidenschaft
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OEqIZJ3UiL0

Edit: and here is the French version:
Guitare, une arme à six cordes
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/075803-00 ... ix-cordes/

[1452L]

The Sparks Brothers is up there with the Tom Petty one as the best rock doc I have ever seen.

[PJazzmaster]

Not music related but beautiful - the revenge of the analog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzAiB7Yqx1A

[eilrahc]

Since this has been bumped, a few months ago I saw the Redd Kross documentary Born Innocent, which was a fascinating and often hysterically funny account of the band, and just the world of LA punk and eighties and nineties alternative rock.

I think it's only had a few limited screenings so far, but it's well worth catching if you have any interest in them.

[Nudger]

David- thank you for the BBC radio doc links; that's is some fantastic stuff. Once again, I tip my hat to you.

Pleasure.

You might like;

The A to Z of Psychedelia on 6 Music. I've not listened to much of this but I was round at my neighbours and he had it on while he was cooking and I'm sure it's decent since Marc Riley (once of the Fall but probably best known for this) is affable enough. Looking through the episodes I don't think you'd be learning much but I guess you'll be entertained.



Thanks for reminding me, great revisiting.. caught odd one when it was first aired.
Id luv em to do an A to Z of 60s Garage..

[interceptör]

David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017). Heart-breakingly beautiful. I never really cared for Bowie, but this film made Blackstar one of my favorite albums of all time.

History of the Eagles (2013): Never been a fan of theirs, either, but this was just exceptionally well-made film and, for an "official" release, it also felt exceptionally sincere.

If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (2018): Again, not really interested in the band nor their music, but this was also very touching and sincere.

* Hall of Shame *

Queen: Days of Our Lives (2011): I never thought nothing of the band, but this vomitous piece of cynical propaganda made me hate them bitterly.

[eilrahc]

Queen: Days of Our Lives (2011): I never thought nothing of the band, but this vomitous piece of cynical propaganda made me hate them bitterly.

Yeah, I'm pretty ambivalent towards the band, but the fawning cult surrounding them and Mercury is absolutely insufferable. Second only to the one surrounding the Beatles.

I think an honest documentary or film about them would probably be quite interesting viewing, but between the cult and the surviving members I don't think we're ever going to be allowed to have that.

[walterwiseman]

Not sure if it will tickle many people's fancy, but a doc I rather liked is Gitara. Produced by Mountains of Tongues, an ethnographic music label who specialise in recording and preserving the musical traditions of the peoples of the Caucasus (mountainous region in between the Black and Caspian seas). They also deal with more contemporary stuff, as captured in this doc which is about the guitar-based musical scene in Azerbaijan going back to the 60s. Just very cool to see how this instrument we all know and love was adopted and wielded to fit local bardic styles and traditions to produce something unrecognisable and alien to most of us. Altogether, very cool and features a lot of dudes with moustaches even sicker than their shredding.
Youtube

And for something c o m p l e t e l y different...
Although it’s not about musicians and not even really about music - one of my favourite documentaries, which I think should be far better known, is Alan Zweig’s Vinyl. It’s essentially the director attempting to come to terms with and understand his own obsessive/neurotic relationship with collecting vinyl by meeting and interviewing other obsessive collectors, including Harvey Pekar. It’s a much more touching and poignant film than it might sound on its face. At times being very funny but also vulnerable and painful. Can’t recommend it enough. He has since revisited the subject with a new documentary on the subject. Worth watching but doesn't reach the same heights.
Youtube

Also, for something completely unrelated to music. If you dig Vinyl you might also be interested in Cinemania. Another favourite doc of mine, this time about New York based cinema obsessives [You might be noticing a pattern ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ]. Absolutely brilliant.
Youtube

[PJazzmaster]

I think we've all seen the pictures of Lennon with an early Olympic White Slabboard Jazzmaster.
The picture was actually taken at a Hotel in Austria - where they stayed for the shooting of HELP! (she skiing scenes) and Lennon and McCartney somehow hijacked the Hotel Stage at one night). If you look closely, the guitar has "Jacki" written on it's body (I never noticed until now). Jacki/Jacky was the leader of the Hotel Band there. There is this lovely ( ) Documentary about the actual owner of the Guitar (sorry German only). The Beatles Jazzmaster Story is part of it He played that Guitar till he died 20 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dGeUqTgk4Y