As we are going through this strange, confusing and, for many, deadly time, people find various ways to cope. On my various social media feeds and in my life (and those around me), it seems music has been a big source of coping for many. For me, a musician, it’s always been a big way to cope. But even just as I write this I hear we lost two more significant musicians, producer Hal Willner and, barely an hour ago it was announced that 2 time cancer survivor and legendary songwriter John Prine lost his battle with covid 19. Willner, a legendary music producer known for projects as varied as producing the music on Saturday Night Live, records by the likes of Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Marianne Faithful, jazz/americana guitarist Bill Frisell, and projects such as Stay Awake - a tribute record to the songs of classic Disney movies performed by artists from all over the spectrum. In fact it is for this sort of tribute record that Willner is probably most famous.
And these are only the latest two prominent musicians we’ve lost to this pandemic. I could list more, but that’s not the point of this post. And by the time this is posted we will have surely lost even more. We are here to celebrate music and find some streaming recommendations for folks. There is a veritable smorgasbord of music documentaries on the various streaming services. Below is a list of some I’ve seen with a little write up on each, followed by a list of other interesting ones available that I’ve not had time to check out yet. But there are so many available right now you can have your pick. So without further ado, here is my list. And as always, all picks are guaranteed or your monies back:
ZZ Top That Lil Ol’ Band From Texas
That lil ol’ band from Texas has been going strong, with the same 3 dudes, for well over 50 years. It’s an engrossing film about a band that has a bit more depth than you may have expected. But then any band that lasts for 50 years with all the original members must have some depth. Starting out in Houston, the range and influence of ZZ Top as far more than just an electrified blues trio may surprise you. No less than Jimi Hendrix once called guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons a force to be reckoned with. And yes, in a band as famous for its beards as for its music, it may surprise you to learn that drummer Frank Beard is the one who has never had a beard.
Oasis: Supersonic
That epic heavyweight bout between Blur and Oasis for title of the best 90s British band may have never quite made much news on U.S. shores, but for those who paid attention the music at least did. And those bands made a lot of good music. To put it in 60s British bands terms, Blur were probably the more artsy, pop-y Beatles while Oasis were the more dangerous, meat n potatoes Rolling Stones, but really all these comparisons are meaningless because none of these bands, from either decade, really sounds like one another and all of them made one form of pop or another. The brothers Gallagher, vocalist Liam and guitarist/songwriter Noel, were at the heart of Oasis and really the cause of both their meteoric rise and their fizzling out. Liam and Noel’s rivalry continues today and really that probably makes Oasis closer to The Kinks (brothers Ray and Dave Davies) than those other two 60s bands mentioned. Either way, this is a fun romp through Oasis’s rise and more of a fizzle and fade rather than a spectacular flameout.
Mile Davis: Birth of the Cool
A single film under two hours is not much time to cover one of the most unique and important 20th Century figures in American music, but this film gives it a shot. The record that gives this film its title (Birth Of The Cool) was often cited as coming out in 1948 or 49, but it is a collection of singles recorded in the mid to late 40s that was finally released officially around 1957. A nonet (aka a band with nine members/instruments), that first band Miles led included off beat instrumentation not usually included in jazz bands: tuba and french horn. With its ensemble playing and mellow tempos, it also represented a large departure from the bebop Miles had been learning and playing with that genre’s main inventors, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
Focusing mostly on the work of his 2 great quintets from the late 50s through the late 60s, this documentary does manage to at least touch on most of Miles’s major periods from the 40s through his death in 1991. Whether or not it adequately covers your favored periods depends on how much you enjoy what I’ve already mentioned. Though not a great documentary, its still worth it to see and hear all this footage, some of which has previously never been available to the public. And to get to know the enormity of Miles' impact. He not only gave us great music, he pushed it forward and found many great players along the way who helped him push it forward, folks like John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.
20 Feet From Stardom
Until recently, one never saw the names of any of the musicians actually performing the score to a film in the credits. You usually would just see the name of the composer and if pop songs or other preexisting licensed music was in the film you’d see a brief listing of the songwriters, name of the performers and copyright holders and that was it. For many years it was the same on music recordings themselves, like the original Motown records. Marvin Gaye's records were credited to Marvin Gaye and maybe a singer he dueted with. But no musicians would be listed. They wouldn't even give the drummer some.
This documentary highlights some of the most criminally uncredited backup singers of all time. And these singers were (or are) often as talented as known vocal powerhouses like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, if not moreso.
One of the best stories here is the one Merry Clayton tells of singing on the Rolling Stones’s classic Gimme Shelter. Merry was apparently very pregnant at the time and *really* had to pee when they insisted she do one more take before they let her go get relief. The performance that emerged from that, well, I got chills when they soloed the part she sang. A pretty great documentary on these unsung, er, singers.
Sir Doug & the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove
The late Doug Sahm is one of the many many musicians that a lucky few of us have heard of, but in a just world all of us would know. A Texas hippy, Doug was a study in contrasts. As a boy fiddle prodigy he played the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. In the mid 60s his San Antonio based Sir Douglas Quintet, named so by a clever manager to make them sound more British in the middle of the British Invasion, pioneered the use of the vox organ in American Rock n Roll. A drug bust in very conservative Texas broke up the band and sent Doug to San Francisco for an exile of several years.
Doug’s music was a mix of blues, country, jazz, soul and rock n roll. He played several instruments beyond the fiddle, including guitar, mandolin and banjo. He became a close friend of Bob Dylan as they each appreciated each other’s song writing and performing. Doug even helped create what became known as Tex-Mex music Though, like many of the documentaries on here, this doesn’t give a lot of insight beyond the surface into the man himself or his music, it still contains a lot of great footage and interviews for existing fans, and enough interesting bits for potential new fans.
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
When drummer Neil Peart passed away in late 2019, it squashed any lingering hopes for a reunion of the canadian rock trio Rush. Long a polarizing nerdy band whose lyrics (mostly penned by drummer Peart) could contain references to scientific terminology as often as the music would contain off kilter passages in weird time signatures, Rush was a band people tended to love or really really hate. As this documentary shows, they were also as atypical a rock band as one could imagine.
It’s almost a cliche at this point that outcast kids in school will form their own bands. Guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist Geddy Lee are lifelong friends who were the outcasts who formed a band in their school. But then the band they formed was like the nerdy uncool kid in the halls of rock n roll. Rush were famously dispised by the hipster rock n roll intelligensia, especially the critics and the rock press. And even though that eternal dislike has eased up a bit in recent years as more and more "cooler" musicians declare how much they love and were influenced by Rush, they are still an acquired taste. This documentary shows the unique friendship and bond between these affable blue collar Canadians who were never afraid to take their music where they wanted to go, regardless of trends. I’ve always been a fan. But I will say their misguided attempt at inserting a rap in the middle of a track from the 1991 album Roll The Bones was such an unmitigated disaster I stopped listening to them for years. This documentary is not an unmitigated disaster and even got me to start listening again.
The Wrecking Crew
Speaking of unsung, uncredited musicians on famous and beloved recordings, I give you the combo known as the Wrecking Crew. If you’ve heard any recorded music from the 1960s and early 1970s, you’ve heard the Wrecking Crew. If you’ve heard Beach Boys records, if you’ve heard the Monkees records (that famously the Monkees themselves didn’t play on), if you’ve heard 60s Frank Sinatra or Sonny & Cher or a host of others, you’ve heard the Wrecking Crew. They were the go to A team group of musicians for many LA recording sessions. And while they were not quite as unsung as the Motown band or many near anonymous Nashville sessions cats, they are still vastly unknown to many. That Glenn Campbell had a long and illustrious career as a country singer is why you’ve heard of him. But you may not have heard of him before this documentary if he'd simply remained the top session guitar player for the Wrecking Crew. All of this and more is covered in this informative and entertaining music documentary.
Gimme Danger
director Jim Jarmusch directed this great documentary on protopunk legends Iggy Pop and the Stooges. It’s there in all its raw, sweaty, rolling in broken glass glory. That it was directed by longtime fan Jarmusch just makes it even more better.
Conny Plank: The Potential of Noise
Conny Plank was a peculiar German producer who worked with Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Brian Eno, The Eurythmics, Devo and even German metal band The Scorpions. In his farmhouse studio not far from Cologne (Germany) he made all sorts of weird sounds using unorthodox recording techniques. An Interesting documentary on a interesting dude who made interesting sounds. Interesting you say? Indeed!
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There are a lot of music documentaries that have become available over the last 12 months or so on the various streaming services. Some of the below I have seen, most I have not. In the interest of just getting these options out ASAP, below is a list of a bunch more with just a brief synopsis of what it’s about and where it is available.
Quincy https://www.netflix.com/title/80102952 - documentary on the life of amazing musician/producer Quincy Jones, who produced Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the TV show Fresh Prince of Bel Air and countless other amazing accomplishments that put the rest of us to shame
Amy https://www.netflix.com/title/80049094 documentary on the tragically short career and life of British Soul Singer Amy Winehouse. Winehouse was that rare singer whose hype was deserved
Sun Ra - A Joyful Noise https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Ra-Joyful-ROBERT-MUGGE/dp/B07CJMWG7D claiming he came from the planet Saturn, jazz/avant garde pianist Sun Ra (born Herman Blount) was known for leading bands that wore crazily colorful close and often made a very colorful racket
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin Down A Dream - https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Petty-Heartbreakers-Runnin-Dream/dp/B07JRDS777/ director Peter Bogdonavich directed this 3 hour epic documentary about the late workaholic singer/songwriter
Wu: The Story of the WuTang Clan https://www.amazon.com/Wu-Story-WuTang-Clan-RZA/dp/B0736JVQRY/ all about the Staten Island Rap collective that gave us the RZA, the GZA, Method Man, Ghostfaced Killer and Ol’ Dirty Bastard and changed hiphop forever.
Blood, Frets & Tears - https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Frets-Tears-Andrew-Klein/dp/B07NMXT5TB/ documentary on modern music’s guitar players, from the jazz of Charlie Christian through the shredding of Eddie Van Halen and more. At least I think more - haven’t seen this one yet.
Ken Burns Country Music - an 8 part documentary on the history of country music from Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family through the “new country” of the 90s, each episode is 90 minutes or more. I didn't link to this, but it's availble for a bit of a price on Amazon or on PBS to stream from their apps.
If more than one of these films appeals to you, feel free to bookmark this page. There is a lot out there. I didn't even link to the crappy BeeGees documentary on Amazon Prime from the early 80s or the mediocre Thin Lizzy documentary from the mid 2000s. Neither are particularly good but they do provide info and footage I didn't know and hadn't seen before.
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