One of my favourite things to watch (ok other than the original 90210, thank you Netflix) is a good solid music documentary. I love learning how a band came to be, the meteoric rise, the inevitable 'drugs were fun then nearly ruined us' phase (as best illustrated by Dewey Cox)...I love it all. Cory and I have watched some great music docs in the last 6 months so I thought I would share our recent list.
First off, the Tom Petty documentary Running Down A Dream.
It's 2 parts, so 4 hours in total but fully worth it if you are a fan of rock music..and old rock dudes, which I happen to be. There's a great portion devoted to the Travelling Wilburys (best.super group.ever) and loads of great performances, my favourite being this duet with Eddie Vedder. Never has this song sounded so good...
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Another good one, from an entirely different musical genre, is Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, directed by Micheal Rapaport. Sure it takes a dark turn while exploring the fall out between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, which ultimately led to Tribes' demise, but it's still a great story and of course, the tunes! This is where the old lady in me says, hip hop just ain't like it used to be...
Next up, Pearl Jam Twenty. We both loved this one. As 90s teenager decked out in flared cords and plaid shirts, trying to decipher the lyrics to "Yellow Ledbetter" on my walkman, this movie had me at hello. Speaking of which, it's directed by Cameron Crowe, who knows music as a Rolling Stone contributor and whose movies continually have bitchin' soundtracks (Singles, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire). Our final thoughts after watching this movie - Eddie Vedder is a genius and why have we still never seen Pearl Jam in concert?
Lastly, The Big Easy Express is a gem.
If only it were longer than 67 minutes. We wanted more. The music of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Old Crow Medicine Show and Mumford & Sons is beautifully filmed and made us both want to hop in my shitty Ford and spend the summer traveling to festivals and shows (this dream was short lived). The movie, which follows the three bands travelling in a train from San Francisco to New Orleans, culminates in a The Last Waltz style finale with everyone on stage and bizarre but endearing Edward Sharpe lead man Alex Ebert jumping around like a maniac. Mind Blown.
We have lots more on our list like Paul Simon's Under African Skies, LCD Soundsystems' Shut up and Play the Hits, The Foo Fighters Back and Forth and the latest Bob Marley Doc, Marley. Do you have any favourite music docs to recommend?
Great list! I love a good music documentary (and movies about music careers in general, doc or not) and this gives me a summer watch list! Also: completely agreed on the fantastic (somewhat guilty) pleasure of re-watching the entirety of 90210 on Netflix.
Posted by: Anne ► Dot and Lil | Friday, July 20, 2012 at 06:17 PM