On Wednesday, one of many all-time best and most entertaining music documentaries might be made obtainable in remastered and expanded type on Disney Plus. The Beatles Anthology initially aired on ABC again in 1995 as a three-part, six-hour miniseries. Then it was launched on residence video as a five-disc, 10-hour set, which solely appears lengthy in the event you haven’t seen it. However once you placed on The Beatles Anthology — which mixes archival footage and reside performances with contemporaneous interviews — the oft-told saga of The Fab 4’s rise to cultural dominance and subsequent break up is immediately gripping. And it’s good viewing for a protracted vacation weekend, whether or not it’s your first time or (in my case) your twenty seventh.
The return of The Beatles Anthology obtained me eager about certainly one of my favourite topics: music documentaries. I’ve spent a part of my life watching them, and I’ve even gotten to assist make them. It’s an artwork type I care lots about. So, let’s discover a number of the greatest music documentaries ever made, and analyze what makes them good.
PRE-LIST ENTERTAINMENT: I AM NOT COUNTING CONCERT FILMS (EXCEPT WHEN I DO)
All live performance movies are music documentaries. However not all music documentaries are live performance movies. I’m largely within the ones that aren’t. I’m doing this as a result of I already wrote a column on my favourite live performance movies. However I’m additionally doing it as a result of a correct music documentary ought to delve past what occurs on stage and into the lives of the musicians, giving the viewer a way of who these folks actually are after they’re not “on.” Typically that occurs by way of the deliberate intentions of the filmmakers, although it will probably simply as usually occur by chance, since you occurred to level a digicam at somebody and revealed some reality that the topic and their PR-handling minions mistakenly forgot to edit out. That’s the stuff I’m searching for out.
However what distinguishes a “live performance movie” from the types of music documentaries I’ll be specializing in? Many music documentaries, in any case, embody reside efficiency footage. (That’s the “music” a part of the equation.) At what level does a “live performance movie” cease being a live performance movie and turn into fodder for this column? Let’s begin with a simple one: Jonathan Demme’s Cease Making Sense. Good movie. It provides the viewer the absolute best view of a Speaking Heads present, with none interviews to muck up the pacing. That’s what makes it an all-time nice live performance film and never a music documentary by the particular parameters of this text.
Right here’s a tougher one: The Final Waltz. Like Cease Making Sense, it presents a reside live performance in cinematic type. But it surely additionally has post-show interviews with the members of The Band, together with some stand-alone filmed performances. Does The Final Waltz “delve” behind the scenes? It does. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless largely a live performance movie — 80 p.c no less than — so I’m not counting it right here.
How about The Music Stays The Similar? You see Led Zeppelin doing their factor at Madison Sq. Backyard in 1973, however then there’s all this different stuff that’s non-concert associated, like Robert Plant chilling within the countryside or Jimmy Web page hanging out at his creepy Aleister Crowley mansion. However that stuff doesn’t actually match the definition of “documentary.” (Until Jimmy’s eyes actually did authentically glow when he was off tour.) There’s additionally 1991: The Yr Punk Broke, an indispensable snapshot of alt-rock proper earlier than the explosion of Nevermind that includes (together with Nirvana) Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and The Ramones. Fantastic film, however a bit of too heavy on performances for this checklist.
Then there’s Woodstock, the almost four-hour live performance movie from 1970 that features massive swaths of footage providing a sociological view of the viewers members and late ’60s hippie tradition they signify. I positively may have put Woodstock right here. It’s a live performance movie with apparent music documentary qualities. However I didn’t embody it, as a result of the “live performance movie” components are far more entertaining than the “music documentary” components. Any time you don’t see The Who or Sly & The Household Stone on display screen, Woodstock will get fairly boring.
Let’s discuss these films as a substitute.
35. Wonderland (1977)
By not together with live performance movies, I’ve freed up area for a subgenre of music documentaries I’ll confer with as “YouTube Obscurities.” These are the films you bump into late at evening when you ought to be in mattress however as a substitute are caught in a YouTube rabbit gap at 2 a.m. Wonderland is a quintessential instance of this phenomenon. A one-hour doc initially made for Dutch tv, it follows a number of the greatest and brightest musicians of the late-’70s LA music scene. Like many individuals who’ve found it, I used to be initially pointed to Wonderland by the algorithm as a result of I’m a Warren Zevon fan, and Wonderland contains uncommon footage of the wild-man singer-songwriter hanging out on Sundown Boulevard, consuming burritos, and assembly followers, who acknowledge him from the duvet of his lately launched debut album. However there are different cool snapshots of future music legends — there’s Linda Ronstadt providing a pocket historical past of the native scene in a low-rent lodge room whereas trying like probably the most stunning girl who ever lived; Bonnie Raitt protesting sexism within the music trade by insisting her interview happen at Frederick’s Of Hollywood; and a really stoned Jackson Browne delineating the distinction between LA musicians (cool, pleasant, right down to occasion) and gamers from New York Metropolis (chilly, cynical, nonetheless right down to occasion).
34. Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)
Probably the most vital difficulty (if not full-on drawback) with fashionable music documentaries considerations editorial independence and the rising lack thereof. Lots of my favourite music documentaries, as we are going to uncover as this column unfolds, had been made by filmmakers emboldened to inform their tales with out interference from the themes. It’s the one solution to absolutely discover probably the most fascinating components of any musician’s story, which additionally occurs to usually (although not all the time) be the chapters that particular person doesn’t need uncovered. There’s no query that many music documentaries — together with movies about well-known folks in any subject — are usually whitewashed of scandal, failure, and criticism. And that makes for worse films.
And but… it’s a easy actuality that the one approach any music documentary will get made is that if 1) the topic agrees to be interviewed and (that is presumably extra essential) 2) they consent to their music getting used. So, the trade-off — whether or not you’re making these movies or watching them — is accepting that you just’re not getting the “ugly, unvarnished reality” aspect of the story so as to get all the opposite issues that make doc value watching.
That features the sort of uncommon footage that pops up all through Pearl Jam Twenty. Cameron Crowe’s movie advantages from the director’s relationship with the band members going again to their pre-fame days. With out that connection, you wouldn’t get to see all of the early clips of Pearl Jam slugging it out in golf equipment earlier than the discharge of their mega-selling 1991 debut Ten, just like the one the place Eddie Vedder unleashes his rock-star venom on a bouncer and discovers his angsty on-stage persona within the course of.
33. George Harrison: Dwelling In The Materials World (2011)
Pearl Jam Twenty is an instance of a “put it on” film, probably the most dependable subgenre of music documentary. Just like the “YouTube Obscurities” model of doc, the “put it on” film is what you dial up once you need one thing to observe however can’t determine on what to observe. Solely the “put it on” film is much more re-watchable than the YouTube Obscurity, making it a priceless instrument for basic restfulness and psychological acuity.
An indicator of the “put it on” music doc is that one scene you have to watch anytime you queue up the film. If you happen to don’t have (no less than) that one scene, it’s not an actual “put it on” film. For Pearl Jam Twenty, it’s the scene the place Chris Cornell breaks down whereas speaking concerning the loss of life of Andrew Wooden, which is so unhappy and emotional that it’s virtually unwatchable whereas additionally on the identical time being extraordinarily watchable. For Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Dwelling In The Materials World — a two-part, three-and-half-hour profile that initially aired on HBO — there are two scenes like that, one unhappy and one humorous. The unhappy one is Ringo Starr speaking concerning the final time he noticed George, which I’m not going to explain as a result of I received’t have the ability to end this column. The humorous one is Tom Petty speaking about how George Harrison’s automotive trunk was crammed with ukuleles, which I like to observe once I’m depressed (over George and Tom now not being with us, amongst different tragedies).
32. The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of City (2010)
This documentary was packaged with a field set commemorating the album and should be thought of the best “field set” music doc I’ve ever seen. More often than not, this kind of film doesn’t rise above “DVD further” standing. However The Promise is an actual documentary, and a necessary addition to the Springsteen canon. It’s additionally a “put it on” film, because of the “stick!” scene, which breaks down Springsteen’s obsessive deal with the drum sound of Darkness and the way he would all the time yell “stick!” when he may hear Max Weinberg’s stick on the drum package. (After I interviewed Adam Granduciel of The Warfare On Medicine, one other studio obsessive, in 2017, we spent a couple of minutes speaking about that particular scene.) It’s only one instance of Bruce’s borderline psychosis in the course of the making of his “samurai” report, the place he chucked the romance of Born To Run and pursued the working-class arena-rock sound that finally outlined him.
31. Muddy Monitor (2015)
From time to time, an “approved” music doc intentionally depicts the topic in a dire scenario, often to make a bigger level concerning the brutality of touring or the awfulness of the music trade extra usually. An instance I’m not together with on this checklist is Grant Gee’s Assembly Folks Is Simple, about Radiohead’s distress throughout their star-making OK Pc tour. That film is designed to convey the drudgery of life on the street, and it’s virtually too good at it, as Assembly Folks Is Simple is a drag to observe. (If solely Gee had spent much less time with Thom Yorke and extra time with Ed O’Brien, who admitted to “doing quite a lot of Charlie on the OK Pc tour” in a latest interview).
A extra entertaining spin on the “touring sucks” music doc is Muddy Monitor, a gonzo depiction of Neil Younger’s ill-fated 1986-87 European tour. Directed by Younger himself beneath his typical pseudonym Bernard Shakey, with a handheld video digicam he dubs “Otto,” “Muddy Monitor unfurls one ‘unhealthy vibes’ vignette after one other, with reveals affected by unhealthy climate, low ticket gross sales, and the creeping sense that Neil is over the hill and previous his prime,” I wrote in 2024. “When the band screws up a music — given that is Loopy Horse, the disasters are plentiful — we see an irate Neil cursing out the musicians. Whether or not that is actual or staged is open to query; Neil appears predetermined to point out the tour in a foul gentle. (As he gleefully instructs one digicam operator, “Something that’s unhealthy occurs, hold rolling.”).” Neil didn’t display screen Muddy Monitor till 2015, and it was lastly made obtainable to the general public as a part of the Archives Vol. III field et. Had it come out within the late ’80s, Muddy Monitor might need appeared like nihilistic profession suicide. However realizing that Neil later pulled out of his tailspin transforms the movie into scummy comedy.
30. Anvil: The Story Of Anvil (2008)
Upon launch, Anvil: The Story Of Anvil was marketed as a “real-life Spinal Faucet” a few largely forgotten Canadian heavy metallic band from the ’80s making an attempt to make a comeback 20 years later. However the two essential band members — singer/guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner — are too self-aware and grounded in blue-collar realities to suit that description. (Even when the drummer does have just about the identical title as This Is Spinal Faucet’s director.) As a substitute, The Story Of Anvil is without doubt one of the greatest “touring sucks” documentaries ever made. Like Muddy Monitor starring much less storied Canadians, it follows a band on a horrible European tour, which devolves from musical festivals with The Scorpions to sparsely attended membership reveals the place they get stiffed by the homeowners. And it’s not like the blokes in Anvil have a ranch in Northern California to which they’ll retreat to lick their wounds. The best way Anvil excursions is how most bands tour, which makes The Story Of Anvil the uncommon music doc centered not on the trials and triumphs of well-known stars, however somewhat the on a regular basis failures and modest successes of standard schlubs.
29. Talihina Sky: The Story Of Kings Of Leon (2011)
The Story Of Anvil was likened to This Is Spinal Faucet as a result of it’s a humorous film a few metallic band. However Talihina Sky is definitely extra like Spinal Faucet, because it’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary a few band that doesn’t understand they’re being humorous. A retrospective that covers probably the most profitable and compelling years of Kings Of Leon’s profession within the 2000s, the movie places further deal with the interval after they had been poised to turn into the largest rock band on the earth. As I wrote not lengthy after its launch, “I’m unsure if there’s a particular second within the movie that captures precisely what went improper with Kings Of Leon. Right here’s what Talihina Sky does have: Numerous scenes the place bitchin’ guys in fabulous haircuts smoke weed on non-public jets. And a few scenes the place [frontman Caleb] Followill nurses a half-empty bottle of Jameson and muses about his household, faith, and the way record-label guys choosing out singles from an album is like watching a ‘smut movie.’” Probably the most memorable scene recollects the Chris Holmes sequence from The Decline Of Western Civilization Half II: The Metallic Years” — which we’ll be discussing quickly — “the place Followill jokes about capturing heroin to kill his pre-show boredom whereas his mom appears to be like on backstage.”
Not sufficient folks discuss this film. And even keep in mind that it exists. That adjustments now.
28. Amy (2015)
One other essential music documentary subgenre is the “cautionary story.” Talihina Sky has some cautionary story components, particularly when seen with the data that Kings Of Leon’s profession fell off a cliff shortly after the movie was launched. However more often than not, a “cautionary story” music documentary takes place after the topic has died, and subsequently capabilities as a forensic accounting of their rise, fall, and demise. Few movies are as thorough with the “forensic accounting” strategy as Asif Kapadia’s Amy, which makes use of a strong provide of residence video to inform the story of Amy Winehouse and her deeply miserable development from naturally humorous and preternaturally proficient teen to perpetually intoxicated and cruelly hounded pop star. As a result of it is a movie with no spoilers — except you might be in some way desirous about Winehouse with out realizing her destiny — the sooner, happier scenes are literally sadder. The best way Kapadia lays it out, the sluggish however regular tractor beam of self-destruction that drew in Winehouse seems like an unstoppable drive, provided that she was cursed with loving some actually terrible folks (her boorish father, her fool husband) who, in fact, deftly prevented the wreckage that befell her.
27. Kurt & Courtney (1998)
This isn’t precisely a criticism of Amy, however a side of the movie left unacknowledged is that Kapadia is responsible of the identical prurient curiosity in Winehouse’s downfall because the ghoulish media vultures that lined it in actual time. He’s infinitely extra considerate and delicate in his strategy, however his movie however hinges on the viewers’s curiosity in exploring the sordid particulars of her non-public life. This identical dynamic performs out in different “cautionary story” music docs that take a moralistic stand in opposition to the techniques that facilitated the topic’s demise; It may be onerous for a filmmaker to reckon with being a part of the exact same diseased show-business equipment. In his controversial “was Kurt Cobain murdered?” documentary Kurt & Courtney, Nick Broomfield takes the subsequent step by recognizing that equipment and in his personal movie’s complicity in it. On the time, Broomfield was accused of endorsing the conspiracy idea that Courtney Love had her husband killed. His tabloid strategies and irreverent on-screen persona don’t precisely dispel that notion, however anybody who watches the movie will see that Broomfield is extra within the hangers-on and backside feeders that operated in Cobain’s orbit and continued to reside off his title after he died. That’s the true conspiracy on the coronary heart of his movie — it’s not about how he died, however how he was compelled to hold on after loss of life.
26. Jimi Hendrix (1973)
One of many authentic “cautionary story” music docs, about one of many final cautionary tales in fashionable music. Jimi Hendrix is such a legendary determine that attending to the underside of the “actual” man appears all however not possible. This movie doesn’t fairly get there, but it surely does profit from popping out simply three years after his loss of life. So many individuals who had been near him had been nonetheless alive — his dad, his girl mates, his friends like Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend — and their reminiscences weren’t but utterly clouded by being interviewed for 1,000,000 different Hendrix films. It feels just like the closest factor to experiencing Hendrix in actual time as you will get greater than 50 years later.
25. The Satan And Daniel Johnston (2005)
The uncommon “cautionary story” music doc about an individual who was, on the time, nonetheless alive. And but The Satan And Daniel Johnston is no less than as harrowing as Amy, charting the a number of psychological breakdowns of the titular indie singer-songwriter. Within the movie, Johnston routinely insists that he’s combating a dropping battle with Devil, and the circumstances of his life usually assist that perception. Calamities that might signify main life touchstones for most individuals — assault a pal with a hammer, drive an previous girl to leap out a window, crash an airplane your aged father is piloting — occur to Johnston on the common. These occasions are paralleled with Johnston’s achievements, which put the film in a further music doc subgenre, the “cult hero story.” (Notable movies on this class embody Looking For Sugarman, concerning the obscure ’70s rocker Sixto Rodriguez, and Jandek On Corwood, concerning the enigmatic lo-fi artist Jandek.) A key part of the “cult hero story” music doc is arguing that the topic, whereas largely unknown, has secret significance to the bigger music tradition. This often results in doubtful hyperbole: In The Satan And Daniel Johnston, a former supervisor claims that Johnston’s assortment of self-recorded tapes from the ’80s is best than Robert Johnson’s physique of labor. (Spoiler alert: It’s not. He’s nonetheless good, although.)
24. A Poem Is A Bare Particular person (1974)
Getting again to the live performance movie vs. music documentary query: An excellent live performance movie depends on the expertise and charisma of the musicians — if both is missing, the movie dies — whereas an ideal music documentary should be centered on individuals who can maintain your consideration even after they’re not enjoying music. For this reason “cult hero story” docs work so effectively regardless of the themes not having broad title recognition. You will be absorbed by Daniel Johnston’s life with out ever listening to “True Love Will Discover You In The Finish.”
No different maker of music docs takes to this maxim like Les Clean. Briefly movies like 1968’s The Blues In accordance To Lightnin’ Hopkins (concerning the titular Texas blues artist) and 1973’s Sizzling Pepper (about “zydeco king” Clifton Chenier), Clean adopts an immersive strategy, largely forgoing interviews in favor of implanting his digicam in a backwoods American group and permitting the viewer to take in the sounds, sights, and flavors. (You possibly can see each movies and extra wonderful Clean-directed music docs on The Criterion Channel.) For A Poem Is A Bare Particular person, Clean applies this methodology to a extra well-known musician, Leon Russell, by placing him within the context of his residence base of Seventies Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s hardly a standard music film — we spend as a lot time with Willie Nelson and George Jones as we do the proprietor of a neighborhood parachute leaping contest — however few filmmakers can put you in a particular place and time as vividly. That it’s solely tangentially about Russell is to the movie’s profit. As certainly one of his followers says within the film, “I’m right here to see the folks. And Leon Russell additionally.”
23. Heartworn Highways (1981)
Like a Les Clean movie not directed by Les Clean, Heartworn Highways takes a fly-on-the-wall view of the burgeoning Outlaw tradition effervescent beneath Seventies nation in Nashville and Austin, following artists who had been on their solution to changing into extensively emulated icons, together with Townes Van Zandt, Man Clark, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and David Allan Coe, amongst others. One factor that’s instantly obvious: Outlaw music didn’t pay again within the day! These guys are poor, down-and-out characters who reside in trailer parks and dilapidated homes populated by crusty drunkards and pleasant canine named Geraldine. To at the present time, blow-dried Americana wannabes watch this movie and attempt to imitate the articulate dirtbags depicted inside. However as Heartworn Highways makes plain, it’s a protracted and onerous street towards that sort of lived-in greatness.
22. Heavy Metallic Parking Lot (1986)
Maybe probably the most well-known of all “subculture” music documentaries. Filmmakers John Heyn and Jeff Krulik aren’t as suave as Clean; they merely took a video digicam to the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland on Could 31, 1986, and shot a group of mulleted winos and sleeveless potheads hanging exterior a Judas Priest/Dokken live performance. However they achieved roughly the identical consequence, which is the preservation of a world that may solely exist right now once you watch this film. The best way this 15-minute brief manages to current fully-formed and indelible characters is a miracle of financial system — the lecherous 20-year-old with the underaged girlfriend, the thin Steve Perry clone who sings an off-key “Livin’ After Midnight,” the prickly child who thinks punk rock must be shot to Mars, all of them reside in my coronary heart.
21. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese (2019)
Right here we’ve the primary occasion of a music documentary that additionally confirmed up on my live performance movies checklist. (It got here in a bit of larger there, at No. 22.) So, how can I justify additionally placing it right here? In that different column, I described Rolling Thunder Revue as “a piece of criticism that feedback on different live performance movies. Lots of the interviews are pushing deliberate exaggerations, fabrications, pranks, and goofs, in a way that’s meant not solely to obfuscate the reality however to recommend this sort of movie can’t ever actually purport to current ‘reality.’” I’m going on to keep up that it must be thought of a live performance movie as a result of “the music and the tomfoolery are inclined to exist aspect by aspect. Stefan van Dorp doesn’t step on Bob Dylan screaming out “Isis,” and vice versa.” I stand by that. Nevertheless, I additionally imagine that this movie additionally qualifies as a music documentary — or, somewhat, a music documentary about music documentaries and the narratives they create — as a result of the Stefan van Dorp aspect of the equation is equally essential to the music.
20. U2: Rattle & Hum (1988)
This was additionally on my live performance movies checklist, which felt like a contrarian opinion given the film’s checkered fame. Even U2 appears to treat Rattle & Hum as an unlucky boondoggle. (Or else we might have certainly gotten a 4K Extremely version by now. A few of us sickos, by the best way, would love that!) My case for this deserving twin standing as an ideal music documentary is that the a part of Rattle & Hum that makes it a worthy live performance movie — the immaculately filmed reside footage – just isn’t what anyone ever talks about. What’s remembered are the scenes the place U2 is by chance revealing their true selves. (Or, particularly within the case of Bono, his uncontainable egotism.) That is the band that can movie themselves visiting Elvis’ grave or teaching B.B. King find out how to play their ersatz blues songs with none obvious disgrace. They will’t assist themselves. They usually received’t take heed to anyone who would possibly inform them to edit these components out. Thank goodness for that.
INTERMISSION: THE BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY THAT WE WILL NEVER SEE
I’m satisfied that if I ever noticed Ezra Edelman’s nine-hour documentary about Prince — commissioned after which held again by Netflix, as a result of they had been as soon as good and now they’re cowardly — I’d put it on the high of this checklist.
Ezra Edelman, if this column by some probability got here up on Google Alerts as a result of it contains your title: Hook me up with a screener hyperlink!
Again to the checklist.
19. Oasis: Supersonic (2016)
Unimaginable “put it on” film, no query. Additionally, a doc the place you could possibly take all of the music out and nonetheless have excessive leisure worth. Simply have Noel and Liam Gallagher’s interviews and revel in your two hours. I simply have two points: The primary is that it ends earlier than the making of Be Right here Now. Which is like wrapping up Goodfellas earlier than the helicopter sequence. Would Goodfellas nonetheless be film with out that? Certain. But it surely wouldn’t be Goodfellas.
18. Lengthy Unusual Journey (2017)
The opposite drawback with Oasis: Supersonic is that it ought to have been an extended, multi-part documentary. That’s not one thing I usually ask for. The streaming period has pumped a great deal of carbohydrates into the documentary trade. So many movies now are bloated out into two or three components when a decent 90 minutes could be ample. However there are exceptions the place you really need extra time with the themes. (I understand many individuals wouldn’t wish to spend 5 minutes with Noel and Liam, a lot much less 5 hours. All I can say is: We aren’t the identical.)
Few rock bands demanded the multi-part doc therapy greater than the Grateful Lifeless. Luckily, Amir Bar-Lev rises to the event with telling their epic story, giving correct as a result of triumphs and the tragedies in a way that feels trustworthy and unencumbered though all of the surviving members participated. The vital (and correct) resolution, for one, to finish the movie with Jerry Garcia’s loss of life — somewhat than discover the post-Jerry years with Lifeless And Firm and different subsequent Lifeless iterations — certainly will need to have ruffled some feathers within the band’s famously prickly camp. To not point out Bar-Lev’s implicit argument that their continuous tour schedule hastened Jerry’s demise.
Certain sufficient, once I interviewed Mickey Hart in 2017, he poo-pooed the movie. “The Grateful Lifeless isn’t unhappy, largely we’re a bunch of bloody yucks and we’re humorous. Now we have nice enjoyable. That film wasn’t enjoyable. It’s not a date film. That’s the one factor I can say about it.” Take that as an endorsement.
17. We Jam Econo: The Story Of The Minutemen (2005)
The Grateful Lifeless demanded a multi-part doc as a result of they made sufficient music (and drama) to warrant that period of time. The Minutemen, in the meantime, didn’t final almost as lengthy. They usually additionally didn’t have the almost identical stage of interpersonal rancor. In reality, the connection of Mike Watt and D. Boon is certainly one of rock’s nice love tales, with a crushingly tragic, Shakespearian twist on the finish. Like Our Band May Be Your Life in celluloid type, We Jam Econo is a necessary retelling of American indie rock’s earliest days. However greater than that, this is without doubt one of the loveliest films about friendship I’ve ever seen. Could all of us discover somebody who misses us after we’re gone like Mike Watt aches for the reminiscence of his buddy D.
16. Rush: Past The Lighted Stage (2010)
The identical film as We Jam Econo — three guys in a band, the drummer is a virtuoso, the guitarist and bassist are in love with one another from childhood, they usually all find yourself changing into legends. The particulars are totally different however that’s the essential stuff.
15. All You Want Is Love: The Story Of Widespread Music (1977)
Fingers down probably the most bold doc on this checklist. Initially a 17-part sequence that aired on the BBC in 1977, All You Want Is Love is an try and encapsulate the complete historical past of twentieth century music as much as that time, from rock and nation to blues and jazz to swing and ragtime. Director Tony Palmer is an opinionated fan, which animates the movie’s passionate viewpoint whereas additionally opening up some inevitable blind spots and biases. (His view of Black American “authenticity,” for one, will certainly strike some viewers as problematic on reflection.) Palmer’s timing was additionally inopportune — the final episode speculates on the way forward for music proper earlier than punk and disco took over as transformational forces. Setting all that apart, All You Want Is Love gives a motherlode of insights and pleasures, beginning with the interviews Palmer was in a position to land. This sequence is sufficiently old to have a foot in a distant time, when folks like Bing Crosby, Dizzy Gillespie, and Hoagy Charmichael had been nonetheless round and obtainable to talk. After which there’s the infamous interview with Phil Spector, the place the subsequently disgraced producer is seen in his darkened mansion, drunkenly bashing out his previous hits on an acoustic guitar with the world’s worst toupee perched atop his head. In these moments, All You Want Is Love is sort of a music historical past guide come to life.
14. No Path Residence (2005)
Having labored on just a few documentaries myself, I’ve come to understand the challenges of securing all of the interviews that you must make a film like this actually work. It’s tougher than it appears to be like! While you work behind the scenes, you perceive how usually these interviews fall by. You arrange an interview, you safe a location to movie, after which the man will get a sore throat and may’t make it. So, you need to discover anyone else to shoot that day or else you’ve wasted cash on the situation. And then you definately hope the sore throat man feels higher by the point you permit city in just a few days.
I take into consideration that now once I re-watch No Path Residence, Martin Scorsese’s first Bob Dylan doc. Like All You Want Is Love, it’s extra priceless with every passing 12 months for all the numerous essential individuals who had been captured on movie which are now not with us. Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Liam Clancy, Dave Van Ronk, Suze Rotolo — all of them come again to life everytime you put this film on, underscoring that Dylan’s story (particularly in his early years) is as a lot a few group as it’s about one man.
13. The Beatles: Get Again (2021)
The “occasion” music documentary of the last decade. When this dropped on the tail finish of the COVID shutdown, it felt like a blast of oxygen after months of suffocation. Because the closest attainable approximation of really hanging out with The Beatles in early 1969, Get Again would have discovered an enormous viewers whatever the exterior circumstances. That the film got here out, nevertheless, at a time when many people had been disadvantaged for therefore lengthy of in-person hangs, it had an additional layer of vicarious pleasure. Past that, it’s truthful to say {that a} film like Get Again — a multi-hour deep dive on the making of a not terribly distinguished report — couldn’t be made about every other band. Not solely as a result of few bands had been filmed as usually as The Beatles, but in addition as a result of few bands can maintain your consideration as rapturously. They don’t even must do a lot; Carrying a number of the most spectacular mixtures of coats, ties, and hats identified to man is greater than sufficient.
12. David Bowie: Cracked Actor (1975)
An all-time “YouTube Obscurities” basic. Although YouTube has made Cracked Actor much less obscure than it might need in any other case been. Initially made for the BBC, Cracked Actor is an hour-long profile of Bowie throughout his Younger People interval, when he was subsisting solely on cocaine and cartons of milk. He’s, concurrently, at peak glamorousness and peak “he’s so skinny and stoned he may die at any minute” precariousness. Probably the most memorable sequence reveals David using behind a limousine crusing by the California mountains, sucking on his milk carton and listening to Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Really feel Like) A Pure Girl.”
The perfect issues that may be mentioned of Cracked Actor now are 1) how unbelievable it’s that Bowie survived this period and a pair of) how unlikely such a movie a few main star would get made (or proven) right now.
11. The Children Are Alright (1979)
I’m wondering if this film additionally wouldn’t be made right now, since on paper it feels like making a YouTube playlist. In lieu of the same old talking-head interviews, director Jeff Stein creates a story about The Who by stitching collectively archival live performance clips, up to date reside footage, TV interviews, selection present appearances, and numerous bits of anarchy. It was an modern strategy on the time, and the movie’s lack of pretense and sentiment remains to be refreshing within the subject of classic-rock films usually overstuffed with worshipful puffery. In The Children Are Alright, the music and busted-up gear are greater than sufficient.
10. Basic Albums: Steely Dan, Aja (1999)
I may do a column simply on the Basic Albums sequence, which launched within the late-’90s as a British tv export earlier than increasing to residence video and numerous streaming shops. From the start, the makers had been in a position to safe the cooperation of all of the essential events in a number of the largest bands of all time, from Pink Floyd to Fleetwood Mac to U2. And regardless of scant operating occasions of about 50 minutes, all of the installments handle to cram in a great deal of helpful background details about how the albums had been conceived, written, and recorded, with the musicians breaking down tracks whereas fidgeting with costly soundboards.
I’ve seen all however a small handful of episodes. The sequence represents the head of “put it on” music doc consolation meals. And the perfect of the bunch is Aja. It’s positively the one I’ve watched probably the most occasions. First, you might have Donald Fagen and Walter Becker discussing, on digicam, their strategies with unusual openness and (largely) with out evasive snark. After which you might have the participation of vital session musicians like Bernard Purdie and Chuck Rainey, who isolate and recreate their instrumental contributions to the album. And, lastly, there’s the report itself, a monolith of ’70s LA studio perfection that’s extraordinarily well-suited for this type evaluation.
9. Historical past Of The Eagles (2013)
The uncommon music doc the place hating the band in query would possibly really make the viewing expertise extra gratifying. I used to hate the Eagles, however this film modified my thoughts. Not as a result of it makes Don Henley and Glenn Frey appear to be sympathetic figures. It really does the alternative — by the tip they appear like even larger dicks than they had been in the beginning. However, like Kobe Bryant when he adopted “mamba mentality” and went full heel, leaning into their dickishness makes the Eagles extra endearing because the defining boomer band that ushered rock music from hippie country-rock innocence to cold-blooded, limitless reunion tour capitalism. You won’t love them, however they may earn your grudging respect.
8. I Am Attempting To Break Your Coronary heart: A Movie About Wilco (2002)
Within the entry about Get Again, I uncared for to introduce one other essential music documentary subgenre: the “making of the album” film. Although in Get Again, the creation of what grew to become Let It Be appears much less essential than observing The Beatles in a semi-casual setting. In I Am Attempting To Break Your Coronary heart, the album issues extra as a result of Wilco is engaged on presumably the best indie-rock LP of the twenty first century, Yankee Resort Foxtrot. However the drama, prefer it was with The Beatles, does finally reside within the deteriorating relationship between the 2 most essential members, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett. Whereas sticklers for the “making of the album” elements of I Am Attempting To Break Your Coronary heart can rightly complain that Jim O’Rourke was no less than equally essential and doesn’t present up right here in any respect, this nonetheless stays one of many two definitive rock docs of the final 25 years. And it’s actually probably the most notable occasion of a rock star puking on digicam after a music mixing-inspired panic assault.
7. Metallica: Some Type Of Monster (2004)
Getting again to Get Again: A lesson of that movie is that the making of a solid-but-not-great (and even plain previous mediocre) album will be extra narratively satisfying than the creation of a masterpiece. That is convincingly confirmed by Some Type Of Monster, the Metallica film concerning the recording of 2003’s “really not that unhealthy” mid-career turning level St. Anger. If Wilco was a band on the verge of falling aside in the course of the making of Yankee Resort Foxtrot, then Metallica seems like they’re being held collectively by Scotch tape and costly remedy classes. Anybody inclined to place this purely as a “real-life Spinal Faucet” must rethink their stage of respect for Metallica, who consented to taking part in (and paying for) a movie that uncovered their vulnerabilities in methods no different macho rock band would dare. You could possibly argue that Lars Ulrich merely doesn’t have the self-awareness to not put himself on movie speaking about his artwork assortment — or that James Hetfield lacks the disgrace to hide his rehab stint — however that severely undersells the courageousness of this challenge. Always remember this was the band that made Lulu. They don’t worry your mockery.
6. Dig! (2004)
I’ll quote myself from earlier this 12 months: “Dig! checks quite a lot of containers for issues that I like — rock ‘n’ roll, musical rivalries, comically massive sideburns, performative decadence, delusional dreamers, tragicomic buffoonery. However above all, Dig! is probably the most quotable rock doc you’ll ever see. And virtually all these quotes come from [Anton] Newcombe, who is likely to be a genius and positively is an asshole. This provides him the distinctive potential to say that he’s ‘kicking off a musical revolution’ with a straight face. (What Jack Black does paradoxically Anton Newcombe declares with Klaus Kinski-level maniacal seriousness.)
Right here’s a fast sublist of the 5 greatest quotes from Dig!
5. “Nobody’s gonna say ‘fuck you’ to me on MY stage with MY band!”
4. “This music is about love and it’s referred to as, effectively, ‘Love.’”
3. “The Beatles had been on the market, I gave it away.”
2. “I by no means do something improper. That’s why I by no means say I’m sorry.”
1. “You fucking broke my sitar, motherfucker!”)
5. Runnin’ Down A Dream (2007)
The second best “put it on” music doc of all time, although no less than two circumstances work in opposition to it: 1) Director Peter Bogdanovich, an in any other case sensible New Hollywood period filmmaker whose ascot-wearing demeanor is diametrically against the rock ‘n’ roll life-style embodied by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers; 2) The expansive four-hour operating time, which once more runs opposite to the “don’t bore us, get to the refrain” mentality of this band. Alas, neither issue in any respect impedes on the standard of Runnin’ Down A Dream. The important high quality of all “put it on” music docs is hang-time potential. Do you wish to spend time with these folks or not? Within the historical past of music, few bands have ever had extra hang-time potential than The Heartbreakers.
4. The Beatles Anthology (1995)
The No. 1 best “put it on” music doc of all time. Many years earlier than Get Again, it was the unique Beatles “occasion” documentary when it aired over the Thanksgiving vacation in 1995. Then I bought the DVD and continued to observe it at the same time as TVs obtained larger and the decision grew worse. For all of the occasions The Beatles story has been advised and retold, this stays the only most entertaining iteration, largely as a result of it comes from the blokes themselves (with occasional enter from compatriots and collaborators like George Martin and Neil Aspinall). The Beatles story is like Greek mythology — regardless of what number of occasions you hear the identical tales, there’s all the time one thing to maintain you . With The Beatles Anthology, particularly on reflection, the brand new wrinkle is experiencing these tales by the prism of the Nineties Beatles. This incarnation is as particular as any ’60s mirco-era — George’s multi-colored jacket, Ringo’s ponytail, Paul’s resolution to do an on-camera interview whereas piloting a tugboat for some purpose. I can’t wait to expertise all of it once more in high-def!
3. The Decline Of Western Civilization Half II: The Metallic Years (1988)
This hair-metal masterpiece is extensively referenced and beloved by all music doc followers. Among the many solely critics is the director, the good Penelope Spheeris, who expressed her misgivings once I interviewed her in 2015. “It’s so frivolous on quite a lot of ranges,” she insisted. “Thank god it obtained a bit of deeper with Megadeth and Chris Holmes, however , all I cared about was with the ability to doc a sure level in historical past so future generations may see it.” I couldn’t disagree extra concerning the frivolous half. The Decline Of Western Civilization Half II should be counted among the many most interesting works of sociology within the canon of nice music docs. That is very true of the Chris Holmes sequence she referenced, wherein the guitarist for the boorish LA band WASP is seen chugging vodka in his swimming pool whereas his mom appears to be like on. By no means has there been a extra apt metaphor for rock extra. However even right here, Spheeris wasn’t certain she nailed it. “I felt like we obtained nothing,” Spheeris mentioned of the scene. “When the interview was over, I advised the [director of photography], Jeff Zimmerman, ‘We’ve obtained to determine a way we will get some cash to shoot this once more as a result of we didn’t get it.’ I lower it collectively out of desperation and hoped that it could be OK. I by no means within the modifying room went, ‘Wow, it is a main assertion.’ And the weirdest factor is that’s the a part of the film that everyone talks about now.”
Penelope, wherever you might be: You made a top-three music doc of all time. I salute you.
2. Don’t Look Again (1967)
The highest two movies are notable for 1) the participation of the topic and a pair of) the editorial independence of the filmmakers. Neither movie will be broadly categorized as “constructive” depictions of the artists in query, and but they’re each iconic movies that finally make their topics look extremely cool, even when their actions are questionable and even hazardous. There’s a lesson right here for up to date acts who view a possible documentary as PR administration for his or her model. The movies that truly matter and final for the lengthy haul have some dust in them. The dust works. The dust is enticing. Cleanliness in the meantime fades rapidly after which is forgotten.
1. Gimme Shelter (1970)
I gave this one the smallest of edges as a result of Bob Dylan torturing journalists is ever so barely much less dramatic than the Hells Angels brutalizing hippies at Altamont. This film is so wealthy and detailed (regardless of a svelte 91-minute operating time) that you just even get to know the maniacs within the crowd. The drugged out bare girl making an attempt to climb on stage. The dead-eyed Angel Sonny Barger making an attempt to homicide Mick Jagger together with his sociopathic stare. The tripping dude who appears to be like like a wolf man slowly dropping his thoughts whereas the Stones play “Below My Thumb.” Gimme Shelter additionally topped my live performance movies checklist, and it could additionally do effectively if I ever make a “legitimately scary” horror films checklist. One of many best American movies of any style.
