Question: When did you get your first six-string? Canadian ginger-god Bryan Adams masterfully relayed the story of his rock and roll back story in the song “Summer of ’69”, but typically we prefer a more visual medium when it comes to sharing stories from the history of popular music. Luckily there are Music Documentaries then, right lads!? Over the last 70 or so years, music documentary filmmaking has become such a celebrated, prolific sub genre of cinema that it even inspired the most wonderful homage/pisstake off all time (Rob Reiner’s brilliant “This Is Spinal Tap” from 1984). For this edition of our weekly series Ray-Ban Legendary Lists in honour of the shade-maker’s 75th Anniversary, we are raising the sign of the horn to salute the Greatest Music Documentaries Of All Time. From iconic subjects like the Rolling Stones to fringe movements like Norwegian Black Metal, we have chosen 10 films that cover a broad scope of musical genres and moments in history. (NOTE: we excluded any films that were better described as “live concert” films than music documentaries. Otherwise there would have been far too much to choose from.)
THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY This has got to be the most comprehensive documentary of The Beatles made to date. It features a lot of interviews with the band as well as Yoko Ono, George Martin and chief roadie Neil Aspinall intermixed with extraordinary remastered concert footage, original band interviews, and television appearances. Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how singular an impact the band had on the world and pop music, and this doco gives you some perspective on how significant the band’s cultural contribution is – for example, while most of the movies on this list run for around 100-140 minutes, The Beatles Anthology goes for 680 minutes (across 8 parts). From the earliest incarnation of the group in Liverpool pre-Ringo, to the height of Beatlemania and the inevitable breakup, this is compulsory viewing for all Beatles fans.
SOME KIND OF MONSTER This 2004 documentary by filmmakers Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger, provides an amazingly intimate and hilariously uncensored portrait of the American metal icons during the recording of their 2003 album “St. Anger”. Now middle aged millionaires, the band goes into the studio for the first time in five years to record the (terrible) eighth album, and things quickly start falling apart when long time bassist Jason Newsted quits the band and frontman/lyricist James Hetfield abruptly ups and leaves for rehab. With the band on the brink of disintegration, the management bring in a group therapist of sorts, “performance-enhancing coach” Phil Towle to help them through the interpersonal conflicts, egos and communication breakdowns. The sessions with Towle are at times hilarious, pathetic, tender and cathartic, and completely fascinating.
1991: THE YEAR THAT PUNK BROKE Filmmaker musician David Markey followed Sonic Youth around during the band’s 1991 European tour and the result, captured in Markey’s gritty DIY photography, chronicles the alternative rock scene just weeks before the movement hit its apex when Nirvana released “Nevermind”. Thurston Moore plays narrator, interviewer and the counter culture’s hero, hilariously and eloquently commentating on the movement and where it then sat within the greater context of music in the early ’90s (there are a lot of in jokes that make reference to Madonna’s tour doco “Truth Or Dare” released the same year). The movie includes interviews with and live performance footage of Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Babes In Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball. It’s fucking loud and fucking awesome. Now on DVD!
GIMME SHELTER “Gimme Shelter” is a great behind-the-scenes look at the Rolling Stones, but it is more famous as a historical time capsule about the moment that – to many – symbolised the end of the peace and love utopian dream of the Sixties. The documentary chronicles the Rolling Stones 1969 Altamont show, a free concert also featuring Santana, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, that was intended to be a kind of sequel to Woodstock. The peaceful mood of the concert quickly degenerated into violence spurred by the alcohol and drugs consumed by the crowd and the Hells Angels who had been consigned as security. The violence culminated in the murder of a teenage fan who was stabbed to death by one of the Angels after he brandished a pistol. “Gimme Shelter” is a gritty, electrifying portrait of a generation ending.
FREESTYLE: THE ART OF RHYME Featuring some of the most talented MCs in American hip hop including Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Jurassic 5, and Black Thought of The Roots, this taut exciting film celebrates the skill of unrehearsed improvisational rhyming “off the dome” (shout out to BombFunk MCs for that reference), showcasing it as an art form quite separate from written rap. Amidst plot lines exploring the origin of freestyling and an introduction to “ciphers” or group freestyle circles, is a narrative about competitive freestyling (remember those battle scenes from “8 Mile”?) that focuses on the fascinating rivalry between champions Supernatural, Juice and Craig G. In the end, though, the message at the heart of this movie is a simple one: Rap is beautiful.
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
This infectious, life-affirming movie about the a group of Cuban musicians and their journey to perform in the United States. Director Wim Wenders follows his friend, musician Ry Cooder, who travels to Havana to record an album with the veteran stars of the vibrant local music scene – the heart of which is the city’s famous club the Buena Vista Social Club – before the hugely successful US tour. The Academy Award-nominated box office hit combines interviews, footage from recording and several live performances, and pulls them together beautifully in a thoroughly entertaining celebration of music.
UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US Part study of Norway’s black metal scene, part crime thriller, this low budget American-made documentary is an unsettling, absorbing and intimate look into a fringe subgenre of music that bred its own extreme anti-establishment subculture. While the filmmakers interview several people within the scene, they focus on two key members of the movement’s inner circle, Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell from the band Darkthrone and Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes from bands Mayhem and Burzum, who offer details and insights into the criminal activities committed on behalf of the black metal movement, from vandalism to church burnings and murder. While the material has been criticised for presenting an unbalanced sensationalist portrait of the scene, there is no denying that the subject matter is bleakly fascinating – like the paradoxical philosophy of the likeable sociopath Varg. You don’t need to be super involved with the music to get something out of this movie.
NO DIRECTION HOME With “No Direction Home” director Martin Scorcese documents the humble beginnings of Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan rise from quirky folk singer to ‘Judas’ going electric in this astoundingly rich film. For a man who has constructed his own mythology, Scorcese focuses on the facts and weaves the early years of Dylan’s career with archival footage and retrospective interviews from those who knew (or didn’t) him best, plus the nasal one himself.
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON A beautiful, sensitive treatment of creativity and mental illness, with the man Kurt Cobain credited as the greatest songwriter in America, indie musician Daniel Johnston at its centre. Director Jeff Feuerzeig was given access to Johnston’s collection of self recorded videotapes, and in a riveting and gratifying non-exploitative way he manages to piece together those excerpts with interviews of family and industry associates, re-enactments and animation for a compelling and insightful account of Johnston’s life, his genius and his enveloping mental illness. A brilliant study of the ‘tortured artist’.
LIVE FOREVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF BRITPOP John Dower’s retrospective Britpop documentary made in 2003 is worth watching for the interviews with Liam and Noel Gallagher alone. And, obviously, the fantastic soundtrack. It’s a hilarious gossip session with some of the major players from Britpop’s pinnacle including Noel and Liam, Damon Albarn of Blur and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp weighing in. Beyond the bitching there is also terrific commentary about the movement as a reflex to the social and political landscape in ’90s Britain. Britpop is obviously not the deepest of subjects in all of rock and roll (fittingly Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has a song called “I Never Said I Was Deep”), but the characters involved are hugely entertaining. Watch the whole thing right here, right now!
We could only choose 10 so there’s a mountain of worthy contenders that could have easily been traded-in for a spot of the list. Give us your suggestions and recommendations in the comment section.
