by ·Comments Off on Don’t Look Back (1967, D.A. Pennebaker)

Pretty funny that as the Beatles came to the USA playing havoc in the media with their jokey answers to interview questions, Dylan went to England to do the same. This is more of a hotel room hangout movie than expected, and Bob gets aggressive and confrontational. Joan Baez comes across a ton better than she did in the TNT Show, harmonizing with Bob on Hank Williams songs. They’re in full folkie mode, Bob not having Gone Electric until a couple months after filming.

When I said Joan comes across well I meant musically, not lighting

unrelated: guess who I’ve got tickets to see this summer

by ·Comments Off on The Big T.N.T. Show (1966, Larry Peerce)

The Stones didn’t show up this time but the crowd still shrieks annoyingly while actor David “Man From UNCLE” McCallum leads the orchestra in “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Turns out the crowd can be controlled – they shut the fuck up and focus on clapping out of time when Petula Clark starts “Downtown,” then resume yelling for The Lovin’ Spoonful’s singer looking silly hugging an autoharp. Ray Charles gets a big rocker, Bo Diddley chugs on the guitar, The Byrds dress stylishly and jangle on, and Joan Baez plays a song from Inside Llewyn Davis. Movie catches fire with the Ronettes into Roger Miller (the only one who talks to the crowd between songs). Donovan gets an appropriately pretentious intro (Dylan was wise not to accept the invitation) and after he mystifies the crowd, Ike and Tina bring the energy the hell back up for a raucous finale. Good movie.

Petula silences the screams:

Bo lets the girls rock out:

Joan kills the mood:

The Sparks Brothers say what are WE doing here?

Roger plays to the camera:

The crowd puzzles over Donovan:

Tina takes it home:

But there would be no next year:

by ·Comments Off on Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds (2017, Altham & Asher & Blaine)

Nice doc, we got to hear much of Pet Sounds in different forms, see some goofy photo shoots, hang out with Brian and his co-lyricist who seems like a good guy who fell into an awesome gig. Everything’s pretty positive – even Mike Love comes off well, except during the “Hang On To Your Ego” vs. “I Know There’s an Answer” debate. Nobody says the word “Smile” or discusses the post-Pet future. I’ve been listening to some 1960s albums and watching related movies – hence the TAMI and TNT and Beatles and Dylan. Something new I’ve learned about Pet Sounds which also wasn’t covered in the doc: it’s not only the best Beach Boys record, their previous four albums were hardly even good.

by ·Comments Off on 2 + 2 = 22 (2017, Heinz Emigholz)

Mostly a rock doc of some guys recording motorik music.

The title is probably a Godard reference, but I’m still in the mid-1960s on my rock doc playlist, that one’s a couple years away.

by ·Comments Off on Help! (1965, Richard Lester)

I’m on a 1960s rock & roll kick. Rewatched this a few months after Anthology, getting some nice HD screenshots of Eleanor Bron, including when I seen her in the arms of Paul saying “I can say no more.”

by ·Comments Off on A Well-Spent Life (1972, Les Blank)

Why did I have this listed as A Life Well Spent? Hangout doc with blues guitarist Mance Lipscomb. There’s a rock doc out there for everyone who ever picked up a guitar, and most are in the style of the Beatles or the Devo things, but we need more that are like this.

by ·Comments Off on The TAMI Show (1964, Steve Binder)

Rock performance show/film from the first wave of the British invasion. Killer opening title sequence, with a montage of artists heading to the show with a Beach Boys song about these same artists heading to the show. Chuck Berry opens with an invisible backing band, then Gerry and the Pacemakers takes over from Chuck mid-song to the delight of the crowd even though they are 10% as cool. Audience gets screamy so the sound mix isn’t great, but the crowd calms down whenever someone non-white is onstage. Some of the best music acts at the peak of their powers (and also Jimmy D Whoever, who’s a drag) play a handful of songs each, hosted by cheeseballs Jan & Dean. The prizes for dancing, vocal performance and stage presence all go to James Brown – a shame that pretty-decent dancer Mick Jagger has to follow him. Dave Kehr raves: “Shot on videotape and transferred to film, this was the first full-scale rockumentary, and it’s still a model of the genre, well paced and mostly in focus.”

Mick vs. the Santa Monica crowd:

by ·Comments Off on Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006, Michel Gondry)

One of the last movies I watched in theaters before starting this blog. Rewatching now because I read the great J Dilla book and am working my way through a list* of related artists. At the peak of his fame and success, Chappelle’s vanity project keeps alternating between music performances on the day, and his interactions with the public. Rewatching now I wish there was much more music and less Dave. Each group gets about one song, which keeps being interrupted by host episodes. This is a choice, not necessarily a defect – Gondry’s story is more about building this event and getting people excited about it, not a you-are-there concert film. Questlove must have remembered this movie once or twice when working on Summer of Soul. Filmed when Dave was at the top of fame, released a year later when he was in the news for walking away from his sketch show, and he’s had nothing but rocky press since then (along with then-rising young star K*nye W*st, bittersweet to see both of them here).

*A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, D’Angelo, The Pharcyde, Raekwon, Busta Rhymes, Fugees, Common, Erykah Badu, Slum Village, 5-Elementz, Talib Kweli & Mos Def, MF Doom, The Roots, Jill Scott, Ghostface Killah, Bilal, Madlib, Robert Glasper, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Hiatus Kaiyote, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, David Fiuczynski, Kendrick Lamar.