Sonic Highways - Foo Fighters - Hbo

Sonic Highways is a documentary miniseries on HBO in which Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters visit a city each week that is significant in the history of American music. They meet the important people and visit the important places. This footage is supplemented with some very well researched background info. At the end of each episode, Dave writes a song about the town's culture, and the band records it in a local studio.

My first guess was that the concept and the songs might be a little lame, but the quality has been very high through the first three episodes. I have to admit that Dave might be smarter and more talented than I once thought. He's definitely come a long way since starting out as the talented airhead drummer for Nirvana.

The CD for the series (8 songs) was due to be released today.

 

Dave Grohl is definitely a talented musician and he also seems smart enough (what do i know though, never met the guy ). But the music of the Foo fighters has never impressed or intrigued me. The best I heard from him is his stuff with Nirvana. Not the biggest fan of them either, but the music sounds raw, pure AND catchy, especially on Nevermind. Ah well maybe the Foo fighers can be described as pure and raw rock as well but then it is just the details I guess because their sound just doesn't appeal to me. Taste can be awfully subjective of course and it doesn't take away from a musician's (possible) intelligence

Anyway, this series could still be interesting and fun! I like background docs about musicians and music history, even when it's about Abba

 

I was a little skeptical of what the Nashville episode might be like, since Dave Grohl isn't much into country music, and I'm not either. But... they managed to find material that could be of interest to a wider variety of music fans; stuff that is not well known, such as an important deal that almost took place between Dolly Parton and Elvis. They also dug up rare footage of Willie Nelson performing "Crazy" (which he wrote -- hit recording by Patsy Cline) before he grew all that hair! He looked like a conservative young gentleman! Quite a shock. I never knew that Willie. Most Americans only know this one:

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Of course, they only have an hour per city, so they couldn't cover everything worth saying about Nashville. No mention of their BB King's Blues Club on Second Avenue, or the super classy downtown venue for the Nashville Symphony, or the perfectly preserved RCA Studio B where Elvis recorded most of his big hits.

The premiere episode covered Chicago, which often gets overlooked by music historians. Because of its role as a transportation hub, a lot of pioneer musicians moved there from other places, lured by larger paying crowds.

Washington DC was program number two. It's never had an extremely large or active music scene, but Dave grew up in the area, so it made sense to cover it in his series. They showed film evidence that the frantic style found in Seattle grunge rock originated with black DC area musicians of the previous generation. It's a little too fast for me, in general.

I have number four waiting for me on DVR, which is Austin, Texas.

The song for each week usually features a guest vocal or instrumental solo from a local legend.

 

So now you tickled my interest: what had Grohl to do with that deal between Dolly Parton and Elvis?? I know... I should watch this series..

 

Elvis wanted to remake "I Will Always Love You" but his agent demanded 50% of Dolly's royalties as the songwriter, as a part of the contract. Elvis had already rehearsed his arrangement and was ready to go to the studio. Dolly said no, and no cover was recorded until Whitney Houston did it under standard terms, with Dolly getting all of the songwriter's payments. It became Whitney's signature song, and one of the best selling power ballads of its decade. Dolly got to tell the story in her own words.

I'm still a fan of the original version, which is very sweet, soft, and gentle.