Musicians: Documentaries vs Movies...

Trying to see if anyone knows any good (or bad) musician-based movies/documentaries.

I've noticed that, usually, movies about a particular artist usually suck if they're well-known musicians.

For example: "The Doors" with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison... I thought that movie sucked. Of course, it was made in 1992, when Television and the media had controversy under control (Curse words, Nudity, Drugs were all heavily monitored by the FCC). Jim Morrison is a well-known, even as far as to say a notorious artist.

"Sweet & Lowdown" on the other hand, in which, Sean Penn played the artist Emmit Ray. I found that movie to be spectacular. Aside from Emmit Ray's obvious mental instability and his womanizing attributes, I still found it highly informational and entertaining and would recommend it to anyone that finds miscellaneous musicians interesting. But, back to my original thought process... Emmit Ray... who's ever heard of this guy, other than jazz specialists.

I know of a few music/artist movies and documentaries and will post em as I think of them. Do you know of any? Good, bad, mis-represented? I think it'd be an interesting topic.

 

Monteray Festival-1967. Might have been called Monterey Jazz Festival. I forget.

 

Grateful Dead Documentary Films:

*The Closing of Winterland (5 stars... Similar to The Grateful Dead Movie, includes interviews with random followers, animations aren't that great, but they're 70's liquid art animations, so it's pretty cool)
*Tie-Dyed: A Parking Lot Documentary (5 stars)
*End of The Road (5 stars... really portrays the love involved with Jerry and the music)
*Egypt '78 (3 stars)
*The Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show featuring The GD (5 stars... A fulfillingly-lengthy interview with Jerry Garcia and Ken Kesey about The Acid Tests and other misc. info)
*Festival Express (5 stars... featuring many other notorious bands of the 70's trekking across Canada by train. Very personal with the artists, also great music)
*The Grateful Dead Movie (5 stars... the most well known of their works. Great ANIMATIONS, fantastic tunes, great interviews of hippies having the time of their lives.)


Other - Misc:

*Phish - Joy DVD (5 stars... Fantastic music. Nuff said)

*200 Motels: A Movie by Frank Zappa (5 stars... not a documentary, but great music and fun to watch [Centerrrrrrrvilllllllle! XD])

*BBC - Jeff Beck: Live at Ronnie Scott's (5 stars... Fantastic music! Jazz, rock, blues, progressive jams... Jeff Beck lights up the stage in this one)

*Liquid Crystal Vision (5 stars... Very rare and hard to find in native screen resolutions, but one amazing movie. Featuring interviews with Bob Weir, Ken Kesey? Members of Jah Roots... documentary on the festival scene... Amazing Animations)

*August Rush (5 stars... not a documentary, but a movie about an orphaned child that 'followed the music' and made it big to find his biological parents. Featuring Robin Williams)

*Quadrophenia (4 stars... A film by Roger Daughtry? Directed by The Who. Great movie about a European bloke with a not so noticeable mental disorder, fighting thru the paisley age... small amount of almost odd nudity when viewed from this day in age. Kind of weirded me at first, but still, a great movie if you don't mind that kind of stuff)
*Tommy: The Pinball Wizard (5 stars... Another film produced and directed by The Who. Pretty well known movie about a boy/invalid, if you will, blind and deaf looking for a moment of euphoria [don't quote me on that lol])


There are quite a few musical documentaries/movies out there. I know for certain I forgot a few. There's 2 from The Grateful Dead I'm missing and Pink Floyd, if anyone wishes to slap em on the thread. I'll have to check out the Monteray Festival movie. Heard of the festival... I think it's Monteray Pop Festival... could be jazz... never knew there was a movie on it tho. Oh yeah, and can't forget they just revised the Woodstock movie. Which, it includes interviews with none other than THE Richie Havens (one of my guitar idols). Great stuff there.

Hope you guys are interested in this kind of stuff. I've got a few more up my sleeve, but gotta do some researching into my collection. If you know of any more, shout em out! Other than playing guitar, listening to music and researching the festival scene... This is the kind of stuff I live for! XD

Be back to post more in a bit...

 

If you like the Flaming Lips at all, I recommend the Fearless Freaks. Its a pretty great documentary, as far as music documentaries go.

I agree with all of Terrapin's picks for the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead Movie kicks ass. I worked at a video store when video stores were transitioning from VHS to DVD and snagged that one for $1 on VHS. Of course now I don't have a VCR and don't know where to find one so I can't watch it anymore

Taking Woodstock is a movie about the son of the family that owned the land where Woodstock was held. Its not a great movie and it doesn't go into any of the musicians at all, but its pretty interesting to see how the events of Woodstock all unfolded.

 

I'm sure we have a VCR around here somewhere

Thrift stores or goodwill usually have cheap VCR's... and a bunch of nifty stuff. CD's for a buck, old vinyl's, nifty little puzzle boxes with a secret stash spot inside. I found a puzzle box in the shape of a turtle one time. I unwrapped the tape from it and took it apart and low and behold, there was a velvet-lined stash spot in it! I was excited lol. But, nice score on the GD Movie!

 

*Primus Hallucinogenetics Tour (5 stars)

Les Claypool is crazy in this concert. He actually changes wardrobe a few times and even busts out a jam on the whamola! Not to mention they do Frizzle Fry in it's entirety. Great show, wish I could have been there.

More docs and movies coming soon to a thread near you!

 

not artist specific...still waiting to see it released in an affordable format...clip i saw didn't impress me greatly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Might_Get_Loud

 

don't look back [dylan]

gimme shelter [stones]

 

reggae:

the harder they come

rockers

 

soul:

wattstax

plus one i saw a hundred years ago but can't remember the name, can't find it on the internets, ah fuck . . .

oh yeah, three thumbs up for monterey pop, the third thumb is for ravi shankar

 

oh, another strange, sad, funny, great movie

hail, hail rock 'n' roll

in which keith richards struggles to get chuck berry to behave himself for 15 minutes and in doing so discovers the truth about who wrote the music to all those songs . . .

 

Thanks Wa Bluska! I think I may have seen parts of "Hail, Hail Rock n Roll." I remember seeing some documentary with Kieth Richards and Chuck Berry in it. There's probably a few more floating around tho.

Speaking of Chuck Berry... can't believe I didn't put this one in the list...

*Cadillac Records (5+ stars... Documentary based around Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters' studio bringing fame to quite a few artists and reviving the blues and R&B... don't quote me on that lol)

*Empire Records (4 stars... Movie about employees of a records store. Fun and entertaining movie.)

*Jimi Plays Berkeley (5+ stars... part concert, part documentary. AMAZING performance by the one and only. Includes random interviews with fans at the show. Pretty cool stuff, well worth the watch)

There's more where that came from, I'll post em when I think em. Thanks for the input errbody!

 

Movies
Walk the line: a pretty good movie about Johnny Cash
24 hour party people: decent movie about madchester and the beginning of rave.
High Fidelity: Good romatic comedy with tons of music references.
8 mile: Rap movie with Eminen


Documentaries:
Woodstock
The Beatles Anthology: Should keep you busy for awhile
Radiohead: Meeting people is easy
2pac: Ressurection
Metallica: Some kind of Monster

 

This isn't a documentary per se, but "Rock Star" featuring Mark Wahlberg is a really cool movie. AND, the actual musicians on and off the screen are quite accomplished ones. Zakk Wylde as one of the guitar players for Steel Dragon, the highly popular heavy metal band in the film, Jason Bonham(the son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham) as the drummer, Jeff Pilson of Dokken as the bass player. Blass Elias of Slaughter is also in it as the drummer of another significant band in the film. The singing voice of Bobby Beers, the original singer for Steel Dragon, was done by Jeff Scott Soto, perhaps best known for his work with Yngwie Malmsteen.

Actually, the movie was inspired by the story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, best known for his work with Judas Priest and his current position as Yngwie Malmsteen's singer. So this IS almost like a documentary... Or, it's just loosely based on a true story. Either way, it's one of my favorite movies.

 

The Monterey Jazz Festival was different, and I think in the 70's. What you're thinking of is the Monterey Pop Festival from 1967.

HIGHLY recommend it. It was the first major rock festival, and a lot of people recommend it to music lovers. It came two years before Woodstock, which was less organized, plagued with waits and technical difficulties. The stage wasn't even finished being built. I'm sure Woodstock is still amazing, though (I haven't seen it yet), but Monterey was more organized and a lot of people feel like the legend of Woodstock overshadowed it.

It was the first time the Jimi Hendrix Experience performed in the U.S. They were pretty much unknown in the U.S. before then and it's what made Jimi famous in the states. Janis Joplin with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company got signed onto a record label because of her performance at Monterey. The Who, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, Mamas and the Papas, Country Joe and the Fish, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, I could go on.

The complete version on DVD and Blu-ray has Jimi's whole set and a bunch of performances not in the movie. There was even a song written about Monterey.

Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Isle of Wight are like the big festivals from the late 60's. I mean sheesh, what am I going on for? You've got Wikipedia and Google. haha

Oh, and on another topic, Yellow Submarine. Really groovy, psychedelic animated Beatles film. A lot of music in there. Really out there.

 

Thanks everyone for keeping this thread going! I love finding new music documentaries and movies. I never knew so much was out there! I mean, I've seen a lot... and when I say a lot, I mean it! lol, but really, thanks for all the input. I'm still searching the back of my mind for any that I forgot or that I saw and just can't remember. The Ovation channel has quite a bit of interesting movies about musicians and various performances that stand out amongst the crowd. If you have DirecTV, keep your eye on it. Not sure about any other cable/satellite providers. Biography and a few History channels have some good stuff too.

*Bob Marley - Prophecies & Messages (5 stars... Beautiful documentary about the life of Bob Marley. Lots of rare, never before seen footage and interviews. Clears up a lot of confusion for people still wondering about him.)

I might have mentioned this one before, I'm sure someone else has, but...

*Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music - Director's Cut (6 stars... I had seen the original release of Woodstock multiple times and was a little offset about it simply because of the lack of material. Then, one day, I was sitting around channel surfing on the tube and saw Woodstock Director's Cut on the History channel. I didn't want to walk away even to pee! Thank god for tivo. This is a must see, I won't explain it, it's just fantastic.)

I did list that before! LMAO, I just remembered typing something about a Richie Havens interview in an earlier post. Oh well, it's good enough to be listed twice.

I'm still not done yet... More to come, check back soon!

 

"This is Spinal Tap"
Most accurate of all rockumentaries.

From wiki;
"...The movie cut a little too close to home for some musicians. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Dee Snider and Ozzy Osbourne all reported that, like Spinal Tap, they had become lost in confusing arena backstage hallways trying to make their way to the stage.

Singer Tom Waits claimed he cried upon viewing it and Eddie Van Halen has said that when he first saw the film, everyone else in the room with him laughed as he failed to see the humor in the film. "Everything in that movie had happened to me," Van Halen said.[citation needed]

When Dokken's George Lynch saw the movie he is said to have exclaimed, "That's us! How'd they make a movie about us?"

Glenn Danzig had a similar reaction when comparing Spinal Tap to his former band The Misfits saying, "When I first saw Spinal Tap, I was like, 'Hey, this is my old band.'"
:2thumbsup:

ZW

 

Just came across a few documentaries and live shows that I have yet to watch. I'll post em as I get around to watchin' em. I came back to this thread though cuz my dad borrowed a DVD from a friend and was super-excited about it because he didn't know anything like it even existed. One of his favorite artists, I guess you could say. He saw them live at Mississippi Nights before they closed the place or tore it down. Such a cool place, as it was up close and personal and you got to hang out with the artists after the show... But anyways, when I saw it, it blew my mind that I hadn't heard of him before and was simply astounded at his playing style and just the fantastic vibe the band gave off.

For the headiest of the heads...

*Rory Ghallager - Irish Tour '74 (6 stars... Hands down, one of the coolest compilations of live shows I've seen so far. Amazing performance by Rory and the crew. Starts off with a bang as Rory shreds it on "Walking On Hot Coals." Also, gives an almost sentimental look at him and the crew touring Ireland. Gotta love some of the camera angles on the drummer looking at Rory like "Are you done yet?? I'm freakin wore out over here!" Simply amazing.)

*Grateful Dawg (4 stars... An intimate look at the friendship between Jerry Garcia and David Grisman digging into their bluegrass roots. Even a few clips of Jerry playing banjo! I haven't made it all the way through the movie, just because I can only take so much traditional bluegrass, but it's pretty cool seeing Jerry and Grisman noodling and talking to each other. On that note, another recommendation would be "The Pizza Tapes" album by Garcia, Grisman and John Kahn.)

To top it off, here's one of my favorite (and possibly only) Garcia & Grisman music vids...

http://youtu.be/aKvDtWeyO5c

 

Scorsese did a documentary about Bob Dylan titled No Direction Home; definitely worth the three hours.