Recommend Music Documentaries

The Pontiac

Watched 'Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley' recently and thought it was superb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429570/

Also just ordered 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' on dvd. It got an amazing review on The View a few weeks ago, and it's getting superb reviews everywhere. Metal music is not really my thing, but really looking forward to this one. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157605/

I'd also recommend..

'Don't Look Back' (1967) (Bob Dylan)
Fearless Freaks (Flaming Lips)
End of the the Century: The Story of The Ramones

Anyone else know of any other good ones?

Rigsby

http://www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com/film.htm

John

Fearless Freaks is the only one from that list I've seen and it was great. The Scott Walker documentary, 30 Century Man, is riveting. Great interviews with the man himself and Bowie, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, etc.

The Pontiac

Rigsby wrote: »

http://www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com/film.htm

John wrote: »

Fearless Freaks is the only one from that list I've seen and it was great. The Scott Walker documentary, 30 Century Man, is riveting. Great interviews with the man himself and Bowie, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, etc.

Those two look really interesting, will definetly be seeking them out. Cheers guys.

lordgoat

The Band - The last waltz. Not exactly a documentary but still amazing.

Wilco - I am trying to break your heart.

deadhead13

Bob Dylan - "No direction Home" directed by Martin Scorsese.

Niel Young - "Don't be denied".

Rolling stones - "Give me shelter" & "Rock Roll Circus"

The Sex pistols - "The filth and the fury"

Latchy

BBC 4 recently had a series of great rock documentrys on such artists as the 60 west coast rock scene ie ,Byrds,Doors,Jefferson Airplane ,Mamas and Papas ,CSNY, Dylan ,Niel Young ,Mowtown etc and well worth looking out for repeats and new stuff .

JLemmon

Yeah BBC 4 are brilliant for docs.
Mostly on friday nights,
The Legends series is great, John Martyn, Mark E Smith, Sun Ra.

Great Doc on Les Paul also called Chasing Sound
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Sound-Paul-Story-DVD/dp/B0017KVQFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952345&sr=1-1

As mentioned the Motown ones.
Second the Wilco, Last Waltz and the Hotel California (about the LA scene) suggestions.

Good one on recently about the label Rough Trade.

Also Arena on BBC had some good ones, Bob Marley, Miles Davis.

Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution [2008] [DVD]

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Road To God Knows Where / Live At The Paradiso [DVD]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Cave-Bad-Seeds-Paradiso/dp/B000BFH20A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952559&sr=1-3

U2's Rattle and Hum worth a Look

Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leonard-Cohen-Your-Man-DVD/dp/B000MGBPEC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952713&sr=1-3

Tons of others
enjoy

MoominPapa

Cracked Actor, Alan Yentobs documentary of Bowies American tour around the Diamond Dogs period is class
And New Order Story, by Paul Morley, is really good and quite novel in parts, such as the band taking part in a New Order quizz show hosted by Keith Allen

delbertgrady

The Kids Are Alright, the 1979 documentary about The Who.

Birneybau

Apart from the Bono campfire scenes of course.

af_thefragile

"American Hardcore: A history of american punk rock"
Its brilliant!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419434/

omad65

DIG

Story of Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Very entertaining and good tunes.

Enjoy.

spurious

There are a couple of documentaries and documentary series to do with musical styles and music in general rather than acts which are quite interesting.
Beat This - a hiphop history.
Put the needle on the record
How music works with Howard Goodall
Soul Deep - the story of Black popular music.
Soul Britannia

Zaph

The Clash: Westway to the World - excellent Don Letts documentary about the band

Boo-yah

Not strictly a music documentary but the documentary about Eels lead singer E finding out info. about his Dad (who was the guy who came up with the theory behind parallel universes) is fantastic

It's called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1306997/

Kold

Radiohead - Meeting People is Easy. Awesome show.

The Pontiac

I honestly did not expect to get so many good recommendations. After checking out a lot of them, I didn't realise many can be bought on dvd, for very reasonable money. I have a kitty of €100, to start with anyway..

lordgoat wrote: »

The Band - The last waltz. Not exactly a documentary but still amazing.

Wilco - I am trying to break your heart.

Seen The Last Waltz years ago, absolutely excellent farewell concert/doc, a fine tribute to The Band by Scorsese. Around €5 on amazon, so into the basket it goes..

Wilco - I am trying to break your heart - This looks really, really good. €9.50 inc del on play.

deadhead13 wrote: »

Bob Dylan - "No direction Home" directed by Martin Scorsese.

Niel Young - "Don't be denied".

Rolling stones - "Give me shelter" & "Rock Roll Circus"

The Sex pistols - "The filth and the fury"

Seen No Direction Home fairly recently, great doc inteed. Don't Be Denied is not available on dvd, exclusive to BBC, so much keep a look out on BBC4 for repeats. Seen Neil Young last summer in Cork, outstanding concert. The Filth and The Fury looks another great one, lots of good used ones on the net, so I'm getting one.

Latchy wrote: »

BBC 4 recently had a series of great rock documentrys on such artists as the 60 west coast rock scene ie ,Byrds,Doors,Jefferson Airplane ,Mamas and Papas ,CSNY, Dylan ,Niel Young ,Mowtown etc and well worth looking out for repeats and new stuff .

Must keep a closer lookout for BBC4 stuff, seems to have great stuff on music. Only problem with that channel it doesn't work with Sky+.

JLemmon wrote: »

Yeah BBC 4 are brilliant for docs.
Mostly on friday nights,
The Legends series is great, John Martyn, Mark E Smith, Sun Ra.

Great Doc on Les Paul also called Chasing Sound
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Sound-Paul-Story-DVD/dp/B0017KVQFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952345&sr=1-1

As mentioned the Motown ones.
Second the Wilco, Last Waltz and the Hotel California (about the LA scene) suggestions.

Good one on recently about the label Rough Trade.

Also Arena on BBC had some good ones, Bob Marley, Miles Davis.

Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution [2008] [DVD]

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Road To God Knows Where / Live At The Paradiso [DVD]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Cave-Bad-Seeds-Paradiso/dp/B000BFH20A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952559&sr=1-3

U2's Rattle and Hum worth a Look

Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leonard-Cohen-Your-Man-DVD/dp/B000MGBPEC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239952713&sr=1-3

Tons of others
enjoy

Seen I'm Your Man recently in the cinema, and I own the cd sountrack, excellent indeed. Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution looks very interesting, expensive enough new, must keep an eye out for a used one. I'm a huge Nick Cave fan and didn't even know Road To God Knows Where even existed. £8 on amazon, not bad at all.

MoominPapa wrote: »

Cracked Actor, Alan Yentobs documentary of Bowies American tour around the Diamond Dogs period is class
And New Order Story, by Paul Morley, is really good and quite novel in parts, such as the band taking part in a New Order quizz show hosted by Keith Allen

Cracked Actor doesn't seem to be available on dvd, must try elsewhere. New Order Story looks good again, lots of used ones around for around €5, will get one of them..

delbertgrady wrote: »

The Kids Are Alright, the 1979 documentary about The Who.

This gets great reviews , and can be bought for peanuts used.

af_thefragile wrote: »

"American Hardcore: A history of american punk rock"
Its brilliant!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419434/

This looks very good indeed, lots of used ones around also..

omad65 wrote: »

DIG

Story of Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Very entertaining and good tunes.

Enjoy.

This one gets amazing reviews on amazon, wouldn't have thought so either, but I have to see this now.

spurious wrote: »

There are a couple of documentaries and documentary series to do with musical styles and music in general rather than acts which are quite interesting.
Beat This - a hiphop history.
Put the needle on the record
How music works with Howard Goodall
Soul Deep - the story of Black popular music.
Soul Britannia

Can't seem to find any of these on dvd, must look elsewhere again, and keep a lookout on BBC4.

Zaph wrote: »

The Clash: Westway to the World - excellent Don Letts documentary about the band

This looks really good, with lots of used ones around again. I'll be getting one..

Boo-yah wrote: »

Not strictly a music documentary but the documentary about Eels lead singer E finding out info. about his Dad (who was the guy who came up with the theory behind parallel universes) is fantastic

It's called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1306997/

This looks very interesting and unusual, nearly £20 on amazon though.

Kold wrote: »

Radiohead - Meeting People is Easy. Awesome show.

I'm a huge Radiohead fan and lots of used examples around again.

I've a lot of viewing ahead of me for sure. I'm not sure how much I'm after going over the €100 in the kitty yet, but it'll be money well spent I'm sure.

I'm shocked at the amount of great documentaries out there I've never seen.

Excellent recommendations made indeed.

af_thefragile

^american hardcore is on youtube if you don't wanna bother buying it or anything...

endaob

This Gram Parsons documentary has been on BBC4 a number of times, it is really well made. Worth keeping an eye out for:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gram-Parsons-Fallen-Angel-NTSC/dp/B000A0GY32/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240168290&sr=1-1

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is another that I would hihghly recommend. More 4 has featured it twice in it's "True Stories" stream

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devil-Daniel-Johnston-DVD/dp/B000FTJ782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240168418&sr=1-1

And finally, Jeff Buckley "Everybody Here Wants You" another excellent BBC4 documentary ... I don't think this ever got a DVD release, here's an opinion from a Tim Buckley site:

http://timbuckleyroom109.homestead.com/BBCDOCUMENTARY.html

These are all well worth looking out for - usually get repeated a couple of times if you have digital TV.

The Pontiac

af_thefragile wrote: »

^american hardcore is on youtube if you don't wanna bother buying it or anything...

Cheers thefragile, but got this new for €7.31 inc del from the US through amazon, as I've got a region free dvd player. Looking forward to watching it.

The Pontiac

endaob wrote: »

This Gram Parsons documentary has been on BBC4 a number of times, it is really well made. Worth keeping an eye out for:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gram-Parsons-Fallen-Angel-NTSC/dp/B000A0GY32/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240168290&sr=1-1

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is another that I would hihghly recommend. More 4 has featured it twice in it's "True Stories" stream

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devil-Daniel-Johnston-DVD/dp/B000FTJ782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240168418&sr=1-1

And finally, Jeff Buckley "Everybody Here Wants You" another excellent BBC4 documentary ... I don't think this ever got a DVD release, here's an opinion from a Tim Buckley site:

http://timbuckleyroom109.homestead.com/BBCDOCUMENTARY.html

These are all well worth looking out for - usually get repeated a couple of times if you have digital TV.

Must keep a look out on the BBC4 website for some of the documentaries coming up. It's such a pity it's not compatible with Sky+.

I'd love to see that Jeff Buckley one.

lordgoat

The Gram P one is amazing.

Also Wilco have a new one out this wknd.

Keep us posted with reviews, i'd love to hear what you think of some of them!

The Pontiac

lordgoat wrote: »

The Gram P one is amazing.

Also Wilco have a new one out this wknd.

Keep us posted with reviews, i'd love to hear what you think of some of them!

Will do lordgoat. I managed to get a lot of them at great prices, and I'm bidding on a few on ebay as well. Got the Wilco one on play.com for €9.49 with free delivery, and it's a double dvd (single dvd on amazon).

I'll probably be waiting a while for some of them to arrive, as some were not in stock.

Looking forward to seeing them..

lordgoat

zudo wrote: »

Will do lordgoat. I managed to get a lot of them at great prices, and I'm bidding on a few on ebay as well. Got the Wilco one on play.com for €9.49 with free delivery, and it's a double dvd (single dvd on amazon).

I'll probably be waiting a while for some of them to arrive, as some were not in stock.

Looking forward to seeing them..

The Wilco one is great but hey i'm probably not the most impartial judge, i love em!

nlgbbbblth

JLemmon wrote: »

The Legends series is great, John Martyn, Mark E Smith, Sun Ra.

and James Last.

poggy26

dont forget "the future is unwritten"..joe strummer/the clash

jimi_t

24hr Party People - (Joy Division/New Order/Happy Mondays etc...) A film but as good an interpretation of the Factory Records story as anything else and...

Part of the Weekend Never Dies (Soulwax/2 Many DJs) - Give it a try. You may hate the music but its well put together

ynotdu

love your sugestions folks,keep em coming,yeah bbc4 great for rare footage,if anything is available free to watch please say.

thank you.

dasdog

deadhead13 wrote: »

Rolling stones - "Give me shelter" & "Rock Roll Circus"

I'm not really into their music as such but I watched Cocksucker Blues yesterday (1972). Rolling Stones being very hedonistic...lots naked girls, people shooting up, and Jagger/Richards with rolled up $1 notes and white lines on mirrors in front of them backstage.

What Wiki says about it:

The film itself is under a court order which forbids it from being shown unless the director is physically present. This ruling stems from the conflict that arose when the band, who had commissioned the film, decided that its content was inappropriate and didn't want it shown. The director felt otherwise and thus the ruling. However, bootleg copies of the film are available.

Some others:

Decline of Western Civilization Part I (Punk) & II (Metal)
1989 BBC Arena on Thrash Metal
Any of the recent BBC4 Jazz documentaries (celebrating the 1959 era)

rovert

omad65 wrote: »

DIG

Story of Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Very entertaining and good tunes.

Enjoy.

Absolutely amazing this one.

endaob wrote: »

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is another that I would hihghly recommend. More 4 has featured it twice in it's "True Stories" stream

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devil-Daniel-Johnston-DVD/dp/B000FTJ782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240168418&sr=1-1.

This will tug at your heart strings guaranteed.

Metallica Some Kind of Monster is a laugh

The Pontiac

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Birneybau wrote: »

Apart from the Bono campfire scenes of course.

Missed this recommendation earlier, didn't see the actual heading of post. I've ordered this also, looks fantastic.

The Pontiac

It's only now that I have finally finished watching all the ones I bought. I made the stupid mistake of lending them out to friends before I watched them myself. I also got my hands on a lot of BBC4 docs as well, many hours of them. BBC4 do broadcast some great documentaries indeed.

Not a single bad recommendation was made. I reviewed most before I purchased anyway so was expecting good things.

BBC4's Neil Young - 'Don't Be Denied' is outstanding, a must for any Young fans. He speaks throughout the film himself, along with many past collaborators and friends. It tells the whole story of his career, really right up to the present day.

Wilco - 'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart' is another great doc. I never really listened to much of Wilco in the past but I'm tuning into a fan of late. It basically tells the story of the making of their album 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' and the turmoil within the band at the time and the dropping of Wilco by their record label company. It's all very real and was made by first time film maker Sam Jones.

BBC's Soul Deep series comprises of six episodes telling the history of soul music. I found it incredibly interesting;from its roots in gospel singing to the influence it has in just about every music genre. It features artists such as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, James Brown..among many, many more. I found the Sam Cooke episode particularly interesting. It's a brilliantly made series.

Among the others I watched were 'Joe Strummer-The Future Is Unwritten', 'The Clash-Westway To The World', 'BBC's Guitar Heroes', 'Standing In The Shadows of Motown', 'Radiohead-Meeting People is Easy', 'David Bowie-Cracked Actor', 'Sex Pistols-The Filth and The Fury', 'New Order Story', 'Soul Britannia', 'How Music Works', 'Put The Music on The Record', 'The Devil and Daniel Johnson','BBC's Hotel California:LA From The Byrds to The Eagles', ....I'd be here forever if I was to comment on each one individually, but I can honestly say there isn't a bad one there.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys.