re: What are some good music docs on cable and/or Netflix?

quote:

---

No mention of Bayou Maharajah in this thread? For those not familiar, it's a documentary on New Orleans' own James Booker, one of the greatest pianists of our lifetime, and arguably one of the most underrated/under appreciated musicians of all time.

---

Awesome music doc. Booker's life was a fascinating story, and you are right he is easily one of the greatest piano players in modern music.

quote:

---

For guitar geeks only:
Fender Factory Tour, 1959

---

Hand-made guitars by Francisco Bros, Spain

No language content - soundtrack only. 48 mins.

Desperate Man Blues



Desperate Man Blues is a documentary about the legendary record collector Joe Bussard, who has been collecting old blues and hillbilly 78s since he was a teenager in the early 1950s. Bussard is quite an irascible character -- he openly despises rock and roll, and time essentially stopped for him in 1937.





Bussard was also the discoverer of the great guitarist John Fahey

In the film Bussard show off his rarest record, only one copy of which is known to exist:



Long Cleeve Reed & Little Harvey Hull-Down Home Boys -- "Original Stack O'Lee Blues" (1927)

As it happens it's a great record.

(Available on Netflix) The best ever doc on Elvis, and one of my fave music docs, period:



Narrated by Levon Helm, it shows intelligence regarding the music and is refreshingly respectful toward EP's Southern background and culture. Recommended for any music fan, but especially for those unfamiliar w/Elvis and want to understand what all the fuss was about.

Elvis ’56 - documentary trailer - actually the first two minutes of the film. It gives you an idea of the approach the filmmakers will take.

I bet that will be an awesome show.

A new doc that looks very interesting:

Bang!: The Bert Berns Story (trailer)

Rolling Stone article

quote:

---

Bert Berns, who was on his way to becoming one of pop and rock's lost early heroes and creators. As a producer, songwriter and label head, Berns played a role in some of the most enduring records of the Sixties. He produced Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl," co-wrote "Piece of My Heart" (best known for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company's version), and wrote and co-produced the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout" (before the Beatles took it on). That's just for starters. Berns wrote and co-produced Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and the McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy," co-produced the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk," and wrote and produced Them's "Here Comes the Night." As a member of the ad-hoc band the Strangeloves, he co-wrote and co-produced "I Want Candy," later New Waved–up by a Bow Wow Wow cover. Berns' Bang label also unleashed Neil Diamond on the world via "Cherry, Cherry," "Solitary Man" and Diamond's other early hits.

Berns had also worked in various guises with Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, Ben E. King, Dion and Lulu. Yet for whatever combination of reasons, he had become even less than a footnote in pop history. "My first revelation was how obscure he was," says his son Brett Berns, who was only three when his father died in 1967 (at age 38) and was later put in charge of Berns' publishing with Brett's sister Cassandra. "He was written out of the history books and blackballed by the industry he helped create. We thought, 'How are we going to get him recognized for his part in music history?'"

---

quote:

---

Next in the Berns revival movement is the documentary Bang!: The Bert Berns Story, which streams on Apple Music starting Tuesday. Narrated by Van Zandt, the film includes testimonials from Morrison, Burke, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Cissy Houston and Wilson Pickett along with Berns' widow Ilene, and family members and business associates. Thanks to a childhood case of rheumatic fever that scarred his heart (and led to his premature death), Berns wanted to experience as much of life as he could, and the film recounts the way he charged and hustled his way into the music business, shaping the sound and business of pop along the way. Richards (who cut "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and "Cry to Me" with the Stones) calls Berns "one of the greatest bloody songwriters of all time."

---

quote:

---

Bang! also serves as an unintentional eulogy for an era of pop that recedes into the history books more with each year. Some of the legends Brett interviewed on camera – his mother Ilene, songwriter Ellie Greenwich and producer-songwriter Jerry Ragovoy – have since passed away. Ragovoy, in fact, died of a stroke soon after sitting for an interview with Berns. "We filmed him at the Bitter End in New York, and I walked him out and he went straight to the hospital," Berns says. "The stroke started before the interview, but he died a few days later."

---

quote:

---

What would Bert Berns himself think of all the belated attention? "None of these people had any idea they were creating the next chapter of the American songbook, but my dad must have wondered if he would be remembered," Brett says. "I think he would have loved to see his colleagues joining together to tell his story in this film. He would have been thrilled and honored by it all."

---

quote:

---

Ain't In It For My Health

---

I concur with the other recomendations. I'm not the biggest Band fan, but it was really good.

Watched the Theory of Obscurity, a film about the Residents.

Found it for free on Pluto TV, an app in Amazon Prime on the fire stick.

Great flick with interviews of all the residents sans disguises. Pretty cool, with a good cross section of their music represented from different eras.

quote:

---

film about the Residents.

---

Nice.... Will watch..... They are playing here soon but not sure I will see them again.