1. Probably the best documentary I have ever seen, is also one of the subtlest and best about the development and history of american music in the 40's and 50's and 60's ... you really need to see the Tom Dowd DVD ... and I recomend having that DVD on thecollection.

 

Nothing is more revealing and clear, in the history of American music since WW2 ... that what you will find in there ... totally amazing ...  and by the time you put this together with history of black film and the portrait of blacks in movies and telelvison, going back to the 20's and 30's ... you will be totally surprised ... you can always pick up the book "From Sambo to Superspade" ... to get a better idea.

 

Some of these documentaries, are simply fan forums by some folks that ... well ... when you hear Tom talk about the music ... you will know ... what I am saying! It's more than just the knobs, or fan worship ... and the ideas, is all I can tell you!

 

2. Another good one ... Incredible String Band ... "... the song has no end" (sorry ... forgot the title right now) ...  a bit dated, but it shows something that was adding a more exploratory within a music context, than we were willing to accept, understand, or even appreciate ...on top of it, was the idea of this dream-like fantasy complete with angels, nymphs and naked women! All of which was very "on" when it came to "commune" and "hippie" in those days!

 

I remember hearing from Robin Williamson, that he did not believe that time and place, influenced people that much, and I can see it from his perspective ... always doing something else ... that what anyone else was doing ... and this was certainly a magic example, of creating a theater through music! ... something which rock fans and rock critics hate ... because it makes sense, instead of insipid and senseless rock music to make you forget the day and night that drives you to drink!

 

3. The BBC special ojn Krautrock, is magnificent ... and pay attention to Edgar Froese's words ... they say it all! It explains more than it doesn't ... something that we, as rock music fans, have a real hard time accepting and understanding! The concept of being ... who you are ... and learning from that ... through music!

 

4. Some others that I would like to see ... someone should do one on ECM, and even some of these folks ... Keith Jarrett deserves one ... Egberto Gismonti deserves one ... and some others ... whose music and their history is magickal and then some.

 

5. I would like to see an indepth study that goes far beyond the pop music thing in Italy ... too many of those bands use classic music to move from, as if they were revolting to it, by playing it electrically and LOUD ... and blowing Turandot out the stage with decibels!

 

6. Would love to see one on the folk music traditions in England alone ... some of which are incredibly old, and still alive ... and being played with electricity ... much to the consternation of purists ... !!!

 

7. The folk music scene in California was absolutely massive and it had people that are still on it ... but have never been heard personally, though a lot of their music is alive though other folks ... a combination of the Farina's, Buffy, even Joan Baez, and many others deserves notice someday, albeit of all of these, I think Joan Baez might be the biggest sopokesperson, but I also think she was the least honest of them all! Sort of like one of those folks that thinks they have a better reason than anyone else and they deserve the stage ... !!! And they are just as vain as anyone else you met!

 

8. There was a movie called "Groupies" and it was a documentary on 5 or 6 of the girls. Had massive footage with Spooky Tooth and many other bands at the time. Special in all this was the Mrs. Plaster Caster herself talking about it all and showing samples! Somehow I do not think she was kidding! It was, actually, a very good documentary, but I think that Miss Pamela and a couple of others are not allowing this to be shown ... as if they would be embarassed. Miss Pamela, is now the reserved queen of nothing happened then, but just some good clean fun when she was younger! Her two books were magnificent ... but since then, she has cut down some stuff in the books, and pretty much made sure that no one could see the 2nd book, to protect folks like Don Johnson and other named friends/neighbors and patients of the Zappa family -- where Gail ran a veritable rehab facility -- that NO ONE that I have ever heard, appreciated. That in itself is heroic ... totally heroic ... in a time and place where no one gave a cahoot! Pam's real diaries, should be released, and they would be X or XX or even XXX rated ... and they would be a lot more fun reading than the washed down variety ... you get to meet the people ... for what they were ... real human beings with real drives and needs and fetishes ... sometimes just plain excess for the sake of their fame and excess.

 

9. While not exactly documentaries, many of them are really good shows that could use more exposure ... Ken Russell .. his biographies for the BBC before he became famous were excellent.. Two that I remember vividly are the one on Dante Gabriel Rossetti ... very well done and the best take on Swinburne you will ever see. The other was his one on Isadora Duncan which was vastly superior to the film done later.  other biographies worth while in film by Ken would be Tchaikovsky (The Music Lovers) which is very good. The Devils about Urbain Grandier that a certain megalomaniac in Paris did not like from a book by Aldous Huxley. Mahler mentioned in another thread.  I passed on Lizst ... and walked out before halfway on it.

The first one on Lennon & McCartney is great (titled "Howard Goodalls 20th Century Greats - The Beatles" on YouTube):

 

 

 

How Music Works by Howard Goodall