Thursday, December 5, 2024

Got a Tip?

Are Rock-Music Documentaries A Dying Breed?

Classic rock docs like “Don’t Look Back”(Dylan), “The Last Waltz”(The Band and friends). “Stop Making Sense” (Talking Heads) and “Woodstock” (Hendrix and tons of dirty hippies) cemented the legitimacy of the music documentary, but are they now a dying breed going the way of the dodo bird now that contemporary musicians are mediocre enough to not really deserve their own films? (Anvil notwithstanding).

According to the trades, kinda, sorta, yes.

“Theatrical runs almost never mine box office gold and are very seldom profitable: “Shine a Light,” directed by Martin Scorsese, grossed only $5.5 million domestically, while “U2 3D” has scared up $9.7 million to date. And pity the poor Jonas Brothers, who were lambasted when the trio’s “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” grossed a paltry $12.7 million in its first week.”

Here’s one that has yet to come out we’d still like to see.

Denny Tedesco spent more than a dozen years making “The Wrecking Crew,” a documentary on the legendary group of L.A. session musicians who played behind everyone from the Beach Boys to Sonny and Cher and the Righteous Bros. Tedesco has screened the doc at more than 40 film festivals, taking home top honors at many of them. But he has yet to find a taker, in large part because of the low- six-figure licensing fees for the more than 130 song snippets used. Tedesco stresses the labels and publishers have agreed to let their music be used at a discounted rate, but we’re still trying to raise the money for that,” he says. Otherwise, he fears his labor of love is “dead in the water.”

A sad tale to be sure (here’s the trailer for “The Wrecking Crew,” and here’s a crazy long list of songs they appeared on)

Two music docs headed for release this summer by Sony Pictures Classics, “Soul Power” (Zaire ’74 concert featuring James Brown and more) and “It Might Get Loud” (the guitar shredders doc with Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge) might be fighting uphill battles at the box-office. It’s a tough crowd out there, but still music docs persist. Later this year we’ll also probably see “When You’re Strange” (The Doors”), “Flight 666” (Iron Maiden) and “Woodstock: 40 Years Later,” (VH1 via History Channel).

We’re hard on music docs of late because many of them haven’t been great, but we say long live the rock documentary as long as they’re compelling [ed note. less fans, real filmmakers, please]. While we’re here, rent Stephen Kijak’s “Scott Walker: 30 Century Man” when it hits DVD later this summer; other than “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil!” it’s one of the better ones out there. [Variety]

About The Author

Related Articles

16 COMMENTS

  1. they forgot DIG! one of the best ….the brian jonestown massacre and the dandy warhols ‘s trials and tribulations in the music biz…really a must see if you want to see how new bands try really hard to make it in the industry circa 1997….

  2. Are you kidding?!?! I honestly think I have seen MORE excellent music documentaries come out in the last 10 years than I had in the previous 20!
    Try these if you need something to watch:
    Fearless Freaks, the Flaming Lips
    Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
    The Devil and Daniel Johnston
    You're Gonna Miss Me: Roky Erickson
    Shane MacGowan: If I Should Fall From the Grace of God
    Standing in the Shadows of Motown
    Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
    Festival Express
    Scratch
    Nomi Song
    New York Doll
    Kurt Cobain: About A Son
    Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
    Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
    Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    DiG! (previously mentioned)
    Joy Division (not quite as good as the amazing biopic Control though)

    That list even avoids documentaries that are more "performance" than "documentary" a la Woodstock, if you include those, there a TON more…
    It also does not list any of the excellent music docs you can find on the BBC, (Alchemists of Sound, What the Future Sounded Like, The Roxy Music Story, for instance)

    Also, Wattstax and Heavy Metal Parking Lot finally got the wide release on DVD that they never got on VHS…

    Seriously, have you been paying attention?

  3. How ironic you wrote your column the day after MAIDEN DAY – the day Flight 666 was released in 450 theatres in 42 countries – and didn’t really talk about it, except for an outdated one-liner. Depicted in this rock documentary is the first leg of the tour, which saw Maiden perform 23 concerts on five continents in 45 days. The whole tour saw Maiden play 92 concerts in 39 countries in front of 2 million fans… Up the Irons

  4. Wait, how did we miss anything? This isn’t a piece about every best music documentary ever made. It’s an article about how Variety is saying music docs are having a hard time being sold, so we did a quick recap of music docs that are coming out THIS year.

    Christ. Who the hell hasn’t seen those other documentaries? I seriously have no clue what some of you are talking about.

  5. There is a really great music doc. entitled "Riphouse 151: Could've Been's & Wanna Be's" from 2008 that is worth a look. They were a thrash metal band from the northeast united states. Just search Riphouse in google and a ton of sites come up. Haven't seen it available on disc yet, but looking forward to it. More than "Get Thrashed" and "Anvil."

  6. Why do people keep recommending DIG? It’s about two obscure bands and their entirely routine careers (one of them fights all the time and breaks up – was more interesting when the Beatles did it).

    So annoyed that someone got me to rent that thing.

  7. @The Playlist:

    “…It’s an article about how Variety is saying music docs are having a hard time being sold…”

    Sorry, making a post on your blog where 90% of the content is a block quote from Variety does not mean you wrote an “article”, especially when you do not discuss the merits of the original article’s argument in any way.

    From the “article”:
    “We’re hard on music docs of late because many of them haven’t been great…”

    Maybe this statement in the post was why people are giving you examples to the contrary?

    Congratulations, you got on IMDB’s front page for quoting a Variety article!

  8. Townes Van Zandt anyone? “Be Here To Love Me” was amazing. As was “Heartworn Highways.” People just need to make the effort to look for this stuff. And I think that comment about there being no more good bands out there is a ridiculous statement. There are so many “newer” bands out there (you know, passed 1974) that deserve good documentaries. Well then again, i’m sure the person who wrote this article only listens to what’s on the radio anyway.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisement -spot_img
Stay Connected
0FansLike
19,300FollowersFollow
7,169FollowersFollow
0SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Articles