Tag Archives: music documentaries

You say yes, I say no

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Why yes, of course I’m going to be watching the new Beatles documentary when it drops next Friday! I’ve read that a good portion of the footage used was from the Maysles Brothers’ 1964 documentary What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA (re-edited and released years later in 1991 as The Beatles’ First US Visit, which I highly recommend) and run through Peter Jackson’s demixermajiggy and newly mixed by Giles Martin. Looking forward to it!

And no, I’m actually not buying the 1964 US Albums in Mono vinyl set because, well…I just don’t have a turntable these days. [I know, I know…but you’ve already heard my reasoning behind that.] That, and I already have these from the Capitol Albums CD box sets from 2004/6 that already include the mono versions. I’ll just wait for next year’s Beatle deluxe edition, if there is one!

American Epic

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Thought I’d share the trailer for this fabulous four-part documentary on the early days of recorded American music… A. and I watched this the other week (it’s available for streaming on the PBS website) and it’s fantastic. Definitely worth checking out.

Part four is dedicated to a little something extra: a number of the present-day artists that took part in the interviews (and some that didn’t!) joined in on recording some of the original songs via the same old-school process — recording through old tube amplifiers and directly onto the record lathe! Some of them are dead on, like Pokey LaFarge:

…and some fit quite nicely into the band’s niche, like Alabama Shakes:

…and some play out in unexpected ways that make total sense, like Nas:

Definitely a documentary worth checking out for any music fan.