Tag Archives: Film

Film

June 29: The late great Bernard Herrmann was born in 1911

Herrmann

June 29: The late great Bernard Herrmann was born in 1911

Bernard Herrmann (June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer known for his work in film.

An Academy Award-winner (for The Devil and Daniel Webster, 1941; later renamed All That Money Can Buy), Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, and Taxi Driver. He worked extensively in radio drama (composing for Orson Welles), composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and many TV programs, including Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone and Have Gun–Will Travel.

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Herrmann is still a prominent figure in the world of film music today, despite his death 40 years ago. As such, his career has been studied extensively by biographers and documentarians. His string-only score for Psycho, for example, set the standard when it became a new way to write music for thrillers (rather than big fully orchestrated pieces). In 1992 a documentary, Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann, was made about him. Also in 1992 a 2½ hour long National Public Radio documentary was produced on his life — Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of his Life and Music (Bruce A. Crawford). In 1991, Steven C. Smith wrote a Herrmann biography titled A Heart at Fire’s Center, a quotation from a favorite Stephen Spender poem of Herrmann’s.

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Blues, Classic Concert, Concert films, Muddy Waters

Classic Concert: Gunsmoke Blues

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Classic Concert: Gunsmoke Blues with Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton and Big Joe Turner

By day, Link Wyler was a character actor who often appeared on TV Westerns, most notably Gunsmoke. By night, Wyler was a passionate blues fan, and in 1971, when he discovered that Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton, and George “Harmonica” Smith would be making their way up the West Coast as part of a package tour, he persuaded several cameramen from Gunsmoke to pack up their camera equipment and sound gear and follow the tour for the weekend, catching up with them at a college gig in Oregon.

Gunsmoke Blues is the result, which features the long-lost footage from this weekend adventure, capturing these master blues artists in fine and funky form. Selections include “Got My Mojo Working,” “Long Distance Call,” and “Mannish Boy” Muddy Waters, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” Big Joe Turner, “Ball and Chain” Big Mama Thornton, and “Leaving Chicago” George “Harmonica” Smith.

This is a “must-see”! Just incredible all through.

Gunsmoke Blues (full concert):

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan video, Film, Sound

Down The Tracks: Bob Dylan and the Music That Influenced Him (documentary)

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Down The Tracks: Bob Dylan and the Music That Influenced Him (documentary)

Just as Bob Dylan has inspired four decades of musicians, so too was his own musical style influenced by those who came before him. This documentary profiles the folk performers who had the greatest impact on Dylan’s early career. Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Mississippi John Hurt and other musicians appear in vintage clips, while special focus is given to Woody Guthrie, whose bond with Dylan is reflected in nearly all of Dylan’s music.

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While there isn’t a note of Bob Dylan singing in this documentary from 2008, it is still a very worthwhile watch. It gives us a depiction of what influenced Bob Dylan as he grew into the greatest songwriter of all time. There are great and rare clips of Pete Seeger, Leadbelly and many more.

A very interesting addition to all the films about Dylan and the music that influenced (and still influences) him.

 

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Film, Marvin Gaye, Soul

May 21: American Masters – Marvin Gaye What’s Going On (documentary)

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May 21: American Masters – Marvin Gaye  What’s Going On (documentary)

Marvin Gaye released What’s going on May 21, 1971, we present a great documentary about the album.

Marvin Gaye is one of the great and enduring figures of soul music, but his life was one of sexual confusion, bittersweet success and ultimately death by the hand of his own father.

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 — April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a four-octave vocal range. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960 signing with the Tamla Records subsidiary of Motown Records. After starting off as a session drummer, Gaye ranked as the label’s top-selling solo artist during the sixties.

Because of solo hits such as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)”, “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, he was crowned “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul”.

His work in the early and mid-1970s, including the albums What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On, and I Want You, helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early eighties, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, “Sexual Healing” and the Midnight Love album before his death. Gaye was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984. He was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Gaye at number 6 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time, and ranked at number 18 on 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

This fine documentary is directed by Samuel D. Pollard, also an editor and producer, known for 25th Hour (2002), 4 Little Girls(1997) and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006). Including interviews with the singer’s family, friends and musical colleagues.

What’s Going On  (2008):

– Hallgeir

Country, Film

For The Love Of Music The Story Of Nashville documentary

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For The Love Of Music The Story Of Nashville documentary

A very different take on the Nashville history than My Nashville by Bob Harris the BBC documentary that we posted a few months ago, but equally interesting. Great interviews and some very fine historic clips.

From the official website:

For over 130 years, Nashville has evolved into the world’s premier Music City. From the 1800s when the Fisk Jubilee Singers travelled across continents spreading their music, to Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and so many others building the foundation of America’s most vibrant music scene. Today, the evolution continues as artists like The Black Keys, Eric Church and Kings of Leon break new ground in the city they all call home. We’ve created a one-hour documentary that tells this story in its entirety through the eyes of the musicians, songwriters, producers and artists who live and breathe the inspiration of this great city.

In the end, this is a film rooted in authenticity. A story filled with passion and truth. A film made simply for the love of music.

For The Love Of Music The Story Of Nashville:

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