Watched the whole thing.
Very interesting music history lesson!
To sum up, from grassroots country and bluegrass origin to the "corporatization of music", decadence of the 70s included.
I think it was Crosby said of the Eagles, "they sounded just like the record <yawns>".
All I can say, is my sister [10 years younger than me] would always tell me, "I wish I could've gone to Woodstock" - she would have been 12 years old, then.
She absolutely loved the 7-part anthology. She always heard about and loved this stuff; but it was not her era. And this anthology put it all together for her. She finally GOT IT.
Hey, Jason, the anthology is not perfect, and obviously not up to your standards, but it sure moved my sister!
Moved me as well.
Thag you. thag you very mush.
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
I don't think I can explain exacty why I feel so dissapointed in this doco, I remember when it first came out, Chris Darrow hipped me to it, and I was suprised at how cold and empty it felt.
Maybe if Ken Burns did it? .. the BBC stuff seems a little stiff for my taste, of course some folks think that the Burns doco series are rather dry.
I guess I'm left with the feeling that there was just too much to cover in that sort of scope.
Yeah sure, I'd love to see a whole doco or series on country-rock, and I see other angles unexplored, and due to brevity I understand it.
But sometimes the gaps are just so apparent.
There could be a whole doco series on LA folk-rock, a look at contemporaries like the Lovin' Spoonful and electric Dylan, but a main focus on Love (their 1966 debut was like folk-rock-garage-punk!), Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Gene Clark Group, The Leaves, Turtles, The Mamas & The Papas and Sonny & Cher. Don't laugh at the latter, their debut album totally kicks ass. you could even discuss how Southern CA. bluegrass bands like the Kentucky Colonels and the Dillards added drummers and dabbled with the electric thang. (Hell, the Dillards did it twice, going into folk-rock-bluegrass in the mid 60s, then country-rock in the early 70s)
I'd love to see a doco on the earlier LA scene, Johnny Rivers, the Strip, The Crickets and the Ventures moving to LA, The Lazy X Club, The original Gazzari's, Whiskey Au Go Go, the club scene, the Rag Doll, The Pal, Trini Lopez, Troy Walker, the twist craze in LA, and how the original scene tried to survive post-65. There's another doco right there.
Or the folk craze, The Randy Sparks crowd and his club Ledbetters, and the other clubs, the early Troubador and of course the Ash Grove. Diversity and rivalry. Imagine Ry Cooder sitting there telling the story of his days as a Bluegrass mandoline devotee and sitting in front of the stage and watching Bill Monroe tear it up about a foot away as the Ash Grove.
Of course you could do a doco on the LA club scene of the 40s and 50s hot sweaty jazz joints, the R&B scene, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis recording in LA, the factory worker boom, the giant country and western swing dance-halls. ..phew, I'm going to lie down.
P.S. some of the interviee choices in Hotel California left me baffled, Bonnie Raitt?..
J.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
Bonnie was an interesting choice, maybe they were scrambling for someone who'd talk, but she was more of an Ash Grove folk-blues artist, well, more Blues back when her first LP cam eout in the early 70s.
I don't think she even lived in LA through that time period (1965-1972).. weird choice.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
I really enjoyed that era with the Folk then Folk Rock as I wasn't into the Beatles until later when I could could appreciate some of things they wrote such as "Yesterday" and "Something" by Geo. H.
I need to check this out on You-Tube.
Don
Take my advice
Don't listen to me
It ain't paradise
But it used to be
There was a time
When the river was wide
And the water
came running down
To the rising tide
But the wooden ships
Were just a hippie dream
Just a hippie dream.
Don't bat an eye
Don't waste a word
Don't mention nothin'
That could go unheard
'Cause the tie-dye sails
Are the screamin' sheets
And the dusty trail
Leads to blood
in the streets
And the wooden ships
Are a hippie dream
Capsized in excess
If you know what I mean.
Just because
it's over for you
Don't mean
it's over for me
It's a victory
for the heart
Every time
the music starts
So please
don't kill the machine
Don't kill the machine
Don't kill the machine.
Another flower child
goes to seed
In an ether-filled
room of meat-hooks
It's so ugly
So ugly.
