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NFT: Any music fans catch Echo Canyon on Netflix?

rnargi : 1/20/2020 5:52 pm
Very cool look at the music scene in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon. Interesting way of telling the story...Jakob Dylan, Beck, Cat Power and others alternating playing songs by and interviewing memmbes of names including The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas and the Papas. Lots of cameos. Definitely worth a watch for music fans of the mid-late 60s.

Speaking of Beck. I have never come close to figuring him out. Sometimes I believe he's the most brilliant artist I've ever heard and others I have no clue what he's doing. Definitely a unique talent.

Yup,  
BigBluesman : 1/20/2020 5:57 pm : link
I even know and sometimes play with a couple of the musicians in the backing band. It's very inspiring to live in this area and catch glimpses of that musical legacy. This movie really brought it to light in a cool way.
I came away not impressed....  
Britt in VA : 1/20/2020 6:01 pm : link
I felt like Jakob Dylan was more interested in showcasing himself vs. really showcasing the scene.

That said, it didn't really feel like there was a story to be told, there. We're all familiar with the music, but it just didn't feel like a unique "scene" vs. any other musical scene. A group of like minded musicians living in the same area jam together. That's the story.

I wanted to like it more than I did, especially with it being one of Tom Petty's last interviews.
I agree WRT Dylan...  
rnargi : 1/20/2020 6:06 pm : link
...back in the day, Imus said about him "That apple fell from the tree and kept rolling, and rolling, and rolling....". Lol. That said, I thought the remakes we're very good. Bthat backing band was stellar.

I think the story was just as you described, how the scene came together. I liked hearing from Crosby, Michelle Phillips, Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn...always like hearing their perspectives
It was good  
rebel yell : 1/20/2020 6:16 pm : link
but not great. A few of the interviews shed some new light, but not much.
Yes, and the rendition of the Association's tune by Dylan and the  
SomeFan : 1/20/2020 7:51 pm : link
woman (don't know name) was awesome.
I don’t know how old you naysayers are...  
richynyc : 1/20/2020 8:40 pm : link
..but I recently turned 65 and that wax the music of my teenage years. I saw it last June in Father’s Day with my 26 year-old daughter who took me to see it at the Cinerama in Hollywood and I teared up through much of the film.

California Dreamin’ was me 7-8th grade cafeteria and Go Where You Want to Go with Cat Power singing You Don’t Understand after Michele Phillips explains exactly why John Pihillips wrote the song about her many sexual betrayals of him, with Denny and others? Is that not both great music and great documentary?

And the Byrds, and CSN, and Buffalo Springfield, one of the greatest R&R bands of all time.?

I’m not quite sure what those of you want out of a music documentary...
It was ok.  
Motley Two : 1/20/2020 8:51 pm : link
It seemed a bit short on substance for just about everything it tried to do.

It should have had more to the interviews, or more of the performances, or more of the history & archival footage.


RE: I don’t know how old you naysayers are...  
Britt in VA : 1/21/2020 8:42 am : link
In comment 14787547 richynyc said:
Quote:
..but I recently turned 65 and that wax the music of my teenage years. I saw it last June in Father’s Day with my 26 year-old daughter who took me to see it at the Cinerama in Hollywood and I teared up through much of the film.

California Dreamin’ was me 7-8th grade cafeteria and Go Where You Want to Go with Cat Power singing You Don’t Understand after Michele Phillips explains exactly why John Pihillips wrote the song about her many sexual betrayals of him, with Denny and others? Is that not both great music and great documentary?

And the Byrds, and CSN, and Buffalo Springfield, one of the greatest R&R bands of all time.?

I’m not quite sure what those of you want out of a music documentary...


I'm 44 (as of yesterday), and I love that era of music.

My knock on the doc wasn't the music itself, but rather a. Jakob Dylan's relentless self promotion in it, and b. it didn't tell me anything I didn't really already know.

You want to see what a good musical doc/film? Watch something by Danny Clinch. Or Peter Bogdanovich's 4 hour Tom Petty Doc Runnin Down a Dream, or Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam 20 doc.
Music documentaries  
SomeFan : 1/21/2020 9:53 am : link
As far as music documentaries go, the one linked is rarely discussed. I'm not sure it is very popular but I thought it was great, especially if you're into The Dead, The Band and a few others.
Festival Express - ( New Window )
It was good...  
x meadowlander : 1/21/2020 9:59 am : link
...actually, was GREAT to see and hear Tom Petty again, some wonderful performances on there - love Cat Power, but afterward, I could only think - how do you do a Laurel Canyon piece without a MAJOR chunk of it being devoted to Joni Mitchell? Crosby was the one who 'discovered' her, managed her early on and produced her first album. Her influence on so many artists really belonged in that film.

For me, I'm a Neil Young homer, so I greatly enjoyed all the Buffalo Springfield stuff, LOVED the emotional buildup at the end to 'Expecting to Fly' - a underrated, under-the-radar, absolutely phenomenal song by Young.

Haven't seen it...  
Brown_Hornet : 1/21/2020 10:04 am : link
...yet.

I love the music of the era tho, so I will see it soon.

Happy Birthday Britt!
Festival Express was great and...  
richynyc : 1/21/2020 10:19 am : link
...didn’t get nearly the exposure it deserved. There’s a scene on the train where everyone is wasted and Rick Danko is singing Ain’t No Cane On The River and falls asleep for about 15 seconds before he wakes up and picks up singing right where he left off. And I’m the same scene Janis and Jerry are making some serious eyes at each other.

Also, I think think I was wrong - it was Jade, not Cat Power, who had that great moment in Go Where You Wanna’ Go. And I agree that Jakob and his co-producer could have used some less screen time. As to Joanie, maybe the simple answer is she wasn’t interested in being in the film. Neil only appeared during the credits playing guitar by himself in a studio.
Only a bit off topic...  
JB_in_DC : 1/21/2020 10:28 am : link
but while on the subject of music documentaries - I caught Decline of Western Civilization Part III recently. Great look into the lives of teenage gutterpunks in mid 90s LA. Highly recommend - its on Amazon Prime streaming (along with the first two parts of the documentary series - which aren't required to watch this one).
We Liked Echo Canyon  
David in Belmont : 1/21/2020 10:41 am : link
Other good music documentaries/movies: Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice was great. I always loved her music but I never realized how she excelled in some many different areas.

Also two British movies: Yesterday and Blinded by the Light.

Finally, Ken Burns' series on Country Music. I'm not a big CM fan but watching the series I realized that a lot of the musicians I like are considered to be Country Music. It was excellent.
RE: Festival Express was great and...  
x meadowlander : 1/21/2020 10:59 am : link
In comment 14787950 richynyc said:
Quote:
... As to Joanie, maybe the simple answer is she wasn’t interested in being in the film. Neil only appeared during the credits playing guitar by himself in a studio.
Right - but Neil's contribution and impact as a member of Buffalo Springfield are a highlight of the film. Joni - was she even mentioned?

Here's a picture from a party at Mama Cass's house. Eric Clapton with the best seat in the house.


If we're going a bit off topic,  
rnargi : 1/21/2020 2:44 pm : link
and we're invoking Decline of Western Civ docs, then I would like to throw out that one of the absolute riveting musical documentaries I've ever seen is "Oil City Confidential". It's the first of three docs made by Julien Temple about British music in the 70s:

"Julien Temple's "Oil City Confidential" is the last film in his trilogy on British music of the 1970s. It is a prequel to his landmark films about punk figureheads the Sex Pistols in "The Filth & The Fury" and Joe Strummer in "The Future Is Unwritten." Oil City Confidential is a film noir feature length documentary and about Dr. Feelgood; it's the story of four men in cheap suits who crashed out of Canvey Island in the early '70s, sandpapered the face of rock'n'roll and left all that came before a burnt-out ruin, four estuarine John-the-Baptists to Johnny Rotten's anti-Christ. Cannibalizing the visual flotsam and jetsam of our society, welding into an emotionally engaging and humorous whole, "Oil City Confidential" sets out to explore this unique time, place and social landscape - all of which was responsible for shaping the identity of the band and which, more than any other, defined the strange cultural vacuum which existed before the coming of punk rock."

I had never heard of Dr. Feelgood before seeing the documentary several years ago, and I was astonished by Wilko Johnson and his guitar playing style. Blown away. He's a demon on stage. This is a GREAT flick to watch late on a Saturday night with a good scotch....or a shitty beer...
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