mruzick3
09-29-2003, 09:16 AM
This quote quite frankly puts the phenomenon of the blues into perspective. It was said by legend Son House, shown last night on the first of seven episodes, by seven directors, exploring this all-inspiring music. I've got to commend PBS for showing 'The Blues' in this format and Martin Scorsese, director of the first documentary and executive producer of the entire series, for letting the story of the music tell itself.
The name of the first episode, 'Feel like Going Home,' invokes the travel and return that all blues musicians make when they start to play. For Corey Harris, who was the interviewer and majority-narrator of this first episode, the travel became a literal one that took him through the deep currents of the Mississippi River Delta, on the half-paved roads to growing industrial cities, and finally his return across the ocean to where it all began--West Africa. The film follows Harris in his search for the stories behind the stories that have attributed mythic qualities to musicians like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, and Son House. We hear old recordings from the earliest attempt to make the delta sound permanent by representatives from the Library of Congress on self-proclaimed 'ballad hunts.' We see the determination, sadness, and (more importantly) anger in John Lee Hooker's face as he is performing on camera. We listen to the changed and not-changed West African drum beats upon the steal guitar of Son House who put it down for sixteen years for fear of being snuffed out at an early age like his conteporary--Johnson.
The music is sometimes called the Devil's music. In listening to the wail of Robert Johnson you can almost hear the flames overtaking him. However, this music is more heavenly....and heavier than anything that has come out of any type of music. It is no wonder why you can trace every modern musical innovation back to the Delta. Scorsese brilliantly subtitles the lyrics of each song as their being sung and only narrates the bare-boned facts. This gives the documentary a quality of what the audience is meant to be---an observer, a listener, and, by no means, an active participant. 'Feel Like Going Home' is presented with reverence and takes its subject seriously. Scorsese heeds House's warning at the beginning of the film. I can only hope that the rest of the directors in the series read the same sign post.
http://www.pbs.org/theblues/aboutfilms/aboutfilms.html
_______________________
Mike Ruzicka
The name of the first episode, 'Feel like Going Home,' invokes the travel and return that all blues musicians make when they start to play. For Corey Harris, who was the interviewer and majority-narrator of this first episode, the travel became a literal one that took him through the deep currents of the Mississippi River Delta, on the half-paved roads to growing industrial cities, and finally his return across the ocean to where it all began--West Africa. The film follows Harris in his search for the stories behind the stories that have attributed mythic qualities to musicians like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, and Son House. We hear old recordings from the earliest attempt to make the delta sound permanent by representatives from the Library of Congress on self-proclaimed 'ballad hunts.' We see the determination, sadness, and (more importantly) anger in John Lee Hooker's face as he is performing on camera. We listen to the changed and not-changed West African drum beats upon the steal guitar of Son House who put it down for sixteen years for fear of being snuffed out at an early age like his conteporary--Johnson.
The music is sometimes called the Devil's music. In listening to the wail of Robert Johnson you can almost hear the flames overtaking him. However, this music is more heavenly....and heavier than anything that has come out of any type of music. It is no wonder why you can trace every modern musical innovation back to the Delta. Scorsese brilliantly subtitles the lyrics of each song as their being sung and only narrates the bare-boned facts. This gives the documentary a quality of what the audience is meant to be---an observer, a listener, and, by no means, an active participant. 'Feel Like Going Home' is presented with reverence and takes its subject seriously. Scorsese heeds House's warning at the beginning of the film. I can only hope that the rest of the directors in the series read the same sign post.
http://www.pbs.org/theblues/aboutfilms/aboutfilms.html
_______________________
Mike Ruzicka