Tuesday, September 30, 2003
I am very much digging the PBS Blues program so far. There is a sense in which documentary about music frustrate me-- I want more of the performance, less of the blah, blah, blah. I mean, that's Muddy Waters! Let's hear him. I thought Wim Wenders film last night was very well done-- the hand cranked camera effect worked well. The Steve and Ronnog Seaberg footage of J.B. Lenoir, and the story they told about it was remarkable stuff. As an aside, we have been talking about Sweden in the 60's here, in connection with the Martin Beck mysteries-- the Seaberg's would have fit in well as characters in those books. Much has been made about how the audience for this music is white-- and it doesn't get too much whiter than folks like Wenders or the Seabergs. This is certainly music that arises from the African American experience, but it comes as well from the "weird, old America" that Greil Marcus writes about. I was particularly struck by the fife and drum stuff featured in Scorsese's segment on Sunday-- there is a lot Bob Dylan learned, or heard somewhere, in this music.
// posted by Bill @ 9:11 AM 
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