Dave-the-Pub-muso
Hi, found a cool DVD about the blues called 'The soul of a man'. It's directed by Wim Wenders (the guy who did Buena Vista Social Club) and produced by Martin Scorsese. It looks at the lives of Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and JB Lenoir - you hear some of the original tracks and then there are some (usually very weird) modern interpretations by people like: Beck, Nick Cave, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed and others. It's fairly low budget, but good viewing if you are into blues history!
If you are in the Cape, it's available for rental at Cineland Video in Rondebosch. Also in the same section is a similar DVD called 'Standing in the shadows of Motown' which is also worth a look!
Hope you like!
Dave
Renesongs
Thanks for the headsup Dave I'll definitely see if DVD Nouveau Newlands have them (my contract is there) Martin Scorsese a 3 DVD series on the Origins of the blues that is well worth checking out.
Dave-the-Pub-muso
Thanks, sounds awesome..."The Last Waltz" by Scorsese is my all time favourite!
singemonkey
I'd love to see these. There's something darkly romantic about that whole period. Pretty miserable being some of those guys, I'm sure - some were little more than bums. But what a world they created.
There was a very moving moment in the west wing in which one character talks about how Blind Willie Johnson died alone in little more than a shack. But his music is on the golden disc on the Voyager spacecraft, which has just become the first human-made object to leave our solar system. There's a remote possibility that he might have created one of the first pieces of art ever to be heard by some other intelligent beings.
Destitute men and women - often people with massive substance abuse problems leading haunted lives - who created some of humanity's most incredible works of art.
