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Post by frazer on Jan 13, 2020 1:31:45 GMT -5
Apologies if this has already been discussed! I really enjoyed the 'Echo in the Canyon' sorta-documentary-sorta performance pic.
My only criticism is that it's too short. I would have enjoyed a longer (three-part?) exploration of music from Laurel Canyon even more, stretching forward another 10 years into the territory occupied by Danny Sugarman's autobiography, 'Wonderland Avenue'.
It's got me listening to the Byrds again, and missing my old Rickenbacker like mad.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 13, 2020 7:16:02 GMT -5
Yes, I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Nostalgia city, baby. I especially liked the moment in which Jakob Dylan was interviewing David Crosby on his veranda. Crosby is opining about some recording session from 55 years ago and says, "Then Dylan showed up..."
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Post by drlj on Jan 13, 2020 9:35:24 GMT -5
I see it is on Netflix so I will watch it today or tomorrow. Sounds good.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jan 13, 2020 12:34:40 GMT -5
Yes, I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Nostalgia city, baby. I especially liked the moment in which Jakob Dylan was interviewing David Crosby on his veranda. Crosby is opining about some recording session from 55 years ago and says, "Then Dylan showed up..." "You'll have to be more specific." Great response from Jakob. |
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Post by howard lee on Jan 13, 2020 19:54:18 GMT -5
Yes, I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Nostalgia city, baby. I especially liked the moment in which Jakob Dylan was interviewing David Crosby on his veranda. Crosby is opining about some recording session from 55 years ago and says, "Then Dylan showed up..." "You'll have to be more specific." Great response from Jakob.
SPOILER ALERT!
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Post by millring on Jan 14, 2020 6:48:57 GMT -5
I'm about half way through it. I love the nostalgic music. The wreckage that is their lives is depressing.
I also wonder about the writing process. I wonder what the songs REALLY sounded like AND what the lyrics were before the Wrecking Crew fixed them. I find it dubious that the Mamas and Papas sounded anything like they did before the Wrecking Crew got ahold of the material and fixed it. Everyone knows that Brian Wilson had a directing hand in every detail of his recordings, but that was also almost an admission that that stood in contrast to the rest of the writers whose work was interpreted in that studio.
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Post by frazer on Jan 14, 2020 21:13:14 GMT -5
I've spent the last couple of days doing my own version of the Byrds version of Wild Mountain Thyme. Can't get it out of my head.
I've also been revisiting Roger McGuinn's Back from Rio LP. This track gave me a 3-day 'earworm' when I bought the album:
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Post by millring on Jan 14, 2020 21:24:14 GMT -5
I'm wondering if the reason Jakob and friends didn't follow even recognizably close to the melody on their covers was because they couldn't?
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Post by frazer on Jan 14, 2020 23:26:33 GMT -5
I'm wondering if the reason Jakob and friends didn't follow even recognizably close to the melody on their covers was because they couldn't? Well I kind of liked the live portions of this one!  |
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Post by frazer on Jan 15, 2020 1:14:28 GMT -5
Another thing I liked was Roger McGuinn pronouncing 'Rhymney' correctly at last. It's 'rum-nee', not 'rim-nee'.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 15, 2020 7:05:27 GMT -5
Another thing I liked was Roger McGuinn pronouncing 'Rhymney' correctly at last. It's 'rum-nee', not 'rim-nee'.
And on a similar note, there's no "aw" in "Staunton."
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Post by millring on Jan 15, 2020 10:20:57 GMT -5
What's your take on Jakob's and Nora's reaction to the photos of Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, et al on the wall of the studio?
When Crosby and Nash make the claim that those years of musical creativity will be remembered as a phenomenon a few hundred years from now, whadda you think? I certainly loved 'em, but I'm not sure it was particularly special.
Would any of those guys from the Byrds to the Mamas and Papas even be known today without the recordings engineered by the musicians and studios of the Wrecking Crew?
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Post by Marshall on Jan 15, 2020 11:13:47 GMT -5
I haven't seen the flick. I'm sure I'd enjoy it. But it also strikes me as another Boomer dream glorifying the good old days. Who else would care about it?
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Post by millring on Jan 15, 2020 13:13:03 GMT -5
Asked another way, what are the chances that Marshall or Hanners or anyone else we know who write a lot of songs, if they had those songs arranged and recorded by the Wrecking Crew, wouldn't have the occasional mega hit?
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Post by Marshall on Jan 15, 2020 14:18:17 GMT -5
My problem (well one of my problems) is i write songs in the vernacular of 60s 70s. And the audience for that era of music pretty much doesn't want to hear anything new. "Just play me the good old songs I know." Or so, I'd like to justify myself that way. But I have to write. It's what brings me the most joy of anything I do. I'm in the first week of an 8 week songwriting class right now. I try to take it once a year. I was just hammering out the first week's assignment this morning. Building on a nifty little chord pattern I devised on Sunday night after walking out of the afternoon class. It just brings me so much joy to be in the hunt. . . , but I digress.
Yeah, I'd like to think that something I've written could reach an appreciative audience with the money making machine of the day behind it. But that's probably just wishful (delusional?) thinking.
No matter. I love doing it. It's why I play the guitar.
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Post by John B on Jan 15, 2020 14:31:08 GMT -5
I dunno. I think The Byrds would have made it if the WC didn't exist; Mamas and the Papas probably would have, too, with their strong vocals (Michelle notwithstanding). They would have been different, but I think they would have done well. It would be interesting to hear how Brian Wilson would have sounded like if he didn't have the WC; maybe the Beach Boys would never have gotten past car songs. I think the bigger difference with respect to the WC was with the one hit wonders; I don't think those hits would have happened otherwise. "Never My Love" would have just been "never."
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Post by millring on Jan 15, 2020 14:47:06 GMT -5
It was just a couple of weeks ago we were all enjoying that documentary on Simon and Garfunkel. It was pretty obvious in that documentary that by the time the Wrecking Crew got ahold of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" about the only thing that remained the same as before the WC was the title. And I'm not even sure about that. I'm betting that John Philips songs were okay, but would never have gone anywhere without the WC. In fact, I bet (if there were a way to find such things out) that their signature four part harmony was learned at the studio -- not something they brought to it.
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Post by John B on Jan 15, 2020 19:48:18 GMT -5
The WC wasn't some sort of monolithic machine; it was about a dozen producers and a bunch of different studios. Bridge Over Troubled Waters as we know it now is the product of a brilliant songwriter, some brilliant musicians, and a brilliant producer(s?). Take away the musicians and producers and you still have Bridge.
George Martin was a brilliant producer, and an integral part of The Beatles' sound. But the raw material he was working with was great, and would have remained so without him.
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Post by millring on Jan 16, 2020 18:41:30 GMT -5
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Post by dradtke on Jan 17, 2020 10:01:17 GMT -5
We watched it last night. A couple movie-making comments. When the Jakob and three others were sitting on the couch talking, sometimes Dylan had a guitar on his lap and sometimes he didn't, from cut to cut. Continuity error that they hoped no one would notice, but it belied the casual spontaneous conversation feel they were going for.
And the music clips of the well-known songs were pretty short, to stay within fair-use parameters. Tom Petty even joked about it early in the film. The longer clips were less well-known songs (some I don't remember having heard before) with cheaper royalty rates.
It was fun to see what everyone looked like older, though. Some have not aged well.
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