The Blues

I found this documentary to be riveting to say the least. As a blues fan for well over 20 years, I learned more from this 10 part mini-series than I have anywhere. It was great to hear some of the original blues artists in rare recordings that I would never have otherwise discovered.

Someone commented that they wished there was "more music and less talking" but then want on to say he/she wished there was more "documentary" as well. I'm not sure how you can do one without the other, but while I too was sometimes disappointed when they ended a tune to cut to someone talking, I think overall, it was a terrific balance. The series is after all, a documentary, not a VH1 music video! Hearing some of the olde thyme greats speaking of the old days, was compelling to say the least.

I highly recommend buying the boxed CD set as well (then you get to hear all the music).

I rated the 7 episodes from 8 to 10 and gave it an 8 overall (The 7th episode getting the only 10). If there had been more music and less talking, I would have enjoyed it better. Fuller biographies would have been nice too. Marshall Chess is a walking encyclopedia of the old time blues and was the best talker. It was still a great mini-series and well worth watching.

It's hard to apply the usual numbered or grade ratings to this 7-part mini-series, as some parts may be more appealing to you than to others. It's a long mini-series, as each part goes in its own ways through the history of the blues, going back to Africa for some (as in Scorsese's first of the 7 films, Feel Like Going Home, which is one of the best of them), traveling around the country for others (The Road to Memphis, which is also very interesting, if a little repetitive), going this way and that to search for its passion and power (Wenders segment), or taking it down easy to sit with the masters (Eastwood's Piano Blues, one I will probably watch more than once on its own as its so loaded with musical goodies). As a fan of music in general, and of Blues up to the point when I watched the documentary fairly well, it's really an eye and ear opener. A lot of history and emotional connections go on with people and how they play or respond to the music, but it's all in tune with a simple, straight-forward way of telling little stories and getting a real mood more than anything. How you respond to the mood may depend more on your musical tastes, hence why the documentary, while overall intriguing, cool, sluggish, and hard-edged in different ways, is hard to really grade overall. But it's not one to miss if you've got the time; as it is I went back to at least a few of the segments recently, as the effect from first seeing the series in 03 wore off. Oh yeah, and Tom Jones is in one of the segments (perhaps the least effective one).

I really enjoyed this series overall, but on the "Red, White & Blues" piece, I was absolutely dismayed and disgusted to see Tom Jones (and hear him sing) portrayed as ANYONE who had ANYTHING to do with the blues movement. Why no George Harrison (this being the British related blues) and why so little of Keith Richards (among many other British blues artists omitted)? There was plenty of Clapton, Beck, Mayall and a few others that were and are truly blues-oriented guys. Mr. Figgis ruined this one with Jones. What a turn off. I give all the others in this series a 10/10 and a 5 for Figgis version and only that much because he did include, although way less than he should have, a small sampling of the blues excellence that came out of Great Britain beginning in the '60's.

Seven 90 minute documentaries on various aspects of the blues by noted film makers, ranging from the disappointing "Godfathers and Sons", "Piano Blues" to the sublime; Wim Wenders "The Soul of a Man" and Martin Scorsese's "Feel Like Going Home". The other three films fall somewhere in he middle.

As a series the overall impact was less than I hoped for, but still very worth seeing. I was surprised by the amount of overlap; not only are a number of songs, and even specific recordings repeated in several of the films, but so are chunks of the vintage footage used.

To my personal taste, I found the series most potent and alive when it examined the roots of the blues on not just a musical, but also a political and historic level. When it just presented little pieces of songs by various artists (especially modern ones) without the benefit of probing context, it could feel predictably shallow. Still, an excellent overview of blues in the 20th century for those who already have a love for the form, and for the newly curious.