Here are some more really good music documentaries that I've seen in the past few months. And yes, they're pretty 1980s heavy, because that was and is my decade of music. However, these documentaries are so well done that you don't have to be a superfan to enjoy them. A lot of these appeared on HBO or Showtime, but you can search for them on your favorite platforms.
Do you know Sparks? That's OK. I was only vaguely familiar with them because of their collaboration with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos. I never bought their music, and probably only ever heard one or two songs. However, they were huge in Europe for decades starting in the 1970s, and they are considered a hugely influential band amongst pop and rock musicians. Musician Beck said in the documentary, The Sparks Brothers, that anytime he's around other musicians talking about music, Sparks is always mentioned. Sparks was/is essentially two brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, who grew up in the Los Angeles area and became enamored with movies and then music. They formed a band called Halfnelson in 1966 and took off from there, becoming leaders in the art rock/pop or glam genres. They were maybe a little too far out there for Americans, never really having huge chart success in the U.S., but they developed a huge and devoted following abroad. The documentary tells their story, and it includes interviews with a lot of 80s music figures. Their story was quite entertaining, and the two brothers are quite entertaining. My only quibble is that the doc is a tad long, clocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes.
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Speaking of Jane Wiedlin, her group The Go-Go's are the subject of another documentary (The Go-Go's) that aired on Showtime, and they were just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2021. I was a fan of The Go - Go's, but I wasn't fully aware of their backstory. The band formed in 1978 as a punk band, and they became a sensation because they were an all-female group that played their own instruments and wrote their own songs. A few years later, they decided to go more mainstream, and the rest is music history. Along the way, however, there was a lot of backstage turmoil, with jealousies, drug and alcohol abuse, and personnel changes, and clashes with their own management and record company.
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Grace Jones is one of the most iconic 1980s figures there is. She is a superdiva. Her striking and uncommon look got her into the international modeling scene in the early 1970s. She was signed to a recording contract in the mid 70s and became a fixture in the disco and club scene, a fixture at the famous Studio 54 in New York City, and an intimate of Andy Warhol and other chic celebrities. She then transitioned into films, but she was always as famous for her "private" life - which wasn't very private - as for her professional career. Today, at age 73, she is still performing on stage. Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami captures Jones on stage and off. There is no narration, and there is no mention of timelines. The movie was filmed over several years, following her working, recording, performing, negotiating her own contracts, and following her home to Jamaica, interacting with her extended family. The movie is as mesmerizing as she is.
What comes to your mind when you hear the Bee Gees? Kings of disco, of course. Saturday Night Fever. The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart proves that they were so much more. The Brothers Gibb (hence Bee Gees) were born in the U.K. but raised in Australia. The trio became a recording act in 1958, releasing 12 singes in Australia before returning to the U.K. in 1967. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they had several hits in the U.K. and the U.S. Then Saturday Night Fever happened, exploding their career. Altogether, they've sold more than 120 million albums, and they are third most successful band on Billboard charts, after The Beatles and The Supremes. The brothers, especially Barry and Robin, also wrote many hit songs for many different artists over the years. Unfortunately, the brothers also had lots of tragedy along the way. Maurice died during a medical procedure at age 53. Jealousy between Barry and Robin broke up the brothers for a while. Robin himself died in 2012 at age 62. And their youngest brother Andy, who had a big solo career in the early 1980s, died at age 30 in 1988. Their story is quite a compelling one, and, of course the music is great.
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Documentaries, part three, coming soon.
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