- #MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS THE BLUES WATCH ONLINE FULL#
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That grabs your full attention from the first note-you’re hearing something very precious being passed down. When you listen to Skip James singing Devil Got My Woman or Son House singing Death Letter Blues or John Lee Hooker laying down one of his snaking guitar figures, when you really listen-and believe me, it’s not hard, because this is music
It’s endlessly old and endlessly new at the same time, because there are always young artists hearing and seeing work that’s come before them, getting inspired and making something of their own out of what they’ve absorbed. It has to be a human exchange, passed down hand to hand, or else it’s not art. The beauty of art and the power of art is that it can never be standardized or mechanized. The greater truth is that everything-every painting, every movie, every play, every song-comes out of something that precedes it. We all like to imagine that art can come from out of nowhere and shock us like nothing we’ve ever seen or read or heard before. All roads led to the source, which was the blues. But then we uncovered another, deeper level, the history behind rock and R&B, the music behind our music. It became our music, a very important way of defining ourselves and separating from our parents. Rock & roll seemed to just come to us, on the radio and in the record stores. Many people I know had the same shock of recognition. And I could feel that the spirit behind the music, behind that voice and that guitar, came from somewhere much, much farther back in time. All of a sudden, in an instant, I could hear where it had all come from. Like most people of my generation, I grew up listening to rock & roll. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Lead Belly singing See See Rider. Excerpts from literary masters James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and William FaulknerTracing the art form's path from juke joints, house parties, and recording studios to musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles, Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues proves, in the words of Willie Dixon, "The blues are the roots every-thing else is the fruits."Ībout the Publisher Preface By Martin Scorsese.
#MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS THE BLUES WATCH ONLINE SERIES#
Personal essays by the series directors Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett, Richard Pearce, Wim Wenders, Marc Levin, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood.Illuminating and in-depth conversations and portraits of musicians, ranging from Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith to John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton.Evocative color illustrations and rare vintage photography.Timeless archival pieces by writers such as Stanley Booth, Paul Oliver, and Mack McCormick.Essays by David Halberstam, Hilton Als, Suzan-Lori Parks, Elmore Leonard, Luc Sante, John Edgar Wideman, and many others.A companion to the groundbreaking PBS documentary series, this volume is a unique and timeless celebration of the blues, from writers and artists as esteemed and revered as the music that moved them.