The Seven Ages of Doc
Let's not be too ungrateful that the BBC has commissioned another documentary series on the history of rock, The Seven Ages Of Rock. It's a "definitive landmark series", in fact, according to the description on its very good BBC website, which is the best kind really. I mean, who wants a partial, schedule-filling history of rock? The BBC have already made a definitive landmark history of rock, of course. It was called Dancing In The Street. A co-production between the BBC and an American broadcaster, it aired in 1996 over ten weeks and really was definitive, calling in all the greats who were still alive to tell the tale, and cutting it up into ten pieces with care, from rock'n'roll to hip hop. I even bought the video of the episode on glam rock, with money, to own. It was that good. Now, although much has happened in rock since 1996, the actual history up to that point hasn't changed - they've certainly been unable to find any more footage of David Bowie or Roxy Music. This story doesn't actually need telling again. In point of fact, it almost seems a shame to have to wheel out many of those interviewed for Dancing In The Street to ask them for the same reminiscences. (Indeed, unable to get Bowie this time around, they actually reused the interview from 1996. A lot less bother than going all the way to New York to interview Lou Reed again, you must admit. Surely, if anything, his memory will have declined rather than improved over ten years. Just like the film stock - it's amazing how grainy Bowie '96 now looks, compared to the crisp HD-ready interview footage of today.)
Anyway, I'm the target audience for this kind of programme, so I've hungrily devoured the first two episodes. (It's getting around 1.8 million viewers, which I'm sure will hold steady throughout. Who's going to tune in for, say, three ages of rock and ignore the other four?) And I haven't learned a single new fact yet. But that's because I always watch these kinds of documentary. I've seen all of Rock's Family Trees and Classic Albums and everything BBC4 have ever put out. I can't help myself. But it's getting to be like humming along to a familiar tune. There surely can't be much left to add? It's just a case of slapping the old record back on the turntable and giving it another spin.
I have two problems with Seven Ages Of Rock. Well, three if you count the fact that there aren't seven ages of rock, since all of them, by the programme makers' admission, overlap. Which is why "age" comes in inverted commas on the website. Thus, part one, the snappily subtitled Blues-based Rock covers 1963-1970, and Art Rock, programme two, covers 1966-1980, as if perhaps art rock stopped happening in 1980. Meanwhile, the forthcoming Stadium Rock covers 1965-1993. Again - and I haven't seen it - I must have missed the news story in 1993 when stadiums stopped booking rock bands. I know, I know, I'm nitpicking, but when the BBC are so clearly re-slicing a cake they've already eaten, if that's possible, it's hard not to. Dividing the story up into loosely themed chapters is fine, but putting dates is asking for trouble.
Problem one: the narration. It's voiced by Julian Rhind-Tutt, an actor for whom I have a great deal of time, especially in Green Wing, but ... WHY? You can imagine the meeting when they decided to go a bit wacky and get somebody out of a trendy comedy to do it, rather than, say, someone with any connection to music whatsoever, but that doesn't explain why they didn't do a u-turn when they heard the tapes. He sounds like he's reading a story to nursery schoolchildren.
Problem two: the narration. By which I mean the words Julian Rhind-Tutt is forced to say. This programme is filled with people, including wise programme consultant Charles Shaar Murray, who speak with constant eloquence on the subject at hand. It's a pity the programme requires grouting with narration at all, but hey, it does, so let's deal with it. The actual words, which we must assume were penned by the series producer as no scriptwriter is credited, range from vague (and I'm not quoting directly here, but words to the effect of, "Dark Side Of The Moon shifted millions of units worldwide" - did it? How many millions? Why not look it up and pass that information on? And was the use of "units" supposed to be sarcastic?) to meaninglessly hyperbolic (every record "changed the world" or was "the most innovative debut album every recorded", and every artist "did something that nobody else had ever done, ever"). This is very wearing over the course of an hour, especially, as I say, when the talking heads are so illuminating and clever. Imagine if, say, the informed words of John Harris had been transcribed and used as the script.
These three things annoyed me so much during programme two (which, as those posting comments on the dedicated message boards have been quick to point out, didn't actually mention Marc Bolan even in passing), that I vowed to watch every single episode to the end. That'll show them.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:22 PM
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19 Comments:
Enjoying your blog, found my way there via your book, the BBC site etc.
Wondered how your book is selling (really enjoyed it by the way) and what sort of reviews you are getting? Do you peek on Amazon to see how the punters are re-acting?
In this one did you make a consious effort not to talk about your family (wife etc) because in the previous two you made the reader feel part of your family, yet in the third you seem to have drawn a line between work and family?
Anyway, get going on the next one, you are keeping us waiting!
Anon: it's not selling well enough to get into the WHSmith charts, which is a shame, as I've been very lucky with them in the past. Having said that, the "A format" paperback that's out now doesn't usually sell. It's the smaller, more affordable "B format" that sells. Quite why they don't go straigh to the "B" I don't know. It's seen as a "prestige" format, I think, because it's bigger and more expensive. I guess the idea is to gather up some favourable reviews, then slap quotes from those on the B format. This is certainly how it's worked in the past. And it's been the B formats that have got me in the charts. (Once you're in the charts, you're better displayed in the shops, then more people pick it up on impulse before a journey.)
As for reviews, pretty patchy. A good one in the Times, and a good one in Q, but a rather bitchy one in the Telegraph and a downright assassination in the Metro. Perhaps it's not a critic's book (what an easy escape route that is!) - certainly, those non-critics who've read it seemed to like it.
Last time I looked I was four and a half stars in Amazon. That could plummet at any time, as I discovered with Heaven Knows, which elicited one or two "one star" reviews from punters who hated it. You can't argue with democracy.
Yes, I left my family out of the this volume, as it goes right up to the present, and I prefer to keep my current private life private. Apart from some posts about my cat last year when she died, which I must admit worked as catharsis and drew some really nice support, this blog is about my public ie. professional life. I do draw a line. Broadcasting five days a week on 6 Music started to erode that line, so I've pulled back since then. It become increasingly more important to me.
If my masterplan works, my next book will be fiction. It's about time. I've had enough of writing about my life!
Thanks for that (I gave it 4 stars on Amazon if that helps). Hope the sales pick up, if I were to offer a general opinion I would suggest it is not being that well promoted. I picked mine up in Smiths as I was browsing, came across it almost by accident. Not seen it in Waterstones etc, perhaps needs a bit more pushing by the publishers and a bit more profile. Well worth the four stars though...
This has been the first of the Beeb's pop-music documentary series since I acquired a hard-disc recorder, so I'll be burning myself a set onto DVD as soon as it's finished since, from the experience of "Walk On By" and "Dancing In The Street", they won't be releasing the series on DVD. This really irks me - at a time when every 3rd-rate comedy series receives an instant DVD release, and even the dire "On The Buses" now has a "Complete Set" release, the Beeb have never seen fit to release these excellent music series. I'd love a set of the "Rock Family Trees" series on DVD, too, *sigh*. Meanwhile. this present series can be treasured for the archivist's sterling work in continuing to find clips I for one had never seen before. Yes, the "ages" concept is an extremely contrived device, which doesn't really work, but it's still appointment television for the next few Saturdays. As for Episode 2, I see it perpetuated the myth that "Dark Side Of The Moon" is a single, long-form pieve of music in the vein of "Echoes". No it's not - it's a cycle of 9 loosely-linked songs with absolutely no linkage, musically speaking. No themes, no motifs, just a sequence of songs. And yet still critics and fans coo about it being a single piece of music on a grand scale. No wonder I'm a grumpy old man.
I too am addicted to these bbc4/2 docs who knew film intersting pople laying interesting music result great tv. I was bit pissed of with this weeks in that alot the footage looked like it had messed around with you know digital enhancements to the lighting etc. It got quite annoying also some the gaffs made me start to doubt te others shows I don't know so much about how accurrate are they. There was a 2 part doc on art school rock by jarvis on radio 4 which was much better. Also was John Harris born 1968 (?) the best person to talk about events 200 miles from his cot?
Dancing in the streets was so good didn't the Chemical Brothers sample a bit of it for one of their tunes?
I've not seen this one, but judging by the reviews Soul Deep was much better.
That's funny, I was just moaning about this programme in my livejournal. I am all for TV involving Bowie and Pink Floyd, but felt that some significant other bands (Hawkwind, Arthur Brown, T Rex) were unfairly missed out.
Also, I think I must be a terrible pendant, but I wish they'd say when and where tracks they show are from rather than just the name, dated interviews would be good too.
bltp, I agree about them messing around with bits of film. Why show the same Syd era Floyd clip 4 times with different colours and fake ageing effects? Why not just find some more? The BBC must have a big archive.
I'll still be watching it all, though, even though I bet Richard Hell won't feature in the punk one next week.
Funny you should say that, Beth, but I think we really have reached the bottom of the barrel re: archive footage of old rock bands. That's presumably why they've treated all the footage, to make it seem new. I find this slightly counter to the spirit of documentary.
Soul Deep was exceptionally good, except they had a bad habit of tying up all loose ends at the end of each part, as if with a big soul ribbon. History is not always neat.
Presumably these things don't come out on DVD because getting clearance for all the clips for a DVD release is a whole different ball game. Was Dancing In The Street the one that told the story of the British invasion in terms of The Animals because they couldn't get permission to use any Beatles stuff? Maybe that was Walk On By.
I normally lap this kind of programme up but I missed the Hendrix one and turned the second off after about five minutes, pretty much for all the reasons you've given.
That said, I guess it serves a purpose for those young teens who are still interested in music. I remember watching a similar one-off documentary in the very early eighties (there was less to cover back then) and being absolutely engrossed. Of course they could have just repeated Dancing In The Streets, but that wouldn't have got a Radio Times cover.
While I normally devour this sort of thing, I thought this time I'd give it a miss. Like it's been said here, there are only so many clips.
Like any film of Swinging London they without fail show the clip of the man flicking through military jackets out on the King's Road or the woman trying on the yellow hat in Biba. Enough already. I just imagined this series would be more of that.
When there's something new to say and show, I'll be there.
Found your comment about the choice of narrator interesting. I assumed it was just a ploy by the BBC to get more (female) viewers. Since there are a growing number of us who would switch on a blank screen in order to hear Mr Rhind-Tutt recite the contents of the phone book, it would seem like a smart move.
I've missed it so far due to the fact that I get woken at 6am every morning by a 6 month old and cannot stay awake long enough anymore. It sounds like I would have been shouting at the TV anyway. Of all the ways of giving the duffers and new music lovers a good history lesson they pick 'ages' I did wonder how it could work. Oh well, yes I would have nabbed it on DVD so I'm with you all there too.
Why don't you offer to make one? I'm sure if you got together with a Gideon Coe, Mark Riley, Stuart Marconi and Liz Kershaw down the pub on an sunday afternoon you'd make a better job and have fun in the process.
On the subject of the silly, hyper-critical Metro review of your book Andrew, why not use this blog as a way of telling the reviewer exactly what you think of them, as Richard Herring did last Thursday in Warming Up in response to a disgusted Inverness local press article on his show. I think the words "shitty scum" and "cunt" were in there somewhere.
There must be stacks of ancient footage available that we've never seen. The "problem" is that it covers the more obscure artists. In the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum there are loads of fascinating clips being shown all the time that I've never seen anywhere else - I'm sure the two short films in the "cinemas" near the entrance could have been extended and I'm sure I could have sat there for a couple of hours watching them.
Surely BBC4 should be about buying these films and showing them to me and the other 9 people that are interested even if the snippets are so short that they can't be put together in any more coherent form than "Memphis 1955-60" etc. It would be far more illuminating than watching the Beatles band get off a plane to the sound of thousands of screaming girls - has the 7 Ages got to that clip yet?
I've recorded the first episodes but haven't plunged in yet as I believe the first one is based around Jimi Hendrix who I really don't like at all... I may end up watching them in the wrong order just to get me started.
Getting the the right presenter/narrator is tricky as well - another example is the new History of Post war Britain - I was almost put off because the only time I'd seen Andrew Marr before was on the show he does on Sunday after the Match of the Day repeat where he comes across (to me) as a bit of a bumbling buffoon. However, on this scripted documentary he seems far more authoritative and I'm glad I gave it a chance.
I saw that Metro review of your book and hoped that you might not have seen it. (Unlikely perhaps)To be honest it looked like some reviewer who was jealous because you have clearly met far more interesting people than he has and wanted to vent his frustration on the matter. I hope that this is not too simplistic a view but it seemed that way to me. I have now finished TMITC and thoroughly enjoyed it. I now await with anticipation your next fiction book. Keep up the good work.
Back on post topic - I watched Dancing in the Streets and bought the book and found it much more enjoyable than The Seven Ages of Rock.
Mmmmmm was a bit disappointed in this.
Not the Bowie tribute i was hoping for, like "Dancing in The Streets" Episode 7 'Hang Onto Yourself'.
In fact the Bowie interview parts are outtakes from Dancing In The Streets 7, previously unseen, with a few seconds overlapping from DITS final cut.
It more about Pink Floyd, and NO Marc Bolan. (maybe copyright issues, like the broadcast version of DITS)
Excellent but for me "Dancing In The Streets" 7 "Hang Onto Yourself " extended vhs version was better, and touched on Glam / Glitter Rock more than this episode did with Bolan / Sweet / Glitter / N.Y. Dolls etc.
The Rainbow Theatre footage is good (dubbed i think), but i wanted MORE.
Still an excellent BBC music doco. :-)
What I think is most interesting about this series is rather tangential to the programme itself, and it is that pop music has reached the point where Charles Shaar Murray and John Harris (and other similarly excellent commentators) can quite happily laud, say, Pink Floyd's artistic excesses one week... and then (presumably) rave about the Sex Pistols' tearing down of such pretentious tosh the next. There was a time when one simply could not like both...
Now - CSM and co can comfortably profess to loving, oh I don't know, Sinatra, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols and Public Enemy - and that shows them to be men of taste rather than simply unable to make up their minds.
I'm not expressing this very well. What we need is a clever phrase to describe this. Possibly involving the words "has eaten itself".
I agree with the general perception that the barrel has been scraped well and truly dry as far as clips and interviews about rock legends goes. And yes, Dancing In The Streets was definitive, and this series is struggling to match it. Pity that the rights issues has stopped DITS from being shown again or put on DVD.
Like you, I avidly watch most of these series and the BBC 4 music strands. But fear not, there have been two great music docs recently - Imagine on Scott Walker (without the nitwit Yentob muscling into every shot). They stole a ton of footage from the recent cinema release about him, but it's still good stuff. And Julien Temple's homage to Joe Strummer - wonderfully edited and a paean to those rough and ready times which many of us cut our teeth in. Don't miss.
Ian, I enjoyed the Imagine Scott Walker, but couldn't work out the difference between it and the cinema-released 30 Century Man. It turns out the difference is about 25 minutes - the Imagine one was a cut down version of 30 Century. Confusing.
I look forward to the Strummer one on TV or DVD. Temple has already won his spurs with Glastonbury and the Filth And The Fury. He has a really nice way with music docs.
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