All You Need is Love - The Story of Popular Music

It played here on public television in the mid-'70s. I haven't seen the Bangs clip for a while--a friend linked to it a few years ago--but the way I remember it, Bangs is sort of half-kidding and quite funny (maybe making fun of his own personal pique?). It's been a while, so maybe I'm misremembering.

this is the only Bangs footage I can find on youtube (doesn't include the bit about Roxy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzXfYou4Mq8

his Ferry bit IS funny

iirc, he loved Roxy, but found Ferry to be insufferably boring in person.

That's a great clip--although I always thought Bangs had a higher threshold of alienation than Ian Anderson in a bunny suit.

anyone got a link for vol 12 - can't seem to find it on YT

Can't find it either...but I love how Helen Reddy ends up in the glitter episode.

watched the country episode last night. No mention of Hank Williams, but 10 minutes of Doug Kershaw's sideburns. The oddly British editing decisions of this series are a wonder.

As much as I dislike watching anything longer than three minutes on the computer, I'm considering making the effort to watch this. (Or least most of it, skipping over some of the very early stuff.) The sections I watched from the glitter episode were fantastic: Gary Glitter, the Bangs stuff, Cream (huh?) doing "I'm So Glad," etc.

can't find the whole R&B episode on youtube unfortunately, opens with a fantastic Bo Diddley performance.

man an entire third of the last episode is devoted to... Mike Oldfield

contains more Lester nuggets tho and some great footage of Jim Dandy/Black Oak Arkansas, so it's a trade-off

Ha, tried to start a thread about this a while back
Tony Palmer's "All You Need Is Love": Do I Really Want To Watch All 14 Hours Of It?

You probably haven't got to the part where he disses Fela yet.

haha wait there was some Fela footage in the first episode but no Bangs... maybe I missed something though (I've skipped several episodes - tin pan alley, musicals, music hall, etc.) and am not watching them in order

one thing that really sticks out to me about this is the conscious decisions on the part of the makers to make various people/acts as grotesque as possible. it's really amazing.

y'know, gratuitous fish-eyes lensed/slow-mo footage overlaid with Wagner

Cream (huh?) doing "I'm So Glad," etc.

... which is also in "All My Loving", which I happened to stumble across on the Yesterday channel of all things at the weekend. Sort of forerunner of this, also by Tony Palmer, who must be one of the most incompetent filmmakeers of all time: footage of Cream, the Who, Hendrix, Floyd (doing "Set the Controls.."); interviews with McCartney, Eric Burdon, Zappa etc...

the level of significance attributed to Cream and its members' solo projects is utterly baffling to me.

He filmed their farewell concert too, his filmography is worth checking out! 200 Motels!

I hate Zappa, not sitting through 200 Motels

I thought hating Zappa was one of those opinions you had to keep to yourself on ILX, like hating The Doors.

iirc, he loved Roxy, but found Ferry to be insufferably boring in person.

i'm sure he was right

the level of significance attributed to Cream and its members' solo projects is utterly baffling to me

While they were around, and for a few years after their break-up, I'd agree--the level of importance (and mystique) that was attributed to them was out of proportion. But I'd say the opposite is true now; I think there are probably a lot of younger listeners who've never heard them beyond "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love," and don't know how great they sometimes were. I'd put up a bunch of their songs--"I'm So Glad," "Badge," "Doin' That Scrapyard Thing," "Passing the Time," "Tales of Brave Ulysses," "Anyone for Tennis"--against almost anything from the era. (Not a big Clapton fan, and I can't speak to Bruce's or Baker's solo work.)

I suppose they invented the "power trio" (though that was really the Who - yeah, I know there's four of them), which Hendrix took to another level of course. Also maybe the level of improvisation was unusual in what were still called pop groups at the time? Don't know what the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck were like at the time. Always remember a quote from Holger Czukay about how he likened his musical role in Can to Jack Bruce, how he could change the direction of the music with the bass, which I thought was an interesting

"an interesting" or "interesting", whateva

First real "supergroup" too?

The thing that runs through most of the songs I mentioned, and what I love most about them, is how pop/melodic they could be. I think the perception of them is blues/drum solos/show-offy virtuosity/etc. Sometimes, yes--but there was another side to them.

I think they were the first supergroup...either them or Dino, Desi & Billy.

I suppose they invented the "power trio" (though that was really the Who

... or Johnny Kidd & the Pirates or Link Wray (he didn't have a rhythm guitarist, did he?)

Sometimes, yes

http://store.acousticsounds.com/images/medium/AVLL_999192__49284__01152009122753-2510.jpg

A1  Crossroads 
Written-By – Robert Johnson  4:13   
A2  Spoonful 
Written-By – Willie Dixon  16:44   
B1  Traintime 
Written-By – Jack Bruce  6:52   
B2  Toad 
Written-By – Ginger Baker  15:53  

I own this. Can't actually bring myself to play it....

That's only the live half of that album. The studio half is better, with "White Room" and "Politician"

I'm lucky in that I came to them via Heavy Cream in high school--22 songs, and "Rollin' and Tumblin'" is the only one longer than five minutes (almost half are either under three or just barely over). Thirty-five years later, I still don't have Disraeli Gears or Wheels of Fire.

Watched the first episode of this at the weekend, the one that's kinda a taster menu for the rest of the series. It made the rest of the series look terrible. I was nauseated by Jerry Lee Lewis trying to be sexy, then horrified by the continual bad performances that the doc clearly thought were good or important or whatever. I'm glad I watched it tho, an a "geez, now I understand why punk happened" kinda way.

Have I been lied to by my first impressions? y'all seem to be finding things of worth in it.