Documentary musical artist and band biographies abound on the streaming TV universe these days, which should come as no surprise. For many if not most of my fellow baby boomers as well as Generation X, popular music on our radios and record players as well as later on MTV was an essential element of our lives and identities.
Popular music stars occupied a pantheon for us not unlike that of the ancient Greeks and their gods. Their lives, loves, struggles, challenges, triumphs, heartbreaks and all the rest are almost like modern mythology to fans. The basic form was set in some ways by the VH1 series “Behind the Music,” which the cable channel started airing in 1997 and produced 259 episodes. Over the last few decades a near innumerable number of music bio-docs have been produced on everyone from superstars to cult artists, ranging in quality and notability from meh to superb. Two recent ones I watched felt worthy of comment and comparison.
“Willie Nelson & Family” is a long-overdue official film document about the genuinely iconic singer, writer of songs and performer. One of the doc’s directors aptly describes Nelson’s journey as “a rich life of beauty and struggle.” Rich indeed, as the four-episode series runs near four-and-a-half hours and never feels tiring or too long. In fact, there’s even more of interest that didn’t make it into the doc, which still hits all the key notes from his childhood to approaching age 90 when it was made. It captures Nelson’s magical essence as a person and abundant musical creator and occasional actor, entrepreneur, activist and more.
Titling it “& Family” gets at a central essence of who Nelson is and how all he became over life was fostered, formed and then lived. Over my decades in Austin, Texas, his home base, I’ve gotten to know Willie some (two great interviews) as well as his lovely late sister Bobby and heir apparent son Lukas from interviews for PR campaigns, wrote the first article about daughter Paula’s musical career, and produced recordings at one of the studios owned by Freddie Fletcher, Bobbie’s son and Willie’s nephew – all of whom contribute their thoughts in the doc. And all of whom underscore how the whole Nelson clan are as genuinely nice a family as I’ve ever met.
And sometimes nice guys like Willie finish first, even if he was more an outlier than outlaw over his many years working in the lesser reaches of the country music industry as a DJ, sideman, songwriter and minor recording artist. Then he ditched Nashville for his home state of Texas in 1970, found an audience that launched him into superstardom, and now enjoys longterm legend stature.
One bid secret to his success is the family thing: Treating his fans and followers like family. Gathering around him a family of fellow artists he sings and collaborates with. He’s a genuine man of the people and true family values: Treat others with the same kindness as you would those with blood relative ties that you love. So in addition to his massive and highly-influential musical legacy woven through a fascinating and very human tale, Willie serves as a signpost on how to live in a way that’s good and right. My esteem for him as a person – and I know many (many) others who know him who share this feeling – is off the charts.
Similar yet at the same time vastly different is “Thank You, Goodnight,” the also four-part Jon Bon Jovi doc. I may not embrace his music into my soul as I do Willie’s. But I know Bon Jovi’s a good egg, and respect how his infectious hard rock topped with tasty pop confections is loved by millions, and speaks to and for his core fans, who are regular folks like John was and grew up among.
But his nearly five hours of documentary went from my starting to feel slight yawns of boredom to thumb-twiddling numbness. Its most urgent theme – vocal issues that endanger his life’s work and he’s striving to overcome, which evokes my empathy – starts to feel overdone as the whole affair crawls towards begging for a big edit downward in length.
Plus, it just glosses over other major situations in his life. Such as how he was very disloyal to his high-school sweetheart he married and remains so, which came out in the media coverage following the doc’s premiere. Or the departure of his creative partner Richie Sambora from the band.
Yeah, Jon Bon Jovi is a good soul; witness his two soup-kitchen eateries for the less-fortunate in his beloved home state of New Jersey. But, sadly, the well-crafted doc, like his well-crafted music, never goes deep enough to compel me to consider him a genuinely meaningful musical artist.
Populist Picks
TV Documentary: “Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood” – When the music manager/mogul Braun bought the master rights to the top star’s early recordings that Swift was trying to obtain, it set up a showdown over creator’s rights that spotlights a great divide in the music business.
Book: “A Book of Luminous Things,” edited by Czeslaw Milosz – I keep this delightful poetry anthology among the reading matter beside my bed for sustenance and inspiration. And hope that the poem doesn’t get lost within the modern media glut.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2024
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