I'm sure many rock fans are looking forward to David Guggenheim's (An Inconvenient Truth) latest documentary, a profile of three generations of guitar luminaries. Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White all came to define the sound of guitar rock for their respective decades, and their influence and innovations are still being felt and copied across genres. Why then does a film that seeks only to pay tribute to these men's egos seem so disorganized and rambling?
It Might Get Loud centers around the meeting of the aforementioned trio in which they discuss their music, influences, and creative processes. Each player is also given segments where they return to their old stomping grounds for fond recollections and self-analyses.
Guggenheim uses a variety of documentary techniques to aid the film's exposition (archive/concert footage, stills, animation, interviews), but their is neither form nor flow to lend cohesion to the whole; most segments feel as though they could have been placed anywhere in the film (despite titled chapters). It is as if Guggenheim, clearly a personal admirer of his three subjects, simply thought "lets put these guys in a room together and let them tell stories and all I'll have to do is shoot it!" However, the film is not without its moments; one memorable scene has Edge and White struggling to contain their glee as they watch Page play the riff from 'Whole Lotta Love". There are even some interesting artistic choices, such as having Jack White co-exist with a 9 year-old version of himself; but on the whole the film really struggles to be taken as anything but idol worship. Loud is almost completely devoid of hardship or controversy, perhaps in fear of offending its stars; but any music fan knows thats where all the real interesting shit lies. Without such content and other necessary context, Loud is guitar porn posing as a documentary. If you're a fan of any of these three men, you'll probably enjoy your time with It Might Get Loud, but I would implore you to demand more. C
Other semi-related thoughts:
-The film's most genuine moment plays over the credits and involves a theremin. For a great documentary about music and instruments, check out Moog
-An almost decent amount of time is spent acknowledging the Blues in the development of rock, but the omission of a discussion regarding Page and the Blues is glaring (Props to White for admitting Rock's cultural theft and having Son House's "Grinnin' In Your Face" as his favorite song)
-I never got my head around U2. Maybe i was just born at the wrong time.
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Jimmy Page is the only guitarist of the three that is great. He represents a key to the archetype of rock n roll guitarists. Jack White is a really itelligent musician and songwriter, but he honestly can't play. I've spent hours and hours trying to figure out why people think hes our generations great guitarist and I've come up with only a few hints at reasons: 1. Popular rock music today is garbage (meaning trash, not the band). 2. Jack White relies on stale 60s rock bar chord progressions and a shit played pentatonic scale which are considered catchy to a casual ear 3. He enjoys tinkering with slide guitar noise and high pitched pedals to mask his incredibly sloppy, mindless playing technique which, to many, comes off as "Cool".
ReplyDeleteJohn Mayer could play circles around White yet Mayer is a loser who writes terrible music.
Jimmy Page will stand as one of the most important guitarists and musicians in history, the Edge will remain that dude who wears a skull cap, who looks like Danny Bonaduce, and fucks with 1000$ delay pedals behind Bono.
In conclusion, I would rather see the following guitarists in this film:
J Mascis, Brian May, Billy Corgan (duh), Tom Morello, Kim Thayil... Hell, Id even rather see Slash in there to be embarrasingly honest.
-Daniel Guitarist Robinson
haha he totaly does look like danny bonaduce
ReplyDeletedude i dont know, i can see why you like jimmy page so much compared to the edge but led zeppelin did steal most of their riffs from old bluesmen without giving them any credit.
ReplyDeleteyou should see the white stripes sometime before continuing to treat jack white like hes trying to ass rape billy corgan
show me something jack white does on guitar that doesnt fall into either category of elementary, or noise experiments and ill stop saying i don't understand why people think hes good. no one i know that tells me he is good has been able to come up with anything. i've spent more time trying to figure him out than any other musician i disagree with. still, i always give him credit for being a good writer and an interesting personality. not a good guitarist.
ReplyDeleteas far as page goes, if people out there don't know that zeppelin has strong roots in blues then thats just craziness. "Stealing" is a pretty harsh word to use seeing how much his sound stands out against any number of other guitarists who recycle blues riffs, which is most of them... still the riffing isn't even what makes him a great guitarist in the first place, at least not in my opinion. if his playing didn't shine through it would be one thing, but his technique is unique enough that you can hear him from a mile away and the context he applies blues (as well as plenty of classical) makes him pretty special. if that takes something away from a guitarist then you can count out hendrix, and stevie ray vaughn and a bagillion others as well.
i wouldn't particularly want to see billy in a movie with any of these people, id just rather see him than jack white. hes a better player than jack white. billy would be better suited in a movie with that guitarist from the scorpions and some newly converted jesus freak who plays guitars hidden in the jungles of thailand. it would be a terrible movie.