Seven ages of rock will have you arguing for ages

stephen says:

05:37am | 05/02/10

You can find talent anywhere. (Everybody knows that. )
Unfortunately, these programs often don’t find it, and we’re left with the feeling that Rock Music is only important because of important bands.
The Who, The Stones etc, they’re all great, but my favorites are the little-known groups (still are, mostly), which often preceded the ‘biggies’ style.
Some of the big bands lot their integrity ; the Stones, in my opinion, never will.

Liz says:

08:37am | 05/02/10

A good series but restricted by the format and selective,necessarily.Those who were there may note that some of the performers rather rewrote history and their place in it and over estimated how fans saw them.A small point but one that shows how inaccurate these programs can be sometimes.

Jeff Mueller says:

12:22pm | 05/02/10

Some great footage in the show but it is slopping over with lazy generalisations and questionable causal links.  More rock, fewer sweeping statements.

Jasper says:

04:08pm | 05/02/10

Leaving aside Frank Zappa’s comment that music journalism is “people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read” for a moment, I’d have to say that Seven Ages of Rock was the shallowest documentary on rock music I have ever watched. It ignored huge numbers of bands that were as influential (or more) than the ones it covers.

Pretty much the only thing it gets right is the comment that not many people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but pretty much all those who did went and formed a band.

But aside from that, it covered the usual suspects and has more than one dubious hypothesis. It just seems like an advertisement for the inevitable compilation CD.

I’ll take Dancing in the Street & Long Way to the Top for descent rock documentaries any day.

Frankie V. says:

04:09pm | 05/02/10

I remember watching the Dancing in the Street series years ago.  It wasn’t until the last couple of episodes that it dawned on me how wildly subjective it all was, and how the scripts were written to appease the fans rather than educate the uninitiated.

Likewise, Seven Ages is a triumph of mythos over plausible history.  In the Left of the Dial episode we’re told the white middle-income Kurt Cobain was a member of an oppressed minority, who lived in a land where all hardship was derived, not from complex economic problems, but solely from the reign of an evil emperor.

What a crock.

acker says:

10:03pm | 05/02/10

I think this for all its good intentions will end up being overtaken as a definitive Rock bio flick/series by the film “Nowhere Boy” which deals with young Buddy Holly wannabe John Lennon meeting young Marty Robbins wannabe Paul McCartney complete with his White Sports coat and his pink carnation.

In late 1950’s Liverpool circa…Quarrymen..Silver Beatles..Beatles

What came out of that fusion probably blows all this out of the water.

acker says:

10:14pm | 05/02/10

I also loved the Bob Geldof comment to Freddie Mercury in last nights episode “stadium rock” when Freddie was a bit half and half prior to going on stage during the Live Aid concert for Ethiopia…something along the lines of ...Fred there 750 million people watching this, bring it home cobber..

Freddie hit the turbo charger and delivered, even inspired a young raw lad called Bono to lift his game to a new level..

I remembered after Freddie died the only performer who came that close to recatchering that spirit was George Michael with the remaining members of Queen delivering an inspired live performance of “Somebody To Love” including the excruciating final high to low multi octave lines..

Damo says:

06:14am | 08/02/10

Muse is the NOW and in the future will be compared to the likes mentioned above - More than albums, Matt Bellamy will write an opus - More than a concert, a Muse show is an event that transcends !