There’s nothing more essential to a music fan than the rock documentary. Over the years, fans have wanted to get every piece of the musician that they can, and films provide the perfect way to give fans that inside look behind the glamour and into the grit. You get to see rehearsals, tears and music performed live. Even in these days, when barely anyone buys CDs anymore, rock docs are still alluring for all fans of any band. Everyone from the Rolling Stones to Beyoncé has one, and now the White Stripes have one, too.
Titled “Under Great White Northern Lights,” a play on the title of the White Stripes’ first live album “Under Blackpool Lights,” the film is a raw look at the rock duo’s tour of Canada in 2007. In pure White Stripes style, the majority of the concerts are at small, out-of-the-way locations, performing for hundreds of thousands of screaming fans who have never seen them before. The film is saturated in red filters — since red is the band’s favorite color motif — and many parts are shot in black and white.?
For White Stripes fans, it will be one of the first times they’ll get to see Meg White in her element, singing her haunting ballad “In the Cold, Cold Night” onstage, as well as interacting with Jack and people they meet along the way. Everything she says is subtitled since she is so soft-spoken, even eliciting a teasing reprimand from Jack.?
“Nobody can hear a goddamn thing you say!” Jack says backstage when Meg is afraid to speak loudly in front of the cameras.?
It showed the brother-and-sister type relationship that they have, a point that they have pushed on people since their divorce in 2000. Even though the White Stripes have a huge discography and Jack has been performing in multiple bands, it is the first time fans get to see a real look at what goes on between the two of them, and we get to see the audience from the band’s perspective.?
But for those who know his workaholism, fans know that this is not the first rock doc that Jack White has been in this year. “It Might Get Loud” was released last fall which featured Jack, as well as the legendary Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and The Edge of U2. The three vastly different but insanely talented guitarists got together to discuss guitars and what influences them. The movie is more for aspiring guitarists than anyone else, but it also gives sneak peeks into the lives of each of these men. It goes back into their past and shows how they got into making music. If you watch, you’ll see the mysterious Headley Grange mansion where Zeppelin record parts of “Led Zeppelin IV,” that The Edge spends hours experimenting with techno and echo effects for his guitar and that Jack White’s favorite song is Son House’s “Grinnin’ Your Face.” To see these three legends jamming together is almost otherworldly and amazing for fans of any of these three men.?
As far as legendary rock documentaries go, one would be remiss to not mention “Woodstock” or Bob Dylan’s classic documentary “Don’t Look Back.” “Woodstock” celebrated a re-release last fall with additional performances and extended scenes. The pull of the counterculture has never quite gone away, and in this documentary you’ll see legendary performances by the likes of The Who, Janis Joplin and the iconic Jimi Hendrix performing an electric guitar rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Joan Baez, then-girlfriend of Bob Dylan, provided peaceful trilling sopranos for the concert, adding a much-needed touch of calm to the musical frenzy.?
In Dylan’s “Don’t Look Back,” fans get more of a look at the man behind the music rather than the music itself. Baez makes an appearance, as do many other friends of Dylan. You get to see him in the rehearsal process, in the interviewing process and backstage before a concert. Dylan shares his philosophies and his dry wit, all to the awe of those who surround him. This is Bob Dylan in his most raw and influential stage of his career — the clad-in-black, frizzy-haired, chain-smoking, sunglass-wearing Dylan.?
Aside from all these iconic films, rock docs have come a long way since the beginning. If you like a band, it’s likely that there’s a film that will take you behind the scenes, closer to them than ever.?
You can reach this staff writer at ydesta@theeagleonline.com.
