PBS Rock & Roll Happiness

It's hard to put into words how big of a deal the PBS Rock & Roll documentary series was to me when it came on my tv in Oxford, Mississippi back in 1995. Coming hot on the heels of The Beatles similarly miraculous Anthology series, it was also probably the first time I heard Liev Schreiber's narration, which of course would go on to be the best of all time. I videotaped the entire thing and over the years absolutely wore the tapes down into dust re-watching; within a year I'd phoned up PBS and asked if I could buy a copy but they had some fucking policy about it only being available for sale to school systems. Grrrr.

Ever since then it's been kind of catch-as-catch-can't finding the 10 episodes, so I felt lucky to stumble into the second episode, Into the Groove, right now. Next to the Punk Rock episode which I've posted on about a million times (and btw I stand by my comment in that post that they need to do a huge re-release/update like Ken Burns' baseball doc!!) it's probably my favorite, maybe mostly due to it being the first time we'd ever really gotten to know that much about Phil Spector, or Lieber/Stoller (although I had to wait another 25 years before finding out this little story about them!!!!). The few minutes on You've Lost That Loving Feeling are worth the price of admission alone (although nobody mentioned this little quirk about the song that for some reason only I have ever questioned in the song's almost 60 years of existence?!?!??), and probably cemented my path to buying the Phil Spector box set (box set? or boxed set? can we all just finally admit that nobody knows, and nobody ever has?) seven years later with the very first "real" paycheck I ever got in my life. The episode ending on the palpable panic that set in on these wonderful motherfuckers when The Beatles landed in America is pure gold too, and wonderfully executed.

Anyways I LOVE LOVE LOVE this doc series, it had a huge influence on my love of music that stays with me today and always will.

ENJOY!