(End of an Ear is a proud sponsor of Music Mondays)
Monday, January 9 - Control
Before there was Daft Punk, before there was Blink 182, and before there was any electro pop/punk music you've heard in the last thirty years, there was Joy Division, one of the most influential post-punk bands to come out of Factory Records. As their short success continued to rise, they were hit with a mondo tragedy: frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide. In 2007, Avant-garde auteur Anton Corbijn released a fictional biography (shot in black-and-white) on Curtis' life from 1973 to 1980, covering his personal struggles with marriage and infidelity, the rise of Joy Division, and his battle with epilepsy, which is an alleged contribution to his suicide in 1980. CONTROL is one of the better fictional biographies about a musical legend.
Monday, January 16 - James Brown Boston Garden '68
Less than 24 hours after Martin Luther King's assassination the city of Boston was in a state of turmoil. When James Brown arrived at the airport to play his already scheduled show he was warned that the mayor, fearing further unrest among the African American community, planned to cancel the show. Not only did the show go on at Brown's insistence, but public television station WGBH broadcast the whole thing. It's an incredible historical document and a fantastic performance by James Brown, who dedicated the show to Dr. King's memory and brought the raw emotions within himself and his community to a searing head.
Monday, January 23 - ACL Reel Rarities: Leonard Cohen
"Lord Byron of Rock 'n' Roll." "Dr. Kevorkian of Song." "Restless Pilgrim." "Felonious Monk." "Montreal Mensch." Whatever you like to call him, the titanic wordsmith, troubadour and all-around nickname magnet Leonard Cohen is just shy of 78 years-old and he has a brand new album dropping at the end January. What better time, then, for us to revisit this classic episode from 1988 -- his "first major performance on American television" -- featuring renditions of such signature songs as "Everybody Knows," "First we take Manhattan," and "Joan of Arc."
Monday, January 30 - The Love We Make
Directed by Albert Maysles -- the man behind the camera for GREY GARDENS, the Beatles' first U.S. visit in 1964, and the Rolling Stones' GIMME SHELTER, which captured the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival -- along with Bradley Kaplan, THE LOVE WE MAKE follows Paul McCartney through the streets of New York City in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as he organizes an all-star benefit concert, The Concert for New York City. Featuring performances from the concert itself, with unparalleled access backstage to McCartney and such luminaries as David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, Eric Clapton, President Bill Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Mick Jagger, Jay Z, Billy Joel, Elton John, James Taylor, Pete Townshend, and many more.
