THIS MIGHT GET LOUD directed by Davis Guggenheim (USA, 2009)
This is a film that celebrates three well established guitar heroes – Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page.
See if you can match the following quotes with each;
- “When you start to treat the sound, you start to invoke location”.
- “People know when it’s fake”
- “I never wanted to play the guitar ………. what’s the point?”
The first is The Edge as he gets nostalgic about U2’s Irish roots. The second is Jimmy Page, who knew from the start that Led Zeppelin were something special even though the music critics too longer to catch on.
Jack White, meanwhile, reveals that he originally planned to be a drummer, thinking that chosing the guitar was too predictable.
He talks about feeling isolated in a rough neighborhood of Detroit where it was considered un-cool to play any instrument. He took consolation in his Son House albums, playing the blues while everyone else was into hip-hop.
Page first got hooked playing in skiffle groups then became a session musician, calling it quits when he was asked to play on a muzak track.
Thankfully he came out of early retirement to launch the extraordinary electric blues of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. There’s some great early footage of both bands that show how innovative these bands were.
The Edge is the odd one out in that it was Punk that inspired him to be in a band; prior to that he remembers being frustrated by plastic pop and pretentious prog-rock. He recalls watching Spinal Tap and weeping because it was too closer to the truth to be funny.
What all three have in common is a total immersion and adoration of the electric guitar. While Guggenheim tries to interweave their stories, their backgrounds are so different that it feels at times like three parallel documentaries crudely tacked together.
The heart of the movie is “the summit” where the three swap stories and jam together in a studio. This is what makes it worth watching as the mutual respect is a joy to behold.
White and The Edge come across as personable and dedicated to their craft but it is Jimmy Page who stands out as the real star, so much so that I would have happily watched a whole documentary just about him.
Currently the whole music can be seen on You Tube:
