Motor City's Burning: Detroit From Motown To The Stooges
BBC Four
Another great slice of rock history from BBC Four, this time running through Detroit's musical legacy.
It's only an hour, so there's a pretty snappy line drawn from the early Motown factory, via the MC5, George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic, Iggy and the Stooges and on to Alice Cooper. There's no time for Detroit's electronic pioneers - Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin or Underground Resistance etc etc - so we end with the White Stripes and Eminem, which is a real shame as the techno side of things (esp UR) would have fitted the story of factory-inspired revolutionary music more than the Stripes.
That said, if you're in the mood for footage of Iggy smearing himself with peanut butter, or Stevie Wonder sitting in a control booth with the world's biggest synths, or George Clinton looking like Mr T (probably the other way round chronologically, thinking about it) then this is the show for you - there's even some FBI footage of the MC5 on stage.
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7th Feb 2008 - Tumblr
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