It Might Get Loud

Ahhh, the rockumentary. I’m old enough to have seen The Song Remains the Same and Tommy in the theater. And I thoroughly enjoyed Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors…those were the days, when Classic Rock was contemporary.

OK, so it’s been a while. So I thought I’d take my son, who’s just at the age to discover music, to see It Might Get Loud. It was a good parent-kid experience, especially since it can be a challenge for a parent to connect with their teenager at times.

The movie is anchored by a gathering between Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and Jack White of the White Stripes. They come together to share their individual experiences of their musical beginnings, their unique electric guitar knowledge and experience, and the paths of their careers.

These guys get pretty technical over the electric qualities of their guitars and how they use the electric nature to carve out their own individual sounds. That appeals to the tech-head in me and I can’t say it’s anything I had really thought of while listening to Where the Streets Have No Name. Of course, when you hear and see Jimmy Page playing his double-neck with a bow, not to mention a theramin, you get the idea that they love to experiment with electricity. Add to the gathering that they jam together on some numbers and it is pretty fun.

Interspersed with the gathering, we get vignettes of each artists life: Pages idyllic English country estate and his voluminous vinyl collection, The Edge’s beach studio with stacks of demo tapes, and an upholstery shop in Detroit where Jack White’s first band, The Upholsterers, got its name. Each tells a bit of their family history, what was going on in the world of music, and the world of politics, that formed their styles. We learn about The Edge’s writing debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday and his emotions of the time in Northern Ireland. We learn how Led Zeppelin achieved the uniquely huge drum sounds of When the Levy Breaks. And we learn about Jack White’s love for Blues roots and how he incorporates them into his punk sound. For me, there were moments of ‘I remember that’ and moments of ‘I didn’t know that.’

What I found different and refreshing about this rockumentary is that it wasn’t simply a concert performance with some outtake interviews of members of one band. It was more about the guitar and the players’ experience with that instrument. It was about coming together as musicians and learning from other accomplished musicians.

The ending song by the trio, the Band’s The Weight was a lot of fun…especially when Jimmy revealed ‘I can’t sing.’