275 Rockumentaries
Compiled by Chris Fralic over many years but mostly since 2020. I like music and I like documentaries, and I've been keeping a list of all the good music documentaries or "rockumentaries" that I've seen. Going into lockdown on March 13th 2020 I decided to share a version that contained 90 music documentaries, and that seemed like a lot at the time. I got a lot of feedback including ones that I still needed to watch, and since I had some extra time that year, it's now reached these "good to great" ones that I definitely recommend. Most are easy to find, but some are really hard to track down - and that is part of the fun. What am I missing? Let me know here.
BEST OF THE BEST (10)
The Black Godfather (The story of Clarence Avant)
Beware of Mr. Baker (Cream drummer Ginger Baker)
The Beatles Get Back (2021)
Defiant Ones (Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine)
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music
Laurel Canyon - A Place In Time
Muscle Shoals (a special place for music in Alabama)
Runnin' Down a Dream (Tom Petty)
Quincy (Quincy Jones)
1971 (2021 Documentary)
GREAT - THE NEXT BEST (10)
David Crosby: Remember My Name
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives
Amazing Grace (Aretha Franklin)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
It Might Get Loud - Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White
Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story
Rumble - The Indians Who Rocked The World
Summer of Soul (Directed by Questlove)
TINA: Tina Turner
ZZ Top: That Little Old Band from Texas
GOOD TO VERY GOOD - WATCH IF YOU LIKE THE ARTIST (255)
1991: The Year Punk Broke (Sonic Youth, Nirvana, etc)
20 Feet From Stardom (Backup Singers)
808 (history of the Roland TR-808 synthesizer)
A-Ha The Movie
If These Walls Could Sing (Abbey Road Studios)
All the Streets are Silent - NYC Hip Hop and Skating scene
Aerosmith - The Making of Pump
Laurie Anderson Homeland
The Apollo (history of NYC's Apollo Theater)
Air Guitar Nation
Allman Brothers - After the Crash
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
A Song For You - the Austin City Limits story
May it Last - (A Portrait of the Avett Brothers)
Bad Company
The Last Waltz (The Band)
Once Were Brothers - Robbie Robertson and The Band
Pet Sounds (Beach Boys Classic Albums w/ Brian Wilson, Wrecking Crew**)**
The Beastie Boys Story
Awesome; I F*in' Shot That! - Beastie Boys
Beatles - Eight Days A Week
Joan Baez and BB King at Sing Sing (by David Hoffman)
Jeff Beck - Still On The Run
The Bee Gees - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?
BANG: The Bert Berns Story
Homecoming (Beyonce)
Biggie - I Got A Srory To Twll
Blue Note Records - Beyond The Notes
Born to Boogie (Marc Bolan and T. Rex)
Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful
Cracked Actor: A Film About David Bowie
David Bowie: Last 5 Years
David Bowie: Finding Fame
David Bowie - Serious Moonlight
Bowie: The Man Who Changed the World
The Sigma Kids (David Bowie making Young America at Sigma Studios in Philadelphia)
Moonage Daydream ****- David Bowie
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown
Jackson Browne: Going Home
Jeff Buckley: Fall In Light
Buena Vista Social Club
David Byrne’s American Utopia
Glenn Campbell: I'll Be Me
Jimmy Carter - Rock and Roll President
Tricky Dick and the Man in Black (Johnny Cash and Richard Nixon)
20,000 Days On Earth - Nick Cave
A Life In Waves (electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani)
Rise and Fall of The Clash
Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am
Dave Chapelle’s Block Party
Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago
The Last Band On Stage - Chicago
Eric Clapton - A Life in 12 bars
Coachella: 20 years in the desert
Record Safari - Digging in the Crates of America (Coachella Record Store Guy)
Cobain: Montage of Heck (Kurt Cobain of Nirvana)
Leonard Cohen - I’m Your Man
Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams
Chasing Trane (John Coltrane)
Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul
The Two Killings of Sam Cooke
Super Duper Alice Cooper
Credence Clearwater Revival - Traveling Band on the way to Royal Albert Hall
CREEM: America’s Only Rock Magazine
Crowded House: Farewell to the World
Crowded House: I Like To Watch
CSNY: Fifty by Four (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)
A Tuba to Cuba - Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
A Band Called Death
DEVO: The complete truth about DE-EVOLUTION
Dig! The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massicre
Count Me In (Drummers)
Doobie Brothers - Let The Music Play
When You're Strange (The Doors)
The Decline of Western Civilization (the birth of punk in 3 parts)
Depeche Mode 101
Freakscene - The Story of Dinosaur Jr.
Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know
Don’t Look Back - (Bob Dylan)
No Direction Home (Bob Dylan)
Rolling Thunder Review: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorcese
History of the Eagles (Part One and Two)
Echo in the Canyon
Billie Eilish - The World’s A Little Blurry
Brian Eno - 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell To Earth
Finding Fela
Festival Express (1970 Canadian Rail Rock Show)
Danny Says (Danny Field managed Doors, Lou Reed, Ramones)
The Story of Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac Rumours (Classic Albums)
Like a Rolling Stone (magazine) - Ben Fong-Torres
Foo Fighters: Back and Forth
David Foster - Off The Record
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (Story of the backup band The Funk Brothers)
Music Box: Listening to Kenny G
Gaga: Five Foot Two
Inventing David Geffen
Genesis: Sum of the Parts
Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away
The Go-Go's
Supermensch - the Legend of Shep Gordon
Long Strange Trip (Grateful Dead)
George Harrison : Living in the Material World
Concert for George (George Harrison)
Blondie's New York and the Making of Parallel Lines (Debbie Harry)
Imogen Heap - Everything In Between
Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child
Jimi Hendrix: At Last... The Beginning: The Making Of Electric Ladyland
HIP HOP - THE SONGS THAT SHOOK AMERICA
Hired Gun (“first call, A-list” musicians)
Jaco (Jaco Pastorius, the greatest bass player ever)
Being Mick: You Would If You Could (Mick Jagger)
Bitchin - The Sound and Fury of Rick James (ADD IN ORDER)
Jazz - Ken Burns
Bad Reputation (Joan Jett)
Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust
ReMastered: Devil at the crossroads (Robert Johnson Story)
Janis: Little Girl Blue (Janis Joplin)
Chasing Happiness (Jonas Brothers)
Carole King: Natural Woman
The Kinks: Life on the Road
American Dream / American Knightmare (Suge Knight Story)
Shut Up and Play the Hits - LCD SoundSystem
The Song Remains the Same (Led Zeppelin)
Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused
The U.S Versus John Lennon
The Lost Weekend: A Love Story John Lennon and May Pang
Lemmy (Motorhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister)
John and Yoko - Above Us Only Sky (John Lennon)
LCD SoundSystem - Shut Up and Play The Hits
Gordon Lightfoot - if you could read my mind
Lynyrd Skynyrd - If I Leave Here Tomorrow
Truth or Dare - Madonna
Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend
Who Shot The Sheriff? (Bob Marley)
Produced by George Martin (Beatles and much more)
McCartney 3,2,1 Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin
John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken
Melody Makers: Should have been there! Photographer Barrie Wentzell story and pics
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart & Mind
Once In A Lifetime Sessions - Moby
Monterey Pop
The Importance of Being Morrissey
Music Box - Jagged (Alanis Morisette)
Hitsville - The Making of Motown
Mumford & Sons - We Wrote This Yesterday
It All Begins With A Song - The Story of the Nashville Songwriter
Mistaken for Strangers (The Nationals roadie brother)
New Order: Decades
New York Doll (Arthur “Killer” Kane) - New York Dolls
Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)
Gary Numan: Android in La La Land
Nothing Compares - Sinead O’Connor
Oasis Knebworth 1996
Oasis: Supersonic
God Bless Ozzy Osborne
Other Music Documentary of NYC store
Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape (History of the cassette with inventor Lou Otten)
Dolly Parton - Queen of Country
Here I Am - Dolly Parton
I Am What I Play (story of rock radio with 4 DJs)
Pearl Jam 20 (by Cameron Crowe)
Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers
Philadelphia: The Way It Was (Val Shively, Jerry Blavet, Billy Harner)
P!nk: All I Know So Far
Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii Director’s Cut
Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon (Classic Albums)
Pink Floyd The Story of Wish You Were Here
Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police (from Andy Summers)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
The Public Image is Rotten
Funky Monks - Red Hot Chili Peppers making of Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart
Lou Reed: Transformer (Classic Albums)
Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements
Keith Richards: Under the Influence
Take Me To The River (the Memphis music scene)
Long Live Rock - Celebrate the Chaos (hardcore metal and their fans)
Rock Camp
Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm
Searching for Sugar Man (the search for mysterious '70s artist Rodriguez)
Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
In Exile - Rolling Stones
Crossfire Hurricane (Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary)
Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones at Altamont)
Shine a Light - Rolling Stones (Scorsese at Beacon 2008)
The Rolling Stones Ole Ole Ole: A trip across Latin America (and Cuba)
Rolling Stones - Cocksucker Blues
Rolling Stone (magazine) - Stories from the Edge (2018)
Watch The Sound with Mark Ronson (6 episodes)
Linda Ronstadt - The Sound of my Voice
More Than This - Roxy Music
Shangri-la: Rick Rubin documentary
Todd Rundgren Healing (filmed at The Franklin Institute)
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
A Poem is a Naked Person (Leon Russell)
Scratch (history of DJs)
Sinatra - All or Nothing at All
Sinatra in Palm Springs
Sisters with Transistors - Electronic Music’s Unsung Heroines
Slash: Raised on Sunset Strip
Patti Smith: ****Dream of Life
Sound City (LA Sound Studio with David Grohl)
The Sparks Brothers
The Story of Rod Stewart
Gimme Danger (the story of The Stooges and Iggy Pop)
Springsteen and I
Springsteen on Broadway
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You
Western Stars - Bruce Springsteen
Mavis! (Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers)
Steely Dan: Aja (Classic Albums)
Note By Note - The Making of Steinway L1037
Bring On The Night (Sting)
Sting - All This Time (preparing for concert on Sept 11 2001)
Style Wars (the story of Graffiti and Hip Hop and Break Dancing in 1982 NYC)
Miss Americana (Taylor Swift)
folklore: the long pond studio sessions (Taylor Swift)
Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads)
The T.A.M.I. Show (1964 TV special)
Thin Lizzy - Rocker On The Loose (featuring Phil Lynott)
Timbuk 3 - Espace Ornano
Beats, Rhymes and Life - ****The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
All Things Must Pass (The Tower Records story)
Steven Tyler - Out on a Limb
Rattle and Hum - U2
The US Festival 1982: The US Generation Documentary (Steve Wozniak, Bill Graham concert)
Lost Weekend - Partying with Van Halen (Tribeca Short Film)
Rise of a Texas Bluesman: Stevie Ray Vaughan 1954-1983
Velvet Underground (2021)
Vinyl Nation (2020 Record Store Day documentary by Kevin Smokler)
Louden Wainwright III Surviving Twin
Scott Walker - 30th Century Man
His Way - The Jerry Weintraub Story
The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir
The Kids are Alright (The Who)
Quadrophenia - Can You See The Real Me? (The Who)
Lambert and Stamp - (Managers of The Who)
Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Brian Wilson - Long Promised Road
Amy (Amy Winehouse)
Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything
Woodstock 99 - Peace, Love and Rage
**The Wrecking Crew (**LA session musicians)
The Quiet One (Bill Wyman of ****the Rolling Stones)
XTC At The Manor (1980 BBC)
YesYears
Neil Young’s Music Box: Here We Are In The Years
Roxy: The Movie (Frank Zappa)
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words
Zappa (2020)