Count Me In is a Netflix documentary about rock drummers.
Photo: Netflix
Dan Slevin: I was talking to a film reviewer colleague the other day and we were discussing whether we are in a golden age for documentaries.
It certainly seems like it but even if we just take the subset of music documentaries, the riches are many and varied. Especially for those boomer documentaries that focus on music from the 60s. They're coming out our ears and you can tell that there is a pressure to get these stories told before the participants disappear.
One recommendation I'd certainly make on that score is the two-parter Laurel Canyon on DocPlay which takes a reasonably deep look at the entire community of singer/songwriters who formed around cheap semi-rural housing just a ten-minute drive away from Hollywood Boulevard and the Troubador Club.
Netflix has an excellent selection of documentaries about music - 'excellent selection' not always being something you can say about that service. Dolly Parton's Here I Am is a great watch about a magnificent human being, and there are terrific films about Lady Gaga, Nina Simone, Quincy Jones and Miles Davis.
They also have a series called This is Pop, which we are slowly working through, where each episode takes on a different topic from recent pop history: the rise of the R&B boy bands in the early 90s, Auto-tune, the merging of country and pop and the post-ABBA influence of Sweden on the hit parades of the world.
And on Apple TV Plus, there's a series called 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything which also contains eight episodes and is made by the director of Senna, Amy and Maradona, Asif Kapadia.
While we are all in some form of lockdown, longer can sometimes be better but there's a shorter subject I want to recommend today, an 80-minute diversion about the world of rock drummers with the fantastic title, Count Me In.
Count Me In features a cavalcade of drummers talking about their art, including Stewart Copeland from The Police, Emily Dolan Davis from The Darkness, Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Topper Headon from The Clash. My favourite is the lovely Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden who we heard from at the top of the show. All of them are insightful about their contribution to their bands and wonderfully admiring of the work of other drummers playing in different genres.
It shouldn't be surprising, but it is, realising how many heavy rock drummers - like McBrain or Ian Paice from Deep Purple or Stephen Perkins from Jane's Addiction, fell in love with drumming by watching jazz greats like Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Joe Morello and how that sensibility still informs their playing, even if it's hard to find under all the hard rock ballistics.
The film is at its best when it focuses on the music itself and the players' analysis of their art form, but it occasionally drifts into distractions and side issues - life on the road as a young drummer in your first band, an extended and unnecessary diversion into the tabloid life of The Who's Keith Moon which adds nothing much to our understanding of his musicianship.
There are also unexpected insights into the domestic lifestyles of these players: does Nick Mason really have a vintage Formula One car in his lounge? Ian Paice sitting in his farmhouse kitchen putting another log on the fire. Rat Scabies from The Damned appears to live in a pub.
Members of the drummers union will enjoy Count Me In but, like me, you'll be left wanting more but it's fitting - and entirely coincidental I think - that it should arrive on screens in the same week that we lost the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts. The outpouring of love and respect for Charlie has also helped shine a light on those guys and girls who spend their working lives looking at the backs of their colleagues from 20 feet away.
Count Me In is rated 13+ and it's streaming on Netflix now.
