Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues

I am a fan of the blues besides all types of music. However, if someone is new to the blues, this book is more of a companion book to the DVD. I do have the DVD obtained from PBS and they do not sell the book. By the way, the book has great photographs.

Love the book, however, it was damaged in shipping

This a great addition to the DVD set that he did and a real great reference book on the story of the Blues.This book does not require the DVDS and stands alone as a foundation reference to the real story .This is highlighted by the MUlti faceted focus on the music and the individuals that shaped and defined this genre from it's earliest beginnings.Excellent blues book.

I thought this was a very entertaining book with good historical information as well as opinions and blues stories from people who lived or worked with the blues.The problem I had with this book started with how it was organized. It was not organized chronologically or by artist, but by article. Therefore, a particular artist could be mentioned in several articles in the book, but there was no index to look up which pages the artist was mentioned on!As an example, I wanted to know more about Elmore James, but unless I thumb through the book, page by page, there was no way to know where Elmore James was mentioned.This book did not have an index! Even with all of the good information, not having and index was a fatal flaw. I gave this book four stars for the information and two stars for being poorly organized and not having an index.

Full of factoids and tidbits. Easy read. Could use another proofread for "typesetting". Overall, a worthwhile way to spend some time.

Some new blues insights and perspectives in this companion to the Martin Scorcese PBS mini-series.

Very happy with the product we received.

I bought this because I am a huge blues enthusiast. This is like watching paint dry! It has so many facts which I do want to know but it is long, and drawn out, and can be repetitive most of the time. This was written to go with a movie/dvd so I think that is the real problem that you don't get the actual commentary and you kind of have to figure out what is going on within the book on your own alot. I will go back to it in doses!!

I delayed buying this as it sounded like one of those spin off publications released to screw a few more quid out of those who'd bought the movies. It isn't. Instead its a collection of extracts and articles about a a wide variety of blues artists and blues history. Many of the former are taken from previous books and magazines but there is alsomuch new material. Usefully, for those of us with more blues books than we can remember, old and new are clearly identified in the text. The former entries, marked from the archives, feature many of the classic authors, Guralnick,Oliver, Booth, Gordon etc. and should encourage newcomers to seek them out, and the rest of us to take them off the shelf. There is plenty to enjoy in the new contributions too.While the book takes its structure from the movies the only references to them comes at the start of each chapter with a short, and usually informative, contribution from the director. Wenders is disarmingly honest and made me a bit more sympathetic to his film, Charles Burnett confirms my poor impression of his. (Since I read the book in parallel with re-watching the movies I've reviewed these separately under their own titles for those interested.)Each subsequent chapter then groups relevant items around the subject matter, e.g. Delta, Chicago, piano players etc.This is both entertaining and consistently informative, I wish the movies were all as good. There is a brief half hearted attempt at recommending cds at the end of each chapter which is idiosyncratic and at times downright misleading, however as an intelligent introduction to blues literature the book comes highly recommended.

so far so good but not fully finished it yet

Really great book. Bought it as a companion to the DVD set. This gives you extra, different and move info. If you like the blues then give it a go.

A worthwhile book to add to the DVD set

as described, partner really pleased with it. Came sooner than expected.

A great price, a welcome addition to my DVD set.

Classic blues book, a fantastic read!, no issues. Thank you.

Wonderful, personal account. Goes well with the PBS series.

so wie der film-regisseur steven spielberg sein geld dafür einsetzte, eine dokumentation des holocaust mit einer langen interview-reihe der überlebenden für sein film-archiv anzulegen, so setzte sich der berühmte regisseur martin scorsese für die dokumentation der anfänge des blues ein - und lieferte somit einen weiteren baustein beim festhalten einer geschichte der gitarre des letzten jahrhunderts; sicherlich tröstlicher als die schockierende dokumentation der juden-verfolgung - aber immerhin: auch die blues-musik ist letztendlich als ergebnis von verschleppung und unmenschlicher, rassisitischer behandlung zu verstehen. natürlich kommt in den blues-songs nicht nur leid zum tragen - sondern auch lebensfreude, die technik einer überwindung von unterdrückung und umgestaltung in mutgebende rhythmik und dynamik. martin scorsese unterstütze sammel-CD's zu den blues-veteranen robert johnson, son house, leadbelly, taj mahal, keb'mo', stevie ray vaughan etc. - er editierte eine film-reihe zu diesem thema, diverse weitere blues-anthologien - und diese hier nun als buch-ergänzung vorliegende, zwar english-sprachige aber für den interessierten sicherlich leicht zu durchfliegende text-publikation (bereichert auch durch essays von ko-autoren oder fotografisch perfekt eingefangenen stimmungs-dokumenten)...

lots of technical info a difficult read keeping all these facts in my head at once in chronological order in influential order in who came from where order may take as long as the story of the blues,theres a song in there somewhere.