American Masters
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
Bob Dylan participates for the first time in an exclusive, full- length film biography. From his explosive arrival on the downtown New York City scene in 1961 - with a raspy voice, pounding guitar and stunning lyrics - through his near-fatal motorcycle accident in Woodstock in 1966, no one had more of an impact and no one changed the landscape of contemporary music more profoundly. Private, almost reclusive, disdainful of customary forms of publicity, Dylan has now agreed to make an appearance in his own story, illuminated in particular by this remarkable five-year period. Directed by Martin Scorsese, this intimate and incomparable film includes an archive of never-before-seen footage from childhood, from the road and from backstage, as well as unreleased interviews conducted over the past 15 years with other seminal figures from those times - some of whom, like Allan Ginsberg, are long dead.
Great Performances
John Lennon's Jukebox
This program is a glimpse inside the musical development of one of the 20th century's greatest songwriters: John Lennon's personal, portable jukebox from the early 1960s. Its track list, scrawled in Lennon's own handwriting, cataloged 41 records of American soul, R&B and rock 'n' roll -- the songs that inspired his rock 'n' roll dreams and that ultimately shaped the Beatles' sound. Narrated by Lennon himself, via archival radio interviews, this performance-documentary takes the jukebox on tour to meet some of the artists whom Lennon strove to emulate as a young rocker. On the way, viewers are treated to visits with The Isley Brothers, whose screaming vocals resurfaced in Twist and Shout; blues guitarist Bobby Parker, whose classic guitar lick figured in I Feel Fine; Delbert McClinton, whose harmonica inspired Lennon's arrangement of Love Me Do; and Donovan, whose folk fingerpicking style Lennon employed in Dear Prudence.
Best of the Beatles
These programs recount the untold story of the world's most famous band's formative years, as seen through the eyes of original Beatles drummer Pete Best. Viewers learn the truth about events in Liverpool and Hamburg at the time when the band was in the vanguard of popular music, and how it all went horribly wrong for Best, just as the Fab Four grasped the golden apple. For the first time, audiences hear of Best's pivotal role in forming the Beatles and his survival of a very public nightmare.
Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest
By the second half of the 20th century, American popular music had become a dominant force in world culture. Many artists spoke out in song, harnessing the power of music to convey social dissatisfaction and political protest. The civil rights movement and the politicization of the baby boomer generation during the Vietnam War propelled protest music to the heights of mainstream culture. This program chronicles in song this phenomenon; the critics and the singer/songwriters themselves explain its history. The musical documentary acknowledges the commitment of individual artists, identifies the major trends that emerged within the past century and examines the issues that surrounded them.
Sixties: The Years that Shaped a Generation
The 1960s were years of change, experimentation and hope that transformed a nation. This two-hour film chronicles this era of widespread democratic activism and provocative music, focusing on critical events, from civil rights to the women's liberation movement, the youth counter-culture and the Vietnam War. Through film footage, rare archival photographs and interviews with historians, critics, participants and those on both sides of the generation gap, the documentary captures the electricity, fervor and anger of an era full of great hope and turmoil. And it reflects on the enormous changes that swept the globe during that time and profiles the coming of age of the baby boomers.
