Born in Chicago (2020) User Reviews

A Great Doc About Chicago Blues

[mbluth-15630 · 8/10 · 12 November 2023]

If you grew up in the sixties, and listened to The Butterfield Blues Band, and had your head totally spun around, in amazement, this is a film to watch. It has a lot of Butterfield, Bloomfield, and Bishop, and many more, young lunatic musicians, who learned to play, by playing with the masters. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and the rest. You'll see the Chess Records studio, that was unbelievably important. The Rolling Stones went when they came to America. Their tribute is the track, "2120 South Michigan Avenue".

The film explains how Chicago, became the epicenter of amplified blues.

It's really a great short film. All of 75 minutes.

I stumbled on it on Amazon Prime, but it's actually on FreeVee. It's free and really worth watching.

It's strange how this seems to have been made long ago, and never distributed or aired.

After watching this, go listen to EAST-WEST.

And wonder how the music of today compares.

Interesting from Beginning to End

[labcbaker-25410 · 8/10 · 6 February 2024]

I really enjoyed the documentary. I have heard the music of all the principals here but did not really know the story about how Butterfield, Bloomfield, and the other white bluesman had interacted with the black South-side blues scene in Chicago to be schooled and to ultimately help to ignite a blues revival of sorts in American popular music. I was intrigued enough so that I have sought out more documentary works on these artists. I thought the choice of Dan Aykroyd as narrator blemished the film's message. I guess his connection is his bastardized "Blues Brothers" scripts and performances. I also thought that the film would have been enriched by a more balanced look at the scene. The violence and ghetto are romanticized and of course no mention is made of the self-destructive behavior of any of the musicians. Focusing on their genius is enough to qualify this as very worthwhile.