All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music
All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music | |
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Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Tony Palmer |
Starring | Various performing artists and music experts |
Country of origin |
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Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 17 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Richard Pilbrow |
Producer | Neville C. Thompson |
Editors |
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Running time | 60 min. per episode |
Production company | London Weekend Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | February 12[1] – June 4, 1977 [1] |
All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music is the name of a 17-part television documentary series on the history of modern
All You Need Is Love was born out of the reaction to his 1968
John Lennon was a friend and mentor to Palmer during the production of the series,[5] and its title is taken from the Lennon-penned 1967 Beatles song, "All You Need Is Love". Although punk rock had entered the pop music scene while the series was being constructed, Palmer was refused the funding and time to include the genre in All You Need Is Love.[5]
Episodes
The fifteen-hour-long documentary features interviews and performances (both archived and original footage) involving such notable acts as Bing Crosby, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Leonard Cohen, Ike & Tina Turner and many others.
The series features a rare interview with the notoriously reclusive 1960s record producer Phil Spector. During his segment, a visibly intoxicated Spector performs an impromptu version of "Then I Kissed Her" solo and acoustic in his mansion home, a song which he originally wrote and produced for The Crystals in 1963. Palmer would later reveal that he had been coaxed into playing Russian roulette with Spector during the course of the evening.[5]
The series features the only interview ever given by the mother of Beatles
A companion book authored by Palmer was released in 1976 by Grossman Publishers/Viking Press. The book notes that the series was jointly produced by Theatre Projects Film Productions, EMI Television Productions and PolyGram.
A five-disc DVD of the series was released in 2008.[1]
Reviews and criticism
The film's DVD release's cover cited reviews from a handful of noteworthy musicians: John Lennon called the film "A monumental achievement" and thanked Palmer for creating the series; Bing Crosby hailed its editing and deemed it a "priceless archive"; and Pete Seeger said that "its colossal emotional, intellectual and history range is breathtaking."
All You Need Is Love was given an "A" rating by
This documentary has been criticized for having a bias towards rock music.[8] Disco music was completely ignored, as were most popular artists from the pre-rock music era who were not associated with being a precursor to rock music.[9]
When the "Mighty Good:
References
- ^ a b c "All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music": Tony Palmer's 17-part UK TV docu-series-Night Flight
- ^ DVDs: In 'All You Need Is Love,' Tony Palmer goes on a magical tour of music-cleveland.com
- Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ OCLC 2966925
- ^ ISSN 0140-0460, retrieved August 22, 2008
- ^ Tucker, Ken (May 30, 2008), "DVD Review: All You Need Is Love (2008)", Entertainment Weekly, New York, New York
- ^ a b Palmer, Tony. "Tony Palmer Reviews: All You Need Is Love". tonypalmer.org. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ Bob Stanley on Tony Palmer's film All You Need is Love-Film-The Guardian
- ISBN 978-1136311031. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- ^ "FILM REVIEW: All You Need is Love — the Beatles « Bring the Noise UK". Archived from the original on April 2, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.