Velvet Underground Under Review & The Yardbirds Documentary

The Yardbirds: Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja, Keith Relf,
Jimmy Page, & Jeff Beck

My giant, 5' wide canvas is desperately seeking a subject. I had decided to find my reference for paintings from video. I am concerned that a lot of other people may have painted from the same photo, and also about copyright issues.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on. It depends on the reference available. What I want to get at is the relationship between musician and instrument--and hopefully, what is going on inside the musician.

So I upped my Netflix to three at a time and got out The Velvet Underground Under Review and The Yardbirds Documentary aka The Story of the Yardbirds. That may sound a little mixed up, but I have tattoos about The Velvet Underground on my arms (Though they have a double meaning. You may as well call one Wild Bill Thompson. And the other 03-20-10.) and a picture of the Yardbirds--Clapton--on inside of my apartment door.

The Velvet Underground
with Nico and Andy

The Velvet Underground Under Review claimed to have lots of rare footage. It was mostly footage of the band hanging around. I wanted to see them playing. There was also lots of stock footage. What I thought was really interesting was the interview with a young guitar player who explained the construction of the Velvets songs. There was also extensive interviews with Billy Name, who made some of the record covers.  Another big negative was that John Cale and Lou Reed did not participate in the making of this documentary, not even in interviews.


The Story of the Yardbirds had a great deal more footage of the band actually playing. There were extensive interviews with everyone in the band, including Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. There was a lot more footage of Beck than Page, but I think Beck had been in the band longer. It's less than an hour long, but gives a good picture of the shortlived band and its scene. There were also interviews with some band management.  I got a lot of images from this, mostly of Jeff Beck. I highly recommend this video.

I am still not sure who will get the first big canvas. I have some Led Zeppelin documentaries next on my Netflix queue. If I paint a giant Jimmy Page from those, it can't be like the standard. And in about 5 minutes I am going to run The Story of the Yardbirds again. I am hoping I missed some pre-slut Page images in there.
Update: I didn't check out the bonus tracks before. I am always cynical about "bonus" anything. It was great! 15 minutes of the the Jimmy Page Yardbirds playing on Germany's Beat Beat Beat tv show. High quality footage. Double recommend!