Shangri La - Rick Rubin
Posted: 18 Jul 2019, 09:08
I watched the first episode last night. For background, Rubin bought the old Shangri La studio as seen in the Last Waltz and it's now his own zen master studio where artists come to sit at his bare feet and record music. He's made a documentary series about it.
It's daubed with a bit of self deprecation but extremely self serving. Rubin sees himself as this godly conduit between the artist and the music, but says "this place" instead of himself so he doesn't sound like Charles manson. It's enough to keep watching.
A few observations :
Is Robbie Robertson OK? He seemed out of it, overweight and slurring his words. He doesn't look good. There was one moment where he saw the old "Band" sign and started to well up, could have been a lovely moment but Rubin talked over him and the moment passed!
Most of the interviews were insufferable, trying to out philosophise each other but David Lynch was great, he loves ZZ Top! They should have given him more time.
Is Rubin a bit of a fraud? A successful hanger on? He's not a producer in the traditional knob twiddling sense. Is he just an Eno type facilitator?
Anyway I'm going to keep watching, it was cringey and hilarious but also with some amazing shots of the coast and old archive footage. I'm hooked.
It's daubed with a bit of self deprecation but extremely self serving. Rubin sees himself as this godly conduit between the artist and the music, but says "this place" instead of himself so he doesn't sound like Charles manson. It's enough to keep watching.
A few observations :
Is Robbie Robertson OK? He seemed out of it, overweight and slurring his words. He doesn't look good. There was one moment where he saw the old "Band" sign and started to well up, could have been a lovely moment but Rubin talked over him and the moment passed!
Most of the interviews were insufferable, trying to out philosophise each other but David Lynch was great, he loves ZZ Top! They should have given him more time.
Is Rubin a bit of a fraud? A successful hanger on? He's not a producer in the traditional knob twiddling sense. Is he just an Eno type facilitator?
Anyway I'm going to keep watching, it was cringey and hilarious but also with some amazing shots of the coast and old archive footage. I'm hooked.