All Time Favorite Music Documentaries (and a Few That Are Not Documentaries)
A list of 101 music films I recommend. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some good ones, but these are not all that I’ve seen, just all that I’d recommend.
In no particular order…
1. Depeche Mode 101
2. Kelly Jones: Don’t Let the Devil Take Another Day
3. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (The Ramones)
4. Creation Stories (Alan McGee)
5. Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
6. Coal Miner’s Daughter
7. 20,000 Days on Earth (Nick Cave)
8. One More Time with Feeling (Nick Cave)
9. If I Shall Fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story
10. The Decline of Western Civilization
11. Filmage (Descendents/ALL)
12. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream
13. Where Are You, Jay Bennett?
14. The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon
15. The Rise of the Synths
16. Another State of Mind
17. American Hardcore
18. The Public Image is Rotten (John Lydon)
19. Be Here to Love Me (Townes Van Zandt)
20. Betty Blowtorch & Her True Life Adventures
21. John Waite: The Hard Way
22. Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me to Be?
23. God Bless Ozzy Osbourne
24. Autoluminescent (Rowland S. Howard)
25. In Search of Mozart
26. Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk in NYC
27. Karen Dalton: In My Own Time
28. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
29. Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape
30. The Godfathers of Hardcore (Agnostic Front)
31. Score: A Film Music Documentary
32. The Death and Resurrection Show (Killing Joke)
33. Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records
34. Joy Division
35. This Much I Know to Be True (Nick Cave)
36. This is GWAR
37. Here to Be Heard – The Story of the Slits
38. Hit So Hard (Patty Schemel)
39. Clockwork Orange County
40. You Weren’t There – A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984
41. D.O.A. Rite of Passage
42. Montage of Heck (Kurt Cobain)
43. Stiv: No Compromise No Regrets
44. The Filth and the Fury (Sex Pistols)
45. Randy Rhodes: Reflections of a Guitar Icon
46. Kisstory
47. The Ventures: Stars on Guitars
48. Looking for Johnny: The Legend of Johnny Thunders
49. It’s So Easy and Other Lies (Duff McKagan)
50. Morphine: Journey of Dreams
51. The Jesus Music
52. The Wrecking Crew
53. Muscle Shoals
54. Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road
55. A Fat Wreck
56. Tennessee Whiskey: The Dean Dillon Story
57. Grant Hart – Every Everything
58. Phil Lynott – Songs for While I’m Away
59. Bob and the Monster
60. Mourning Son (Dave Navarro)
61. Let’s Get Lost (Chet Baker)
62. The Jam – About the Young Idea
63. Get Thrashed! The Story of Thrash Metal
64. Echo in the Canyon
65. Dig! (The Dandy Warhols)
66. Don’t Look Back (Bob Dylan)
67. Ghost on the Highway (Jeffrey Lee Piece)
68. Sound City
69. Back and Fourth (Foo Fighters)
70. Until the Light Takes Us
71. X: The Unheard Music
72. Rumble (Native Americans in rock)
73. No Direction Home (Bob Dylan)
74. The Punk Singer (Kathleen Hanna)
75. All Things Must Pass (Tower Records)
76. Super Duper Alice Cooper
77. Hired Gun
78. Supersonic (Oasis)
79. Once Were Brothers (Robbie Robertson)
80. PJ20 (Pearl Jam)
81. Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk
82. Made of Stone (Stone Roses)
83. Rattle and Hum (U2)
84. History of the Eagles
85. ’68 Comeback Special (Elvis)
86. American Roots Music
87. The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead
88. Edgeplay: A Film about the Runaways
89. The Go-Gos
90. The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir
91. The Search for Robert Johnson
92. Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
93. David Foster: Off the Record
94. Color Me Obsessed (the Replacements)
95. Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars
96. Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99
97. Lemmy
98. Gimme Danger (the Stooges)
99. Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies
100. New York Doll (Arthur Killer Kane)
101. Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm