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Ahmet Ertegun

So I was sent a review copy of an American Masters documentary on Ahmet Ertegun, who co-founded Atlantic Records in 1947 and built it into one of the biggest independent record labels of the ’50s (before selling it to Warner Brothers in 1967, but he still ran it until his death last year). I watched it yesterday because I had to get my review posted.

As I wrote in the review, it’s slow in spots. What I didn’t say is that the review copy is extremely rough, so I wonder if the pacing problems came about because they hadn’t tightened all the cuts for the final edit. Even so, this does not make up for the last 20 minutes or so, where the narration spins its wheels repeating things ad nauseam and showing clips from Kid Rock that are supposed to lead us to believe he’ll be recognized like Ray Charles in 50 years.

But you know, it’s kind of stuck with me. It’s not trying to be inspirational, but that’s the best kind of inspiration, isn’t it? We just get a profile of a man who loved music and took his passion to the next level. He wrote a whole bunch of hits in the ’50s without anything like a technical knowledge of music or an ability to play the piano; he just knew, by instinct, beating his foot to a drum beat and belting out a melody. They made a point of showing us Ertegun stood out — and why Atlantic outlasted all the early independents, to the extent that they ended up buying most of them up) — because of that passion.

While most other labels were (and are) run by people who think they understand what will sell, Ertegun just tried to sell what he liked, because he assumed everyone else would, too; lucky for him, they did. I have to admire that. I also have to admire that, into his 80s, the man still has more energy and enthusiasm than most popular musicians. If you’re a music fan, check your PBS listings. They rerun shit all the time, and it’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it.

Also, Robert Plant has reached a point where he looks like those creatures from Where the Wild Things Are.

Posted by Stan on May 2, 2007 10:47 PM  | Permalink | Reviews | Digg It