Full disclosure: I'm a huge Springsteen fan, going back to the Wild/Innocent days. His music - some of it great, some of it not so much - has followed me through most of my life, and is a touchstone for countless memories. I've only seen him live 4 times (that's not much by Springsteen standards) so I was psyched to finally get to peek behind the creative curtain and witness the recording of "Letter to You".
To call this a documentary is fairly misleading. Yes, it features behind-the-scenes footage of the recording sessions, interspersed with voice-over montages featuring old clips and photos. There are some snippets of Bruce teaching the band the basic structure of the new songs, a few false starts as they rehearse, some give and take with the recording engineers and musicians about how the song should go, sharing memories about growing up, etc. And that's all really good stuff.
But when they get to the actual songs, what we see and hear are not the same. We SEE clips of the band playing live, but we HEAR the released/mixed version of the song from the CD. Sometimes this works - especially when it focuses on Bruce singing ("One Minute You're Here" is absolutely riveting) - but other times the disconnect is just jarring. Max's drum hits and cymbal crashes are often totally out of sync. Stevie and Nils are playing riffs that don't look anything like what we hear. This doesn't happen all the time. Some tracks are pretty close to being in sync, but other times it's so out of sync you're taken totally out of the song. Once I noticed, I couldn't stop looking for it, which spoiled the enjoyment for me. A few times I just closed my eyes so I could listen to the music undistracted.
I'm glad I watched it for the "real" parts, but overall disappointed at the rest. I would have much preferred raw, unmixed live versions of these deeply moving songs. It's too bad, this could have been a real revelation into the creative process.
To call this a documentary is fairly misleading. Yes, it features behind-the-scenes footage of the recording sessions, interspersed with voice-over montages featuring old clips and photos. There are some snippets of Bruce teaching the band the basic structure of the new songs, a few false starts as they rehearse, some give and take with the recording engineers and musicians about how the song should go, sharing memories about growing up, etc. And that's all really good stuff.
But when they get to the actual songs, what we see and hear are not the same. We SEE clips of the band playing live, but we HEAR the released/mixed version of the song from the CD. Sometimes this works - especially when it focuses on Bruce singing ("One Minute You're Here" is absolutely riveting) - but other times the disconnect is just jarring. Max's drum hits and cymbal crashes are often totally out of sync. Stevie and Nils are playing riffs that don't look anything like what we hear. This doesn't happen all the time. Some tracks are pretty close to being in sync, but other times it's so out of sync you're taken totally out of the song. Once I noticed, I couldn't stop looking for it, which spoiled the enjoyment for me. A few times I just closed my eyes so I could listen to the music undistracted.
I'm glad I watched it for the "real" parts, but overall disappointed at the rest. I would have much preferred raw, unmixed live versions of these deeply moving songs. It's too bad, this could have been a real revelation into the creative process.