Agent Palmer

If you’re seeking a feel-good, behind-the-scenes documentary about some Canadian rockers who found continued success despite everything initially stacked against them, set aside some time to watch Simple Plan: The Kids in the Crowd.

Simple Plan didn’t just succeed in a difficult music industry. They gave people a place to belong, started a foundation, and in truth, did more in the time since I last listened to them on their sophomore album than most bands do in a career.

When you want to know more about The Beatles and James Bond, two of Britain’s largest popular culture exports, and what both meant to Britain and the rest of the world, you need to reach for John Higgs’ Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche.

This book starts on Friday, 5 October 1962, when The Beatles’ first record, ‘Love Me Do,’ and the first James Bond film were both released. As Higgs states, “The Beatles were about to become the most successful and important band in history. Not to be outdone, James Bond would go on to become the single most successful movie character ever.”

Music documentaries have gotten better recently. I can’t say exactly why, but I’m excited for it. One such example is the recently released Becoming Led Zeppelin.

Including interviews with surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, as well as a rare John Bonham audio interview, this rock documentary is all about how they got to the mountaintop as rock stars.

The trailer for Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? Sets very little expectation as it states, “Welcome to a different kind of music show.”

Furthermore, the series title sequence narration shares, “I’m Geddy Lee. Bass player in the band Rush for almost five decades. But also, a bird photographer, a wine collector, baseball aficionado, you know, a nerd! Which got me wondering whether my fellow bass folk are more than just the shadowy figures we see skulking around the stage. I wanna know, ‘Are Bass Players Human Too?’”

For those unaware, A Complete Unknown is a 2024 film based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald. They both focus on the events leading up to the evening of July 25, 1965, when Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival backed by an electric band. If you don’t know why that seems worthy of an entire movie or book, then it’s likely you are under the age of 50. The good news is…