The Sid Williams Theatre Society’s Sid Docs series returns for another season starting Sept. 18.
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World, winner of the Audience Award at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival and the Special Jury Award: Masterful Storytelling at Sundance Film Festival, is an award-winning documentary that chronicles the contribution of Native Americans to popular music history.
Many artists and musical forms played a role in the creation of rock, but arguably no single piece of music was more influential than the 1958 instrumental Rumble by American Indian rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Link Wray.
When recalling Link Wray’s shivering guitar classic, Rumble, Martin Scorsese marvels, “It is the sound of that guitar … that aggression.”
Rumble was the first song to use distortion and feedback. It introduced the rock power chord – and was one of the very few instrumental singles to be banned from the radio for fear it would incite violence.
Rumble explores how the Native American influence is an integral part of music history, despite attempts to ban, censor, and erase Indian culture in the United States.
As Rumble reveals, the early pioneers of the blues had Native as well as African American roots, and one of the first and most influential jazz singers’ voices was trained on Native American songs. As the folk rock era took hold in the 60s and 70s, Native Americans helped to define its evolution.
Father of the Delta Blues Charley Patton, influential jazz singer Mildred Bailey, metaphysical guitar wizard Jimi Hendrix, and folk heroine Buffy Sainte-Marie are among the many music greats who have Native American heritage and have made their distinctive mark on music history. For the most part, their Indian heritage was unknown.
Rumble uses playful re-creations and little-known stories, alongside concert footage, archives and interviews. The stories of these iconic Native musicians are told by some of America’s greatest music legends who knew them, played music with them, and were inspired by them: everyone from Buddy Guy, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett to Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, and Stevie Van Zandt.
Rumble shows how Indigenous music was part of the very fabric of American popular music from the beginning, but that the Native American contribution was left out of the story – until now.
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World begins at 7 p.m.
Atlas Café is the proud sponsor of the Sid Docs series. Other upcoming films include 3 Still Standing (October 16), Just About Famous (November 6), and Hip-Hop Evolution (January 29).
3 Still Standing is the inside story of the comedy boom that rocked San Francisco in the 1980s and how big business nearly destroyed it. Everyone knows Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and Paula Poundstone. This film is the story about their friends - the other jokers in the room, the ones who stayed in San Francisco, worked the clubs and rode a comedy movement – right up until the comedy bubble burst in 1992.
Elvis, Obama, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Hugh Hefner, KISS, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all grace their presence in the “star” studded documentary Just About Famous which asks the question is looking like the most recognizable people on the planet at blessing or a curse?
In Hip-Hop Evolution, critically acclaimed MC and journalist Shad Kabango sets out to uncover the foundations of hip-hop music. Along the way, Shad retraces hip-hop’s progression from underground parties to mainstream culture, but realizes something much more profound - that hip-hop’s success is only part of the story: from the boroughs of NYC to the ghettos of LA and beyond, hip-hop created a new voice for the disenfranchised.
General admission for the documentaries is $9 (including taxes and fees). Members can add each film to a Sid TIix pack for just $6. Purchase in person at the Ticket Centre Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm, by phone 250.338.2430, or online at sidwilliamstheatre.com.