Brian Eno: 1971-1977 – The Man Who Fell to Earth (2011)

I went looking for last year’s documentary on Brian Eno, Eno, which reportedly has 52,000,000,000,000,000,000 versions (several billion each for everyone on the planet) and was a big Sundance hit. I’d like to know how it works and how you see it. Instead, on Prime, I stumbled across this useful little workup, which I missed in 2011. Word has it it’s the first documentary ever about Eno—hard to believe it took so long. The IMDb breakdown is unusually scanty. No director, for one thing, and no mention of lots of the folks interviewed, including Robert Christgau, Geeta Dayal, Simon Reynolds, and various biographers. It covers the main period I am interested in with Eno, his “rock era,” starting with his tenure with Roxy Music in the early ‘70s, and it is generously long, over two and a half hours. All of this documentary is enjoyable but the footage and songs of the early years of Roxy Music were particularly so for me. Lots of very good discussions, often followed by the specific songs talked about. I’m not sure of some sources of the visuals all throughout. There may have been video-like scenarios shot back then, or these filmmakers may just be obliging us with stuff to look at while the music plays. Opinions differ on the arc of Eno’s career, of course, but for me this is the high point, as it drifted after 1977 further into his ambient music exercises and an increasing role as a producer favored by a surprising number of high-profile rock bands (Toto, U2, Coldplay, Grace Jones, James, Ultravox). People in this documentary say that he was a calm and grounding presence in the studio, which I can believe as there is also a certain calm and grounding effect to his music, even the raucous stuff. What can I say? I vividly remember the ‘70s work of Eno and many in his orbit then, including David Bowie, Robert Fripp, and Talking Heads. I have some interest in his ambient work as well, notably the 1973 collaboration with Fripp, (No Pussyfooting). This documentary also covers his work with Cluster (Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius), which in many ways marks the origins of his ambient music ideas, born of an interest in cybernetics. From the crazy befeathered creature who constantly stole Bryan Ferry’s charisma out from under him in Roxy Music to the meditative student of the planet who created Another Green World to the rocker who might have invented Talking Heads in 1974 with “Third Uncle,” Brian Eno has put together a wonderfully unpredictable and wildly engaging career. Lots of details here and, for anyone with any regard for ‘70s Eno, it’s practically mandatory. You might know Eno in the ‘70s already but I can tell you this is worth the revisit. Remarkable creator. Now to track down Eno, hoping it’s more than just some Black Mirror: Bandersnatch stunt.