Lightning in a Bottle (2004) is a concert film, but what a concert. It chronicles the 2003 concert at Radio City that featured a lot of blues musicians and friends.
It starts with Angelique Kidjo singing an African folk tune, showing the roots of the blues. Mavis Staples singing See That My Grave is Kept clean. Then Honeyboy Williams - he talks about the first time he played, in 1920-something. Since Robert Johnson isn’t around anymore, Keb Mo sings Love in Vain. And on and on. Hubert Sumlin, Solomon Burke, the Nevilles, Macy Gray, India.Arie, Bonnie Raitt doing Elmore James, Buddy Guy doing Hendrix and lots more. The band included Dr John as a sort of band leader, and Gregg Allman on keys, although he wasn’t prominent.
There were a few stumbles - John Fogarty’s Midnight Special was nothing special. Chuck D tried to turn Howlin’ Wolf’s Boom Boom Boom into an anti-war song (No Boom Boom Boom) just wasn’t good, even if you like the politics. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry were actually pretty all right on King Bee. Ruth Brown with Natalie Cole and Mavis Staples singing about Men are Like Streetcars wasn’t great, but singing it to an onstage Bill Cosby was a little unsettling.
Of course, it ends with the King himself, B.B. King and his guitar Lucille.
The movie had a nice mix of songs and backstage patter - although I think I would have preferred more music. Of course, there are a lot of extras, but we didn’t watch them. Oh well.
If you’ve ever seen the battle of the bands scene from Blues Brothers 2000, then you can imagine a little bit what this movie is like. It’s like the cover of Sgt. Pepper, except all the cutouts are blues musicians, and they are all playing live.
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Footnote: I know that Blues Brothers 2000 is a terrible movie. But that battle of the bands!
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