I’m always up for seeing a movie that has anything to do with the electric guitar or playing in a live band. So when I heard about the new movie titled “It Might Get Loud” featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White, I knew I was going to have to go see it. I got that chance Saturday night at the Broadway Theater in Salt Lake City.
It Might Get Loud is about the relationship each of these musicians has with the electric guitar and also with music in general. At first glance I wondered who in their right mind would sit a legend like Jimmy Page down with a young player like Jack White to discuss the electric guitar? Their styles are so different and Jimmy has all these years of fascinating history all on his own. I also questioned the wisdom of bringing The Edge to the party since his style is so completely different from Jimmy and Jack’s.
But, I thought the idea of bringing three guitarists together from three generations of music was quite novel. As it turns out, listening to these three musicians discuss what led them to the guitar was very fascinating. That combined with how they each decided to approach guitar playing in general led to a lot of similarities between the three. In the end, the simple fact that The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White are all successful guitarists is enough common ground to make a fascinating movie.
Jimmy, Jack and The Edge were all very influenced by their musical environments when they were growing up. Jimmy was influenced by the birth of Rock-N-Roll and there’s a very revelatory scene where he’s listening to the Link Wray song “Rumble”. You can hear the influence that song had on Jimmy’s guitar playing. The Edge was influenced by the birth of the Punk Rock scene of the late 70’s. Jack was influenced by the minimalist recordings of Son House and he reveals how Son House simply singing and clapping his hands made him want to play music that felt just like that.
The movie has some excellent guitar playing in it and nice footage of all three guys playing with their respective bands. There’s some great history about each guitarist too as they take you back to where each of them made the decision to get into music. There are also some really fun scenes with Jack, Jimmy and The Edge sitting together on a soundstage and discussing the instrument as well as playing some music together.
I think what I really enjoyed the most about this movie was the discussion from each musician about what moved them to get into music in the first place. For each of them there was an “Ah-hah!” moment when they heard a particular music. I was completely inspired to see and hear how each musician was touched by music and motivated to create their own.
For me, the mark of a great movie about music is it’s ability to make me want to run right home, pull out my guitar and start playing. That’s exactly what “It Might Get Loud” did for me. It inspired me to pick up my instrument and not only play, but create something new with it. I highly recommend “It Might Get Loud” for any musician, especially guitarists. I also think anyone that loves guitar music and Rock-N-Roll in general will love this movie. Go see it!
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