How the blues changed Martin Scorsese forever: “It drifted up from the street”
Several characteristics permeate Martin Scorsese’s filmography – an interest in crime and corruption, the influence of his Italian-American identity, and, more often than not, an appearance from Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, or both. Amidst the stories of mobs and murder that dominate his reputation, though, there are also glimpses of Scorsese’s love of music.
Cinema may seem like the director’s first love, but music certainly isn’t far behind. In between directing cult classics like Taxi Driver and modern epics like The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese has often devoted his time to music documentaries. He directed multiple documentaries on folk legend Bob Dylan, took on the mammoth task of putting The Band’s final concert to screen for The Last Waltz, and delved into Beatlemania with George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
Scorsese has also put his love of blues to screen outside of rock and folk. In 2003, he directed a documentary titled The Blues: Feel Like Going Home, contributing to a seven-part series about the genre and its impact. In an accompanying interview for the film via PBS, the celebrated filmmaker shared his own connection to the genre, which began in his childhood.
“When I was growing up, there always seemed to be music in the air,” he recalled, “It drifted up from the street, from the radios of passing cars, from the restaurants and corner stores, from the windows of apartments across the way.” Between the sounds of his mother singing, his brother playing the guitar, and his father’s mandolin, it was impossible for Scorsese not to become a music lover.
He became a fan of all kinds of genres – noting the range that permeated the radio at the time – but blues immediately stuck out to him. “One day,” he remembered, “Around 1958, I remember hearing something that was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I’ll never forget the first time I heard the sound of that guitar. The music was demanding, ‘Listen to me!’ I ran to get a pencil and paper and wrote down the name.”
The song was ‘See See Rider’ by Lead Belly, which stunned the future director and prompted him to go and buy a record by the blues singer. Scorsese even suggested that his love for blues might have had the capability to surpass his love for cinema: “Lead Belly’s music opened something up for me. If I could have played guitar, really played it, I never would have become a filmmaker.” Thankfully, he couldn’t play guitar and would, instead, go on to make some of the greatest movies ever made, though his love for blues remained.
Between the songs of Belly and a trip to see Bo Diddley live, it seems that blues had cemented itself in Scorsese’s heart and changed him forever. “You’re moved, your heart is shaken, you’re carried and inspired by its visceral energy, and its rock-solid emotional truth. You go right to the heart of what it is to be human, the condition of being human. That’s the blues,” he concluded.
Even when he’s not helming an ode to the genre or an ode to music more generally, Scorsese has made films with equally moving and visceral qualities, always looking at the condition of humanity.
Watch the trailer for Scorsese’s cinematic ode to the blues, Feel Like Going Home, below.
