The song that made Martin Scorsese a music fan
Judging by the time and attention that he’s given the art form, it’s pretty easy to assume that Martin Scorsese is a massive music fan. The man who edited Woodstock, directed The Last Waltz, and had included The Rolling Stones in seemingly every project he’s ever done has a reputation for using music to translate the complex emotions that he puts on film. Whether that’s revelatory, celebratory, or horrifying, Scorsese often has the perfect song choice to accompany his cinematic visions.
So, where did that feverish love of music come from? According to Scorsese himself, it was floating around him all throughout his life. Scorsese grew up in New York City, perhaps the single biggest hub of multi-cultural music in the world. Everything came through New York at one point or another, and when Scorsese was just a kid, Scorsese’s family members were already in the swing of music when Scorsese first began to pay attention.
“When I was growing up, there always seemed to be music in the air,” Scorsese explained while being interviewed for the PBS docuseries The Blues, which Scorsese himself produced. “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. At home, my mother often sang to herself — I have vivid memories of her singing while she was doing the dishes. My father loved to play his mandolin, and my brother Frank played the guitar.”
“Actually, it was my father who was the guitar enthusiast, and the first music I remember hearing was by Django Reinhardt and his Hot Club of France Quintet,” Scorsese added. “At that time, you could always hear an incredible range of music on the radio, everything from Italian folk songs to country & western. And my uncle Joe, my mother’s brother, had an amazing record collection, which ranged from Gilbert and Sullivan to swing. He was one of the first people I could really talk to, and I think we related to each other because of our shared love for music.”
So, what was the song that got Scorsese truly into music? It might be tempting to say ‘Gimme Shelter’, given how many times Scorsese has used it in his movies. But the actual answer comes from a full decade before The Rolling Stones laid their apocalyptic epic to vinyl. True to the documentary series’ focus, Scorsese found his musical identity in a blues song.
“One day, around 1958, I remember hearing something that was unlike anything I’d ever heard before,” Scorsese explained. “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 called ‘See See Rider’, which I already knew from the Chuck Willis cover version. The name of the singer was Lead Belly.”
“I got up to Sam Goody’s on Forty-ninth Street as fast as I could, and I found an old Folkways record by Lead Belly, which had ‘See See Rider’, ‘Roberta,’ ‘Black Snake Moan’ and a few other songs,” Scorsese said. “And I listened to it obsessively. 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.”
Check out Lead Belly’s rendition of ‘See See Rider’ down below.
