This week, the new HBO series Vinyl premiered, and it’s a thrill to hear and watch. Focusing on the music industry in the ’70s, the show is produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, two brilliant minds from their respective art forms. Scorsese must have been a no-brainer for HBO, having previously produced the prohibition classic Boardwalk Empire, but how did music legend Jagger get swept up in the new series?
It’s actually not the first time that this pair has come together for a collaboration. Scorsese worked with Jagger on the 2008 Rolling Stones documentary Shine A Light, and the director has used the Stones’ music in many of his films. As a big fan of music himself, Scorsese filmed The Last Waltz, a documentary chronicling the final concert of The Band, and No Direction Home, a doc centered on Bob Dylan. I mean, can you imagine all these iconic Scorsese scenes with the music accompaniment?
Jagger has had plenty of experience as a film producer as well, his credits including 2011’s Enigma, a WWII code-breaking movie, and Get On Up, the James Brown biopic from 2014. He has worked as a writer, too, having penned a movie called Running Out Of Luck about a kidnapped rock singer being turned over to an oversexed, banana plantation owner.
It was really only a matter of time before a music-loving filmmaker and film-loving music maker would come together to create a musical drama. Maybe we should tune in.
