'I have always loved the blues,' Scorsese told Jack Newfield in an interview for Parade Magazine (9/24/03). 'They have a truth, an emotional truth — the condition of being human. The blues are American and worldly at the same time, and the blues have a kinship with film. They are both part of a culture of storytelling.'When did he first hear the blues?
'Radio, 1958,' Scorsese replied in his exact staccato exuberance. 'I heard Lead Belly sing See See Rider and went out and bought a Lead Belly album the same day.'
Scorsese is revered as as a film preservationist, and he says he approaches the blues with the same impulse.
'It's the thrill of discovering the roots of an art form and being able to preserve it for the next generation,' he explained.
'I listen to the blues all the the time,' Scorsese continued. 'I listen while I'm working. I listen in hotel rooms. I listen late at night. Muddy Waters, Son House and 'Dust My Broom' by Elmore James move me as much as opera or Beethoven. They are my inspiration. Music is my muse.'
'If you already know the blues, then maybe this music will give you a reason to go back to it. And if you've never heard the blues, and you're coming across it for the first time, I can promise you this : your life is about to change for the better', Martin Scorsese.
'The Blues is a chance to celebrate one of the last truly indigenous American art forms, before it all but disappears, swallowed whole by the rock and roll generation it spawned. Hopefully we'll get there before it's too late', Richard Pearce.
Out on DVD on 29 March: see HMV and Amazon. Individual DVDs presented by Clint Eastwood, Marc Levin, Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis, Charles Burnett, Martin Scorsese.
