"Classic Albums" is a series of 44 episodes (as of the time I'm writing this, 2020) that takes a deep dive behind-the-scenes of our favorite albums, and some of our not-so-favorite albums, in a way that makes all of them really interesting. What makes this an exceptional documentary is the depth of information we're given which certainly makes the musicians & audio engineers drool, but at the same time it's not so technical & dry that it would put regular fans to sleep.
I'll give you just one example. In the Black Sabbath "Paranoid" episode, we are teased by the engineer telling us about a song which features "an instrument that has never been used on a Black Sabbath album". Immediately we perk up and pay attention, even if we're not Sabbath fans, we want to know what the mystery instrument is. What does it turn out to be? A piano. Yes folks, Black Sabbath, the classic metal band who would be more likely to set a piano on fire than use one, has a piano very subtly mixed into one of their songs... and it doesn't end there. There's an even BETTER mystery instrument which I won't spoil. You gotta check out the show.
The entire Classic Albums series is peppered with these awesome bits of trivia and engineering eye-openers which never fail to deliver at least 1 big surprise per show. Things that you can annoy your friends talking about. Or at least spend a paragraph writing about in an imdb review. These cool bits of info are demonstrated for us with the original multi-track tapes as the engineer or artist solos the tracks and talks us through what we're hearing.
It isn't all studio stuff either. Each episode also dedicates a generous portion to explaining the context of the album & what makes it great in terms of the decade that spawned it, the personal issues of the band members who made it, and tons of fun factoids such as Peter Gabriel being nailed shut in a barn until he finished writing the lyrics. This show covers everything that went into the making of an album.
The episodes are each 1 hour long, but I highly recommend getting the DVD because they are packed with bonus features such as the original musicians often showing us the parts they played. Hats off to the Classic Album crew for delivering everything we want to know, as well as stuff we didn't know we wanted to know. I hope they keep doing this show as long as music exists.
