There’s never been a singer quite like Steve Marriott, with
his banshee cry streaking out of his elfin frame. He was one of the very few
British soul shouters who never seemed to force the energy, never seemed to be
doing a parody of authentic, African-American singers (sorry, Mick). Monumentally
talented yet still underrated, particularly outside of his home country,
Marriott is certainly worthy of more attention. Setting that issue straight
seems to be the goal of Gary Katz’s goal when putting together Humble Pie: Life & Times of Steve
Marriott. However, as that title suggests, the storytelling is a bit
lop-sided, with little attention paid to Marriott’s most vital years as a Small
Face and most of the documentary focusing on his seventies work as a member of
Humble Pie.
Since Humble Pie
was produced in the late nineties, it was shot on full-frame video. That video
presentation means its new Blu-ray presentation does nothing for its images,
but audio is an improvement over the included DVD in this Blu-ray/DVD/CD set.
The decision to fill the screen’s margins with distracting visual noise was a
bad one, though.
The documentary itself offers plenty of opportunities to
hear Steve wail, though its abundant performance footage leaves the talking
heads (Humble Pie members Peter Frampton, Jerry Shirley and Clem Clempson, friends Chris
Farlowe and Spencer Davis, fans Chris Robinson and Kevin Dubrow, two of his
ex-wives, etc.) to take a back seat and deprives the doc of a complete picture
of the man. Fortunately, an hour of bonus interview footage fleshes out
Marriott to a certain degree with personal stories from many of the main
movie’s participants. Still, the most enticing bonus of this set is that CD
capturing a ferocious Humble Pie set from Winterland in 1973.
