sniffyjenkins:

alaina:

Wilco, Nick Lowe & Mavis Staples rehearse “The Weight.”
(via portraitoftheartistasayoungman)

This is a magical video that will make you happy. Legendary singers practising a legendary song. It gets extra magical when Nick Lowe starts his verse and the way Mavis Staples looks at him. Watch this. All of it. I want you to be happy so watch it.

This captures something that, more and more, I think is the main purpose of collaborative art: that unexpected, improvised, joyful Eureka moment. Nailing it. Sharing it. You have to smile. All the stone-faced posturing by indie bands (for instance) tells me that they’re missing the point. They’re not making each other smile. Why bother?

There are similar moments in Let It Be and in It Might Get Loud. In the former, Paul looks at John with worshipful pride that this amazing person is his friend and collaborator. In the latter, Jack White looks like a schoolboy who is trying to not show how psyched he is to be sitting right next to Jimmy Page as he’s playing. I get almost nauseously happy watching such incredibly telling, naked artistic moments.