Stand By Me

November 23, 2008 9:09 AM

Playing for Change - Peace Through Music (flash) is a documentary film by Mark Johnson. He traveled the world and recorded various musicians playing the song Stand By Me. Each musician was charged with layering a single song over the previous artist thus building upon it. Over thirty musicians globally participated in this project and not one artist knew the other or came in contact initially.

Bill Moyers talks with Mark Johnson, the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music.

posted by Sailormom (13 comments total)

very nice! thanks for the link!
posted by HuronBob at 9:39 AM on November 23, 2008

Pretty cool. I was doubtful about the quality of a song with tons of people overdubbed, but it sounded quite good. He did a really good job mixing it.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:40 AM on November 23, 2008

that brought a tear to my eye. beautiful!
posted by fuzzypantalones at 9:48 AM on November 23, 2008

Aw, neat. Thanks for this. It made me happy in the same kind of way that wherethehellismatt.com does.
posted by juliplease at 10:20 AM on November 23, 2008

Very cool. I hope this is the first song in a series. The song would have a totally different tone if a jazz musician started the song.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 10:41 AM on November 23, 2008

Fantastic, thanks for the link.
posted by etaoin at 12:19 PM on November 23, 2008

That really calmed my soul. Thanks.
posted by Flex1970 at 2:34 PM on November 23, 2008

whythehelldoesmattdancelikethat? .com
posted by gauchodaspampas at 2:55 PM on November 23, 2008

Flagged as fantastic. Thanks Sailormom.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:46 PM on November 23, 2008

Stand By Me is one of my favorite songs in the world. It was really amazing to see it played this way.
posted by polexa at 10:17 PM on November 23, 2008

I was just coming here to post this. Gave me goosebumps.
posted by kamikazegopher at 11:02 AM on November 24, 2008

After I get all pissed off that I still can't manage to play a D chord without muting the 1st string, this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me pick the guitar back up and keep trying. Thanks for posting it!
posted by Zaximus at 11:16 AM on November 24, 2008

Hey, I was just going to post this; a friend just sent me a link to it and it blew me away. Thanks, Sailormom!
posted by not_on_display at 7:10 AM on December 19, 2008