“Learning To Live Together” is an electrifying documentary and concert film spotlighting the reunion of the celebrated “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” Joe Cocker’s short-lived tour featuring a mammoth thirty-two piece band.
In the spring of 1970, Joe Cocker undertook what became the legendary Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, immortalized in a live album and concert film. Fifty years later, first-time filmmaker Jesse Lauter tells the complete story through the lens of the Grammy Award-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band’s reunion of the Mad Dogs.
In addition to Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and the entire Tedeschi Trucks Band, this reunion featured 12 of the original Mad Dogs, including Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear, plus guest performers Chris Robinson and Dave Mason, among others.
The film showcases inspired performances from the reunion show, along with an exclusive look at the history of the tour and never-before-seen archival materials, commentary from the original members, critic David Fricke, notable fans who attended shows on the original tour and features the last filmed interview with the late Leon Russell.
The original Mad Dogs & Englishmen documentary is beloved in the rock-doc canon, but there is still a shroud of mystery surrounding the formation and dissolution of that band. “Learning To Live Together” not only captures the musical greatness and energy of the tribute show, it also sheds new light on the outsized myths of the original tour and delves deeper into Leon Russell’s largely unheralded role as band leader and visionary.
With Russell’s passing in November 2016, the footage captures some of the last interviews of his life. The film provides an exclusive look at the history of the Mad Dogs and its torchbearers.
This documentary will not only excite fans of the original, it will also educate a new generation about the original tour and this powerful and positive music.