Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:

l Debuting Friday on Apple+ streaming service is “1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything,” an eight-part documentary series that looks at how intertwined music, culture and socio-political issues were at the start of that decade.

There’s no shortage of books, articles and docuseries arguing that a certain year was a pivotal moment in music, movies, pop culture, etc. The cynic in me suspects one can find enough examples in just about any year to prove any thesis imagined.

That said, 1971 truly was a watershed year for albums that are as revered today as they were 50 years ago — Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Carole King’s “Tapestry,” The Who’s “Who’s Next,” Led Zeppelin’s “IV,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Sly & the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Going On,” The Doors’ “L.A. Woman,” Gil Scott-Heron’s “Pieces of a Man,” John Prine’s self-titled debut.

Most of those albums were shaped by what was happening in the world when they were recorded and helped shaped the events that followed.

The first episode draws the parallel between The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and the increasing cynicism about the government, initially fueled by the Vietnam War and ignited further by Watergate.

Gaye drew inspiration from the civil rights movement and gave voice to what was happening in the African-American community, and his smooth soul delivered that message to an audience that might have ignored it on the evening news. Music producer / record label executive Jimmy Iovine describes “What’s Going On” as “a Trojan horse” that came in as beautiful music.

I watched the first two episodes this week, and the series starts by focusing on a pivotal moment in the previous year — the Kent State shootings. Akron native Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, who was a Kent student and involved in the anti-war demonstrations there in 1970, says, “The music was articulating everything we were thinking and feeling.” The events clearly impacted the musicians as well, from Neil Young’s “Ohio” to Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.”

Director Asif Kapadia and producer James Gay-Rees, who previously worked together on the documentaries “Senna” and “Amy,” don’t scrimp on the music, but it’s not the sole focus either. The series does a better job than most of putting the music in the context of the times in which it was created. And based on those first two episodes, they’ve found a treasure trove of archival video and audio footage to tell these stories.

Episode one features extensive footage from the creation of the George Harrison-organized Concert for Bangladesh. Episode two features vintage interviews and audio recordings with Hunter S. Thompson in a segment on his Rolling Stone feature and book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” as well as footage of the Rolling Stones working on their “Exile in Main Street” album in a makeshift recording studio set up in villa in the south of France.

I’m looking forward to finishing the series.

l In a Rolling Stone interview last week after Foo Fighters was announced as a 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Grohl gave a shoutout to his birthplace and his uncle, Tom Grohl, who still lives in the area.

When asked if he was looking forward to jamming with The Go-Go’s or any of the other inductees at the ceremony Oct. 30 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Grohl responded, “I was born not too far from Cleveland, Ohio. When I think about going back to Ohio, I think about my family and the little town of Warren where I was born and my grandparents that used to live in Youngstown.

“I haven’t really thought about the master jam. I’m just looking forward to taking my mother and sister back there so we can hang out with my uncle Tom.”

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.