August 03rd, 2016

I made a long list of movies about music and its heroes, but two stand out to me in terms of capturing the spirit of the mid ‘60’s-to-mid ‘70’s rise of Rock as an irresistible cultural force:
“Pirate Radio” and “Almost Famous.”

Britain’s Richard Curtis wrote and directed the hilarious ”Pirate Radio” in ‘09. Best known for romantic comedies (“Notting Hill”, “Bridget Jones’ Diary”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Love Actually” and the more recent, delightful “About Time”), he must’ve drawn on some personal experience growing up in the mid ‘60’s to pull off his brilliant ensemble story of a group of renegade DJs in the early days of the music revolution. It was also a cultural revolution in England, not initially acceptable to the stuffy “establishment,” embodied by a Hitler-looking bureaucrat played by a darkly wonderful Kenneth Branagh. He’s freaking out because this group of DJs are broadcasting that lascivious rock’n’roll from a ship anchored off-shore, and hence not subject to Britain’s restrictive BBC rules. (Even in ‘66, the popularity of the new sound was barely acknowledged by that state-sanctioned monopoly of the public airwaves.) The cast of characters is genius. Bill Nighy is Quentin, the GM of the pirate station, which is anchored in the frigid North Sea; I think “droll” is the word for him. Philip Seymour Hoffman is The Count, the most excitable DJ, who is sorta top dog ‘till Rhys Ifan’s Gavin shows up, setting off a rivalry. Chris O’Dowd is Simon, who gets quite a letdown from a beautiful, shallow woman. (He got to make up for that embarrassment in another great music movie, this one about soul music, “The Sapphires.”) The story is superficially a coming-of-age story about a young man who comes aboard to learn the ropes, and discover something about his unknown father, but it’s MUCH MORE than that. The soundtrack is perhaps the biggest star, and the way we hear The Kinks, The Who, The Stones, et al, is with an excitement similar to what it must’ve felt like then. This is a time machine of a movie, and a rockin’ entertainment. SO FUNNY!!!

2000’s “Almost Famous” is a somewhat autobiographical film by writer-director Cameron Crowe, recalling his professional beginnings as a Rolling Stone writer in the early ‘70’s. He’s a high school kid who gets his shot by being assigned to accompany a famous rock group on tour. Billy Crudup is the handsome band leader, and Kate Hudson made her brilliant, Oscar-nominated debut as a groupie, Penny Lane, who describes herself as a “band aide.” (Frances McDormand, as the young reporter’s mom, was also nominated.)

I was fortunate to be getting my own start in the music business at the same time in which “Almost Famous” is set. MTV, or any national media controlling our music tastes, hadn’t happened yet. Every market was unique. Cleveland’s WMMS loved British music; there really was a Swingos hotel where all the rockers stayed. St. Louis’ KSHE was breaking acts that only had regional popularity (Bob Seger from Detroit, Sammy Hagar from the Bay Area, Little River Band from Australia), if they’d do concerts for the promoters, who also owned the station; it worked. Boston’s WBCN was always the hippest, highly opinionated, with a cast of brilliant DJs. Then there was New York’s WNEW-FM, Miami’s WSHE, San Francisco’s KSAN, L.A.’s KMET, Chicago’s WXRT, etc, etc. It made a cross-country trip anything but monotonous; the variety was exhilarating! I made a promo trip like that with Ralf and Florian of Kraftwerk in 1975 as my first such journey. So, “Almost Famous” captures a time for me that is dear and as lost as pirate radio stations off England’s coast. There is an innocence to this time, as well as the spirit of liberation that the birth of the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll mantra brought in the pre-AIDS daze of the ‘70’s. This was the decade in which rock music started as an alternative, underground phenomenon and culminated as the most powerful part of popular culture, eclipsing, for a time, the movie business.

Meanwhile, the movie is a delight. It’s another ensemble piece that’s wonderfully written, with hilarious moments. (When their private plane looks like it’s going down, one of the band members makes a confession that wouldn’t phase us now, but was pretty shocking then; of course, the plane recovers...Whoops!) And this soundtrack also draws on our memories of a magical era. Will it ever be this good, this fresh, this exciting again?

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