BEFORE: I'm looking for the name of something, it's the feeling that you've heard a song before, only you can't quite remember where or the surrounding circumstances. It's not deja vu, because that means "seen before" or "seen already", and this relates to music. The best I can find on the web is "deja entendu", which I think means "already heard". This is important to me because I've had this experience twice in the last couple of weeks.
One was after hearing "Chest Fever" performed by The Band. It starts with an organ solo (one that calls to mind Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor") and then hits you with a heavy beat, but after that the documentaries I was watching all cut away, I had to go to YouTube and listen to the whole song, which is NOT on their Greatest Hits album, with good reason. The lyrics are horrible, but it was the instrumental opening that my mind kept replaying. Eventually I realized that it was frequently played by Paul Shaffer and The World's Most Dangerous Band (later, the "CBS Orchestra") on David Letterman's show. Perfect for his keyboards, and by the time the song got to the lyrics (there are lyrics?) the director would have rightfully cut to a commercial break.
The other time this happened was two weekends ago, we were in the car coming back from Long Island (where restaurants are open for indoor dining, unlike NYC) and the satellite radio played a song called "Gimme That Ding", a novelty song performed by The Pipkins, and I got that same "deja entendu" feeling - I know this song, but HOW? Again, the lyrics are horrible, almost nightmarish, basically it's this:
Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Dat
Gimme Dat Ding, Gimme Dat
Gimme, Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat Ding
Gimme Dat, Gimme, Gimme Dat,
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Dat Ding
I'm sorry - once you get this song in your head, it's really hard to get rid of - an "ear worm" if you will. But how the HELL did I know this song? It drove me crazy for a while, it sounded a bit like a song that was used at the climax of the last animated feature I worked on, but that wasn't it. Still, it gave me a clue because the song I was confusing it with was heard as the backing track for a raucous secret sex-tape, and when I stopped thinking about it for a few minutes, my brain put it all together. The answer was "Benny Hill". If you remember, Benny Hill was a British comedian whose show often featured sped-up footage of people acting crazy, getting into sexual shenanigans (without actual nudity) or real slapsticky stuff with people either chasing half-dressed women, or being chased by policemen, or both (chasing/being chased by half-dressed policewomen).
Well, the most common music used in the background during these sped-up slapstick adventures was, of course, "Yakety Sax" performed by Boots Randolph. But they didn't ALWAYS use "Yakety Sax", though that became sort of Benny Hill's trademark song over time. When they didn't use "Yakety Sax", they used another novelty song, which was "Mah Na Mah Na". But on the rare times when they didn't use either "Yakety Sax" or "Mah Na Mah Na", they played an instrumental version of "Gimme That Ding", played on saxophone to sound a LOT like "Yakety Sax". Who knows, maybe someone forgot to pay the licensing fee for "Yakety Sax" one year and they had to find a subsitute. Anyway, my wife knew the song from several "Ally McBeal" episodes, but my brain couldn't rest until it had figured out the Benny Hill connection.
I bring all this up tonight because there are two recent releases that appear to be on the same topic. In addition to today's film on Netflix, there's a limited series (2 episodes) on Epix called "Laurel Canyon", and I think they both cover the same material. I already caught bits of "Laurel Canyon" late at night while I was flipping channels or scanning the programming guide for future movies. I saw the bit about the formation of The Eagles and parts about how Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young came together. Since I already covered "The History of the Eagles" back in 2018 (Movie 3,021) I'm expecting a fair amount of both deja vu AND deja entendu tonight.
Unfortunately "Laurel Canyon" doesn't fit my parameters as a MOVIE, because it's a 2-episode TV series. I know, "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" consisted of two episodes of "American Masters", and that counted as a film, so why not "Laurel Canyon"? Well, "No Direction Home" had the two episodes edited together, and was promoted on Netflix as one solid piece, though it was over three hours long - and it had a POSTER, that's a movie. "Laurel Canyon" fits the definition of a TV series, even though it's on a "movie" channel. I'm sorry, but I've checked with the judges and they made their ruling, they've already issued one waiver this month so it's a no-go. But if "Echo in the Canyon" is short enough, then I'm going to try to squeeze in a re-watch of both episodes of "Laurel Canyon", because I think that will be very informative. Anyway, I'm watching my slot count for the end of the year, so counting "Laurel Canyon" as a film would be detrimental. Still, there's nothing preventing me from TALKING about it here, judges be damned.
Eric Clapton carries over from "The Last Waltz", and so does a Beatle and I'm guessing at least one other musician.
THE PLOT: A look at the roots of the historic music scene in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon, featuring the music of iconic groups such as The Birds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas and the Papas.
AFTER: Yeah, it's a really big case of deja vu, for sure. In addition to that Eagles documentary I mentioned, I was reminded of watching "The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds" (Movie #3,029) and the "Laurel Canyon" series also covered the same ground as "The Doors: When You're Strange" (Movie #3,010), "Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words" (Movie #3,031) and "Super Duper Alice Cooper" (Movie #3,037). And I realize now I've made a huge, critical error in watching both "Echo in the Canyon" and "Laurel Canyon" on the same night - my mind is filled with information about the lives of the people who lived in that area of Los Angeles between 1964 and 1971, only I can't remember which film the information came from!
Since the "Echo in the Canyon" film is primarily concerned with the music, and a concert arranged by Bob Dylan's son to re-record and resurrect some of those great songs, maybe get a little bit of backstory about them from the performers who are still lucky enough to be alive. "Laurel Canyon" took the more traditional documentary approach, which was to combine interviews and archive footage to try to re-assemble a timeline of events, making notable references to the historic events of the day - the Manson killings, the Woodstock Festival, and that time Glenn Frey and Don Henley had that really big fight onstage.
Both films mention how collaborative the Laurel Canyon scene was - musicians would walk over to each other's houses and play each other really cool riffs they'd discovered, or read song lyrics they'd just written to get an opinion, but probably it was just to see if they could borrow a cup of marijuana or find somebody new to have sex with. I mean, come on, let's be honest, it was the 1960's. If I can sort of piece things together here, the residents of Laurel Canyon included (along with members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas & The Papas): Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork of The Monkees, Jim Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, future members of The Eagles, the band Little Feat, several prominent photographers, and also Joni Mitchell. "Echo in the Canyon" makes no mention of Joni Mitchell or her music, so that's an extra point from me there, but she did co-habitate with Graham Nash for over a year, so I'll admit that her omission is a bit glaring.
The modern musicians re-examining the songs of the 1960's produces admittedly mixed results - the female musicians all seem a bit spacey. "Hey guys, do you think that some of these songs, are like, about time or something? I don't know." Look, honey, I think you're making things a bit too complicated - these were 60's rockers, every song was about getting stoned, getting laid, or trying to get stoned or laid. But I think it takes balls to be Bob Dylan's son, use that connection to score interviews with David Crosby, Tom Petty and Brian Wilson, then put on a concert featuring the songs of the 1960's and NOT INCLUDE any Bob Dylan songs. This would appear to be a cry for Daddy's attention more than anything else, I think. (Bob, for God's sake, give Jakob a call...).
But I will say that I love cover songs, so that's another point for this one. I wish they'd been able to play complete versions of them here, however. It felt more like they'd start the modern cover of "Monday, Monday" on stage, and then halfway through transition to the original Mamas & Papas version, which is also good, but since you filmed the modern version, and got everybody together on stage and in the audience, why not let that play out? I'd like to see where that goes - or are you hoping that I'll buy the soundtrack to your film, too? That ain't gonna happen.
In place of that, someone chose to include clips from a film called "Model Shop" that was released in 1969, in order to capture the feel of Laurel Canyon back in the day - it's OK to set the mood, I guess, but it's not very informative overall. And if that actor looks at all familiar, it's probably because Gary Lockwood played the OTHER astronaut in "2001: A Space Odyssey", the one that wasn't Dave Bowman. (I looked it up - you're welcome.)
To their credit, the selection committee didn't pick the most obvious songs to perform to represent the bands in question, but that turns out to be a double-edged sword. Certainly anyone could have thrown a dart at a songlist and landed on something great, and perhaps we've all heard "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "For What It's Worth" too many times - so points for stretching everyone's musical knowledge just a bit with "Never My Love" from The Association, "It Won't Be Wrong" from The Byrds, and "Expecting to Fly" from Buffalo Springfield. But the downside is that not everyone will have very strong connections to those songs, especially if they've never heard them before. And with apologies to Brian Wilson, I don't think "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" is a very upbeat song, even "In My Room" feels more cheerful, and that song's about spending all one's time alone.
What background information there is here for each song is helpful, like Michelle Phillips talks about her affair with bandmate Denny Doherty and how that really got in the way of the group working well together, plus it inspired John Phillips to write "Go Where You Wanna Go". Well, sure, that makes sense. And the Byrds version of Pete Seeger's "The Bells of Rhymney" is connected musically to George Harrison's "If I Needed Someone" (in the same manner that The Hollies song "Bus Stop" is connected to the Beatles' "Things We Said Today") and that's explained here by the fact that the Byrds and the Beatles hung out together, both in the U.K. and in California. It's all part of one band inspiring another, and having a rising tide lifting all boats. "Pet Sounds" inspired "Sgt. Pepper", and "Sgt. Pepper" then inspired, well, everything else.
But if it's pure information that you're after in documentary form, you might be better off watching "Laurel Canyon" on Epix - the two episodes basically equal one movie, but again I can't include that here without breaking my own rules. Now I've got to go and count my slots again, to see how many more music docs I can squeeze in here before I fill up the 2020 schedule.
Also starring Fiona Apple, Beck (last seen in "Exit Through the Gift Shop"), Justine Bennett, Jade Castrinos, Jakob Dylan, Norah Jones, Fernando Perdomo, Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Matt Tecu, Lou Adler (last seen in "The Wrecking Crew!"), Jackson Browne, David Crosby (last seen in "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band and the Basement Tapes"), Roger McGuinn (ditto), Graham Nash, Tom Petty, Michelle Phillips, John Sebastian, Ringo Starr (last seen in "The Last Waltz"), Stephen Stills, Brian Wilson (last seen in "The Clapper"), Neil Young (also last seen in "The Last Waltz")
with archive footage of The Beach Boys (Mike Love, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson (all last seen in "The Wrecking Crew!")), The Byrds (Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman), Buffalo Springfield (Dewey Martin, Richie Furay), The Mamas and the Papas (Cass Elliott, John Phillips, Denny Doherty), Hal Blaine (also last seen in "The Wrecking Crew!"), Dick Clark (ditto), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Billionaire Boys Club"), George Harrison (last seen in "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band"), John Lennon (last seen in "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band and the Basement Tapes"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Gary Lockwood, Ed McMahon (last seen in "The Weather Man"), Pete Seeger (last seen in "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan"), Andrew Slater, Frank Zappa (last seen in "Super Duper Alice Cooper").
RATING: 5 out of 10 12-string Rickenbacker guitars
No comments:
Post a Comment