BEFORE: Keith Richards carries over from "McEnroe", and I've kind of moved over from the HBO-funded docs in the block to the Showtime funded ones, but these will then be replaced by the PBS and CNN-aired ones. It's complicated. But McEnroe's partying with rock stars made for a great transition out of tennis movies, and now I can focus on musicians for a bit.
Muhammad Ali turned up more often than I thought he would, five times in total - he's a bit like the Keith Richards of sports docs, it turns out to be pretty hard to make a documentary about ANY sport in the 1970's without dropping him in there somewhere. And his buddy Howard Cosell moved up in the rankings, also. But just wait, we haven't even heard from Walter Cronkite yet.
THE PLOT: From humble beginnings to sold-out world tours, Sheryll Crow's life has been extraordinary, creating a legacy that continues to inspire.
AFTER: Keith Richards says in this film that's there's no real secret to having a long career or a long life, there's only just sticking around (or words to that effect). In other words, it's the luck of the draw (who lives, who dies, who films your documentary?) but I don't know if I'm willing to believe such sage advice when it comes from somebody who will probably outlive us all, just because at this point Keith's blood is probably half alcohol and half formaldehyde. This guy did so many drugs and partied so hard that he's no longer human, he's a chemical zombie of sorts, or perhaps he died in the 1970's and just never succumbed, or transcended mortality somehow. (I once heard Penn Gillette jokingly quip that if you want to get to know someone, look at how they make their money, and since most of the Rolling Stones' income comes from merchandising, history would one day regard the Stones primarily as successful t-shirt salesmen.).
Sheryl Crow's been around for a while, now - though it feels like only yesterday when she was the "new kid" on the music block - but her first single, "All I Wanna Do", came out in 1994, so she's got about 30 years of industry experience and touring under her belt. She claimed that "Threads" was going to be her last album, but just like Keith, I expect her to still be around for a while - can a comeback album or a Vegas residency be far off?
Born in Missouri, the Heartland, she came from a normal Midwest family, and her great-grandfather invented Jim Crow laws. (I'm kidding!). Track club, pep club, National Honor Society, senior beauty queen, it seemed she was destined for success, too bad she got mixed up with all these no-good rock and rollers, she really could have been somebody. She got her degree in music education, and taught elementary school music before singing with bands and appearing in a McDonald's commercial. But she felt compelled to head out to L.A., work in a diner and pass her demo tape around to everyone who wanted it, and also everyone who didn't.
She first got noticed as a backing vocalist for Michael Jackson on the "Bad" tour, but unfortunately it was Jackson's manager who noticed her and wouldn't leave her alone, in the worst possible way. (Yeah, she saw that MJ traveled around with little boys, somehow that wasn't enough of a red flag for her to say something about it...). Then she made an appearance on the doomed TV show "Cop Rock" and somehow, her career continued beyond that. More background vocals for Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Buffett, Don Henley, and a duet with Kenny Loggins paid the bills while she worked on that debut album.
Working with a group of musician friends led to her first big single, "Leaving Las Vegas", but a nervous response to David Letterman when he asked if the song was autobiographical led her to answer "sort of", when in fact the inspiration was a 1990 novel by John O'Brien, a friend of one of the songwriters. Soon after this the author committed suicide, and Sheryl took it hard, but his family insisted it wasn't because she forgot to credit him on TV. It feels like if that would drive someone to suicide (it didn't...) that person was probably pretty close to the edge to begin with.
Then came "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", "If It Makes You Happy", and "Everyday Is a Winding Road", from several albums over the course of just three or four years, and the theme song to the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies". Jeez, you just know you've made it when they let you do a James Bond theme. Maybe the songwriting ebbed a bit there, because it was a couple years before 2002's "Soak Up the Sun" became a summer anthem, but she kept busy by collaborating on other people's singles and albums, and then had a string of private and public relationships with Eric Clapton, Owen Wilson, Lance Armstrong... and then any time she did a duet on stage, people speculated about whether she was also sleeping with Mick Jagger, Prince, didn't this sort of thing start when she did a duet with Michael Jackson? The gossip media sure got THAT one wrong...
She moved to Nashville, got into country music, battled breast cancer and depression, sang at a bunch of benefit concerts and on charity-compilation albums. Appeared in a couple movies, wrote some stuff for Broadway, and put together a "Duets" album called "Threads" - adopted sons in 2007 and 2010, so she's been busy. Me, I wonder what being an over-achiever even feels like, I've been spinning my wheels in the same animation studio for 30 years, I just don't have the balls to pull the trigger and go off and do something else. Anything else, at this point, would be a welcome change. Hell, another pandemic shut-down would be a welcome change.
This is all kind of JUST on the verge of being way too self-centered, but I get it, you want to make the documentary when you have some time between gigs and feel a bit self-reflexive, or you want to remember how and why you did what you did to get to where you are, maybe that helps you figure out where to go next.
Also starring Sheryl Crow (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Bill Bottrell, Brandi Carlile, Laura Dern (last seen in "The Fault in Our Stars"), Emmylou Harris (last seen in "Neil Young: Heart of Gold"), Jimmy Iovine, Jason Isbell, Steve Jordan, Greg Philllinganes, Trina Shoemaker, Jeff Trott, Joe Walsh, Scooter Weintraub, Lindsay Young
with archive footage of Lance Armstrong (last seen in "You, Me and Dupree"), Clint Black, Eric Clapton (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), Bill Clinton (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Hillary Clinton (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Carson Daly, Robert De Niro (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists", Bob Dylan (last seen in "Val"), Jay Leno (ditto), David Letterman (ditto), Sean Penn (ditto), Kevin Gilbert, Michael Jackson (last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"), Kennedy, Chaka Khan (last heard in "The One and Only Ivan"), Steve Kroft (last seen in "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop"), Jon Stewart (ditto), Ray Liotta (last seen in "No Sudden Move"), Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan (last seen in "Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind"), Alanis Morisette (last seen in "Jagged"), Willie Nelson (last seen in "Running With Beto"), Stevie Nicks (also last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Luciano Pavarotti (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Joe Pesci (last seen in "Once Upon a Time in America"), Brad Pitt (last seen in "The Lost City"), Prince (last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Adam Sandler (last seen in "Bulletproof"), Paul Shaffer (last seen in "The Amazing Johnathan Documentary"), Charlie Watts (last seen in "Count Me In"), Ann Wilson, Owen Wilson (last seen in "The French Dispatch"), Ronnie Wood (last seen in "Under the Volcano")
RATING: 5 out of 10 guitars on the wall in the barn.
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