The Stones and Brian Jones

Year 16, Day 195 - 7/13/24 - Movie #4,785

BEFORE: Headed back to the theater today, after two weeks off (or was it three?).  There's some kind of one-day short film festival scheduled, and so my work schedule is this Saturday an the next two Saturdays, I still get Sunday to sleep in.  My other boss is off to Maine for two weeks, but I still have to show up M/W/F and pay some bills and keep up on e-mail and entering film festivals and selling art and then some 2nd quarter accounting work if there's time.  Life's a little empty now that I've finished "Star Trek: Discovery", but maybe I can find a new series to catch up on and also log in some comic books.  How's your summer going? 

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards carry over from "The Beach Boys".  

THE PLOT: Examines the musical creativity of Brian Jones, the secret to the Rolling Stones' success, through candid interviews with all of the essential performers and previously unreleased archives. 

AFTER: There's something deep-seated in human nature about being part of a tribe, it's your family, your friends, it's your identity, where you came from and where you are right now.  Forming a rock band must be a lot like finding your tribe, you've left your parents' house (ideally) and you've shacked up with your mates in a flat and started working on some songs.  Now in the old days the success of the whole village depended on the hunting party, and the band's the same way, they've got to go out on tour and find their prey, which would be college age girls or whoever's got money to buy records. 

The pack needs an Alpha, because some members may want to go hunting over the hills and others think the animals will be down by the river, and well, somebody's got to be in a position to make a decision.  You can't really have two Alphas in the pack, because it will cause chaos, or at least disagreements.  WIth this in mind, you can maybe see what happened with the Beatles, they had two Alphas, Lennon and McCartney, and while they could work together for a while, that clock was always ticking. Same thing with Oasis, they had two Alphas in the band, and it worked for a while, but eventually Noel and Liam decided they couldn't even be in the same room together. And now it seems the Beach Boys had Brian Wilson and Mike Love, though they had a unique solution that worked for a time - one would be the Alpha in the studio and the other would be the Alpha on stage.  Perhaps that's how they stayed a band longer than most, they stayed out of each other's way, until they didn't. 

The only exceptions to this rule might be Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (four Alphas) and the Traveling Wilburys (five Alphas) - but in both cases their members had all been through a lot of bands, they were all tribal elders with a lot of experience, and maybe they'd come to points in their life where they were all more accepting of each other's ideas, and thus a delicate balance was formed, and harmony was achieved - but again, for a limited time. 

You can see the pattern repeat itself in the Rolling Stones - Brian Jones was the founder of the group, the default Alpha.  However, over time it seemed like Mick Jagger was taking center stage, both literally and metaphorically.  And where Brian and Keith had written songs together at the start, Mick and Keith were hanging out more and writing more songs and better songs.  Brian was still like the big toe of the foot in terms of the direction of the band, but Mick was the second toe that was starting to grow bigger, and if you've seen that in real life on someone's foot, it's not attractive at all.  

The trouble seemed to be that Brian couldn't do anything to change what was happening, he couldn't just get better at songwriting, and he was maybe too nice of a guy to tell Mick to back the eff off.  But something was clearly working, Mick singing lead and being more prominent was connecting with the fans, and he had broader appeal, since the women wanted to sleep with him and the men wanted to BE him, and sure, maybe some of the men wanted to sleep with him too, but it was the swinging sixties and that was probably not out of the question.  Brian found some solace in a succession of steady girlfriends - serial monogamy, only probably without the monogamy part and also drugs, duh. But it was a different time, everyone was doing that if they could, the triangle of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Brian was showing up later and later for rehearsal and sometimes not showing up at all, and the breaking point was maybe during "Rock and Roll Circus" where if you zoom in on Brian playing guitar, you'll see that he's only pretending to do so, and his equipment wasn't even plugged in. It also didn't help that the band wanted to go tour the U.S. in 1969, and Brian wasn't only not up for the tour, he wasn't eligible for a work permit because of his drug convictions. This led to a moment of clarity, when the other band members showed up at his house and declared the band was moving forward without him.  Now, if only he'd seen fit to name the band "Brian Jones and the Rolling Stones", he might have had more leverage, but I guess he didn't have the ego to name the band after himself.  But there's a cautionary tale in there somewhere. 

This intervention happened on June 8, 1969 and from the statement Brian Jones released, the public thought he'd left the band voluntarily.  By all accounts his friends said he seemed happy, and was talking about forming a new band, but as we all know, that didn't happen, and he was found dead in his swimming pool on July 2. (He'd bought the estate once owned by the author of "Winnie-the-Pooh", A.A. Milne.). The coroner's report said that his liver and heart were greatly enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse, so nobody really knows if this was a spur-of-the-moment suicide or the kind that takes place over years.  

The Rolling Stones (depending on your definition) has been together as a band since 1962, that's 62 years across 7 decades.  But 60% of the original line-up is now either dead or retired (Bill Wyman) and if you want to claim that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and whoever they share the stage with on any given night are the Stones, well, that's kind of up to you.  They had a black bassist for a long time, and I don't think he ever became an "official" member, is that racist or what?  Hey, even the Beach Boys had two African (as in South African) members, Blondie Chaplin and Rikki Fataar, and yeah, they're Beach Boys.  Darryl Jones, that's their bassist since 1993, how is he not an official Rolling Stone?  Bernard Fowler, Steve Jordan on drums, Karl Denson on saxophone, and yeah, they're all African-American and have been playing with the Stones for years, but they're still regarded as temps, not official band members?  Somebody needs to call the NAACP and report this. And Blondie Chaplin was not only a Beach Boy, but he played with the Stones for 10 years (1997 - 2007) and I only learned his name yesterday.  WTF? 

Also, it's a bit disturbing that so many upstanding British parents were willing to pimp out their daughters to bands like the Rolling Stones. I understand, it was 1964 and the Beatles' record sales were accounting for like 85% of the entire British economy at the time, and it sure looked like the Stones were about to follow in their footsteps.  So how did this go, the typical set of English parents were uptight and they wanted their daughters to be sweet, innocent virgins who didn't have sex until they were married, oh, but then if they should meet her boyfriend and he turned out to be a Rolling Stone, sure, she can go out on tour with him, I'm sure things will be absolutely fine, here, we packed a bag for her.  Again, WTF?

Random facts learned today - Brian Jones played the saxophone on the very weird Beatles song "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and also played drums on the Jimi Hendrix recording of "All Along the Watchtower". 

Also starring Pat Andrews, Nick Broomfield, Eric Burdon, David Dalton, Stash Klossowski, Linda Lawrence, Roger Limb, Michael Lindsay-Hogg (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Gered Mankowitz, Barry Miles, Dawn Molloy, Melissa North, Jane Ornsby-Gore, Graham Ride, Volker Schlöndorff, Ronnie Schneider, Penelope Tree, Paul Trynka, Bill Wyman (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Zouzou,

with archive footage of Brian Jones (last seen in "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away"), Charlie Watts (ditto), Muddy Waters (ditto), Howlin' Wolf (ditto), Bo Diddley (last seen in "The Velvet Underground"), Marianne Faithfull (last seen in "Dune: Part One"), George Harrison (also carrying over from "The Beach Boys"), Jimi Hendrix (ditto), John Lennon (ditto), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Lewis Jones, Louisa Jones, Linda Keith, Barry Miles, Andrew Loog Oldham (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), Anita Pallenberg (ditto), Princess Margaret.

RATING: 6 out of 10 girlfriends and baby mamas

The Beach Boys

Year 16, Day 194 - 7/12/24 - Movie #4,784

BEFORE: Let's check the scoreboard, David Letterman has been in the most docs so far this year (8), but he's still in second place overall. Right behind him with 7 doc appearances is Johnny Carson, then there's Stephen Colbert, Elton John, John Lennon and Paul McCartney with 5, and Dick Cavett, Carrie Fisher, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Donald Trump with 4. All other Presidents, talk show hosts and Rolling Stones are lagging behind with 3 each. 

Janis Joplin carries over from "Love to Love You, Donna Summer" via archive footage. 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road" (Movie # 4,193)

THE PLOT: A celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music and created the harmonious sound that personified the California Dream. 

AFTER: I've watched a few docs in previous years that had the Beach Boys in them, like "The Making of Pet Sounds" and the one about Brian Wilson, but so far there hasn't been THE definitive documentary about the band.  So when I heard there was a new one available on Disney Plus, I thought "Well, sure" and "Really, it's about time..." and "Which two films in my documentary chain will this fit between, without me disassembling it?"  Maybe finally I'll learn who this Al Jardine fellow is and how he hooked up with the Wilson Brothers. 

Well, in terms of personnel, I got so much more than I bargained for - it turns out there were a bunch of Beach Boys that I never knew about - the band changes never quite matched the number of replaced "Spinal Tap" drummers, but there were at least four I'd never heard of.  David Marks?  Who's that?  Oh, he was in the band for two years when Al Jardine decided maybe he should finish college before going out on tour.  Bruce Johnston?  Who's that?  Oh, he replaced Brian Wilson on stage when Brian decided he just wanted to produce the albums and also never leave his house ever again.  But Bruce blended right in, he fit the costume on stage and more importantly, didn't call attention to himself, he just sang the high parts, played the bass and cashed his check each week. 

But then there's Blondie Chaplin and Rikki Fataar - what?  Two musicians of color who were from South Africa, when did THEY join the group?  I thought the band was just white surfer dudes from California, that was kind of their whole schtick, wasn't it?  Well, from 1972 and 1973 the band tried something a little different, tried for a more adult sound or fell in love with world rhythms, or something.  Also they couldn't get Brian Wilson out of bed and even the hired gun, Bruce Johnston, had quit the band.  Blondie was the lead singer on "Sail On, Sailor" if that helps - but then after quitting the Beach Boys in 1973 he made a whole career out of quitting many other bands, like the Rolling Stones and The Band.  Really, he and Rikki are the Beach Boys that nobody seems to talk about. 

And for one brief two-week period in 1968, cult leader Charles Manson actually played tambourine for the Beach Boys on tour, and nobody even noticed. I'm kidding, but hey, funny story, drummer Dennis Wilson met a couple of Manson's followers and they seemed very friendly to him, so he made a connection with Manson, who fancied himself a songwriter, or at least a poet.  The Beach Boys rewrote one of his songs and called it "Never Learn Not to Love", and it was released as a B-side to "Bluebirds Over the Mountain", because it was exactly the right length, and also Brian was still in bed and couldn't get up to arrange music that year. 

Really, I'm surprised that this doc included the Manson connection, because this film generally paints a very rosy picture of the Beach Boys career, except for this and when they had to fire Murry Wilson, father of 3 Beach Boys, as their manager.  Awkward...  And then Murry cashed in and sold the publishing rights to their whole catalog of songs, without telling them he was going to do that - he screwed Mike Love out of some money by not crediting him for the songs that Mike co-wrote with Brian.  Oh, but Charlie Manson still got a royalty check every month, you can believe that. You didn't want to make Manson mad by stiffing him on music royalties...

The film also sweeps a lot under the rug regarding Brian Wilson - musical genius, for sure, there's no disputing that.  You don't arrange and produce "Good Vibrations" or "Wouldn't It Be Nice" or even "Sloop John B" without being a good producer, and a master of your craft.  I used to arrange music for a cappella groups, that was very difficult, and no instruments were even involved.  But Brian also had a lot of problems, anxieties and sure, substances were involved, but if you believe this documentary, then he took LSD maybe once and that was just to open up his creative mindflow.  Nah, he didn't have a drug problem, what's that?  

It's kind of a shame, for several reasons - the whole American culture changed during the 1960's, and while the Beach Boys were at the forefront of new American surf rock in 1962, by the end of the decade the counter-culture had taken over, you had Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, drugs were all over and protests were fashionable, and the hippies were poised to take over, but the Beach Boys just kept being the Beach Boys - respectable men with nice haircuts and matching uniforms who sang about sun and sand and surfing, and oh, God, we really missed the boat on this new rock thing, didn't we?  The band hired a new manager who got them booked in a guest spot at a Dead concert, but it was really too late.  The band remained uncool for the next decade until they were so uncool that they somehow became cool again. Or maybe people straightened out and sobered up and wanted to hear those songs again that they liked when they were younger.  

But somehow that happened, by 1974 they were the number one touring act in the U.S. again, probably because their record company released a compilation of their Greatest Hits, and the Beach Boys went from opening for Crosby, Stills Nash & Young to co-headlining a tour with Chicago.  And people wanted to hear the early hits, because they were evergreen, like summer itself, and fans wanted to go to see them in Central Park, Giants Stadium, or anywhere sunny, really.  But then Brian fell under the care of a psychologist / personal guru / scam artist whose solution to keeping him drug-free was to keep him from leaving his house, which also had kind of been the problem for the last few years, but Brian was happy to keep on doing that. 

I'm still left with one big question after watching this documentary, because I've watched those other docs and also, I know stuff.  The documentary called "The Wrecking Crew" went into great detail about how the Beach Boys didn't play instruments on their own records, they just sang vocals, and the music was arranged by Brian Wilson and performed by studio musicians, those known collectively as the Wrecking Crew.  So it almost seems like this doc went out of its way to explain that process, because finding out that the Beach Boys didn't play on their records is maybe kind of a big deal, like Milli Vanilli got kicked out of the record industry when it was revealed they were just front-men, who couldn't sing at all.  

But wait, this new Disney doc tries to explain it all by focusing on Brian and his desire to NOT tour with the band, but to stay in Los Angeles instead and work on song-writing, arranging, and producing the albums.  So it was maybe just a timing thing, he'd compose and write and arrange while the band was out on tour, and then the band members would learn the songs and record the vocals when they were back in town, that way there wouldn't be like a whole year of down time between the tours, during which most bands are in the studio recording.  But I still have questions - like I know the band's been around since 1961, and that's a lot of time that they could have spent learning to play their own music.  But, did they?  

Like, if you went to an early Beach Boys concert, say in 1964 or 1965, were they any good on stage?  It seems like they faced the same problem as the Beatles did, that the songs were getting so complex that they couldn't perform then on stage.  Now, the Beatles solved this problem by just never touring again after 1966, but the Beach Boys kept going out on tour.  We know that the music on the records was performed by professional musicians, and then the famous Beach Boys would have to learn the music to play it on stage - but, come on, how good were they? Were the live concerts half as good as the records?  A third?  A tenth?

The doc doesn't help me understand this, because there's no sound from the concert footage - every time they show an older Beach Boys concert, there's narration, I can't hear the music.  Oh, sure, there's plenty of footage of the band performing on American Bandstand or similar shows, but we know that those could have been lip-synched, many bands on those shows were only pretending to sing and play along with a track, which was, duh, the record that they wanted everyone to go out and buy.  So I really want to know if the early Beach Boys concerts sounded anything at all like their records.  Supposedly there were so many young girls screaming at these shows that it maybe didn't matter, but I still want to know if you bought a concert ticket back then, did you get your money's worth?  

Look, I'm sure that over time and with practice these guys became fine concert performers, but if they couldn't re-create the sound from those well-produced records, then there's something hinky that went on, some form of fraud perhaps.  I'll have to try to find a live Beach Boys concert from 1964 or 1965 to investigate further.  But Wikipedia mentions that between 1965 and 1967, there was a huge difference in sound between their albums and their stage performances.  When the band toured Europe in 1967, they wanted to bring four extra musicians from the U.S., but the British musicians' union wouldn't allow it.  Critics then described their performances on that tour as "amateurish" and "floundering". So yeah, I think I'm on to something here. 

The "story" of the Beach Boys is really only half-told here, though, because the narrative really ends with the band's resurgence in popularity in the mid 1970's.  The late 70's were very turbulent, though, with the band split into two camps with Dennis and Carl on one side, Mike and Al on the other, and Brian caught in the middle.  Then at a show at Wembley Stadium, Mike attacked Brian with a piano bench in front of 15,000 people.  And then after Carl died in 1998, there were different groups touring as the Beach Boys, and lawsuits over which musicians got to perform under that name, and so on. Relationships were tense until 2011 when the band got back together for their 50th Anniversary tour, only to start fighting again.  

Let's keep it real, that's all I ask.  Don't tell me there's no trouble in paradise when that's clearly not the case. 

Also starring Al Jardine (last seen in "Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road"), Mike Love (ditto), Brian Wilson (ditto), Hal Blaine (ditto), Blondie Chaplin (ditto), Don Was (ditto), Bruce Johnston, David Marks, Lindsey Buckingham (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?"), Carol Kaye (last seen in "The Wrecking Crew!"), Don Randi (ditto), Josh Kun, Janelle Monáe (last seen in "Glass Onion"), Ryan Tedder, Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford

with archive footage of Tony Asher, Frankie Avalon (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Chuck Berry (ditto), Jack Benny (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), the Byrds, Glen Campbell (last seen in "Albert Brooks; Defending My Life"), Dick Clark (last seen in "McEnroe"), Nat "King" Cole (last seen in 'Listening to Kenny G"), Dick Dale, Roger Daltrey (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Pete Townshend (ditto), Doris Day (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Ed Sullivan (ditto), Bob Dylan (last seen in "Belushi"), Keith Richards (ditto), Ricky Fataar, Keith Fordyce, the Four Freshmen, Annette Funicello (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - the Don Rickles Project"), Jerry Garcia (last seen in "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away"), George Harrison (last seen in "LennoNYC"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Keith Moon (ditto), Phil Spector (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Jimi Hendrix (last seen in "Elvis"), Bob Hope (last seen in "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "If These Walls Could Sing"), Virginia Jardine, Jefferson Airplane, Lyndon Johnson (last seen in "The Special Relationship"), the Kingston Trio, John Lennon (last seen in "Elton John: Becoming Rocketman"), Charles Manson (last seen in "We Blew It"), Terry Melcher, Joni Mitchell (last seen in "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood"), Van Dyke Parks, the Ronettes, Frank Sinatra (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Sharon Tate, Derek Taylor, Nick Venet, the Ventures, Carl Wilson (also last seen in "Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road"), Dennis Wilson (ditto), Audree Wilson, Murry Wilson, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

RATING: 5 out of 10 attempted "comeback" albums

Love to Love You, Donna Summer

Year 16, Day 193 - 7/11/24 - Movie #4,783

BEFORE: Elton John carries over from "Elton John: Becoming Rocketman".  Elton doesn't really do much here, his voice is heard commenting on one Donna Summer song, "I Feel Love", and he's seen in archive footage dancing at Studio 54.  But that's enough - it counts, the chain is still good and I don't have to re-arrange any plans.  (I could have, if needed, just moved on to the next film via a different connection, and re-located today's film to later in the Doc Block.  But I don't think I have to.)

This doc has been on my DVR for over a year, I recorded it last June - but my Doc Block came earlier last year, that's where it fit, so it looks like I just had to table this one and sit on it for over a year until the linking came back around.  That's what I'm doing now with docs like "Brats" and the ones about Tom Hanks and Brooke Shields and Faye Dunaway and Blood, Sweat & Tears, I'm just going to have to try again next summer. 

What I should be doing now is putting together my horror chain, even if I'll only have room for 20 horror films this October, because of NYCC and maybe another trip to North Carolina, the time to figure out what those 20 films are going to be is approaching fast, I kind of need to know where I want to be on October 1, because the road there is going to start on August 1 - right now I only have 1 end of that chain, and that's no bueno.  Can I work in "Godzilla x Kong" or "The Meg" or the "Saw" films?  I'd better start working that out.   

THE PLOT: Follows the life of iconic singer Donna Summer.

AFTER: I'm over the hump now, 23 docs into the chain, and now thanks to two last recent adds, there are 20 films to go.  Hey, I can probably think of worse ways to spend the hottest days of July than to be inside with the A/C on, watching movies and counting how many times I've seen Elton John.  I'll check the scores tomorrow for talk show hosts and Beatles.  It's hard to believe right now, but the road eventually leads to Katharine Hepburn - it's a pretty twisty road, though. 

Again, I'm here to learn, so what did I learn tonight?  I learned that Boston-born Donna Gaines worked early in her career in a touring production of "Hair", and if you think it's tough to sing "The Age of Aquarius", well, try singing it in German.  Actually, don't do that.  Then Donna married an Austrian guy, and his last name was "Sommer", so that's how she got her stage name?  She spent a few years in Germany and Austria working as a model and back-up singer, where she started working with producer Giorgio Moroder.  Her first his was "Love to Love You, Baby", which was not so much a song but a collection of sensual moans and groans, and for some reason that was a hit with men in the clubs, I'm not sure why. JK.  

Her second single with Moroder producing, "I Feel Love", was a huge hit on the disco circuit, all the clubs were playing the 8 minute version over and over again - it just really had the FEEL of going to the club, with this big driving beat in the background, repetitive lyrics and a bunch of catchy hooks I guess, and really this was the start of electronic music taking over in the late 1970's, then everything in the 1980's was Moog synths and drum machines, no actual instruments being harmed in the making of those records.  

The connection with Casablanca Records and the disco hits got her involved with the movie "Thank God It's Friday", which is now regarded as one of the worst films ever made, but it's where Donna Summer sang the song "Last Dance", so really, how would every wedding reception you've ever been to end, if not for that song and that movie?  But damn if that isn't an Oscar-winning song from what is technically an Oscar-winning movie.  

More hits followed - her version of "MacArthur Park" went to #1, and then came "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff", and the duet with Barbra Streisand "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)".  But from her POV, her record label didn't release her singles properly, they didn't wait for one single to peak before releasing the next, which meant that her songs were competing against each other on the singles chart, you'd have to be the Beatles or Elton John to have multiple singles in the Top 10, but maybe that's what Casablanca Records was shooting for.  Anyway, this led to her leaving Casablanca for Geffen, and a couple records in to the Geffen contract, Casablanca claimed that she still owed them one more record, and it had better be a hit, and that's what led to "She Works Hard For the Money", which of course was a big hit. 

Her personal life seems to have had a fair amount of tragedy in it, but the film couldn't really make it clear (to me, anyway), I know she got divorced in 1976 and then married Bruce Sudano in 1980, but I had to look up the abuse claims online to learn that she was molested by a church pastor when she was younger and then later in life she was drawn to men who were very creative but also abusive, particularly one boyfriend (not Sudano). Privately, she also compared working in the music industry to being "raped over and over". But she also got really religious in the late 1980's, and there were allegations of anti-gay remarks, quoting the old "Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve" line.  Considering how much of her early fan base was gay men in clubs, this was probably a terrible stance to take.  However, Summer denied making anti-gay comments and semi-apologized to the group ACT-UP in 1989.  

Donna Summer passed in 2012, due to lung cancer, even though she was a non-smoker, but it's possible that she was affected by the toxic fumes and dust from the 9/11 attacks, as she lived in an apartment near Ground Zero.  Or maybe she was a secret smoker, I don't know.  Anyway this week seems to have taken on a theme of its own, from John Lennon's alcoholism to Elton John's drug abuse and now Donna Summer's addiction to unhealthy relationships.  This theme should continue, at least through the weekend. 

Also starring Pete Bellotte, Dana Bernard, Mary Ellen Bernard, Bob Conti, Mimi Dohler, Ric Gaines, David M, Giorgio Moroder (last seen in "The Sparks Brothers"), Peter Muhldorfer, Susan Munao, Helmuth Sommer, Bobby Stewart, Amanda Sudano, Brooklyn Sudano, Bruce Sudano, Joyce Bogart Trabulus, Jack Waddell, 

with archive footage of Donna Summer (last seen in "The Sparks Brothers"), Josephine Baker, Neil Bogart, Johnny Carson (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Andrew Gaines, Merv Griffin (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Peter Guber, Arsenio Hall (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Mahalia Jackson (last seen in "Beauty"), Onetta Johnson, Quincy Jones (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), Janis Joplin (last seen in "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood"), David L. Lander, Michael McKean (last seen in "Teaching Mrs. Tingle"), Dinah Shore (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Tom Snyder (last seen in "Belushi"), Barbra Streisand (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Jimmie Walker (last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), Dionne Warwick (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over), 

RATING: 5 out of 10 12-inch remixes

Elton John: Becoming Rocketman

Year 16, Day 192 - 7/10/24 - Movie #4,782

BEFORE: So the channel I've just discovered is called Fuse Music, it's number 292 on my cable guide, and it seems to be mostly documentaries about famous rock and pop musicians - this is a very dangerous thing for me to be aware of.  If I just watched this channel, my Doc Block might take up a few months or even the whole year, and we can't have that.  I stumbled on this channel when I did a search in the on-screen guide for "Elton John" to see if that live concert was playing anywhere on cable. Of course it's not, that's a Disney Plus exclusive.  But it kind of didn't feel right to cover Elton John in the Doc Block without a proper documentary about him, so I'm willing to give this one a whirl (and one other, about David Bowie, which should slot in rather nicely next week) however I suspect that this is not really a quality product being put out by the Fuse Music channel, as I've never heard of any of their docs before.  

The standard is probably still the PBS show "American Masters", which shows their own produced docs and also buys the rights to other notable ones (like "LennoNYC") and so I doubt that "Becoming Rocketman" is going to really cover its subject matter in-depth, but hey, you never know, I still might learn something.  Anyway if I just add these two last docs then the Doc Block will line up better with the calendar, so there's that.  But if I'm two slots short at the end of the Movie Year, I'm going to be very upset. 

Elton John carries over from yesterday's concert film "Farewell from Dodger Stadium". 

THE PLOT: With the release of the box office hit "Rocketman", his autobiography and his farewell tour, all eyes are on the musical genius Elton John. We take a glimpse into his incredible journey and uncover the truth behind the turbulent and eccentric life of a superstar. 

AFTER: Well, I was right, this is a piece of rubbish.  If I give it a low score today it's not meant to be a knock against Elton John or his career or his lifestyle or anything like that, I'm just rating the production quality of the film, which is just horrible.  It's thrown together from archive footage - hell, many docs are - but also, they only interviewed TWO people, who claim to be music journalists, and I have no reason to suspect they aren't, but then the film is just comments from two people who aren't very articulate, and neither one knows Elton personally.  The main problem with their speaking manner is that they repeat themselves over and over, which makes them both long-winded AND boring, but they take up more screen time that way, which is probably what the film's producers had in mind.  Every single point is belabored, again and again, because they both talk in circles.  

Also, there's really no new information here, nothing that you can't get from Elton John's Wiki page, so really, why bother?  Just post a link to Wikipedia and be done with it.  This doc makes "I Am Chris Farley" look like "Gone with the Wind". OK, maybe not, but it's the same level of repeating footage and making the same points again and again, and one more time to make sure you REALLY got it.  

Elton John changed his name from Reginald Dwight, sure, we all know that, but this doc spends a good ten minutes on that, speculating WHY and what that brought him at that point in his career - it's a two-minute topic at best, why beat it into the ground?  His name changed, does this mean his personality changed at the same time?  Who cares?  At that point he stopped answering to the name "Reg" whenever his friends spoke to him.  So what?  And how could YOU possibly know that?  Who the hell are you, anyway, what respected musical magazine do you write puff pieces for?  I supposed this is a little more focused than a 30-second profile on "Entertainment Tonight" or "Extra", but not by much.  

OMG, did you know Elton John was GAY?  OMG, did you know that back then that wasn't as culturally acceptable as it is now?  OMG, did you know he's been in a relationship for over two decades?  Yes, we've all been through this, because some of us pay attention.  OMG, did you know he was briefly married to a woman?  Yes, yes, we've all been through this before, because we all saw "Rocketman", and that dispensed with the topic in about 30 seconds of screen time, without really telling us anything.  

Well, if you're a big fan of documentaries that don't tell you anything that you don't already know, or if you've just landed on Earth, then you may want to check out this doc on the Fuse Music channel to get yourself up to speed.  You'll also non-learn that Elton John has made millions of dollars, and that he's given a lot to charity and done a lot of work for AIDS charities.  Let's see, we've got the name change, the gay angle, the weird marriage, the tribute song for Princess Diana, now promote the upcoming film "Rocketman" and let's get the hell out of here. We've got to get twelve more of these documentaries edited today for next week's programming.  

Anyway, I took note of who appeared in all the archive footage and updated this film's IMDB listing - I was a bit surprised to find that this cobbled-together shit-show even HAD an IMDB listing.

Also starring Sid Griffin, Ashley Pearson

with archive footage of Kiki Dee (also carrying over from "Elton John LIve: Farewell from Dodger Stadium", David Furnish (ditto), Bernie Taupin (ditto), Bono (last seen in "Air"), Prince (now King) Charles (ditto), Princess Diana (ditto), George Michael (ditto), Lucy Boynton (last seen in "Barbie"), Prince Harry (last seen in "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer"), Prince William (ditto), Michael Jackson (ditto), Barry Gibb (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Maurice Gibb (ditto), Robin Gibb (ditto), John Lennon (last seen in "LennoNYC"), Rami Malek (last seen in "Oppenheimer"), Brian May (last seen in "Count Me In"), Elvis Presley (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Gianni Versace, Ryan White.

RATING: 3 out of 10 performances at the Troubadour

Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium

Year 16, Day 191 - 7/9/24 - Movie #4,781

BEFORE: Let's call this the halfway point in this year's Doc Block chain, so I deserve a break, just a small little friendly concert, I don't have to learn anything, I don't have to figure out where I've seen all these actors before, I can just relax and enjoy the music.  And these concert films are usually short, so I can get a break and go to bed early.   Wait, it's TWO AND A HALF HOURS long? 

Another unintended chain coincidence, it's been one year exactly (OK, a year and a day) since the real absolute final Elton John concert, July 8, 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden.  And if it seems like Elton's Farewell Tour went on for a long time, that's only because it did, it lasted five years and well, you just don't want to rush those things, I guess, if it's really the LAST ONE you kind of probably want to hit as many stadiums as possible, because that's the end, unless he decides to un-retire.  

Elton John carries over from "LennoNYC".  

THE PLOT: A live stream of Elton John's last concert at Dodget Stadium in Los Angeles, the final North American stop of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour".  

AFTER: Sure, I could have watched a standard Elton John documentary, with a bunch of talking heads saying how great he is and what his music has meant to the world.  And maybe I should have, because there's one airing on some weird cable channel I have that seems to specialize in rock docs (make a note, check that channel frequently before next year's chain) but then this one would still be on my list, wouldn't it?  I've watched concert films before, they count as "movies" under my rules even when they're TWO AND A HALF HOURS long, mostly it's been the Rolling Stones in concert here at the Movie Year, and that's evergreen material too, isn't it? 

This kind of had to go between two films with Elton John in them, with a very limited cast and only a few celebs spotted in the crowd at Dodger Stadium, where else could this have gone?  But still it's nice that yesterday's film "LennoNYC" talked about the 1974 Elton John concert at MSG near Thanksgiving, and now here's a full-on Elton John concert, 50 years later.  We've kind of come full circle in just 2 days, or something.  

This is all thriller, no filler - there's no interview segment where famous people talk about Elton's music or what he meant to their lives, there's not even that much discussion of Elton's career from Elton himself (OK, there's a little) it's really hit after hit after hit, and I finally get to learn what some of the lyrics to Elton John's songs are.  No, no, not "burning out his fuse out there alone", I got that one long ago, but some of the other songs have always been hard for me to understand, either he slurs his words or it's the accent, or something.  Or Taupin's lyrics are complex and obscure sometimes, maybe, I don't know.  but OK, the lyrics to "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" really contain "Sugar Bear", I thought maybe I was hearing that one wrong, over and over.  But "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" has always been a tricky one for me - I think I learned most of the tricky lyrics watching the "Rocket Man" movie. "Get about as oiled as a diesel train"?  Well, OK, but we need to talk about spelling "alright" properly in the title. It's not a word. 

There are two exceptions, though, songs on the set list that just really didn't need to be there.  One is called "Have Mercy on the Criminal", and I've never heard of that one before.  Throw in a deep album cut, sure, but is this some kind of fan favorite or something?  There's 24 songs in the set list, and surely Elton's got more than 24 chart hits, really anything else could have gone here and been better.  Since this concert live-streamed on Disney Plus, I'm really surprised that DisneyCorp didn't apply pressure to have cross-promotion, but you know it was KILLING the execs that he didn't perform "Circle of Life" or "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".  And then there's "Cold Cold Heart", which isn't really a song at all, it's just a couple of lines of random nonsense in a duet with Dua Lipa - there's no verse, there's no chorus, it just goes around and around a few times and then stops.  That's not a song, I get that Dua Lipa steals some lyrics from "Rocket Man" but come on, I need more than that.  She can't even hit the high notes on "Oh, no, no, no", she's off-key every single time.

Elton can't hit the high notes either, any more, he found alternate singing arrangements whenever the chorus was high-pitched, like in "Tiny Dancer" or "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Well, you see this a lot on the nostalgia circuit, we saw Meat Loaf in concert a couple years before he passed, and he could still belt out the songs but he couldn't go very high any more.  Something about being in your 70's, the vocal cords can't work they way they used to, so the band either has to drop the song down a few keys, or another vocal path needs to be taken.  Yeah, it's probably time to retire, now that Elton has all the money, all of it - you wonder why people are finding it hard to make a living these days, it might be because they spent all their money on concert tickets - prices for general seating on his last tour were up to $250, but there were also VIP tickets available for up to $2,000 each.  

Look, I'm not an expert on rock concerts, we've been known to spend up to $50 each for tickets at Jones Beach, and sometimes we've had floor seats and sometimes we've been in the upper deck, but if you're going to have Elton John perform at Dodger Stadium, why is the stage way out in center field?  I mean, sure, I get that there were floor seats on the whole infield, and those probably went for a premium, but that also meant that to everyone in the stands, Elton was just this tiny dot out by the warning track.  Any seat that would have been GREAT during a baseball was probably terrible during this concert.  Again, what do I know but if I were attending a rock concert at a baseball stadium I'd expect to see the headliner right where the pitchers mound would be.  I would never pay $250 to be a half-mile away from the stage - why would I, when I can watch the concert on Disney Plus with close-up footage from the piano cam? 

Anyway, let me just take this as a win tonight, no heavy lifting, I'll just enjoy the music, rock out with my Doc out and finally figure out what the lyrics to "Philadelphia Freedom" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" are (something about horny toads?), plus there's a reunion with Kiki Dee on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that absolutely nobody was clamoring for, except maybe Kiki Dee. Just pick up on that rock concert vibe and don't think too much about it - it's way too hot to go to a real concert anyway, better to stay home with the A/C on and attend a concert virtually, it's a win-win.  Plus I'm finally kicking off Pride Week in the Doc Block, and yes, I know I'm a few weeks late, deal with it, we're gonna get there when we get there. 

Also starring Brandi Carlisle, Kiki Dee, Dua Lipa, Matt Bissonette, Kim Bullard, Ray Cooper, Davey Johnstone, John Mahon, Nigel Olsson, 

with cameos from David Burtka, Taron Egerton (last heard in "Sing 2"), David Furnish, Neil Patrick Harris (last seen in "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent"), Bernie Taupin and archive footage of Marilyn Monroe (last seen in "Under the Silver Lake"). 

RATING: 6 out of 10 aerial crane shots of the piano Roomba

LennoNYC

Year 16, Day 190 - 7/8/24 - Movie #4,780

BEFORE: This ran as an episode of "American Masters" on PBS in 2010, but PBS chose to air it in repeats about six months ago, so I grabbed it when I could, because anything on PBS will dub easily to DVD, because, well, it's public television and I already technically own it, I'm part of the public, so I'm just making a back-up copy in case the TV station or anyone else might need it someday.  No need to thank me. 

John Lennon carries over from "The Strange Name Movie". Does this count as a "movie" then, if it aired as part of a TV series?  Hell yeah, it was a documentary movie that somebody made, that PBS show buys or licenses those docs to air as part of their show.  So it totally counts. 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" (Movie #3,619), "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky" (Movie #3,618)

THE PLOT: A look at the period of time musician John Lennon and his family spent living in New York City during the 1970's. 

AFTER: OK, it's probably my own damn fault that I found this material to be repetitive, I know exactly why, it's because I watched two other John Lennon docs four years ago. one which covered his problems with the U.S. immigration office, due to his friendship with activists that made the FBI label him as a radical, and the other doc was about his off-again, on-again relationship with Yoko that led Lennon to spend a few months in L.A. with her assistant, May Pang. Well, at least tonight's doc, which aired as an episode of "American Masters" on PBS, was comprehensive, because it covered both of those narratives, but unfortunately I knew all that stuff already.  

There is some new (to me) stuff here, because this doc also weaves in John Lennon's work on his solo albums, and his return to performing live, first with Yoko and Elephant's Memory, and then doing a couple concerts with Elton John at MSG, apparently after losing a bet.  But he became close friends with Elton, and I'm pretty sure Lennon performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" at those concerts, I have Elton's live cover on iTunes and I've been told that Lennon played on that track.  Gonna go listen to that one now...I spent a number of years collecting every cover version of Beatles songs I could find, in every possible genre. 

I also didn't know much about the solo albums Lennon recorded in the 1970's, admittedly I only have Lennon's Greatest Hits album, but there must be other tracks on the "Mind Games" and "Walls and Bridges" albums that I'm just not familiar with. Mea culpa. But I heard the intro to "Stepping Out" in this doc, and I guess that one didn't make the cut for Greatest Hits.  What's weird is that it seems to have the same bass line as Paul McCartney's song "Silly Love Songs", and didn't John make fun of Paul for writing that one?  But he made a song that sounds so similar that you could practically sing one to the other, or make a mash-up of the two songs, which, yep, somebody posted on YouTube.  Perhaps their songwriting techniques were closer than they cared to admit, or John was poking fun of Paul's song, I don't know. But listen to those two songs and then tell me they don't sound alike. OK, Paul's song sounds more like a disco hit.

Lennon and Yoko moved to NYC in 1971, to be part of the arts scene and for the culture, like a lot of people did.  But then he left NYC for a while, as a lot of people do - but surprise, he missed the city, and he missed Yoko, so he came back.  What's the lesson there, besides don't mess with a good thing?  And don't move to L.A. because you'll become a lonely alcoholic.  Yeah, that sounds about right.  I wish I could say that when he moved back in 1975 and returned to Yoko and they had their son that everything was great for a long time, but as we all know, it was only 5 years before a crazy fan shot him on the street.  

But let's see, what else didn't know before?  I didn't know that John and Yoko lived on Bank Street in the West Village for a number of years, in a tiny two-room apartment.  When did they move to the Dakota?  1973, I guess.  And that Elton John concert Lennon appeared at was around Thanksgiving in 1974.  That was during the "Lost Weekend" (which lasted almost 18 months) while Lennon lived in L.A. so I guess that MSG concert maybe reminded John how great it was to perform in NY, and was that the precursor to moving back? 

Nope, I'm wrong again - Lennon moved back to NYC in October 1974, and he recorded "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" with Elton on piano and background vocals, and John said that if that song went to number 1 he would perform with Elton in concert.  It did, that song became John Lennon's first #1 solo song. But after Sean was born in October 1975 Lennon took what would become five years off from recording, until the single "Just Like Starting Over" and the album "Double Fantasy" in late 1980. 

In the end, this film tries a bit too hard to be everywhere at once, but how can anyone possibly condense an entire decade of anyone's life, let alone that of a famous musician, into just under two hours?  It's impossible, even focusing on small stories, like that time John Lennon bought a coat in a store by himself, well, that story doesn't really tell us much about John, other than the fact that he learned how to shop with a credit card and not send an assistant out to get clothes for him.  OK, so in NYC he became the common man, he could almost disappear and walk among the masses and not be noticed.  Almost. And sure, it's kind of great that he became a caring father and a thoughtful house-husband in his late thirties, but you know what, a lot of men do that just as a normal part of their lives. 

It's great that he took up political activism, too, but was it worth it if he had to spend six years always thinking that he was about to be deported within 60 days?  He had great lawyers, I assume, and they couldn't solve his legal problems, what does that tell you?  Sure, we're a country of rebels and trouble-makers, and sometimes that's a good thing, but other times it might be better to just remain quiet and try to live your life, especially if you don't have your green card yet. Just saying. 

Also starring Dick Cavett (last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Roy Cicala, Jack Douglas, Dennis Elsas, David Geffen (last seen in "Spielberg"), Bob Gruen, Tom Hayden (last seen in "Jane Fonda in Five Acts"), Robert Hilburn, Adam Ippolito, Elton John (last seen in "If These Walls Could Sing") Jim Keltner (last seen in "Count Me In"), Jonas Mekas (last seen in "The Velvet Underground"), Hugh McCracken, Elliot Mintz, Andy Newmark, Yoko Ono (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), May Pang, Geraldo Rivera (last seen in "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer"), Earl Slick, Gary Van Scyoc, Klaus Voormann (last seen in "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky"), John Wiener, Leon Wildes, 

with archive footage of Spiro Agnew (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Rennie Davis, Allen Ginsberg (also last seen in "If These Walls Could Sing"), George Harrison (also last seen in "The Strange Name Movie"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto) Abbie Hoffman (last seen in "WBCN and the American Revolution"), George McGovern (ditto), J. Edgar Hoover (last seen in "Where's My Roy Cohn?"), Andy Warhol (ditto), Keith Moon (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Harry Nilsson, Richard Nixon (last seen in "We Blew It"), Jerry Rubin (last seen in "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"), Strom Thurmond (ditto), Phil Spector (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Mao Zedong

RATING: 6 out of 10 benefit concerts

The Strange Name Movie

Year 16, Day 189 - 7/7/24 - Movie #4,779

BEFORE: All four Beatles carry over from "If These Walls Could Sing" via archive footage - and it probably won't be the last time in this Doc Block. And let's all send a big Birthday SHOUT-Out to Ringo Starr, born July 7, 1940. So there were a couple other places I could have squeezed this one in, but what a happy accident to land it on Ringo's birthday!

This is another film that's been on my list for YEARS, I've probably passed over it for the last three Doc Blocks, there just never seemed to be room for it.  I was so tired of waiting for two films with Hitler footage to fit this one in between, but nah, this is better, and crossing it off the list feels like a bigger accomplishment after waiting so long. 

THE PLOT: This documentary examines how ordinary, normal people cope with the extraordinary challenge of having an embarrassing, provocative, famous or unbelievable name. 

AFTER: According to this film, there are really three types of strange names - one is having the same first and last name as a celebrity, real or fictional.  In some cases this might happen by accident, or on purpose - like we learend last week that Albert Brooks was born Albert Einstein, most likely intentionally named after the famous scientist.  Sometimes this is done as a tribute, like you can imagine a set of parents who share their last name with a famous person, and maybe they were thinking they'd give their son a leg up in the science field, but no, he chooses comedy and acting as a profession, so he'd almost have to change his name, wouldn't he?  Well, Brooks' father had a stage name, his brother "Super Dave" had a stage name, why not just pick another very normal sounding last name and then you won't be expected to be some kind of genius.  Gene Wilder would probably not have gotten as far with his real name, Jerome Silberman - and we know John Wayne was born Marion Morrison, Michael Keaton was born as Michael Douglas, and so on.  We already had TWO Michael or Mike Douglases in show biz, having a third would be way too confusing.  

Sharing a name with Paul McCartney might have its perks, anyway - the one interviewed here reports getting upgraded to first class on planes from time to time, because the flight crew might just assume they want to keep that Beatle in first class so he doesn't get mobbed by fans.  I think this guy was born before 1964, so he couldn't have been named after the Beatle, it's just random chance that his parents liked the first name Paul, and anyway, even Paul McCartney wasn't born as Paul McCartney, I think his first name was James and Paul was his middle name.  Let's not forget that Ringo Starr was once Richard Starkey, also - "what's in a name" becomes doubly important for famous people, just ask the former Maurice Micklewhite or Archibald Leach.  

Sharing your name with a fictional character might be worse, and the film interviewed three guys named Donald Duck and years ago a bunch of people named Ronald McDonald were hired to appear in a commercial to promote a rival fast food chain, because they couldn't find anyone named Breakfast CrunchWrap.  This is a bit of a slippery slope, because if Taco Bell can do this, what's to prevent a movie from finding another person who shares their name with a movie critic and paying the pretender off to say nice things about their terrible movie?  I mean, there's got to be another Rex Reed or Richard Roeper living somewhere in America who could use a cool side hustle. That would be misleading, to just pay a guy also named Rex Reed to say your movie is spectacular, but it might not be illegal. (Columbia Pictures once created a fictional critic, David Manning, to make fake reviews, that seems slightly worse.)

The second kind of strange name is based on wordplay, but innocent wordplay.  Like Mrs. Burr, who named her son Timothy, so when she called him home for dinner, she could shout "Tim Burr!" across the neighborhood, and once somebody thinks of this, they kind of almost HAVE to do it, like I knew a couple with the last name Turner and I asked if they ever thought about naming a daughter Paige, thinking she might become an author, but then they had three sons, so it never came up.  The woman with the last name of "Bacon" who then got the middle name of "Smoki" after some sports coach, well she just ends up with a very memorable name, especially if she ever wants to work at a deli counter or a barbecue restaurant, but even if she just ends up with a fund-raising job, well, hearing her name might just put a smile on another person's face.  

But then you have the people whose family names are derogatory terms or sound a bit too close to sexual terms, these can really mess people up during their school years.  Some kids are cruel and they target people who are different or seen to be lacking in some way, and a kid with the last name of Clutz or Putz or Schmuck might as well have a target on their back.  Then a teen girl with the last name of Hooker or Slutsky or a boy with the last name of Gay, well, there are bound to be problems, or at least a few misunderstandings.  Thankfully most of the people profiled here seemed to find ways to rise above, and then maybe eventually they learned to laugh at the whole thing, but really, nobody should be made to feel inferior because of something as basic as their name.  

If it really becomes a problem over time, well, you can always change your name, I don't know why this didn't seem to be considered by anyone as a viable solution, although I guess if somebody with a strange name DID change it, we'd never know about it because the producers of the film never would have called them in the first place. 

Undoubtedly this may be a reason why movie characters tend to have unusual names - I doubt you'll ever meet a Luke Skywalker out in the world, but of course there are probably many people named James Bond.  I know that as a protective measure the big movie studios years ago started getting frivolous lawsuits from people who had the same names as movie characters, but like in very normal movies like rom-coms and such.  So I heard that as a precaution some studios, before releasing an original movie, would look for people with the same first and last names as their main characters and have them sign a contract for a very small fee, licensing the use of their names for a movie, and that way if anyone named Ethan Hunt wanted to sue the makers of "Mission: Impossible" for using HIS name, they would already have a contract that proved they paid a different guy $5 to license the use of his name, which just happens to be the same.  I'm not really sure if it's true, though. 

Anyway, this turned out to be a very short feature film, just 52 minutes long, which was fine by me because it gave me more time today to catch up on episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery", I've watched almost the whole series over the last two weeks, and I'm just 6 episodes away from the end.  It's been a ride, and it kept me busy while the theater's been shut down (because, you know, who goes out to the movies in the summer?) and I haven't gone stir crazy just yet.  Anyway I go back to work in 6 days, mostly Saturday events in July.   

There's another film on my list with a similar subject matter, it's all about people with the last name of Hitler, but even though this film would connect with THAT one, I had no connection back to the rest of my chain.  So that film will have to remain unwatched, for now.  And just like "You've Been Trumped Too", this film is streaming for FREE on Roku, Tubi, and FreeVee (part of Amazon) so why not give it a look-see? 

Also starring Smoki Bacon, Greg Boggis, James Bond, Tim Burr, Alfred Capone, Tom Clutz, Jeanine Cobbledick, Rob Crapo, Al Dente, Donald Duck, Barb Dwyer, Gunther Frankenstein, Gui Fuck, Richard Gay, Victoria Hooker, Paul McCartney (not that one), Linda McCartney (also not that one), Ronald McDonald (nope), Jim Mullarkey, Paul Nardizzi, Harry Potter, Stuart Putz, Dusty Rhodes, Howard Schmuck, Anna Slutsky, Jeff Studley, Donald Sutherland (not the actor), Donald L. Trump, Laura Wattenberg, Robin Williams (again, not the famous one) and the voice of Ben Mangina

with archive footage of Al Capone, Bill Clinton (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Larry David (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Adolf Hitler (last seen in "White Noise"), Donald Trump (last seen in "We Blew It")

RATING: 6 out of 10 non-clownish Ronald McDonalds