BEFORE: Well, the last few films have been fairly unkind to record company executives - these are the people that FORCE rock singers to go out on tour and earn MONEY, because they signed a very constrictive concert years ago. And then they HAVE to make more albums to keep the money flowing in, and worst of all, then they have to go out on TOUR and PLAY those new songs, even though the fans only want to hear the classic stuff. So basically they're evil bastards who sit in an office in New York or L.A. and collect all the money while the musicians are out there doing all the work, writing songs, going up on stage, being chased by fans and then having identity crises a few years later and realizing they're nothing but a commodity to the record industry.
But is all that really fair? It seems like maybe I'm only hearing one side of that argument. So once again, I'm looking for a little balance. Let's see if I get any. David Geffen carries over from "History of the Eagles".
THE PLOT: A look at the life and work of music producer Clive Davis.
AFTER: Well, this certainly paints a different sort of picture about record executives - or is it producers? Clive Davis certainly seemed to have a lot to say over the years about the WAY that records should be produced, but at the same time he had no formal training in music or sound, he only seems to know what he likes and therefore what will sell. So either he's a gifted savant, or he's incredibly lucky, or if neither of those are true, then it turns out the job of being a music company expert is very easy in the end. Unfortunately there's so much ground to cover here in his long career that we're never given an understanding about the nuts and bolts of the whole process, it's really just a string of "Then we had a number one hit with THIS guy" and "Then we had a platinum album with THIS gal."
From the day that Clive signed Janis Joplin, after he attended that famous Monterey Pop Festival where she performed, he's had an enormous, perhaps unmatched string of hits. But by focusing only on those, one after the other, it's tempting to think that he's got the golden touch, that he can do no wrong when it comes to spotting talent, or matching the right song with the right artist and the right producer to make hit records. This is the guy that told Simon & Garfunkel which track from their album to release if they wanted the biggest hit, the guy who signed Bruce Springsteen, the guy who finally got the Grateful Dead a Top 10 hit with "A Touch of Grey". He engineered career revivals for Aretha Franklin in the 80's, Carlos Santana in the 90's, and then worked with all the "American Idol" winners in the 2000's.
And then, don't forget Whitney. Clive Davis "discovered" Whitney Houston, got her first record released, and promoted the hell out of it. Then he stood by her through all the controversy when she got booed for sounding "too white" and then tried to help her when she was having problems with drug abuse. OK, great, he tried to help her, which is more than what most people did, but maybe he didn't try hard enough?
(I'd seen Clive already in the "Whitney: Can I Be Me" documentary, but I didn't link this one to that one because there was no mention of Whitney Houston in the IMDB credits for today's film. Which was a blatant mistake, because footage of her dominates about 15-20 minutes of this film. It's too bad, because I see now how I really should have flipped this and the previous three films around, followed the Whitney doc with THIS one, and then the Glen Campbell documentary would have linked to tomorrow's film, and everything would have fallen back into place. This is why film companies need to keep their IMDB credits updated. I've submitted Whitney's name for addition to the credits of this film, along with 159 other people who appeared in interviews or in archive footage, so this won't happen to anyone else.)
And that's the main problem here, this documentary's subject can do no wrong, whether it's his opinions over how records should sound, or fending off lawsuits or allegations of wrongdoing, he always manages to come out on top and in the clear. OK, so he seems like a nice enough guy, but how do I know that isn't just the way he wants to be seen? Was Whitney Houston happy with her contract with Arista, or did she feel like it was too constrictive, that it put too much of a burden on her to do press interviews? Was George Michael the only recording artist ever who felt like a slave?
To be fair, a few of Clive Davis' misses are included here to balance out all of his hits - his label released the infamous Milli Vanilli album, for example, and nobody bothered to check to see if the guys they paid were the same guys who sang on the record. Big crowds turned up for their live concerts and heard performers who sounded nothing like they did on their album, then it was revealed they were just a couple of actors lip-synching in their videos to someone else's tracks. A couple of other bands that went nowhere are also mentioned, but there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of failures in this guy's career, right? Logic sort of demands that for every hit record that connects with the audience, there must be at least 10 that don't.
Unless it really IS much easier than it seems - I mean, one of the big record companies like CBS or Arista probably has more control over the marketplace than we realize. And when you control what records are being released and marketed, you kind of control which ones people are going to buy - I mean, they can't buy ones that don't get made and don't ship to the stores, so on some level, people are going to go to the record store and select from whatever's there, even if it's shitty. I collect comic books, mostly Marvel and a little DC, so I base my purchases on whatever Marvel's releasing, I can only choose the best of what's being released each week, with the characters I like, but that doesn't mean that the stories are going to be GOOD.
So I think I'm not sold on the genius and benevolence of record company executives just yet. Nice try, though - I almost fell for it. This is what we used to call the "shovel approach" back in high-school when we were writing term papers. If you pile on enough evidence to support your argument, and conveniently leave out any information to the contrary, you just might convince your teacher of the point you're trying to make. Similarly, I think we're only being shown one side of the story here, the one where Clive Davis could never do anything wrong, and I wonder if there is a conflicting argument to be made.
Also starring Clive Davis (last seen in "Whitney: Can I Be Me"), Dionne Warwick (ditto), David Foster (ditto), Sean "Puffy" Combs, Simon Cowell, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Aretha Franklin (last seen in "George Michael: Freedom"), Kenny G, Berry Gordy, Jennifer Hudson (last seen in "Sandy Wexler"), Jimmy Iovine, Alicia Keys (last seen in "Amy"), Barry Manilow, L.A. Reid, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen (last seen in "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"), Rod Stewart (last seen in "Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul"), Steven Tyler, Diane Warren, Bob Weir (last seen in Long Strange Trip"), Lou Adler, Jim Budman, Bobby Colomby, Tom Corson, Nicole David, Doug Davis, Fred Davis, Mitchell Davis, Anthony DeCurtis (last seen in "How the Beatles Changed the World'), Tim DuBois, Peter Edge, Kenny Gamble, Charles Goldstuck, Allen Grubman, Pat Houston, Leon Huff, Don Ienner, Larry Jackson, Steve Jacobson, Monte Lipman, Roy Lott, Doug Morris, Keith Naftaly, Richard Palmese, Neil Portnow, Jo Schuman, Joe Smith, Abe Somer, Arnold Stiefel, Julie Swidler, with archive footage of Janis Joplin (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), Jimi Hendrix (ditto), Brian Jones (ditto), Rob Thomas (last seen in "Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago"), Terry Kath (ditto), Robert Lamm (ditto), Lee Loughnane (ditto), James Pankow (ditto), Walter Parazaider (ditto), Danny Seraphine (ditto), Robin Thicke (ditto), Whitney Houston (last seen in "Whitney: Can I Be Me"), Bobby Brown (ditto), Bobbi Kristina Brown (ditto), Cissy Houston (ditto), Kevin Costner (ditto), Oprah Winfrey (ditto), Joan Rivers (ditto), Merv Griffin (ditto), Katie Couric (ditto), Diane Sawyer (ditto), Paul McCartney (last seen in "History of the Eagles"), Elton John (ditto), Joni Mitchell (ditto), Carole King (ditto), John Belushi (ditto), Tony Bennett (last seen in "George Michael: Freedom"), George Michael (ditto), Stevie Wonder (ditto), Gladys Knight (ditto), Paula Abdul (ditto), James Corden (ditto), Bob Dylan (last seen in "Elvis Presley: The Searcher"), Robbie Robertson (ditto), Dave Grohl (last seen in "Amy"), Natalie Cole (ditto), Rihanna (ditto), Jay-Z (ditto), Lou Reed (last seen in "Jimi Hendrix"), Taylor Swift (last seen in "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"), Ahmet Ertegun (last seen in "Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars"), Bill Graham (ditto), Alan Jackson, Billy Joel (last seen in "Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul"), Jerry Garcia (last seen in "Long Strange Trip"), Phil Lesh (ditto), Bill Kreutzmann (ditto), Pink (last seen in "Janis: Little Girl Blue"), Clay Aiken, Philip Bailey, Fantasia Barrino, Beck, Toni Braxton, Kix Brooks, T-Bone Burnett, Eric Carmen, Vicki Carr, Kelly Clarkson, David Clayton-Thomas, Miley Cyrus, Ray Davies, Miles Davis, Taylor Dayne, Ronnie Dunn, Cass Elliot, John Fogerty, Justin Guarini, Taylor Hicks, Russell Hitchcock, Quincy Jones, Adam Lambert, Annie Lennox, Adam Levine, Craig Mack, Melissa Manchester, Johnny Mathis, Sarah McLachlan, Katharine McPhee, Meat Loaf, John Cougar Mellencamp, Mitch Miller, Rickey Minor, Fab Morvan, Notorious B.I.G., Ray Parker Jr., Alan Parsons, Dolly Parton, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, Rob Pilatus, Busta Rhymes, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Graham Russell, Gil Scott-Heron, Carly Simon, Slash, Russell Simmons, Barbra Streisand, Carrie Underwood, Usher, Luther Vandross, Scott Weiland, Kanye West, Maurice White, Verdine White, Andy Williams, Paul Williams, Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Ghostheads"), Jeff Bridges (last seen in "Hell or High Water"), Dick Clark, Mo Collins, Jane Curtin, Ann Curry, Sam Donaldson, Brian Dunkelman, Arsenio Hall, Harry Hamlin, Randy Jackson, Magic Johnson, Don Lemon, Nigel Lythgoe, Bill Maher, Michael McDonald (MAD TV), Garrett Morris, Bill Murray (last heard in "Isle of Dogs"), Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, Burt Reynolds (last seen in "The Crew"), Melissa Rivers, Charlie Rose, Ryan Seacrest, Dinah Shore, Billy Bob Thornton (last seen in "Eagle Eye"), Lily Tomlin (last seen in "I Heart Huckabees"), Ralph Waite, Mike Wallace, Forest Whitaker (last seen in "Black Panther"), Debra Wilson, Strauss Zelnick,
RATING: 5 out of 10 lifetime achievement awards
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