BEFORE: After tonight I'll have reached the halfway point in the Summer Music Concert series, this is movie #26 in the chain, with 26 to go. I'll total up the standings here at the half, at least in terms of appearances. We're going on a road trip for a couple of days, just up to Connecticut for a bit, and I'm taking Monday off from work. Now that I know our screenings are going well in both New York and L.A., and my boss is on the road and he's not calling with any emergencies, I can take a day off from putting out fires. My job sometimes resembles that of a rock band manager, and I assume they also sometimes need a mental health day off, once they know that the tour is in full swing and seems to be going well.
Songwriter Jimmy Webb is the connective tissue this time, he was interviewed in the Glen Campbell doc as the writer of "Wichita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". I'm not sure what song he wrote for Joe Cocker, but since he's interviewed here, I guess I'll find out shortly.
AFTER: Well, the story's the same, only the name of the singer changes each day, here in Phase II of the documentary chain. If anything's constant in the ever-changing music industry, it's the fact that the talent is the fuel that makes the machine work, only the fuel ends up being consumed by the engine, doesn't it? Be it Amy Winehouse, George Michael, Whitney Houston or Glen Campbell, the combination of an exhausting tour schedule plus a record company that demands promotion work, combined with some form of addiction, along with a belief that they've got a handle on their drinking or drug use, it just doesn't work in combination. Throw in some personal problems or issues on top of that, maybe an attempt to work in some kind of relationship or personal life, and there are going to be issues. Then once some success is achieved, the star starts to feel like a "commodity" that's being packaged and sold to the public, this leads to identity issues, and alcohol and/or drugs are readily available to help take the pain away.
It's always too much too soon, isn't it? Does anyone become famous at the "right" speed, get some kind of handle on what it means to earn a big payday from their first few hits, and do something sensible with the money? In the case of Joe Cocker, the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour of 1971 was a 7-week affair during which he played 56 concerts in 48 cities, backed by a 40-piece band put together by Leon Russell, and traveled with a film crew documenting the whole affair, which then ended up being so costly that it didn't turn any profit in the end. Once again, we see the madness of promotion, which never seems logical in the short term, but of course could pay off in the long run. They say you have to spend money to make money, but that only works if you STOP spending money at some point. Joe Cocker put out 22 studio albums in 43 years, which means he was always either touring, promoting the latest album, or working on the next one. There's that hamster wheel again, and you can step off of the wheel for a short time, but not for a long time, unless you want the money to stop coming in.
Joe Cocker, of course, came to prominence at the famous Woodstock concert in 1969, singing a re-worked version of the Beatles song "With a Little Help From my Friends". He slowed it down, sang it with his soulful, gravelly voice, and it became a hit again (Number 1 in the U.K., anyway), just 2 years after the "Sgt. Pepper" album. Tons of people covered the Beatles' songs, of course (I should know, I collect those covers) but few people back then had the balls to re-work their songs into a different style. Cocker had covered another Beatles song, "I'll Cry Instead" four years earlier, and then later also covered "Something", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", "Let It Be", and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". Then he did one last Beatles cover, "Come Together" in 2007 for the film "Across the Universe".
Because that's who Cocker was, not a singer/songwriter, but a great cover artist. Maybe the best cover artist ever, because he made the most out of every song that he screamed/sung in his style. "The Letter" by the Boxtops was a simple little ditty from the early 60's, but he slowed it down and gave it some soul. Randy Newman wrote and recorded the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On" in 1972, but it took Joe Cocker's version, and its appearance in the 1986 film "9 1/2 Weeks" to make it a hit. "Unchain My Heart" was a hit for Ray Charles in 1971, but Cocker's version in 1987 made it a hit again, and so on. Traffic's song "Feelin' Alright" and Billy Preston's song "You Are So Beautiful" are more often remembered by people today as Joe Cocker songs.
I think I became aware of who Joe Cocker was through "Unchain My Heart" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On", but then I bought a few of his Greatest Hits cassettes (yes, there was more than one) and the 1992 album "Night Calls". By that point his career had gone through many ups and downs, but of course I didn't know that at the time. He'd been something of a joke, with John Belushi on SNL impersonating his strange on-stage movements, or maybe something of an anomaly, because it's harder to be a fan of someone who just re-interprets other people's hit songs, especially during the singer/songwriter movement of the 1970's.
He also struggled with alcoholism, or more likely, didn't do much struggling at all, just kind of leaned into it. A reporter for Rolling Stone magazine watched him drink a whole 6-pack of beer during an interview, which took place in the afternoon before an evening concert, and he probably drank all through that concert, too. Band members and tour managers interviewed for this film report on not only how much Cocker could drink, but also how many times he was likely to throw up during an average concert. Through all this, he found time to get married and buy a ranch in Colorado. Eventually he decided to sober up, because he was finding it difficult to do that primal scream at the end of "With a Little Help From My Friends". Hey, whatever it takes.
He toured Europe with Tina Turner after her comeback in the 1980's (they had the same tour manager at the time) and became really popular in Germany, right around the time the Berlin Wall came down. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013, right after coming off of tour, and died a year later. He's still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite Billy Joel's best efforts, but hey, you never know. I think that's a pretty tough call, whether someone gets in just for re-interpreting other people's songs - though he did that very well, it might not display the level of creativity that the induction process tends to favor.
Oh, yeah, those half-time totals. After 26 music documentaries, the two people who have appeared the most are (no surprises here) Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney, if I count today's "blink and you'll miss it" appearance of Macca at the Queen Elizabeth 2002 Jubilee Concert, where Joe Cocker sang, of course, "With a Little Help From My Friends". Mick and Paul each have 10 appearances, and next comes John Lennon with 9. Rounding out the top five are Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards, each with 8 appearances. It seems impossible to make any rock documentary without letting a Beatle or a Rolling Stone in there somewhere. Can these two rockers can hold on to their lead in the 2nd half of the chain, or will someone else make a bunch of uncredited appearances? I can't even predict this one, which is why the games have to be played out.
Time for a break, I'm off for a couple days but I can still get Netflix on my phone, so I'm going to try to watch at least one long film while I'm on the road, but I may not be able to post until Tuesday. I'll try to double-up when I get back so I can stay on track.
Also starring Pam Cocker, Vic Cocker, Rita Coolidge, Billy Joel, Randy Newman, Phil Crookes, Deric Dyer, Cliff Goodwin, Glyn Johns, Michael Lang, Chris Lord-Alge, Charlie Midnight, Jerry Moss, Ray Neapolitan, Chris Stainton, Ben Fong Torres, and archive footage of Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, Roger Davies, George Harrison (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), Nicky Hopkins (last seen in "Keith Richards: Under the Influence"), Bobby Keys (last seen in "Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll"), Brian May (last seen in "George Michael: Freedom"), Paul McCartney (also carrying over from "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"), Jimmy Page, Leon Russell, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Jennifer Warnes, Steve Winwood (last seen in "Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars").
RATING: 5 out of 10 bottles of brandy
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