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Dusty Springfield: Once Upon a Time – 1964-1969

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Sizzling performance clips perk up documentary of soulful ‘60s songbird

One Upon a Time: 1964-1969 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Of the four artists profiles (which also include Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits), Dusty Springfield made perhaps the largest artistic impact on America. Herman’s Hermits had more hits, and the Small Faces were a bigger influence on the mod movement in the UK, but Springfield’s key works, “I Only Want to Be With You,” Bacharach & David’s “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” and especially “Son of a Preacher Man” harbored a soulfulness that none of her UK peers could match. She exuded class in her demure, self-contained dance moves, elegant frilled blouses and long skirts.

As with many pop stars of the era, Springfield’s television appearances mixed lip-synching and live performances. Unlike most others, though, her lip-synching was truly expressive. While others simply mimed their vocals, Springfield acted them out with her movements, doing with her body and face what she’d already done with her voice in the studio. Better yet, she was a great live singer, as evidenced by a terrific 1965 performance of “All Cried Out” on the Ed Sullivan show and 1966 NME poll winner’s performances of “In the Middle of Nowhere” and “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” She exhorts the crowd while singing covers of Betty Everett’s “I Can’t Hear You” and Otis Redding’s “Shake,” and without a monitor speaker in sight, delivers pitch-perfect vocals.

Springfield had greater chart success in the UK than the US, but even songs that failed to conquer the states, such as “Some of Your Lovin’” and Bacharach and David’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” were strong enough to lodge in the ears of American fans. Even her lower-charting US hits, such as “Stay Awhile” (perfectly covered in 1978 by Rachel Sweet) remain familiar. In 1968 Springfield took her singing to a new level with the sessions that resulted in the album Dusty in Memphis and the single “Son of a Preacher Man.” Amid players and producers whose music had provided the template for her own recordings, she sang with a reserve that spoke to her underlying strength rather than the explicit power she could unleash. Her gospel phrasings and confessional tone gave the hit an intimacy with which listeners connected on a deep, emotional level. Amazingly, the single only reached #10 and became her last hit until a 1987 teaming with the Pet Shop Boys on “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”

This 69-minute documentary includes sixteen performances, each of which (and four more) can be seen in full in the DVD’s extras. There’s also a 24-page booklet that’s stuffed with liner notes by Annie Randall, photos, ephemera and credits. Period interview clips with Springfield from 1964, 1971 and 1978 and contemporary interviews with two of her backup singers (Madeline Bell and Simon Bell) and Burt Bacharach provide interesting personal reflections. The details of Springfield’s anti-apartheid contract clause (for shows in South Africa) are particularly enlightening. The performances are terrific, but, in the end, the documentary doesn’t tell enough of Springfield’s story, and fails to explain (as the liner notes do) why her commercial success faded at the end of the ‘60s. This is worth seeing, particularly for fans, but if you’re interested more generally in the British Invasion, the volumes on the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits are better documentaries. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Gerry & The Pacemakers: It’s Gonna Be All Right – 1963-1965

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Winning documentary of early British Invasion hit-makers

It’s Gonna Be All Right: 1963-1965 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Of the four artists profiled (which also include Dusty Springfield, the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits), Gerry & the Pacemakers might seem the most lightweight. But like all of the artists in this series, what U.S. audiences saw were just the tip of a larger artistic iceberg, and this collection of seventeen vintage musical performances and interviews, television and stage appearances, and contemporary interviews with Gerry Marsden and Bill Harry (founder of the Mersey Beat newspaper) tells more of the band’s story beyond their oft-anthologized hits. The Pacemakers emerge as early exponents of Liverpool’s beat rock, and an act that vied with the Beatles for the seaport town’s music fans.

The parallels between the Pacemakers and the Beatles are many. Both were Liverpool bands with Skiffle roots that turned to covering American R&B. But honed their live performances in demanding Hamburg gigs, played the Cavern Club, were managed by Brian Epstein, wrote some of their own hits, were produced by George Martin, starred in their own film (Ferry Cross the Mersey), toured America and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. The Pacemakers’ music wasn’t as edgy as the Beatles, and Marsden never really varied from his smiling, sometimes hammy, showmanship as a front-man. The group broke in 1963 with “How Do You Do It?” and “I Like It,” and crossed the Atlantic the following year with “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.” Their earlier U.K. singles would find later success in the U.S., though “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “I’m the One” (#1 and a #2, respectively) remained UK-only hits.

The group was on the front-lines of the British Invasion, appearing in the 1964 T.A.M.I. Show, but like many of their peers, they never really evolved. Their success in the UK tailed off in 1965, they charted their last single in the States with 1966’s “Girl on a Swing,” and disbanded a month later. Unlike the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermit’s volumes, this film provides little documentation of the band’s musicians, and few details of their time in the studio or on the road; this is more a nostalgic pass through their catalog (including a nice anecdote about “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”) than a revelatory document of the band’s history. In addition to the 72-minute documentary, the full individual performances can be viewed via DVD menu options. Bonuses include additional interview footage with and extensive liner notes by Bill Harry. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Gerry & The Pacemakers’ Home Page
Gerry Marsden’s Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

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Herman’s Hermits: Listen People – 1964-1969

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Stellar documentary of endearing British Invasion hit-makers

Listen People 1964-1969 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Like the other three, it’s a terrific collection, spanning twenty-two complete vintage performances, period promotional footage, television and stage performances, and contemporary interviews with Peter Noone, Karl Green (bass), Keith Hopwood (guitar) and Barry Whitwam (drums – sitting in front of his awesome gold-sparkle Slingerland drum set). Noone was – and is – one of the most charming front-men of the British Invasion, and the documentary reveals the band to be much more than a backing unit for their vocalist. Their hits were often the lightest of pop songs, but written, played and sung exceptionally, and the group was a charming live act.

The group’s hit singles were brought to them by producer Mickey Most, who had a golden ear for material and arrangements. Their first single, a 1964 cover of Earl-Jean’s “I’m Into Something Good,” was a worldwide smash and followed by a string of singles, some unreleased in the UK, some unreleased in the US, that kept the group at the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic well into 1967. The unusual release strategy left U.S. audiences with a different picture of the group than those in their home country; in particular, “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” “Listen People,” “Leaning on the Lamp Post,” and “Dandy” were all stateside smashes that went unreleased as singles in the UK.

The documentaries’ interviews reveal the unorthodox story behind the recording and release of the music hall styled “Mrs. Brown,” and recollections of the band’s first NME Poll Winners Concert are born out by a winningly nervous performance. The group looks more comfortable with their up-tempo cover of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” with the young Noone in his schoolboy suit playing the part of the song’s protagonist. It’s easy to see why he was the sort of heartthrob who induced Beatlemania hysterics in young girls. An early performance of “Fortune Teller” at the Cavern Club shows the group to have had a grittier R&B side that was mostly unused for their hits. The liner notes and commentary mention a hot version of Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking About You” that unfortunately didn’t seem to make the final cut of the DVD.

The group’s hits rarely strayed from polite pop, failing to navigate many of the changes wrought by the latter half of the 1960s. Their recordings of songs by P.F. Sloan (“A Must to Avoid”), Ray Davies (“Dandy”) and Graham Gouldman (“No Milk Today”) took them towards folk-rock and more poetically crafted lyrics, but even as their clothes took on the fashions of 1966 and 1967 their singles remained “romantic, boy-next-door stuff.” They continued to record through the psychedelic era, having a Top 40 hit with Donovan’s “Museum” (not included here) and thickening their productions with strings and a hint of country twang on “My Sentimental Friend,” but the heavy sounds emanating from San Francisco and elsewhere spelled the end of their hit-making days.

Herman’s Hermits were a feel good band whose chipper music became anachronistic in the face of Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Their singles weren’t trendsetting (though Noone suggests his over-the-top English accent on “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” freed other British bands to abandon their faked Americana), but they were catchy, sold extremely well, and to this day remain memorable. In addition to the 78-minute documentary, the full individual performances can be viewed via DVD menu options, and bonuses include a 24-minute concert filmed for Australian television, a commentary track, and fifteen minutes of interviews that recollect the Hermits’ 1967 tour with the Who. This is a great documentary for both fans and those who only know a few of the group’s hits. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Herman’s Hermit’s Home Page
Herman’s Hermit’s UK Home Page
Peter Noone’s Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

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The Small Faces: All or Nothing – 1965-1968

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Stellar documentary of British Invasion giants

All or Nothing 1965-1968 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. It is a spectacular collection of footage that spans twenty-seven complete vintage performances, interviews with the principle band members reflecting on their time as seminal mod and psychedelic rockers, and superb vintage clips of the band creating in the studio, shopping on Carnaby Street and gigging at iconic clubs like the Marquee. The producers have performed miracles in digging up rare television and film footage, and archival interviews with Steve Marriott (from 1985) and Ronnie Lane (from 1988, his last filmed appearance) are complemented by contemporary interviews with Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

Though the Small Faces had only one chart hit in the U.S. (1968’s “Itchycoo Park”), their fame in the UK and Europe, not to mention their style, sound and musicianship, were in league with the Who and Stones. The band members post-Small Faces gigs brought a greater helping of stateside fame (Marriott with Humble Pie; Lane, McLagan and Jones with the Faces; and Jones with the latter-day Who), but this 101-minute documentary shows the Small Faces were a group to be reckoned with. Marriott was a ferocious front-man with an aggressive vocal delivery, hot guitar licks and a songwriting partnership with Ronnie Lane that matured from derivative R&B to original tunes that wove pop, rock and psych influences into their bedrock soul. The interviews trace the group’s original influences, the pop sides forced upon them, and the turning points at which they made artistic leaps forward.

Among the biggest events in the Small Faces’ development was a change in management and label from Don Arden and Decca to Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate. The mod sounds and styles of their early singles quickly became psychedelic, but not before launching their new phase with the 1967 ode to methadrine, “Here Comes the Nice.” Their hair and fashions in the accompanying television performance find the band in transition between the dandy style of the mods and the floral and flowing elements of the hippie revolution. The influence of LSD can be heard in “Green Shadows” and the band’s U.S. breakthrough, “Itchycoo Park,” which McLagan suggests was a rebuttal to England’s formal system of higher education. The group’s pièce de résistance, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, is essayed here with a lip-synched clip of the title tune and a seven-song live-sung (but not played) set from the BBC’s Colour Me Pop.

The progression from the hard R&B of “Whatch Gonna Do About It” to their crowning concept album is impressive, but that it happened in only three years is amazing. The story of the Small Faces is told here in the band’s words and music, with interview footage woven among the music clips. The full performances, including four not featured in the documentary, can be viewed separately via DVD menu options. Lane’s full interview and a photo gallery are included as extras, along with a 24-page booklet featuring detailed credits and song notes. This disc will strike a deep nostalgic chord for UK fans, and will be a voyage of discovery for Americans familiar only with “All or Nothing,” “Itchycoo Park,” “Tin Soldier,” and “Lazy Sunday.” [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Small Faces’ Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

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Elvis: Love Me Tender – The Love Songs

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

DVD_ElvisLoveMeTenderTheLoveSongsElvis’ career refracted through some of his love songs

This made-for-DVD (and PBS pledge night) special traces a line through Elvis’ career by examining the love songs he performed and the reaction they provoked from his fans. Depicted early on as a hip-swiveling instigator, Elvis’ balladry, though present at the very start of his hit-making career (e.g., 1956’s “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” and “Love Me Tender”), didn’t make for sensational headlines. Still, his ballads were hits, regularly evoked shrieks and swoons from his female audience and became an essential part of his television appearances, film soundtracks and live shows. Early clips here feature Elvis crooning on the Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows, the latter a sublime version of “Love Me” in which Elvis plays to the girls in the balcony. There’s a post army clip of Elvis goofing with Frank Sinatra on a television special, and the ’68 comeback special yields Elvis reconnecting with “Are You Lonesome Tonight” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

Much of Elvis career in the ‘60s is painted through musical clips drawn from his films. This provides ready-made widescreen color footage, but shortchanges many classic hit ballads in favor of lesser soundtrack material. Luckily, with Elvis’ reentry into live performing at the end of the decade, live footage is once again introduced, with Las Vegas performances of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “The Wonder of You” finding Elvis fit and energized, and Aloha From Hawaii yielding “What Now My Love” and “I’ll Remember You.” When there are no film or live performances to draw from, the producers switch to photo montages to accompany studio recordings, such as Elvis’ take on “For the Good Times.” The video closes with a Vegas-era live take of Elvis coming full circle to his early ballad hit, “Love Me Tender.” Elvis prowls the stage and kisses women in the audience as he sings.

The special is narrated by Ashley Judd, who provides background on songs, recording sessions, career machinations and a variety of Elvis trivia. There are also interview clips with Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires, Joe Moscheo of the The Imperials, Ed Enoch of the Stamps Quartet, and Myrna Smith of The Sweet Inspirations. Thirty-five minutes of additional interview footage is included as an extra, and the stories from those who knew and worked with Elvis are often more compelling than Judd’s scripted narration. Three short commercials for Graceland are also included. Fans will enjoy this 79-minute collection of previously released performances and clips, songs and photos, but if you want deeper analysis, you’ll need to read Peter Guralnik’s biographies. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Elvis Love Songs Home Page

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Raquel!

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

DVD_Raquel!Fantastic 1970 Raquel Welch TV special

Originally aired in 1970, this filmed television special captures Raquel Welch at the peak of her stardom. The bulk of the forty-nine minutes are staged song-and-dance numbers shot on location in Paris, Mexico and a ski resort, featuring Welch solo, with dancers, and with guest stars Tom Jones and Bob Hope. John Wayne also appears for a short sketch on a Western back lot set. Welch is radiant throughout, whether wearing high-end fashions or a space-age bikini and boots.

Welch sings hits of the day, including “California Dreaming,” “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In,” “The Sounds of Silence,” and a rock ‘n’ roll medley with Tom Jones that includes “Rip it Up,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Lucille,” “Tutti Frutti,” and “Jenny Jenny.” Tom Jones adds a solo version of “I Who Have Nothing.” Welch and Hope sing and dramatize “Rocky Raccoon,” with the former pulling off a credible imitation of Mae West and the latter hamming it up.

This was a high-budget special with excellent location footage, generous helpings of helicopter shots, extravagant costuming for Welch and the dancers, and A-list guest stars. The choice of middle-of-the-road material and tried-and-tested mainstream guest stars show Welch aiming square at the heart of middle America. Welch’s beauty often obscured her talents as a singer, dancer and comedienne, and then-contemporary clips of a British press conference show her to be witty and bright, to boot. This is a superb time capsule of  late ‘60s hippie culture finding a cleaned-up and watered-down place in the mainstream. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Privilege

Monday, July 27th, 2009

DVD_PrivilegeDark story of the star-making machine

Privilege, released in 1967 and starring Manfred Mann lead-vocalist Paul Jones, is a compelling look at stardom and media manipulation. Jones plays Steven Shorter, a sullen, withdrawn, brooding and childlike rock star who turns out to be a puppet front man for a business he doesn’t control. His choices of music, message, performance, clothes and endorsements have been usurped by the media machine that created him; he’s a ghost within his own life story. Shorter is lent to whoever will pay for his services, whether it’s an advertisement for apples or a Christian crusade.

The film is structured as a quasi-documentary with a dispassionate narrator and interview clips. There’s also an air of behind-the-scenes authoritarianism that parallels the tone of Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner. Shorter is trapped by his totalitarian masters, and his manufactured popularity is used to influence and control the masses via media manipulation. Shorter himself turns out to be just another cog in the mass, as he emotes through a cynical rock take on “Onward Christian Brothers” and finds himself posed as a faith-healing messiah for a Nazi-styled Christian rally. He’s a scripted prophet whose awakening from ambivalence is his final undoing.

Superb art design, staging and photography complement by a tartly cynical script that would play well with other media critiques such as Ace in the Hole and A Face in the Crowd. This edition includes the film’s original trailer and a 1961 short, Lonely Boy, that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the career of Paul Anka. Director Peter Watkins apparently drew from the short’s style, particularly the narrator’s tone and the use of voiceovers, first deploying them in 1965’s The War Game and again here. The DVD offers subtitles, but unfortunately, no commentary track. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

DrGoldfootAndTheBikiniMachineSpy-themed Beach Party follow-on doesn’t measure up

American International Picture’s spy-themed 1965 follow-on to their successful Beach Party series does not measure up to its teen-fun predecessors nor its spy-film lampooning peers. Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman each made better teen films, and though co-star Vincent price is a hoot and Susan Hart is hot, the screenplay is a dud. Worse yet, the script’s original musical bent was trimmed down to only the terrific Guy Hemric/Jerry Styner-penned theme song. The film’s low production values are mediated by great location footage of San Francisco and a terrific claymation title sequence by Gumby’s creator, Art Clokey. Like any number of 1960s spy films – dramas and comedies – there’s a lot of opportunity to pick out things Mike Myers poached for his Austin Powers series, not least of which are the gold bikini clad fembots. Lots of slapstick from the entire cast (which includes character actor Jack Mullaney), and some entertainingly bad green screen work in which Avalon and Hickman ride a motorbike amongst what seem to be gigantic trucks and cars. Keep your eye peeled for cameos from several AIP Beach Party stars. The original Beach Party films are better entertainment (particularly for their musical content) and better mid-60s spy spoofs can be found, but if you’ve exhausted both genres, see this one for completeness. Nice crisp print, but the original trailer is the only extra. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Gonks Go Beat

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

gonksgobeat_posterOut-of-time and of-its-time 1965 British musical fantasy

This mid-60s British pop musical is quite the obscurity, and though the story of strife between neighboring Beat Land and Ballad Isle, and the Romeo and Juliet subplot aren’t particularly original, there’s a lot to love here amidst the cheap studio sets. Sure, the soft-rock pretty boys of Ballad Isle would get their asses kicked by American Graffiti’s John Milner, but the R&B played by the inhabitants of Beat Land (and the bikini-clad dancers they inspire) are top gear. The soundtrack (which is just now being reissued on CD) features some gems by Lulu, Graham Bond, The Nashville Teens and more.

The film’s awash with wonderfully off-beat British characters, starting with a Clarence-the-Angel styled flunky named Wilco Roger sent by the Space Congress of the Universe to settle the inter-island dispute. There’s an Oz-like “Mr. A&R” who lives in “The Echo Chamber” and explains that he’s “… the sole survivor of a race of people who used to be employed throughout the world by business known as recording companies.” Ballad Isle features clubs like the Boom Bar, The Diminished Seventh and Diskey A Go Go, and the island’s prison sentences it inhabitants to a term of drumming. The latter leads to a fantastic scene of nine drummers playing in unison on full kits! The drums themselves are luscious in their vintage sparkle and faux-finishes.

The opening rave-up with Ginger Baker and Graham Bond is superb, as is the staging of an instrumental played by band members driven in a fleet of mid-60s British top-down sports cars. Elaine and Derek redeem Ballad Isle with the Everly Brothers styled “Broken Pieces,” Lulu and the Luvvers groove to “The Only One,” the Nashville Teens show they had more than “Tobacco Road” up their sleeves, and the climactic musical battle between the two islands pits literal guitar armies against one another. There are some great ‘65 fashions and vintage instruments (check out Bond’s orange-and-black Vox Continental organ), and even the buttoned-down Ballad Isle has policewomen wearing black tights.

Much like the Lawrence Welk show of the late-60s and AIP’s Beach Party films, Gonks Go Beat, is a time capsule of an idealized world that was a couple of strides out of step with its own times. The real-life rock musicians cast as inhabitants of Beat land seem quite bemused by the cultural scrubbing, but as anachronistic this was even at the time, it’s now itself part of the historical record. Anyone who loves the British Invasion will enjoy this nostalgic bit of fluff. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

edgeplayA look back at the teenage diaries of the Runaways

The Runaways were both an actual all-girl rock ‘n’ roll band and a realization of their impresario’s promotional imagination. Their run of four studio albums in the 1970s (The Runaways, Queens of Noise, Waitin’ for the Night, And Now… The Runaways), a live LP (Live in Japan), and a few odds ‘n’ sods collection (Flaming Schoolgirls) yielded some terrific glitter-flavored rock, a great deal of publicity, but only a modicum of commercial success. Though they provided inspiration for bands like the Go-Go’s, Pandoras, and Donnas, and two of the original members (Lita Ford and Joan Jett) went on to international acclaim, the group’s original publicity still casts a shadow over the Runaways’ musical accomplishment. They remain more infamous than famous.

The band’s second bassist, Vicki Blue, developed a post-Runaways career as a producer/director (under the name Victory Tischler Blue), and is the visionary behind this documentary. Blue’s inside connections with the band is both a blessing and a curse, as the group members are candid with her on some subjects but appear to close down on others. She tells the interior story of the band’s interpersonal dynamics, focusing on the shifting friendships and tensions between band members, and the abuse heaped upon the then-teenage girls by management and assorted hired hands. This is more a diary than a history.

Even those familiar with the Runaways public career would have greatly benefited from an explanation of where these girls came from, a brief discourse on the culture of the Sunset Strip and San Fernando Valley, the musical times, and the family lives that allowed teenage girls to tour under the reportedly abusive and non-watchful eyes of Kim Fowley and manager Scott Anderson. Signature events, signings, and concerts are alluded to but never fully highlighted, and the band’s peers and fans are omitted from the picture. The lack of context or third-party perspectives saps some of the power from the first-person interviews. The largest blow of all, however, is the lack of participation by Joan Jett, the band’s heart and soul, and the inability of the filmmaker to license any of the Runaways studio recordings. Live performances of Lou Reed’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” give you a taste of their power as a band, but little sense of their original music.

Blue’s interviews with four of the original band members, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Sandy West, are supplemented by interviews with songwriter Kari Krome, impresario Kim Fowley, latter-day manager Toby Mamis, and inspiration Suzy Quatro. Blue is able to get some startling admissions from her former bandmates, particularly Cherie Currie, and their on-going damage is revealed in the bitterness they harbor and the anger that remains towards one another (they’re each interviewed separately) and for the adults who abused them. Blue doesn’t successfully confront Fowley on the group’s allegations, but interviews with Currie and West’s mothers go a long way to solidifying his dark reputation.

Kim Fowley saw the band’s demise as a product of the members’ lack of friendship, but what’s clear from the interviews is that neither Fowley nor Scott Anderson had an interest in the group’s long term well-being, and used the teenage girls’ immaturity as weapons against them. The band’s demise, after a disastrous album with British producer John Alcock, produced a short-lived solo recording and film career for Cherie Currie, chart success as a pop-metal star for Lita Ford, and a major international music career for Joan Jett. Drummer Sandy West fell into a series of jobs outside the music industry (construction, bartending, veterinary assistance) and rackets (protection for drug dealers) before succumbing to cancer and a brain tumor in 2006. West remained haunted to the end by the Runaways’ breakup, angry at those who manipulated the band and unable to understand why a reunion couldn’t be pulled together.

Blue’s film editing is very busy. The dizzy, hand-held interview footage quickly turns from vérité to distraction, as does the constant presence of music beds, and the jump cuts and video effects. Her choice of sunny outdoor locations for many of the interviews prompts her subjects to wear sunglasses, hiding the expressiveness of their eyes. Blue is to be lauded for getting this film off the ground, dealing with numerous limitations, and sticking with it to completion. Her insider’s perch informs but also colors the story she tells, and without the broader context of the band’s life and times there remains a definitive biography to be made. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Runaways Home Page

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