At the top of this page, it says Movie and Music page, and the reason this is not JUST a movie page, or a music page, is due to my belief that the two are really intertwined, and in my heart, equally loved. Also, it is due to my belief that the right music can make a movie; can really transform a film and make it something better than it could have been without it. The right music can make you FEEL a movie. I'm not talking about obvious soundtracks like Grease, Saturday Night Fever, or Footloose, but I'm talking about John Cusack holding up a boom box in the rain in Say Anything, and you FEEL his pain. I'm talking about Jenny up on the ledge in Forrest Gump with Freebird playing in the background, or Forrest in Vietnam with Creedence blasting as helicopters fly over. Pulp Fiction with Uma playing Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon. Who can forget the scene in Ghost with Unchained Melody in the background while they molded the clay? Music helps move you. Yeah, it's a cheap shot, making you feel things you may not with just the dialogue and the picture, but you know, that's also what's great about it. It's an emotional happening. Movies to me, the really great ones, aren't just visual. In fact I want to be able to close my eyes sometimes at a movie and just feel it.
Thus we come to my review of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, which tells the story of Stillwater, a Midwestern rock band on the verge of stardom in 1973 and a young journalist who joins the band on tour. William Miller, based on Crowe, is a 15 year old overachiever who lands the assignment from Rolling Stone after lying about his age.
Early in the film, Billy's sister flees their mother's strict household to the strains of Simon and Garfunkel's America, and she tells Billy she left him a surprise. He runs upstairs and finds her box of LP's, puts on Tommy by The Who, and is reborn. It brings to mind thoughts of when music first came to matter to you.
Near the end of the movie, there is a group sing along, on a bus, and as corny as that sounds, it is completely moving. You just won't understand until you see it, and feel it with a love of music like mine. The song is Elton John's Tiny Dancer, and the tour bus is rumbling down the road, everyone in kind of a funk as the tour has worn them down and pitted them against one another like a family vacation that starts with high hopes and quickly disintegrates. The song is playing in the background, when one of the bandmates start singing along. Soon the others join in, as if willed by the song - band, groupies, journalist. At that moment, all the bad vibes melt away, and there is nothing but the music, providing it's healing power as it brings people together. Towards the end of this scene, Billy, who has skipped school and ticked off his mother, staying with the band longer than anticipated, turns to one of the groupies and comments that he needs to go home. She looks at him like he's insane, and says, "Shhh, you ARE home." Everyone in this picture seems to find out a little bit more about themselves, just as they are discovering the world opening around them.
Cameron Crowe has painted a realistic and heartfelt picture of his own youth, and reminded us of our own. As he has done in his previous movies, like Singles, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and even Fast Times at Ridgemont High (remember Led Zeppelin in the car on that first date), he uses music to set a tone, and evoke a feeling. To him, the lyrics of the songs are as important as the words he writes for the characters. When I hear 'In Your Eyes' I can see John Cusack standing in the rain in Say Anything, and when I hear 'Secret Garden' by Springsteen, I can feel the love between Rene Zellweger and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, and now when I hear 'Tiny Dancer' I am on a bus, singing along with people I love, rumbling down the highway of life, uncertain of my future, sure, but certain there's a future out there somewhere waiting for me.
With Almost Famous, and it's soundtrack, Crowe captures the raw awakening of the 70's, the power music had as a tool of rebellion, of freedom, and of redemption. Rod Stewart and Ron Wood said, "Every picture tells a story," and if you're lucky enough, it will also have a good soundtrack, so you can close your eyes and not only be provided with a story, but also some nice memories, and occasionally, a dream.
Well, I must say, Eddie, Stone, and the boys made up for last time. This show was fantastic. The opening band was Supergrass, and they didn't sound too bad; I actually had heard a couple of their songs. Pearl Jam came on at around 9 and played until 11:30 or so. TWO and a half hours!! Friends, they played all my stuff, and even played some things for the other folks there. My friend Mark, who is as big a Pearl Jam fan as me, and very hard to please, was quite impressed. Eddie came out dressed in white pants and a white shirt, billowing in a slight breeze; and with a new beard, he seemed to play the part of the savior of Rock and Roll.
They started in a mellow mood, playing Release, a rare one from the first album, Ten. It was the first of many numbers from Ten. As the night progressed they ran through Jeremy, Evenflow, Alive, Once, and yes, Black. This kept the old, faithful fans happy. At one point they played two songs from Ten in a row, and it felt like we were seeing an early version of Pearl Jam from 1990 or so. After Release, they played Corduroy, and then from the new album, Breakerfall. They did play a lot from the new album, but mixed in the old stuff quite generously, and slower songs like Given To Fly, Elderly Woman, Nothingman, and Daughter went over HUGE with the crowd. I think Eddie sensed the crowd was really in to the show, and he seemed to want to reward us. They played U, which was a B-side from the Wishlist single that should have been on the album if you ask me, but Eddie joked that you could maybe find the song on Napster. During one song, Ed walked out to the furthest sides of the stage, reaching out to a crowd of screaming hands, and taking it all in with a huge smile.
Among the highlights from the new album, Binaural, was "Thin Air" which Eddie said Stone had written about new love, and a stellar version of "Nothing as it seems" featuring Mike McCready's sweet guitar work. The band came back for two encores, and let me preface this by saying Mark and I both have several bootleg and import live Pearl Jam shows, not to mention the recently released live shows from Europe. That said, we both agreed that during one of the encores, we witnessed THE BEST version of Rearview Mirror we had ever heard. If you are familiar with the song, there is a break in the middle where they take it down, and then crash back in to "Saw things...saw things...." and wind in to the end. Well, this break went down, stayed down, and it was tight. Jeff, Stone and Mike huddled in a circle in the middle of the stage, with a newly bearded Eddie nodding at the mic, like a 90's version of Jim Morrison, just lost in the mood, the vibe and the lights. You could feel the tension growing in the crowd as each time you felt like they were going to hit it hard, and swung your arms up in anticipation, they kept it down a little longer. The lights were flashing every color imaginable, and the crowd was going wild. Eddie started nodding faster and then suddenly they crashed back in to the hard driving, straight ahead final chorus. We just about died, it was so damn good. They finished with Neil Young's "Rockin in the Free World" as the lights did a constant white strobe that made the band, and the crowd both seem to move in slow motion even as the song powerfully charged everyone to the breaking point. The band left the stage for the last time, and the crowd was exhausted. My calves were killing me from jumping around for nearly three hours straight. Eddie lingered a bit, waving to the crowd, pointing at some people down front, and came back to the mic, smiling as he said, "Thanks, we'll see you again." In that instant, I was reminded just how powerful a great show can be, how close a crowd can get to a performer, and how you can get back as much as you give, and how music that you love, played to perfection can move you like nothing else. It was a good night. Everybody smile.
