I missed out on the grand old days of rock & roll. As I started developing an interest in my own music, disco was king. I soon got past that and found the early 80's new wave and punk, along with true rock music from before the disco era. So maybe what I like so much about this movie is the way it romanticizes an era that I missed out on. A time before AIDS; a time before people realized just how harmful drugs really are; a time before record companies started churning out carbon-copy ready-made bands; a time when the music really did matter. Almost Famous takes place in the mid seventies, just prior to the disco era. It is based on a true story: Cameron Crowe's (the writer, producer and director of the movie) life as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine writing about the bands of that era. William Miller is Crowe's alter-ego in the film. At the tender age of fifteen, he is mature beyond his years in many ways, but emotionally he is still fifteen. Miller gets handed a plumb writing assignment for Rolling Stone magazine to follow the band Stillwater on tour and write about them. As the movie goes on, we can see he is in the situation over his head, and have to wonder how he will manage in the end. Patrick Fugit portrays William Miller and is superb. He captures the heart of the boy who seems to fit in nowhere. William is uncool and yearns to be cool as his sister promised he would be many years before. Fugit was perfect for the part, capturing William's naivete and innocence as he associates the world surrounding this rock band with being cool, then learns just how horrible of an existence it really is. Fugit deserved an Oscar nomination. So did Frances McDormand as Elaine, his straight-laced mother who has a hard time seeing her son's predicament in the world. After having her daughter move out at 18 and not keep in touch, Elaine is a little looser with her son. That doesn't stop McDormand from getting some of the best lines in this movie. When she tells a class full of students that her son was kidnapped by a rock band, it is hysterical but poignant - she sees them as a cult that is bent on destroying the son she has been raising alone and to the best of her ability. Another actress could have made Elaine into a mere characterture, but McDormand's work here is perfect. The most recognition has been given to Kate Hudson as Penny Lane, a neo-groupie who thinks a lot more of Russell Hammond, Stillwater's lead guitarist, than he does of her. Hudson plays this part perfectly, her eyes are filled with the optimism of youth, and of total faith in the man she loves. We see how much she cares for Hammond without her saying a word. Her actions also convey just how deeply she cares for William as a friend as well, though his feeling for her are much deeper. Having red Pamela DesBarres' book many years ago, I could see a lot of what DesBarres talked about in Penny Lane, so I have to wonder was this indicative of that time in rock & roll or did Crowe base the part on her? I think this movie does more justice to this era of rock & roll than a film based on DesBarres' book ever would have. Finally, there is Billy Crudup as the elusive Russell Hammond. For a long time through this movie, I didn't know what to make of him. At times, I thought he was a typical rock-star who's ego would eventually lead him to self-destruct. I'd then think of him as a hamster caught up in a wheel he couldn't get off. In the end, I decided that all he wanted to do was play music and everything else was just extra. He didn't know how to be true to himself. His conversation on the phone with Elaine (and later in person) show what a basically decent guy he is - he is just caught up in the pandemonium surrounding the up-and-coming band. These four are the main reason this movie is so good, although there is not one person at fault in the supporting cast either. I have to say I haven't seen a movie that made such a wonderful and lasting impression on me in a very long time. On DVD, there are the usual extras: a behind the scenes/making of documentary, production notes, complete cast listing, and theatrical trailer. Two items that really stood out to me, though, were the Fever Dog music video (probably because no one had even really thought about making music videos in the mid 70's), and the complete Rolling Stone articles by Cameron Crowe. I really enjoyed reading through the Rolling Stone articles and saw little hints of what Crowe drew on to form Stillwater: The Allman Brothers December 6, 1973 Led Zeppelin March 13, 1975 Neil Young August 14, 1975 Peter Frampton February 10, 1977 Fleetwood Mac March 24, 1977 Van Morrison May 13, 1977 Joni Mitchell July 26, 1979 The DVDs are worth having if for no other reason than to have copies of these stories. They represent an era of rock & roll that we'll never return to.
I can still remember it as clear as anything: I was about twelve years old and visiting friends in New Jersey. I wandered into a K-Mart and into the record department where I first caught glimpse of the album cover. "Yeah," I thought, "That's that Springsteen guy I've been hearing so much about." I had to wait a week until I got home to play the album, but when it did, my world changed. Albums I'd owned up until then included The Bay City Rollers, The Partridge Family, and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Disco and bubblegum... For the first time I heard rock. Meaningful songs about the optimism, promise, fun, and dreams of youth. Songs about making choices that were good and bad. Songs about life, not Get Up and Boogie. Springsteen's songs have always meant a great deal to me. He is easily my favorite musician of all time and my favorite songwriter. Only Glenn Tibrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze are able to paint a picture with their lyrics as eloquently as he does. Springsteen's backup - The E Street Band - are what put him over the top. There is not one weak musician in the group. These are the songs that I grew up with; the songs I heard over and over again; the songs I could relate to; the songs that made me wait a ridiculous amount of time to get tickets to concerts - and later pay ridiculous prices to scalpers; the songs that even now make my heart skip a beat when I hear those first few notes come over the airwaves. The album (yes, album, not CD - I still own more than 300 of them) starts off with my favorite song of all time, Thunder Road The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves... What a picture that paints! The rest of the song keeps painting the same picture and I can actually see the story unfolding in my mind as he sings of the optimism a boy feels after graduating high school and urging his girl to leave town with him. You ain't no beauty, but hey you're alright... This line is my favorite in any song ever. I guess I always felt that was like he was talking about me because that's how I saw myself. The next song is Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band... Anyone who's a Springsteen fan knows that The Big Man is Clarence Clemons, his sax player. This song is something of the story of how Clarence joined the E-Street Band. It's a rollicking and fun number that does paint a picture of a kid walking through the city when he comes upon this great musician and gets him to join his band. Night comes next And the world is busting at its seams
And you're just a prisoner of your dreams
Holding on for your life
Cause you work all day
To blow em away in the night... Another song in many ways similar to Thunder Road. It seems like the same person could be singing both of these songs - maybe Mary in Thunder Roadwouldn't leave town. This is one of two songs that have not gotten much airplay from this album, but I really like it anyway. It was always a pleasure to hear this song coming from my cassette player as I got off work. Backstreets is next Running for our lives at night in them Backstreets... It's a song that romanticizes spending a summer "just hanging out" with a girl who eventually would end up cheating on the protagonist. It's a song that tells of pain and suffering and of fond memories that will always be tainted now. The second side starts with Springsteen's anthem Born to Run In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines... Cars or motorcycles and girls are the theme throughout most of Springsteen's songs, and this one ties them together better than any other. When he urgesWendy to Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims
And strap your hands across my engines... it is one of the most sweetest allegories I'd ever heard. This song is non-stop rock. Even when it seems to slow down it never really does, and then the music comes crashing back all the harder. On She's The One I can hear the influence of 50's music on Springsteen. The general bass line reminds me a lot of Born to Hand Jive. With her soft french cream
Standing in the door like a dream
I wish she'd just leave me alone... A song about a girl that he just can't get out of his head; someone he knows could break his heart intentionally, but he is falling in love with her. Meeting Across the River is a soft ballad about someone who's about to blow his whole life apart, and possibly take his friend Eddie down with him. The horn work on this song is fantastic. We gotta stay cool tonight, Eddie
Cause man we got ourselves out on that line... The protagonist wants to believe he's going to come through this fine, but the slowness of the music leads us to believe all will not be well. It's got a certain somber tone to it that denotes things will not go as planned. The album concludes with the epic, Jungleland. At over nine minutes, it's a long one, but definitely one of my favorites. Springsteen rarely does it in concert anymore but I'm glad to say I got the chance to hear it in my younger days. The midnight gang's assembled
And picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet neath that giant Exxon sign
That brings this fair city light... Again, I can see all of the events he talks about happening as the song unfolds. It's a song that starts out as a rock number, slows down with Clarence Clemons' sax solo, and then winds up almost as a ballad. I pulled out my album for this review and having been bought more than twenty years ago, the edges are yellowing and the record itself looks scratchy from being played so much. I don't recall it ever skipping, though. Thank God for CDs now, but there's something about pulling out this album and looking at it and thinking about how much it meant to me...
