Summer Concert Series: The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

First off the question all of you are asking, T.A.M.I. stands for "Teen Age Music International" or "Teenage Awards Music International." Now on to the movie.

This is one of the finest concert films ever made. The musicians featured here are some of the finest rock and roll, pop and R&B artists of the era. The line up includes Jan and Dean, Chuck Berry, Gerry and the Peacemakers, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, The Beach Boys, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, The Supremes, The Barbarians, James Brown and the Famous Flames and The Rolling Stones. The famous Wrecking Crew (Hal Blaine, Jimmy Bond, Tommy Tedesco, Glen Campbell, Lyle Ritz, Leon Russell, Plas Johnson) is the house band. All of these performers are at the top of their game. Probably the most talked about part of this film is James Brown's performance. This is appropriate as his pure energy and stage presence is incredible. He gives one everything they could want from a concert experience and it is impossible not to get caught up in the energy of it all. Keith Richards would later state that following James Brown was the worst mistake they ever made. It is worth saying that despite this famous statement, The Rolling Stones are fantastic here, giving us pure blues influenced rock nd roll at its best. Speaking of pure rock and roll energy and showmanship, Chuck Berry is just as much fun as anyone could hope from one of the founders of rock and roll. The Beach Boys have never sounded as great as they do here and it is proof that they were much more than the simple gimmick band they could have been. Their melodies and harmonies are simply beautiful and the songs were never as simple as they sounded at first listen. They are beautifully and perfectly put together in a way only true masters could do. Leslie Gore is someone who I have honestly not given much thought to before watching this movie, but after seeing her performance here, I fully understand and appreciate her appeal. She is a great vocalist and a fine stage presence. 

The music doesn't date at all but other parts of this movie do. The presence of Go-Go dancers in almost every performance kind of just looks silly today. The stage antics of Jan and Dean are to be honest kind of annoying. However compared to just how great the music these are minor complaints.

The director is Steve Binder, who rock and roll fans may know for directing Elvis' 1968 Comeback Special and this movie is every bit as great. He also directed The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), but let us not hold that against him as this movie is fantastic.

-Michael J. Ruhland     

Summer Concert Series: Echo in the Canyon (2019)

Excellent documentary on the rock and roll music coming from Laurel Canyon in the 1960's.

What makes this movie is when you get hear the great musicians who made this music tell the stories behind them. They are very open, very honest, and very candid about everything. They tell truly personal stories that are simply fascinating to listen to. If you are familiar with the music of this era this film helps you look at it in a new way, understanding how all these artists inspired each other and freely borrowed from one another. The Beatles use of folk inspired chord changes in I Wanna Hold Your Hand inspired the folk rock of The Byrds, but in turn the folk rock of the Byrds inspired many Beatles songs. It is especially interesting how much British musicians such as The Beatles and Eric Clapton became a part of this. They visited, hang out with and shared songs with these artists and what was happening at this time in California also changed the way they did things. The most obvious instance of this is that Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club was inspired by The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds album. However my favorite moment in the film happens when Eric Clapton coming to the realization that his song Let it Rain borrows from Buffalo Springfield's Questions. When interviewer Jakob Dylan tells him that they can edit out the realization, Eric argues that he wants it left in the film  because he feels it is important for others to know. Tom Petty (in one of his last interviews) gives a humorous look at this saying he admires how The Beatles' If I Needed Someone more than resembles Peter Seeger's The Bells of Rhymney (or more importantly the Byrds' cover of the song), stating that it walks the line between "cross-pollination" and "outright theft." Tom Petty though not one of the musicians of the era discussed here, is always a joy to listen to talk about music, because he does it with such an undying passion. Speaking of influences it is interesting to hear about how classical music such as Bach influenced The Beach Boys and this also shows those who think of them as just a corny band that made silly surfing songs in the 1960's that they can be taken and studied just as seriously as any other band mentioned here. 

Where this film falters is that there is simply too much Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers. Don't get me wrong they are a good band, but they shouldn't ever be the center of attention in a movie about the music of the 1960's. I personally would have rather seen more archival footage of the original bands performing these songs instead of The Wallflowers. While they are a good band, hearing a modern band takes away from the 1960's feeling of a magical era of music that has passed and seeing performances from the 1960's would have instead added to this feeling and would have created a stronger personality for this movie. I am also not a fan of how often the camera focuses on Jakob's reactions to what the musicians were saying instead of the musicians saying it. There is a reason why many documentaries don't show the interviewer on camera and that is because he is not who we are interested in. Also scenes with The Wallflowers looking over these albums and talking about them feels more like what film and music critics should do when talking about this movie than what we should actually see in the movie.

Still there are some uses of  archival performances used in this film and they are fantastic and simply a joy to watch. There is a reason this music is so revered and that is because it was excellent. I do wish there were more of these clips and that we could have seen the whole performances but this does not take away from the pure joy they bring.

While certainly not a perfect movie, there is a lot to recommend here for fans of 1960's music and documentary films.    

-Michael J. Ruhland