Summer Concert Series: The Big TNT Show (1966)

This semi-sequel to The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), is a great follow up and an excellent concert film.

The musical selection in this movie is as good as it gets. Artists including Ray Charles, Petula Clark, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddly, Joan Baez, The Ronettes, Roger Miller, The Byrds, Donovan and Ike and Tina Turner. Any movie that features a live performance of Ray Charles performing Georgia on My Mind (no matter how many singers sing this song, Ray's version will always be the best) is definitely worth recommending. All the artists are at the top of their gang here. After country music being completely left out of The T.A.M.I. Show it is a joy to see Roger Miller here and his unique style of country music as well as his quirky sense of humor. His performance of London Swings features the best use of background dancers in either of these films. The Ronettes give a high energy and fantastically choregraphed performance that is corny as all get out but so much fun. Joan Baez's voice as always is beautiful as ever, especially on her first two song, which are in the folk tradition that she upheld so well. Unfortunately You've Lost That Loving Feeling doesn't seem to fit her all that well. Ike and Tina Turner are so energetic and tons of fun to listen to. Donovan's performances of slower, sad songs don't quite fit in with the film's mostly high energy fast paced acts, but he is still fantastic here. Before this movie I was really only familiar with Donovan for the Bob Dylan movie, Don't Look Back (1967) and I have to say, I am very impressed. Bo Diddly is here much too brief of a time, but gives a fantastic performance. The Byrds are also at the top of their game here and show just why they were so important to folk-rock.

The biggest fault of this movie was simply the fact that the teenage girls in the audience scream a lot, like all 93 minutes. It is very annoying at first but to be honest, you get used to it pretty dang quickly. This film luckily does away with the awful comedy of Jan and Dean and the use of Go-Go dancers is minimized. Though to be fair, the climax of this film is an all Go-Go dancer spectacular. Personally part of me wanted to see Go-Go dancers behind Donovan, just for how little that would fit.

Like The T.A.M.I. Show if you like 1960's music this movie is a must watch.

-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