A History of Rock n' Roll in Film and Rock n' Roll Jay R Smith

From time to time, I will populate the main feed with a Patreon episode that's at least a year old so casual listeners might get a taste of all the extra scholarship that does occur, but lands nowhere near a published episode: 

Today we have: Ed Ward, Nick Tosches, Christopher Hitchens, a bad Nine Inch Nails biography, 70s DEVO origins, and lots of guitar modulation effects.


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I don't know how to warn you I might get a little wibbly-bibbly in the wobbles during this one. Verklempt, if you will. Similar to the way I was on the CROW episodes processing the loss of Brandon Lee all over again. Ritchie was clearly a marvel and a unique talent in ways I didn't understand until now. To be a guitar hero and a hit songwriter and a teen idol at the same time is a hurculean accomplishment for a 17-year-old kid from Pacoima, California in 1958. And I struggled a bit when jumping on the mic right after my research. This goes back to me being a little kid when I saw the film and begged my dad for a cassette tape of the soundtrack, which I treasured. Rock n' Roll, baby. Rock n' roll. 
It's gonna be a bit of this n' that:
The first impressions of Ritchie by his most prominent biographer, Beverly Mendheim, while she struggled to suss out his ethnicity as an impressionable teenager The career struggles and ongoing activism of Lou Diamond Phillips, who is more consistently successful as an actor than many would realize (Me. I mean me, until now) The masterful music editing of Curt Sobel on La Bamba! while working closely with Los Lobos and director Luis Valdez (more on him in the next episode!!!) Ed Ward's dumbass take on Ritchie in the modern era that rivals even his awful reviews of The Beatles back in the late 60s Readings from a very concise, but effective bio on Ritchie taken from a guitar tab book that I highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Ritchie-Valens-His-Guitars-Music/dp/1574243802
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/09/lou-diamond-phillips-adverse-prodigal-son-representation/
(Bev's out of print book) https://archive.org/details/ritchievalensfir00mend/page/n5/mode/2up
movie scene comparisons

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I shared a link to this youtube video when it came out, but providing audio now for anyone who would like to listen. It's been a couple months, so I don't feel like this cuts into their Youtube traffic at all. And even if that was the case, I'm unsure as to whether this interview series will even continue now that Glenn himself is no longer with the brand. Enjoy!
Original desc: "Long time Pacific Northwest Entertainer Jay Smith joins the cast to discuss his Podcast; A History of Rock N' Roll in Film and Rock N' Roll, as well as his ongoing music projects; Double Cross Committee and Late September Dogs." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV1kCtoujII&list=PL64PJyRQtqg3MxPE4Z2JzA7iaM00Q-xEj&index=3
 
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Hello and get ready for so much Van Halen once again! And Better Off Dead! So much good stuff that could have only happened in the 1980s converging in one place. Along with more 70s Van Halen history too, of course. We'll cover stuff like:


Savage Steve Holland's real life experiences that went into his script, and later work in children's cartoons Michael Anthony's first meetup with Sammy Hagar Eddie's challenges in early life as a shy kid would couldn't speak english in America His challenges shaking off the controlling influence of David Lee Roth and Ted Templeman making "1984" the way HE and Alex and Donn Landee wanted to John Cusack's initial hatred of "Better Off Dead" and his eventual backpedal The Van Halen family's journey from The Netherlands to Pasadena by boat and by train My shock at finding out Alex's drums on certain songs were actually an electric kit Al, Mike, and Sammy's soundcheck routines and gear specs on the 1993 tour  The AC/DC songs Eddie says inspired "Panama" and "Drop Dead Legs" The making of Van Halen 2 and how it was intentionally different from the debut album How "Fair Warning" influenced what happened on "Diver Down" which in turn influenced "1984" Eddie's on-the-road-all-night-every-night initial fling with Valerie Bertinelli that morphed straight into their marriage What happens when a couple of lucky young dudes from Pennsylvania get to party with Van Halen and MTV doesn't know how to keep up with it all  AND SO MUCH MORE. Including lots of my musical interludes and suprise voices from throughout time and space! Even more than usual. 
Please remember that Rock n' Roll is the best, and so are you!
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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/eddie-van-halen-tribute-1081034/
https://youtu.be/7qviaKsnb5Q?si=SAqlSYo-TY3PQ0Ng
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/75810/13-better-facts-about-better-dead 
https://www.insidehook.com/film/director-steve-holland-cult-classic-better-off-dead-john-cusack 
https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/eddie-van-halen-looks-back-van-halen-1984-album-5150-studios

Next episode will feature a deep dive on "Better Off Dead" and conclude the Van Halen saga. But until then, please enjoy: 
A very well-rounded view of VH history by Eddie Van Halen in 1990 Sammy Hagar's arguably sketchy claims about Van Halen's numbers before and after he joined Eddie producing and promoting a band called "Private Life" who obviously did not go on to amazing things (but hey, even if you or I never heard their songs, they still accomplished more than most of us, eh?)  Eve Clarke interviewing me about my "Perfect 10" VH tunes of the David Lee Roth era Sammy's tale of meeting Eddie for the first time and joining Van Halen  The final installments of my real-time (and space-time) reactions to the Art Linson/Cameron Crowe teen epic that had a lot going for it even if it didn't come out fully cooked - "The Wild Life," starring Nice Guy Eddie, Marty McFly's mom, Vincent Vega's heroin dealer, Clark Griswold's cousin Eddie, and the "Wanna take a bath?" gal from Pink Floyd's Wall film adaptation.   
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Well, this was ill-advised, I now think to myself... and now you've got a big ol' buffet to keep going back to for as many trips as you'd like, and I don't know how many of you were expecting Jell-O as well as sushi after your fried green beans. But, whether you listen to it all in sequence or segments, I hope it's valuable to you!

Here's a few things you will hear about during the ride: 
Contraptions used to make Pink Floyd songs like "One of These Days" happen and how they were calibrated The definition of scenery gorn and other tropes found in the film The Bear's emotional relationship with the Wall of Sound, which becomes everyone's relationship with it as well, because The Dead could not perform the same way on everyone else's rinky dink P.A. systems after experiencing the clarity they were used to Pink Floyd's year-long scheme to move from Capitol to CBS in America Hendrix blowing off the Dead on the night he promised to jam, and their low key "revenge" Antonioni's opinions on filmmaking in America vs Italy. What it was like to film Z.P. through the eyes of an American member of the crew who actually did admire his work Richard Wright not showing up very much, getting booted Jerry Garcia records his Zabriskie Point soundtrack music in much less time than he wanted to. And has his payment stolen by Mickey Hart's dad. Who also steals car parts and speakers from Bear Floyd does more regrouping, post-breakup with Roger. Roger gets cranky. Clapton gets a cheeseburger. Roger is still cranky today that the band he walked away from and then sued when they didn't die without him will not promote his albums on their social media The Grateful Dead play for the largest outdoor rock audience of all time in upstate New York. And perform long soundcheck concerts for free on top of that Pink Floyd's 1975 SoCal shows being ruined by LAPD for 4 days Phil Lesh drinks Canadian Whisky with mystery capsules in it and Jerry Garcia crawls around on the floor like a caterpillar who can't leave the room on his own Kurt Loder gives a mean-spirited review of a mean-spirited album.  Monthly exclusive Rock History bonus feed here https://www.patreon.com/rockfilmrock
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 https://antonioni9.wordpress.com/2021/06/25/michelangelo-and-the-leviathan-the-making-of-zabriskie-point-1992/
 https://antonioni9.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/lets-talk-about-zabriskie-point-august-1970/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pink-floyd-the-inside-story-104505/
https://archive.org/details/guitarworldprese0000unse/page/26/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/saucerfulofsecre00scha/page/n7/mode/2up
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jim+ladd+innerview+pink+floyd