music bio pic flick

What other musicians deserve a movie about their lives?

I'd like to get the ball rolling with a movie about Joe Meek. I know there was a documentary made about him, but this guy deserves a great movie. I could see Clive Owen playing him.

And the soundtrack would be the rockinest, boppinest thing ever!

great pick. how about roky erikson.
. keith moon
otis redding
phil spector
little richard
townes van zant
steve earle
johnny thunders
patti smith
jayne wayne county
dick manitoba
keith richards
bob marly
chuck berry
van morrison
paul westerrberg/the replacements
bob stinson
david bowie
graham parsons
waylon jennings
hank williams
levon helm
fleetwood mac

Joe Meek would be a great subject - an interesting story but obscure enough that not everyone already knows it.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Sterling Morrison biopic - the guy was the most underrated member of the Velvets, was a college professor and a tugboat captain, and apparently had his life threatened by midgets on two separate occasions.

here are a few more,. some of them big names and some of them just interesting musicians n people.

clapton, stevie wonder, warren zevon,joe strummer/the clash
robert johnson
ronnie hawkins
curtis mayfield
hal blaine- or a whole movie on session men- nicky hopkins etc etc/
stax movie
richard thompson- dont know anything about the man personally except he was married to linda thompson but something that would explore his music would be interesting enough as a indie flick.

Thanks for supplying the excerpt, breno. I appreciate it. Someone should have told those dwarves that Sterling didn't write "Short People".

Definitely agree on the La's - the book on them "In Search of the La's - A Secret Liverpool" reads like a great movie waiting to happen. Not only a tremendous band, but their one album in some ways "predicts" what is going to happen to them - alot of it is about the loss of innocence and madness ("Looking Glass", "Son of a Gun") - there's metaphor stories like crazy there.

Peter Perrett would be another one they should do a movie about - just a fascinating, enigmatic character, brilliant, and troubled.

"Sterling Morrison.....apparently had his life threatened by midgets on two separate occasions."

Please give the backstory on that one! Randy Newman I could understand, but Sterling Morrison? (I also agree about him being the most underrated member of the Velvets)

It's in the book UPTIGHT by Victor Bokris. If I recall correctly, he said he was at a party once and a midget, quite unprovoked, told him if he ever saw him again he was going to effing kill him, then another one said the exact same thing to him on an elevator ride. Sterling said after that he was very paranoid of little people. He couldn't understand the animosity unless it was because he was very tall.

I think that's how the story went anyway. I'll have to look it up in the book to verify it.

I'd like to see a movie about the La's. Put together one of the most awesome debut records of solidly crafted songs and virtually disappear off the music scene. The La's leader Lee Mavers seems to be one hell of an eccentric guy and also not over-exposed.

Sterling Morrison vs. The Midgets. How surreal can you get?

Here's some more potential bio-pics:

Kate Bush
Wendy O Williams
Frank Zappa
Lee Hazlewood
Captain Beefheart
Richard Hell
Screamin Jay Hawkins
Devo
Kraftwerk

From UP-TIGHT by Victor Bockris & Gerard Malanga, Omnibus Press paperback edition.

Page 48:

Sterling speaks: "Gerard and I went to a beach in Winnetka, an affluent suburb of Chicago, and were run off by the police (Gerard was wearing a novel Rudy Gerureich bikini which exposed the top 3 inches of his ass and plunged even lower in the front); while I was staying at the Commonwealth Hotel I met a dwarf in the elevator who said he had a gun and would kill me if I ever got in there with him again. Is it because I'm tall, I wondered, or because I look happy? I later met another dwarf in Boston and he, too, had a gun he said he would kill me with. I don't know what the pattern is to all this, but I'm still working on it. And for a long time afterwards, when attending large indoor gatherings, I would immediately upon arrival move quickly through all the rooms, peeking into the closets and behind the drapes. At outdoor events I would peer intently into the shrubbery before joining the throng. Now, I'm sure that many people consider this to be odd behavior, but I didn't think I was acting oddly at all. Just checking for dwarfs. Anyway, I left the Commonwealth Hotel and joined Angus over at the Hotel Lincoln. Safer there."

So they were dwarves instead of midgets, but that was Sterling's account of being marked for death by the wee folk.

I never got around to seeing Almost Famous. I'm sure I could see a lot of real life bands in that fictional band Stillwater.



Post Edited (01-20-08 13:52)

It could be argued that there a lot of current 70s-styled bands that take their inspiration from Stillwater.

juliette lewis wants to play Patti Smith if that flick would be made.............
I know this is OT, but I watched Hannah Montana with my daughter over the weekend. Billy Ray Cyrus puts on his disguise, when his daughter performs as "Hannah",of a bushy mustache, fedora and horn-rims and I swear he looks exactly like Beefheart circa Ice Cream for Crow.

A Joe Meek film would be great, but there would be a problem with the ending. Gunning down your landlady w/a shotgun & then turning it on yourself is not exactly a Hollywood ending.

Looks like a Meek film is happening:

[imdb.com]

Part of the problem with making a life into a movie is that movies tend to have ONE story arc and lives have too many of them and/or overlapping ones . . . so picking sections of lives/careers is sometimes more helpful, as with Backbeat . . . possibly a band bio on the Velvets, or the Mothers of Invention (maybe from Zappa's POV, but not solo career), or possibly the Jefferson Airplane (NOT the Starship, etc.). Joe Meek's weird, meteoric career actually sounds promising, if anyone beyond some obscurists could be induced to care. Laura Nyro's career in music, perhaps, with her retirement from music and subsequent return later in life telescoped into a sort of coda. Maybe a section or three of Bowie's life/career . . .

BACKBEAT is a perfect example. Did anyone ever see the other movie where Ian Hart played John Lennon? Don't remember what it was called.

And did anyone hear Astrid Kirchherr on Fresh Air on NPR the other day? Great interview and worth tracking down the podcast to hear. It was kind of sad that she gave up photography because she never knew if she was actually a good photographer or if she was getting attention because she'd done the first important photos of the Beatles, and didn't want to coast on that.

The Hours and Times, which is godawful

Rodd Keith

I would definitely fork over $8 to see that. It's gotta be a fascinating story.

Miles Davis sure had a wild life - the only problem would be picking out the best stories!

John Coltrane, by contrast, hasn't even had a decent biography written. My theory is because his life was pretty much nothing but music - playing, writing, recording. Yes, there was some turmoil - his drinking and drug use early in his career, his affair with a white woman, but the world isn't full of stories of Trane's adventures.

How about Eddie Cochran?

With the doc channel's 'Abbies potion' & the updated Marc Bolan films I'm happy.

but I still dream...

Arthur killer Kane
moe tucker
john cale
vivian stanshell

Well, STEVE, I must say we're more in agreement in this rather than pro football, although don't you think that New York Doll was a pretty good movie?

I'm not looking to crash the disco joe. So put down that beer bottle. And you're right anyway, the movie gets an A. I guess I just have an obsessive fixation in order that I saw them on Kirshner's rock cocert like it was yesterday. God what a lovable band.

I read a most distressing article on either democracynow.com/ truthdig or that other site that starts with a 'H' that really outlined professional American sports to media and politics. If you will allow...I don't care anymore, my friend.

Hey, don't worry about it STEVE. I never do beer bottles. Let's just agree to disagree. Although I dig what the Sox & Pats are doing lately, I'm not that obsessed about it. Also, have you seen All Dolled Up? It's a pretty interesting DVD. I always get a kick of seeing them as the Lipstick Killers driving down the NYC streets in a beat-up VW Bug.

Joe Meek would be a good one.
I would recommend Be Here To Love Me if you haven't seen it.

A while back on this board I mentioned that if anyone ever made a Paula Yates biopic, they should look at Heath Ledger to play either Michael Hutchence or Bob Geldof (or both), as he had a passing resemblance to both gents (moreso to Hutchence than to Geldof, but there was still a bit of a likeness there).

I now of course feel somehow responsible for Ledger's death by linking him to Hutchence & Yates.

But Yates would be a great subject for a movie.

Heath Ledger dies right after donning gothic joker make up.

Brandon Lee dies right after donning gothic crow make up.

Think about it.

Now what I really want is a movie about Phil Ochs. I heard Sean Penn was working on it years ago, and I admired him for that. I don't know what happened to the project, but I wish someone would take up the reins. If I had the ability and the chops, it should be me! You see, what I really want to do is direct.

It's a compelling story. A folk singer who was a contemporary of, and a competitor with Bob Dylan. As short as his career was, it had phases too - especially the gold lame Elvis period, which sent audiences reeling. Just as controversial as Dylan's electric period.

Nobody plays his music, nobody does versions of his songs. Did Billy Bragg do one? He strikes me as an Ochs progeny. This tale contains mystery, tragedy, and obscurity. Personal conflicts and demons leading to suicide. Yes, this dark drama is screaming to be made.

I had that exact same thought!

Now how did gothic Johnny Depp avoid the reaper?

I guess the same way anyone who has played the Crow since Brandon Lee did. Although come to think of it, they may be physically alive, but their careers are dead.

They Might Be Giants did, "The Big Parade" ("Here Comes the Big Parade?") for the Elektra Rubaiyat compilation

Looks like a Meek film is happening

All I can say is HOORAY!!!. Somthing major to live for!!

and

It better be fucking good!!

Although this has nothing to do with music whatsoever, how 'bout

BLACK KNIGHT: THE BOBBY FISCHER STORY



Post Edited (02-07-08 12:07)

Neal Pollack

I just got the book about BOMP records & I think you could do a half-decent movie about Greg & Suzy Shaw

Dennis Quaid's about to play the lead in a Spade Cooley biopic with Greg Kinnear as Roy Rogers. The title, obviously is 'Shame On You'.
A nice companion piece for the Joe Meek film in terms of happy endings.