Good one. Love the description of the event in Paris. Richard was one of my favorite interviews. Saw him and a 12 piece band in the mostly empty front lounge at a Vegas hotel where Wayne Newton was playing the big room. It was the best rock and roll show I had ever seen or have seen since, His band was so tight, and he directed them from the piano like a method maestro. Stunning. Changed my by then jaded life, and it was only 71 or 72.
Great piece. I liked the Galasso brothers in "The Wanderers", Richard Price's cameo in the bowling scene, the abusive body builder father, and when the Baldies got tricked into enrolling in the military. The football game was cool, too. I used to watch Sha Na Na when they had a cheaply produced syndicated show on late night Tv-- it was fun because they had guests like Gary U.S. Bonds, Ronnie Spector, Ben E. King, who you would never see on television back in the late 70s/early 80s , not in Canada anyway. Poignant anecdote of (I think) your wife seeing Little Richard backstage in Paris. Have you seen the movie "Let the Good Times Roll" from 1973? Little Richard's
performance was amazing! Thanks again for this work.
Regarding the Stanley Brothers' "Highway of Regret" (which was also news to me), the title phrase appeared even earlier in Dylan, right there in "Make You Feel My Love."
What with Gene Hackman's death, I wanted to mention this James Dean to Hackman connection. Believe it or not, Hackman was a full year older than Dean, but as Hackman is said to have begun pursuing an acting career in 1956, he would never have crossed paths with the living James Dean. However, they do share a common friend and collaborator: Bill Hickman was a part-time movie actor, full-time stunt man and expert stunt driver in the movies. It's Hickman driving vs. Steve McQueen in Bullitt and Hickman helped director William Friedkin map out the furious drive scene in The French Connection. Hickman also had the part in the movie of the federal cop who hates Popeye Doyle (Hackman) and eventually is 'accidently' killed at the end. In real life, Hickman was a close friend of James Dean, teaching him how to drive race cars and was in the caravan of cars following Dean on his ill fated trip to Salinas on 9/30/55. It was Hickman, known affectionately by Dean as Big Bastard to Dean's Little Bastard, who came upon the dying Dean at the crash outside Cholame CA and cradled Jimmy in his arms as Dean breathed his dying breath. He stayed with his friend's body until it was flown to Indiana for burial. He couldn't sleep for 5-6 days afterward thinking about how Jimmy had died.
I used to teach a college course on 60's film. I started the course with Grease, a film from the late 70s, looking back at the early 60s, and skipping all the unpleasantness in between. That's nostalgia. If I taught that class again, I'd end it with Animal House, another film of the late 70s, looking back at the early 60s, but seeming to see everything in between.
I absolutely love these posts when you bring all your years of listening, learning and writing lucid and meaningful criticism to your answers to those who write to you seeking answers. It’s always gratifying and often amazing. Thank you Greil.
Good one. Love the description of the event in Paris. Richard was one of my favorite interviews. Saw him and a 12 piece band in the mostly empty front lounge at a Vegas hotel where Wayne Newton was playing the big room. It was the best rock and roll show I had ever seen or have seen since, His band was so tight, and he directed them from the piano like a method maestro. Stunning. Changed my by then jaded life, and it was only 71 or 72.
Great piece. I liked the Galasso brothers in "The Wanderers", Richard Price's cameo in the bowling scene, the abusive body builder father, and when the Baldies got tricked into enrolling in the military. The football game was cool, too. I used to watch Sha Na Na when they had a cheaply produced syndicated show on late night Tv-- it was fun because they had guests like Gary U.S. Bonds, Ronnie Spector, Ben E. King, who you would never see on television back in the late 70s/early 80s , not in Canada anyway. Poignant anecdote of (I think) your wife seeing Little Richard backstage in Paris. Have you seen the movie "Let the Good Times Roll" from 1973? Little Richard's
performance was amazing! Thanks again for this work.
HOUND DOG is a great book.
Regarding the Stanley Brothers' "Highway of Regret" (which was also news to me), the title phrase appeared even earlier in Dylan, right there in "Make You Feel My Love."
What with Gene Hackman's death, I wanted to mention this James Dean to Hackman connection. Believe it or not, Hackman was a full year older than Dean, but as Hackman is said to have begun pursuing an acting career in 1956, he would never have crossed paths with the living James Dean. However, they do share a common friend and collaborator: Bill Hickman was a part-time movie actor, full-time stunt man and expert stunt driver in the movies. It's Hickman driving vs. Steve McQueen in Bullitt and Hickman helped director William Friedkin map out the furious drive scene in The French Connection. Hickman also had the part in the movie of the federal cop who hates Popeye Doyle (Hackman) and eventually is 'accidently' killed at the end. In real life, Hickman was a close friend of James Dean, teaching him how to drive race cars and was in the caravan of cars following Dean on his ill fated trip to Salinas on 9/30/55. It was Hickman, known affectionately by Dean as Big Bastard to Dean's Little Bastard, who came upon the dying Dean at the crash outside Cholame CA and cradled Jimmy in his arms as Dean breathed his dying breath. He stayed with his friend's body until it was flown to Indiana for burial. He couldn't sleep for 5-6 days afterward thinking about how Jimmy had died.
I used to teach a college course on 60's film. I started the course with Grease, a film from the late 70s, looking back at the early 60s, and skipping all the unpleasantness in between. That's nostalgia. If I taught that class again, I'd end it with Animal House, another film of the late 70s, looking back at the early 60s, but seeming to see everything in between.
I absolutely love these posts when you bring all your years of listening, learning and writing lucid and meaningful criticism to your answers to those who write to you seeking answers. It’s always gratifying and often amazing. Thank you Greil.