Cameron will be sharing pictures he took while filming the Roadies pilot. It begins today. Happy Holidays everyone!
Jan 9, 2015. Vancouver. “Roadies” rehearsals begin with the explosive Keisha Castle-Hughes, Machine Gun Kelly and Imogen Poots.
Chris Hillman Slips Away…
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Cameron talks with Chris Hillman on the cusp of his first solo album, Slippin’ Away. They chat about his long career with such legendary acts as The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and much more.
Chris Hillman: Early Byrd Finds His Wings
Los Angeles – The laundry attendant at Holloway Cleaners was amazed. “You’re Chris Hillman, aren’t you? What are you doing here?” In another 15 minutes, Hillman was scheduled to make his Los Angeles solo debut at the Roxy nightclub down the street. He handed over his claim check. “I can’t go to work in a dirty shirt,” he said.
Chris Hillman’s use of the word “work” should never be taken as an antimusic remark. He does not fashion himself an archetypal rock star, riding in limousines and worrying of nothing but art. Ever since his too-much, too-soon days as bassist/guitarist with the Byrds, Hillman has demanded none of the luxuries of his trade. “fuck all that other stuff,” he laughs.
Now 31, Hillman has made his reputation by staying out of West Coast music spotlights. Whether with the Byrds or as a founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, he has been most content as the lurking accomplice.
Few even know of his discoveries. Hillman was one of the earliest supporters of the Buffalo Springfield, arranging for their first auspicious break as house band at the Whisky-A-Go-Go. It was even Hillman who brought fellow Byrd David Crosby over for a first look at the band that featured Crosby’s future partners, Steve Stills and Neil Young. (Crosby’s reaction: “Aww, I don’t like ’em.”) Years later, he stumbled onto Emmylou Harris – then a shy Joni Mitchell-esque folk singer – in a Washington D.C. nightclub. “I wanted to sing with her, but I was too wrapped up in Manassas.” Instead, he convinced Gram Parsons to give her a call. More recently, he helped his former backing band – now called Firewall – record the demos that led to their contract. “Look at me,” Hillman likes to joke, “look at what I get for helping everybody out. A cult. I should recut ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ disco.”
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Pearl Jam – 5 X 1 Through the Eye of Lance Mercer
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Cameron provided one of the introductions to Lance Mercer’s 2006 photo book of Pearl Jam. Enjoy!
first song, first show.”Release.” moore theater. seattle. even then, pearl jam was something a little more personal, a little more passionate than you were prepared for, already with a history steeped in pain and rebirth and a deep-running love of music. it felt like a club, in the best way. still does. every album, every show still resonates like a bootleg, smuggled directly from the band to you. and every one of lance’s great photos pulses with that spirit. this is the backstage, onstage, every stage journey of pearl jam, forever strapped to the muse. so pick your disc, or spin your vinyl and turn it way up. these images are meant to be listened to, loud.
Cameron Crowe
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Lynyrd Skynyrd: Hell on Wheels…
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Cameron chats with Lynyrd Skynyrd for this 1976 piece for the L.A. Times. Happy Monday all.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Hell on Wheels Puts On the Brakes
When Lynyrd Skynyrd finally broke into the top 10 last month with its fifth album, “One More From the Road,” singer-founder Ronnie Van Zant could hardly wait to celebrate by canceling all future interviews. “The band doesn’t owe anything to anybody,” he declared happily. “Most of the media people, especially the press, have consistently portrayed us as either children or a bunch of rowdy drunks. That may or may not be true, but I know I’d much rather deal with the audiences that really put us here.”
After 10 grueling years of almost constant touring, Dixie’s Lynryd Skynyrd are anything but children. Their notoriously long record of pillage and arrest, however, does provide one thing. To the absolute delight of its hell-raising following, the band has boozed and brawled its way to top. But now, bolstered by the confidence that only long-sought success can bring, 27-year-old Van Zant is talking about changing that too.
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Rolling Stone 10th Anniversary: Top 10 Albums of Their First Decade
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To celebrate Rolling Stone‘s 10th Anniversary (way back in 1977!), each of their writers shared their Top 10 Albums of the magazine’s first decade. Here is Cameron’s list (he went with 8 albums and 2 singles), in no particular order. Happy Friday All…
Rolling Stone 10th Anniversary: Top 10 Albums of the Last 10 Years (1967-1977)
Katy Lied – Steely Dan
Anonymous, abosolutely impeccable swing-pop. No cheap displays of human emotion.
Todd Rundgren – Something Anything
Something/Anything? – Todd Rundgren
Gloriously cheap displays of human emotion. Heart-wrenching teen classics.
For the Roses – Joni Mitchell
In which Joni Mitchell so far outstrips anything else to emerge from the singer/songwriter boom that half the field promptly drops out.
Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin
Harder than Exile on Main Street and three times as convincing.
At the Fillmore East – The Allman Brothers Band
The tragic and ultimately garish aftermath of the Allman Brothers Band began immediately after the release of this magnificent live album. Now their memory is all but obscured; no one even yells out “Whipping Post” at concerts anymore. Their spooky pinnacle remains.
Jackson Browne – Jackson Brown
Taken as a whole, this album is a southern California Catcher in the Rye. Jackson will doubtlessly continue to make more finely crafted records, but nothing as wide-eyed and endearing as his first.
Spinner – The Spinners
Thom Bell, ladies and gentlemen. Thom Bell!
White Album – The Beatles
In the words of semiprofessional session guitarist Danny Kortchmar, “You still can’t buy a better record.”
“Take It Easy” – The Eagles
Those first two chords mean instant top-down summer . . . anywhere, any time. Not, however, worth the trip to Winslow, Arizona.
“Ohio” – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
If punk is any indication of the alternative, I’ll stick with the Sixties wimps.
Courtesy of Rolling Stone #254 – Cameron Crowe – December 15, 1977
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Roadies
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YES! Roadies has been picked up by Showtime. Stay tuned for 10 stories about life, music, love and all points in between.
Here’s a look…
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Elizabethtown – 10 Years Later…
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Orlando Bloom, Kirsten and Cameron. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
“Elizabethtown” was a movie written for my father, and the Kentucky side of our family. The great cinematographer John Toll dug deep to capture the warmth of that Cicada-filled summer we spent in and around Louisville. The My Morning Jacket boys showed us the ropes, and filled the set with music and laughs. We all took our cameras and embarked on the very journey that made up the final stretch of the story. It was a moviemade with a lot of love… and I’d like to dedicate this anniversary to the fans who have found this movie over the years and reached out to say they understood it. It’s a tip of the hat to tradition, to family heroes, and to those roller-coaster summers when life shows itself in all its indelible pain and glory.
Jed Rees and Orlando Bloom. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
Ruckus plays on. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
Producer Tom Cruise visits the set. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
The Spasmotica shoe
Alec Baldwin and Orlando Bloom. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures.
Legendary cinematographer John Toll sets up the funeral scene. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
Paul Schneider in Elizabethtown. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures.
Judy Greer in Elizabethtown. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures.
Orlando and Cameron discuss a take during the cemetery scene. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
Kirsten Dunst. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
Susan Sarandon. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Paramount Pictures
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My #1 – Pet Sounds By The Beach Boys
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Cameron shared his #1 for Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time issue. Happy Friday!
My Number One – Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
I was thirteen, and I wanted to buy a Jackson 5 cassette. The knowing geek behind the counter shook his head and advised me to get Pet Sounds instead. Desperate for his cool-guy validation, I bought it. It sounded weird, introverted, not that melodic. And what about that cover? Odd-looking guys dressed like Elizabethan-period accountants feeding animals at the zoo? I thought the album sucked and I stashed it in a drawer. Within a year, Linda Alvarado (not her real name) savagely broke my heart. For some fateful reason, I gave Pet Sounds another chance. Suddenly, music was more than just confection. Those strange guys feeding animals at the zoo understood; even the music sounded like I felt. When you find songs so personal that they feel like someone’s been reading your diary, you tend to study the album credits to find out who the hell wrote this stuff. And that leads you to the heartbreaking genius of Brian Wilson. Pet Sounds is the high-water mark of songwriting and production so meticulously rendered that you ache hearing these songs; they’re filled with secret cries for help disguised in baroque and candy-coated harmonies, the sound of Brian Wilson’s universe coming together and falling apart. The album was a flop in its day, unappreciated in a world addicted to Wilson’s Beach Boys hits. Just three years ago, it finally went platinum. For me, Pet Sounds is a souvenir, a masterwork, an underdog story and a record that takes you gently by the lapels and says, “Here’s what it feels like to be alive.”
Courtesy of Rolling Stone #937 – Cameron Crowe – December 11, 2003
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