More new Journalism to share with you today as Cameron chats with Emmylou Harris in this June 19,1975 interview for Rolling Stone. Topics include her history, her first major solo album Pieces of the Sky, Gram Parson’s impact and much more.
Led Zeppelin – On Tour
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Jimmy Page (Photo By Neal Preston)
A new addition to the Journalism section today as Cameron profiles Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti tour in this Rolling Stone article from May, 1975. In this piece entitled “Led Zep Conquers States, ‘Beast’ Prowls to the Din of Hordes”, you’ll find some vintage Robert Plant and Jimmy Page quotes as the band wraps up their North American trip.
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Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac’s True Confessions
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To celebrate today’s birthday of the one and only Steve Nicks, we thought you might enjoy revisiting the 1977 Rolling Stone cover story on Fleetwood Mac. It’s an interesting time in the band’s history as they were about to explode with the release of the seminal Rumors. It’s a cover story that Cameron is very fond of and we hope you like it too.
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Inquire Within: Scores for Almost Famous & Vanilla Sky
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Welcome to another edition of Inquire Within… Through your submissions, Cameron will answer your questions in his own words.
Adam Labat.: Are either of Nancy Wilson’s scores for Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky ever going to be available in their entirety like it is for Elizabethtown? I really dig those cues and would love it if they were available for public consumption.
Cameron: We love getting this question. Nancy’s scores really complemented those movies, and the process of sculpting the cues was a joyful process. In the case of Vanilla Sky, thanks to Jeff Greenberg at The Village Recorder, Nancy was holed up for months turning out whole soundscapes… much ended up in the movie, and much did not. We have a busy release slate for this year but both of those film scores are never far from our minds and we hope to have them out very soon. In the meantime, you can listen to or download “Cabin in the Air” from Almost Famous as a taste of things to come.
Please send in your questions for Cameron and maybe yours will be part of a future installment of Inquire Within…
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Stormy Night Films
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As I look outside at the grey skies and rain here in Seattle, I thought it would be a great time to revisit Cameron’s 10 Essential Films For a Stormy Night. The list was put together for the September, 2005 issue of Paste magazine. Good timing too as Quadrophenia and The Royal Tenenbaums were recently announced as coming to Criterion Blu-ray in August!
1. Local Hero (Bill Forsythe) – Because of the characters, the things they say to each other and, of course, The Rabbit.
2. Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler) – Myrna Loy just plain rocks, and so does everybody else in the sprawling beautiful epic. In the words of Wyler’s buddy Billy Wilder, “I was crying five minutes into this picture and I did not not know why.”
3. The Apartment (Billy Wilder) – Because it’s perfect.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) – A complete, compact, bittersweet world. And also, the music. Wes’s use of “Ruby Tuesday” is devastating, and let’s not even get started on the shot of Gwyneth Paltrow exiting that bus to Nico’s “These Days.”
5. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis) – Pryor starts out telling jokes, and then takes a turn. “Let me tell about my year…” Modern personal comedy would never be the same.
6. Live A Little, Love A Little (Norman Taurog) – There’s a good chance that within a few months, Elvis probably didn’t even remember making this movie. He’s a slurring, amphetamined mess…of perfection. Check out the only psychedelic number he ever performed, “Edge of Reality.”
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen) – Like The Royal Tenenbaums, it’s a complete world you can’t help but revisit. As addictive as whatever drugs Elvis was on during the above movie, and more.
8. Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam) – Because of Steph. And, of course, Jimmy.
9. Shampoo (Hal Ashby) – A quiet, timeless look at modern man, set to musical perfection…and all the best characters are women.
10. Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir) – The inspiration for Shampoo, and so much more. The gorgeous catastrophy of the human condition and love, on full display. Misunderstood and discounted in its day, this masterpiece is rich and deep and only gets better. I’m tempted to call it the Exile on Main Street of Jean Renoir’s catalog of brilliant work, but it’s deeper and more elegant and even better than that. And the best character is the sad fool played by Renoir himself.
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Vinyl Films Does Vinyl
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You’ve seen our Vinyl Films Records section, right? There has been a total of 18 full length and EP releases so far. The last release was Mark Kozelek’s Live at the Union Chapel & Södra Teatern. Other releases including the now out of print Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, Into the Wild and Harold & Maude soundtracks. Check out the section for more details, pictures and track listings.
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Door Reviews: Aretha, Paul Butterfield, Flash & Malcolm X
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Here’s four more quick LP reviews from the July 7, 1972 edition of the San Diego Door. First up is Aretha Franklin’s gospel heavy Amazing Grace and Cameron is not a fan. In fact, he’s quite hard on it. He’s mixed on the band Flash, with former Yes member, Tony Kaye. Faring much better is the Malcolm X soundtrack and the latest release from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Rock on…
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Billy Wilder’s Wit & Wisdom
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Marilyn & Billy
After the overwhelmingly positive response to Billy’s Tips for Writers, we thought we’d share some quotes from Conversations with Wilder.
On Marilyn Monroe: “She was very tough to work with. But what you had, by hook or crook, once you saw it on the screen, it was just amazing. Amazing, the radiation that came out. And she was, believe it or not, an excellent dialogue actress.”
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On Barbara Stanwyck: “With Stanwyck, I had absolutely no difficulties at all. And she knew the script, everybody’s lines. You could wake her up in the middle of the night and she’d know the scene. Never a fault, never a mistake — just a wonderful brain she had.”
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On Audrey Hepburn: “That’s the element X that people have, or don’t have. You can meet somebody and you can be enchanted, and then you photograph them and it’s nothing. But she had it. And there will not be another. She exists forever, in her time. … She started something new, she started something classy. She, and the other Hepburn, Katharine, at a different time.”
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“I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we’re dealing with, and that we’re not making a picture for Harvard Law School, we’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.”
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“I just always think, `Do I like it?’ And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.”
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“I, you know, am all over the place — every category of pictures I have made, good, bad or indifferent. I could not make, like Hitchcock did, one Hitchcock picture after another. … I wanted to do a Hitchcock picture, so I did `Witness for the Prosecution,’ then I was bored with it, so I moved on.”
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On making “Some Like It Hot” in black and white: “I liked it in black and white. I was then one of the last guys still doing it. But when I run into people — you know, as a test — they say, `I saw “Some Like It Hot,” it was wonderful, wonderful,’ and I say, `How did you like the color photography?’ They say, `It was great, it was absolutely great.’ People forget, they don’t remember. It’s less important than the content of the picture, you know. After five minutes they forget about it.”
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