GET CRAZY

The director, Alan Arkbush worked at the Fillmore East and Get Crazy is his tribute to that venue (and what a poor tribute it is). Get Crazy is set on December 31, 1982 and The Saturn (Fillmore) is in danger of being torn down to make room for a high rise office building. If the evil real estate baron gets his way, this will be the last New Year's Eve concert at the famous music hall.

 

There are a lot of musicians appearing in Get Crazy and they're the only reason I would recommend watching this disaster of a movie. Howard Kaylan of The Turtles plays Captain Cloud (think Jerry Garcia), who arrives with his band The Rainbow Telegraph in a bus that looks very similar to The Merry Pranksters Further bus. Lori Eastside from Kid Creole and The Coconuts is joined by Lee Ving (of the punk band Fear) who plays a character named Piggy (as in Iggy Pop) . Bill Henderson plays King Blues, a ripoff of any great blues artists you might think of and Malcolm McDowell does a great job as a composite of Mick Jagger/David Bowie and his drummer Toad is played by John Densmore of The Doors. Lou Reed plays a version of Bob Dylan and when we first see him in Get Crazy, he's in a set reminiscent of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album cover. Teen Idols Fabian and Bobby Sherman do not perform, but have roles as henchmen to the real estate developer.
 

It's beyond me how the director of Rock n Roll High School, one of the best and goofiest Rock movies ever made, could have made a movie as bad as Get Crazy. Filled with tons of sight gags that would only be humorous to 10-12 year old kids (and even they may be too old for this type of humor),this movie is terrible from start to finish. Even Arkbush, the directo,r has commented he wanted to make a realistic movie about a venue like The Fillmore, but the producer forced him into making an Airplane! type movie. I waited years to  see this out of print movie, since it was loaded with so many great musical stars...what a major disappointment. I have read that Get Crazy has a cult following, all I can say is what kind of kool-aid are they drinking.

ONE TRICK PONY

 

One Trick Pony stars Paul Simon (who also wrote the film) as a musician with one hit song behind him (thus the title) and his struggles as a working musician coping with a divorce, his life on the road, and trying to get another hit record (with Lou Reed as his producer). A huge majority of the movie is taken up with Paul Simon and his band either performing on stage or with Simon driving or walking somewhere while one of his songs plays in the background.

The B-52's appear in an early scene doing "Rock Lobster". They're the headliners with Simon and his band as their opening act. Later in One Trick Pony, Simon is appearing in a salute to the 60s concert which includes Sam and Dave performing "Soul Man" and what I thought was a real treat, the original Lovin' Spoonful reunited and singing "Do You Believe In Magic?". Also, Tiny Tim appears backstage warming up for the show.

If you like Paul Simon, you're really going to enjoy this movie, if you don't like Simon, you'll find One Trick Pony excruciating. However, since I neither like nor dislike Simon, I'm sort of middle of the road on this one. Everyone's acting was okay, even Paul Simon's. The story, what there was of it, was okay; and Simon's music was okay. And that pretty much sums up the whole movie for me, it was just okay. If you do decide to watch One Trick Pony, be on the lookout for two odd appearances: Daniel Stern as a Hare Krishna and  Mare Winningham in a nude scene.