Five Things Worth Sharing (VII)
I’ve found the sleeping giant! I’ve been looking out for this for a long time and Fanny - The Right To Rock has amazingly turned up on BBC iPlayer. Never heard of them? You need to. Fanny are an all female rock band who did back then (early 70s) what everybody should be doing now - playing the hell out of their songs with no rear view mirror. It’s a real rock n roll story and then some.
Here’s a trailer for you - seriously… go watch it before it disappears:
People have a lot to say about inclusion in 2024 and I get it, it’s a decent thing to have about your life but exclusion can also make giants out of those who have a long middle finger and enough balls to push through the bullshit. Brilliant documentary - should be compulsory viewing in schools around the country.
Any country - doesn't really matter which. Just get it on.
While we’re on the subject of documentaries, I watched Bray Wyatt - Becoming Immortal and cried real tears twice. It’s hard to find (on Peacock) but the WWE did an extraordinary job on putting it together. What a sad, sad story but impeccably made.
What is fast becoming known as the HHH era of WWE is shaping up to be honest and more entertaining than wrestling has been for a long, long time - possibly ever.
So as I don’t take up three of my five shares with wrestling stories, I’ll drop this in here too - and it will be fascinating if you lived through it (and by lived through it, I mean ‘watched it on TV with do-nut sugar in your hair’) - there’s a four part doc called Who Killed WCW? available on Vice right here. If ever there was an example of almost killing the King and then dropping all your swords on the floor before you got to the castle, WCW is the poster boy.
Trailer? Of course! Here you go:
I read a book this week that was so bad, I left a scathing review. It didn't make me feel good at all to do so but everybody else who had left a review said it was wonderful (which is why I bought it). It was this - you can dig about in there and find my review if you wish.
Should we leave honest reviews when people spend a long time creating something or is it better to say nothing? I say Wave Your Freak Flag High, otherwise the world will flood itself with garbage. If nobody ever tells the Emperor he is naked, well… we all know how that story ends.
I did finish it but that’s not really worth sharing, so I’ll raise the bar with this piece that I found in The Guardian last weekend. Once upon a time, album reviewers used to write like this - movie reviewers too. So far as I can see on my travels of the internet far and wide, this is no longer the case but all hope is not lost if one man can make me laugh, read to the end, be sad when it was over and look forward to seeing what he has on offer next week.
Surely, surely, that’s what good writing is about.
There seems to be a lot worth watching out in the world at the moment, though none of it is regular programming. These specialist releases are a really good sign that there’s money available for people who want to make shows out of the norm. Jim Henson was a genius of the highest order - it takes some stamina to believe that what you’ve made is worth pursuing to the bitter end. The world would be a less cool place if he hadn’t stuck to his guns.
Finally, this week - because everybody loves a good list - how about the Top 300 Albums of all time? Paste magazine made one and you can find it right here. I have never disagreed with a list more in my life - there’s so many albums that it’s hard to take most of the list in. 100-80 is do-able and the top ten are interesting choices, but everything in between is a bit of a blur.
There’s one album in the top ten that would be in mine (Prince’s Sign O The Times) and a couple of their top ten might be in my top 100 but the list appears to be a list for the sake of having a list rather than being thought out properly.
Led Zeppelin IV at #215? Come on… it deserves better than that!
No sign of T.Rex or ELO? Nothing by ABBA but three albums by Fiona Apple?
This list is officially a BUST - it’s written by music writers wanting nothing more than to be cool. Bah.
Bonus content! Here’s that great quote from Lester Bangs in Almost Famous:
You know, because once you go to L.A., you're gonna have friends like crazy. But they're gonna be fake friends. You know, they're gonna try to corrupt you. You got an honest face, and they're gonna tell you everything. But you cannot make friends with the rock stars...If you're gonna be a true journalist -- you know, a rock journalist -- first, you never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. Jesus. Fucking nothing about you that is controversial, man. God, it's gonna get ugly, man. They're gonna buy you drinks. You're gonna meet girls, they're gonna try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs. I know. It sounds great, but these people are not your friends. You know, these are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of rock stars. And they will ruin rock 'n' roll, and strangle everything we love about it, right? You know, because they're trying to buy respectability for a form that is gloriously and righteously dumb. Now, you're smart enough to know that. And the day it ceases to be dumb is the day that it ceases to be real, right? And then it just becomes an industry of cool. I'm-I'm telling ya, you're comin' along at a very dangerous time for rock 'n' roll. I mean, the war is over. They won. And 99% of what passes for rock 'n' roll these days, silence is more compelling. That's why I think you should just turn around and go back, you know, and be a lawyer or somethin'. But I can tell from your face that you won't. I can give you 35 bucks. Give me a thousand words on Black Sabbath... Hey, you have to make your reputation on being honest and, uh, you know, unmerciful... If you get into a jam, you can call me. I stay up late…
Damn, I love that film. here’s the trailer: