I read in today’s Guardian a review of Jimi: All Is By My Side, a biopic of
Jimi Hendrix set in sixties London that features André Benjamin, the rapper
better known by his stage name André 3000, in the title role. It’s a
sympathetic review and I’ll get around to seeing this before long (and review
it here) but what saddened me was to read that no Hendrix music appears on the
soundtrack, the producers having evidently failed to get clearance from the
Hendrix estate. Sad but not surprising. I long ago realised that one of the
reasons why so many rock biopics fail in this department is because the music can be cleared only
if those who hold the copyrights are granted some form of editorial control
over the film and, in most cases, if the film doesn’t promote a relentlessly
positive image of the artist they aren’t interested.
Many years ago on a flight to the US I
found myself with little choice but to watch a 2005 film called Stoned, about the life of Brian Jones’ with
emphasis on his departure from The Rolling Stones and subsequent death. It was
a piss poor film actually but what made it even worse was the music, which was
either lame versions of songs by others that the Stones covered on their early albums, that is
a studio band trying to sound like the Stones playing songs like ‘Route 66’,
‘Carol’ and Walkin’ The Dog’, or inappropriate sixties music, including – if I remember
rightly – ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane and a few Small Faces songs. The
inference is that this music was easy to clear (The Small Faces long ago lost
the rights to their music which is now controlled by agents happy to make a
buck regardless) while Rolling Stones music from the Sixties, then controlled
by Allen Klein, was not.
Here at Omnibus Press we are often
approached by film makers seeking, for a price, to option a book, that is
secure the exclusive film rights to the book for a period of time during which
they will try to put together all the other elements necessary to make their
film. If they fail to do so the option runs out and they’ve lost their money,
which is invariably what happens. And the reason it happens is because they
have been unable to secure the rights to the music, at least not on terms that
are acceptable to them.
Among the many titles where this has
happened are our biographies of Syd Barrett, the founder of the Pink Floyd, and
Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin. I was left to assume that in both
cases the film makers were unable to agree terms with those who control the
rights to the Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin’s music, and it doesn’t take a great
leap of imagination to assume that this was because today’s Pink Floyd don’t
want Syd’s acid casualty condition scrutinised in a high-profile movie, and
neither do the former members of Led Zeppelin want their old manager’s strong-arm
methods put under the spotlight long after he’s been laid to rest. Both groups
are now pillars of the rock establishment so all that messy business from the
past is best forgotten.
But the main casualty of this phenomenon
is Dear Boy, our much acclaimed best-selling
biography of Keith Moon, by Tony Fletcher. At one time this was optioned by
Tribeca, the film company headed by Robert DeNiro, but they were unable to
secure The Who’s music because Pete Townshend had promised Roger Daltrey that
if ever he was involved in a film about Keith Moon he would be given the rights
to the group’s music. Roger, who unlike Pete was never a fan of Dear Boy, has hemmed and hawed about a
Moon movie for years now but nothing has ever been put into production, so it’s
a stalemate situation.
One film that did manage to secure the
music rights was The Doors, the 1991
biopic of the LA band starring Val Kilmer in the role of Jim Morrison. Lisa and
I went to see it at the Odeon on Kensington High Street not long after it was
released. I wasn’t particularly impressed – thought it overcooked the rock clichés
– but one thing I do remember is that to my astonishment many in the audience
were smoking joints in the cinema. You wouldn’t get that today.
Chris, you should make an effort to see the Jimi Hendrix movie. It is a very intimate portrait of Jimi before he became Jimi and how he was discovered by Linda Keith... Amazing is the meeting with The Cream and hoiw he floored Clapton by playing Killing Floor... One of the best rock movies I have seen. You can actually smell London of 1967!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Armando