So hey, let’s watch a movie!
I have a dedicated YouTube channel set up to stream some teaser clips, so to speak, of ALLEY PAT: THE MUSIC IS RECORDED. And I have a mess of them already digitized – usually about a minute each – and I’m gonna put up a new one every week or so.
This one is right at the start of the film, right after the open. H Johnson, sitting in Audio A at Crawford, very nicely lit. (Herman, right, but he goes just by H.) One of the most down to earth people you will ever meet. H was actually about 70 when we recorded that – can you believe that? He just looks great.
I like that he gets a Steve Allen reference in there. Then its right into an Alley Pat aircheck, the first of dozens. So the viewer is still going what is going on here, this DJ guy Pat sings over a Jimmy Reed song, and poorly at that, then with baby talk, and then the song ends and the next LP cut starts because he didn’t switch off the turntable. Is this movie going to be just this junk???
Back to H, now we’re intercutting. You see, as director I can’t run various Alley Pat bits back-to-back, as they cover many years and it’d be confusing. So I do talking head then aircheck, talking head/aircheck… takes a little more movie time, but at least the story can move on steadily.
Zoom..… were are straight into Pat’s hilarious ticket “rant” where he would often joke-lecture his audience - for their own good. “If you get your tickets early like them white folk….” This was a piece of tape that went into the movie last minute, straight to the front of the film,on the last rough cut. It’s on a great unlogged cassette that turned up in a box of cables at home.
Has that bizarre time check to, for "Gruen Precision Watches," a long out of business watch company.
You’ll be “In the back! In the corner! In the dark! If you don’t get your tickets like them white folk do.” Just classic stuff. Wonderful improvisation. Never ever a script. How did he do it?
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