This is one of my favorite topics, so get used to it. I got a double DVD at the dollar store—a package created to sell cheap. It’s got The Beatniks and Wild Guitar. Yeah, I never heard of ‘em either. I actually haven’t watched much of it, but I intend to. No it’ not good, but even it’s poorly and cheaply made, it’s a window into an earlier era (even if it’s just what someone’s take on a music story.)
I made it to the point in Wild Guitar where the star-yet-to-be-discovered gets discovered. You know, he just happens to be waiting in the wings with guitar in hand when the next act for a variety show has to run to the men’s room to lose his lunch. “You’re on, kid!”
I’m all for suspension of disbelief—I mean, I’m willing to give a movie a chance—but sometimes they act like the viewer is fully ignorant. What should impress me more? The fact that a “kid” who’s come to Hollywood can do his well-prepared song for the camera or the fact that a four-piece band behind the kid can follow him note-for-note, chord-for-chord. And, then, what was that kid playing, anyway? I’m not terribly adept at the guitar, but—trust me—this was like watching a dubbed movie. His fingers had nothing to do with the sound.
