DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT: BILL EVANS, TEDDY PENDERGRASS, AND THE GO-GO'S

 

Watched three great documentaries about great music makers in the past week. First: BILL EVANS: TIME REMEMBERED, then a few days ago caught TEDDY PENDERGRASS: IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME, and tonight THE GO-GO'S. The Bill Evans story has a tragic ending but is told well and has so much revelatory material, including archival footage and photos, I found it fascinating, compelling, and poignant. And, of course, the music is so f*ckin gloriously good.

I was a jazz piano playing teenager when Bill Evans first became famous in the jazz world (saw him and his original trio with Paul Motian and Scott Lafarro play in Rochester in 1960) and idolized him so much I copped a lot of his style, from trying to emulate his amazingly soft touch to hunching over the key board til my face was almost hitting the keys. His music is always the antidote to whatever may be disturbing me.

I always loved Teddy Pendergrass and felt as dismayed as all who loved him and his music did when he had that terrible car crash and ended up a quadriplegic. But I didn't realize what a crush I' always had on him until I was watching this documentary. Damn was he sexy, that combination of boyish vulnerability and muscular power and charisma. And though his story contains a heap of tragedy, it also has a more redemptive and satisfying ending than Evans. Nonetheless I found myself sobbing at one point and not being sure why, though part of it was the harassment he faced by his hometown Philadelphia police even after his huge stardom, so persistent and evil his wife and others feared for him every time he went out. That and the reminder that he was on the way to being as big as Elvis or Michael Jackson when the accident happened, and we'll never know how big a legend he may have become in the world beyond those of us to whom his legend already is infinite.

THE GO-GO'S documents the rise and fall of the first all girl band to reach number one on the charts and has the usual elements of the rock band docs except this time with women who had to (and still have to) overcome much tougher challenges than men, which this film documents as well. I found it at times as delightful as the band's music and image initially were to me, even in their most raw early days. But it too has its tragic moments, though less tragic than what happened to Evans and Pendergrass. It's a very satisfying experience, watching this film. And yeah, why the f*ck aren't they in the rock'n'roll hall of fame?!