Almost Famous, a love song for rock and roll - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby Gil

Breathes there a music lover who ne-ver dreamed of writing for Rolling Stone Magazine or joining a famous rock band on tour. I can’t think of anybody but not everybody had that good fortune as a teenager. So we were content with reading about such adventures and listening to the music until the time when such experiences recede to the past and acquire the description of frivolous. Do you know of any 50-year-old groupies?

Not for Cameron Crowe though. The movie director who created Say Anything and Singles and struck gold with the Tom Cruise starrer Jerry Maguire chronicles his days as a teen-aged writer for Rolling Stone in the motion picture Almost Famous. It is described as a fictionalized account but he still does it beautifully, making the ’70s once more accessible, the people of the time, wonderfully real and the music, of course, the music, new and exciting again.

Almost Famous is the story of 15-year-old William Miller, who on the strength of his music know- how gets the assignment of covering a group called Stillwater on tour. Again because he knows so much trivia about the band, he captures the attention of guitarist Russell Hammond, he is allowed backstage, that inner sanctum where rock stars literally let down their hair. So there he is, a wide-eyed innocent, in the midst of the groupies, the egos, the sex, of course, the music. And here he comes of age.

We have seen so many coming of age films, from Tom Sawyer to American Pie, but never one executed with so much loving care and fascination as Almost Famous. Although set in the world of rock and roll, it is more moving than any Hallmark photoplay. Although filled with the terrifying anxieties of youth, it still elicits nostalgia. Nobody really goes home again but for 125 minutes Cameron Crowe makes us wish we could.

Performances are first rate. Newcomer Patrick Fugit gets the role of a lifetime as William and Kate Hudson as the groupie, or as she puts it, Band Aide, named Penny Lane has a luminous presence that matches her acting talent. Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond has the persona of a true rock star. Is he playing Keith Russell to Jason Lee’s Jeff Bebe, who is the lead singer of Stillwater and might be a fictitious version of you-know-who?

Academy Award winner Frances McDormand is William’s mother, who sees "pot" in the eyes of Simon and Garfunkel. Fairuza Balk and Anna Paquin are the other groupies or should I say, Band Aides and there is also a notable turn by Philip Seymour Hoffman as rock music critic Lester Bangs of Cream who becomes William’s mentor. Look out too for Jann Wenner and Ben Fong-Torres or the approximations of how they looked back in the ’70s.

William lost his virginity while a Steely Dan record was playing in the background and all his life that song will be a potent reminder of that sweet experience. And reminders of the tuneful sort are what Almost Famous has plenty of in its soundtrack.

The winner of the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack, the Almost Famous album includes Feel Flows by the Beach Boys; America by Simon & Garfunkel; Sparks by the Who; I’m Waiting for the Man by David Bowie; Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart; Something in the Air by Thunderclap Newman; Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd; Fever Dog by Stillwater; Tiny Dancer by Elton John; It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference by Todd Rundgren; Lucky Trumble by Nancy Wilson; Your Move by Yes; The Wind by Cat Stevens; One Way Out by the Allman Brothers Band; Mr. Farmer by the Seeds; Slip Away by Clarence Carter; and That’s the Way by Led Zeppelin.

Eminem, Elton duet

Watch out for the commercial release of the Eminem/Elton John duet of Stan, which they performed at the recent 43rd Grammy Awards. Proceeds from sales of the recording will go to various charities like MusiCares. Stan is the controversial Eminem’s song about a deranged fan, wherein he sampled the song Thank You by new pop star Dido. This is one of his best, but as with most of Eminem’s works, this one includes its share of four- letter words. The Grammys presented a toned down version that retained only few obscenities to maintain the flavor. And I thought all along that Sweet Painted Lady was the most risque that Elton will go.