Almost Famous

What could be more coveted than a spot on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1973? Almost Famous documented how a teenage journalist was able to tag along with a fictional heavy rock band called Stillwater while their star was on the rise. Join co-hosts Jon and Mark as they take in the almost never-ending journey of this tour from city to city, while William's mom dials in her landline skills. It's all happening!

Are you a golden god?

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Jon (00:00)
tonight on the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. I am a golden god, almost famous, a film by Cameron Crowe.

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. My name is Jon, I'm joined by my co-host and my brother Mark. Each week here in the Rock and Roll Theatre, we take a look at movies, pop culture, all sorts of fun stuff. And today we're looking at Almost Famous.

Mark (00:32)
Almost Famous was released on September 15th, 2000. It's rated 14A or R depending on the source. It has a runtime of two hours and two minutes. The extended version is two hours and 41 minutes. This is classified as a comedy drama music film.

Its budget was $60 million and at the box office, it pulled in $47.4 million. So that is a loss. So this movie did not perform that well out of the gate. Almost Famous was written and directed by Cameron Crowe and the story is directly inspired by his own teenage experiences writing for Rolling Stone. The film follows a teenage journalist named William Miller who joins

the tour of a rising fictional rock band called Stillwater. Stillwater was fully developed with original songs, so sorta like Spinal Tap, let's say, but nowhere near as fun.

Jon (01:38)
In the late 60s, early 70s, rock journalism was huge. Things like Rolling Stones, Circus, Cream Magazine, across the pond there in England, you had The Enemy, New Music Express. These were huge, huge in the industry at the time. And to get the cover of the Rolling Stone, as the Dr. Hook song would say, is the ultimate prize. And tonight we're going to focus on a film where Stillwater are trying to do just that.

Mark (02:00)
It's also worth noting that Peter Frampton, legendary 70s rocker, actually served as a technical consultant on this film. Cameron Crowe and his then wife, Nancy Wilson from Heart, co-wrote three of these Stillwater songs that appear in the film, and Peter Frampton wrote the other two. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam played lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs that we hear.

The official soundtrack also features a ton of big name artists from the 1970s.

Jon (02:35)
Cameron Crowe was the youngest journalist to write for Rolling Stone. At 16 years old, he went on tour with the Allman Brothers. That must have been something. And a lot of this movie is loosely based on his experiences that he had as a youngster on tour with bands. He then of course started making movies. Fast Times at Ridgemount High, Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous, which we're gonna get to in a second. But before we do, there are spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen Almost Famous in a long time, or have never seen it, hit pause, go watch it, come back, Mark and I will be right here. And if you do us a quick little favor,

I know everybody asks and you're tired of hearing of it, but if you could like, subscribe, comment, ⁓ watch, whatever the case may be. We have a TikTok page, we have a YouTube page with all sorts of little fun stuff on there, as well as a growing back catalog to check stuff out. But for now, almost famous.

Mark (03:22)
movie opens with some handwritten credits on lined paper, interspersed with images of different rock and roll posters, tickets, memorabilia, album covers, this type of thing. We see some pretty big name actors being written down here.

Then we go into a montage that looks like we're driving through somewhere in Southern California, but we're hearing Alvin and the Chipmunks. That's kind of an odd choice. Turns out we're in San Diego and the year is 1969. I don't actually remember seeing that stated anywhere in this opening montage, but that is where we're at. And then we see a young kid walking down the street with his mom. She immediately corrects a man who's hanging up a

Christmas related sign and Christmas is spelled XMAS and she has to inform him, sir that is not how you spell Christmas. Back at home we see what I'm assuming is the kid's sister arrives, she looks a little bit older than him, maybe a older teenager, and she immediately gets in trouble for smuggling in a Simon and Garfunkel record under her coat.

So this mom is not taking crap from anyone.

Jon (04:41)
His sister's named Anita and she proudly proclaims this is a house of lies after having her album confiscated. However, William takes a moment to ponder the album, take a look at it, and he's very intrigued by what he sees. Of course, Simon and Garfunkel.

We see William's daily life at school and things are kind of going rough for him. He's being bullied quite a bit, being picked on a lot, largely because of his size. So he's under the assumption that he's the same age as everybody in his, I guess, high school, but he is not. It turns out that the mother, who's a college professor, thought he was an accelerated child and decided to bump him up several grades throughout his life without ever informing him. So he's 11 when he thinks he's 14 or 15 years old. So it's quite the dramatic realization.

and pretty hard on the young guy.

Mark (05:26)
Anita gets ready to leave home. She's gonna go be a flight attendant. She reassures William that he will be cool and to look under the bed. So after she leaves, he goes to look under the bed and he finds a bag full of classic records, stuff like The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, The Who, many more.

We fast forward to 1973. William's a teenager now and he's busy reading cream magazines. So I guess he's fully embraced these classic rock albums that were left under his bed. We see him outside a radio station and Lester Bangs is on air recording. He gives sort of this big spectacular rant and then proceeds to play Iggy Pop, Search and Destroy. We learned that William is a novice rep.

and he is able to go for a walk and talk session with Lester when he exits the studio.

They have lunch at a diner and Lester tells him, don't be friends with stars. He agrees to take William on for $35 for a thousand words on Black Sabbath. Be honest and unmerciful is Lester's lasting advice.

Jon (06:43)
So his rather uptight mother decides to drive him to the Black Sabbath concert for him to review and interview the band. And as he's getting out of the car, she screams, begs to William, don't take drugs.

in one of the most famous lines of the movie. So everyone in the crowd walk into the show turns around to the mom and goes, don't take drugs, don't take drugs. It's a funny scene. It's really good. So he goes to the backstage door, he's full of confidence. He has a copy of cream magazine in his hand who he now writes for and proceeds to be turned right away by the head of security working the door. He's not buying it. He looks like a kid. He doubts he's a journalist. He tries several times. And finally, the security guys had enough and says, go away the top of the ramp with the girls.

So he's a little confused by this, but he's not gonna give up. So he goes up to the top of the loading dock and sees a bunch of girls. And he starts talking to them and kind of says, oh, are you guys groupies? But no.

Their leader, Penny Lane, played by Kate Hudson, informs that they are called the Band Aids, meaning they inspire the band or something like that, shall we say. So he still can't get in backstage, but all of sudden a tour bus pulls up. It's not Black Sabbath. It's their opening band, a band called Stillwater. Actually, there was a real band named Stillwater that actually got paid for having their name used in this movie. Good for them.

So he gets busy trying to sell himself to those guys, ask them really deep questions, really important questions. So the band's kind of intrigued by this. They're like, this guy kind of knows what he's talking about. And he works for cream. And I'm guessing the opening band probably wants some publicity, wants some press. So they decide to let him come backstage, let him hang out with them. And the lead singer, Jeff, who's played by Jason Lee, of my name is Earl fame, mall rats fame, pro skateboarding fame. He's getting immediately bonding with William's and asking all sorts of questions. And as he's talking to him, however, in a funny moment,

he's putting shaving cream in his hair right before he goes on stage. I guess he feels that that gives him like a special look.

Mark (08:37)
William doesn't seem too deterred by this though. He gets out his Sears brand tape recorder and he gets to work. Penny, who we met a few moments ago at the top of the loading dock, she's backstage, she goes and finds him, and she's curious how old he is. So he puts on a brave face and he tells her he's 18. Then that becomes 17. Then that becomes 16. And finally he admits to her he's only 15 years old.

So the band's getting ready to go out. They give some parting advice to William. say, it's not about what you put in, it's about what you leave out.

So he ends up watching Stillwater from the side of the stage. The energy is good, the band is rocking. The performance looks pretty believable. And then afterwards he has to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the night. And Penny pulls him aside and tells him that she wants to live in Morocco for one year.

Jon (09:32)
It's all happening.

which is Penny's favorite phrase to say. It's the first time we hear it. And things are happening for William. So he types up his story. He's very proud of his work and Penny's good to her word. She does actually call him up and they decide to go out for a drive. Cause there's a big party with the guys from the Alice Cooper band at the Continental Hyatt House. This is a very, very famous hotel in Los Angeles. Its nickname has always been the Riot House. There are tons and tons of stories of backstage shenanigans, groupies, parties, things way,

out of control at that hotel. Not only in the 60s and 70s into the glam rock metal era as well too there were tons of stories about that. I've heard stories about pro wrestlers misbehaving in that building. It's a legendary place which I do believe recently changed its name because they were tired of the association with it.

So at the party, everything's going great for Will. It's super busy. There's people in and out of every room. Stillwater are there. They're jamming some acoustic songs. But then we see Russell and Penny. Russell is the guitar player in Stillwater. ⁓ We learned that maybe they have a little more of a friendship than maybe William thought. He's a little naive to things like this so far as we're going. So they decide to take a little break from everybody and hang out in the ice machine room for a little while.

Mark (10:44)
Things keep moving along though pretty well for William here. He gets a call from Rolling Stone and it's kind of a funny moment. His mom actually interrupts the call, like she picks up the other end and says something to him about doing chores and he's like, does not know what to say. And the staff from Rolling Stone actually plays it off pretty well. They say, yeah, my old lady gets like that too if I'm not pitching in around the house. It is kind of a funny moment. He rolls with it. Anyway.

He convinces Stillwater as a subject for an article and gets Rolling Stone to offer $1,000 for 3,000 words for an article about them being on tour. He talks to Lester again to get some advice. Lester tells him, don't make friends with people who are trying to use you and refers to these people as swill merchants.

His mom is not having this at all as a career path. What's going on here? He's supposed to be finishing school, not daydreaming about writing music articles. We see the almost famous 73 bus pull up for the first time and it has a Doris logo on the side of the bus, which is the bus's name. And they're driving to Tempe, Arizona. I don't know how believable this is.

As soon as William pulls up at the hotel, there's a message waiting for him right away from his mom. How did she know he was gonna be there? I guess she must've had the name of the hotel. Anyway, there's a message right away and the clerk doesn't seem too happy about it either, asking William to make this stop. So right away we see that his mom seems to be following him around on tour via landline phone.

The band seems a little bit leery though of this Rolling Stone connection and they start referring to William as the enemy in an endearing way but it still shows that there's a bit of mistrust going on here. They're not really sure if they should reveal too much to a major publication I guess. And Russell is being very hard to interview. So William's trying to connect with them. He's trying to get to know them.

but Russell ends up always kind of ditching William or postponing it, telling him you'll get to it later, that type of thing.

Jon (13:03)
The band's decided to do some press. So they roll into a radio station to be interviewed on the Night Circus show. This is a really good scene, really funny scene in the movie. And of course, they bring William along. The DJ for the Night Circus is amazing. He's very high, he's smoking a joint, and he's just going on esoterically with this crazy long question that doesn't really make any sense. And then halfway through it, he appears to just fall asleep.

So the band takes things into their own hands and starts, you know, just joking around the microphones talking back and forth. But then there's also some tension between Jeff, the lead singer and Russell, the guitar player, because Russell says something the effect of I love your guitar playing or I love your singing. And Jeff's like, really? You took the time to say this on radio, but you'll never say this to my face. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, the night search DJ wakes back up with a very smug grin on his face. So maybe he wasn't really asleep. It's never quite made clear.

But we definitely saw a telling part here in the interview that maybe things aren't all perfect in the steel water camp. So after that, to blow off some steam, of course, another party. This one's at the hotel pool. And yet again, William is running around trying to get quotes, trying to get something going. They're interested in partying. So basically they just tell them, hey, just make us look cool. And don't really mention the groupies because there might be wives and girlfriends back home.

Mark (14:23)
band tells William they'll interview tomorrow. So William ends up interviewing the bass player and gets absolutely nowhere with him. I think the line is something like, so what would be different without your presence or something like that and the bass player simply just says, ⁓ well I guess the bass?

Jon (14:44)
No bass. That's all he gets.

Mark (14:48)
So now we're at the live show and it's looking like some sort of outdoor festival set up. Maybe it's within an amusement park or something like that. It's nighttime, but they're outside. We see the band rocking out. It looks like it's going well. The crowd is into it. But then all of a sudden it looks like Russell on guitar collapses and it seems like maybe he got electrocuted. So the band is like, what is going on? They all stopped playing and walk off the stage.

Their manager begins an argument with the promoter. They're fighting outside the bus I think the promoter is pulling some sort of karate stance on him. They're getting into it. They're yelling they're swearing The bus starts driving away William's looking out the window and one of the members of the band-aids is running alongside the bus and yells at William that he has to call home so once again his mom seems to be

Following the tour via landline phone. This is not the last time this is gonna happen The promoter is not too happy that they're driving away in the bus after this giant fight here in the parking lot so he Gets on the gets on the horn here and says that they shouldn't open the park gates and trap the bus in but no way That's not happening that bus revs up speeds and smashes right through the park gates. Everyone loves it

Jon (16:10)
The chain link fence is no match for the tour bus, that's for sure. So now we're rolling on to Topeka, Kansas. And yet again, Mom has tracked William down and found him yet again on the phone. However, Russell has his own ideas and wants to know, says hi to Mom. And she immediately goes into this huge lecture about him, about all the vices of rock and roll and how shallow and empty this all is. It's a really good scene. She plays it off really well. Russell seems shaken by the conversation with the mom, but he's

rugs it off because now the manager has a big announcement. The band got new shirts to sell on tour. So they're all excited. The boxes of merch are there. They start ripping them open and there's a problem.

once they hold up the t-shirt there are five bodies on the t-shirt one is front and center clear as day the other four are just basically silhouettes in the background and you can't tell who is who so really Russell is the only visible person on the shirt and he claims hey I didn't have anything to do with this which is probably true but now it sets up the dynamic though of course Jeff the front man is extremely unhappy about this he says you're the guitar player with all the mystique but I'm the one that started the band I'm the one that's doing everything and I'm

not even on the shirt. So it spirals into a big fight and Russell decides we're gonna bail we're gonna leave and he grabs William they go out in the street and some Topeka locals pull up in their van and say hey are you the guy from Stillwater? And he's like sometimes and they say we have a big house party going on would you like to come? William's immediately nodding his head no and Russell goes yes absolutely so get in these strange teenagers vans and off they roll to their house. So they're walking through the house Russell already has a good buzz going and

Someone says, hey, the red solo cups, that's beer with acid. He immediately grabs one and chugs it, much to William's horror, because he's trying to babysit him here and trying to make sure that he does get back to the tour and still water keep rolling. Russell couldn't be the slightest bit interested in any of that. He loves these kids. He wants to move into their basement. He's playing with their pets. He's jammed with them in the garage. He's got it going on. So finally, he makes his way up to the roof of the house, very high on acid and proclaims in probably the most famous and best line of

the

movie, I am a golden god. And they're all encouraged him to jump from the roof into the pool. And someone asked him any last words? He says, Yeah, I'm on drugs. They all cheer and he goes, wait, no, that doesn't sound that cool. I dig music and then he jumps into the pool. so obviously, there's no interview happening that night. Finally, the next morning, the tour bus tracks him down. He does not want to leave, but they bundle Russell up in a blanket and put him on the bus.

Mark (18:47)
So William still doesn't have this interview yet. So he says, I have to go home. He really wants to go home. You can tell he's not digging this anymore. He wants out. But Penny tells him, you are home, which is supposed to be, I guess, some deep insight there. And then this is the scene where everyone on the bus begins to start singing Tiny Dancer by Elton Jon. So when I was researching this film,

Apparently this is one of the most symbolic scenes in the whole movie and I've even seen it referred to as one of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema. I don't know. I don't know if I if I would go that far with it. Like it is a somewhat memorable scene, but it seems to be held up really really high by fans of this movie.

Jon (19:38)
It's a very good scene, it's a classic song. I don't know if it's one of the most iconic scenes. I would say him jumping off into the pool saying, I'm a golden god to me is the ultimate ⁓ almost famous scene.

Mark (19:52)
So William has to get back on the phone. He calls Lester this time for some more advice. And Lester tells him, tell Rolling Stone it's a think piece in the way of this would buy William some more time as he's struggling to get his work together here. However, Rolling Stone, they call him, they're pissed off. This is due in four days. William is able to kind of sweet talk them a little bit. So they say, all right.

do another thousand words and it could get the cover. So now William has some more motivation. He's got to get these interviews done. He's got to get some good content here. However, Russell once again puts a delay on William and says, let's do the interview in Cleveland. So now he's got to go to Cleveland.

William's not sure if he wants to go to Cleveland. So once again, Penny and the crew tell him it's all happening and they convince William to stay on.

Jon (20:52)
They arrive in Cleveland. Hello Cleveland. David Bowie is staying at the same hotel as them. He walks through the lobby and everyone loses their mind, which was a real thing in the 1970s. People refer to Bowie as the rock star's rock star, that even other rock stars got a little bit nervous and starstruck in his presence. So we see him for half of a second running into the elevator. Of course, there's a big party going on at the hotel. some of the groupies, the band aides have taken a shine to young William and decide, you know what, tonight's not about journalism.

Come have some fun with us and he does and he does not call his mother that night But she finally tracks him down and he's sure sir. He's flying back home on Monday Mom is still really mad at him. But hey, you got to keep rolling here on the tour We cut to a live show scene and this is really well shot. It looks good. There's a big energy There's a big crowd for still water. They filmed it very well It looks really like a real concert

After the show, they're hanging out backstage and they have some news from the record company. They've decided they have a new manager for them named Dennis Hope, which is played by Jimmy Fallon, of course, of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon fame and a million other things. And he gets right down to business with them telling them like, hey, you know, your manager here up to this point has done a good job, but I'm here to manage the manager basically. And he points out things like, hey, you know, like if you had a plane instead of a bus, you could do more dates and therefore make up some of the expenses the record company's already put on.

on

you, because back then record contracts, and well, still today, we're treated like a loan where, yeah, we'll pay for your record to be made, we'll pay for your tour, but you're expected to pay us back every one of those dollars. Once you've done that, you'll make some money. So bands are often in the hole several hundred thousand dollars before they even start a tour. So by adding a plane, by doing these different things, he figures he can bring more revenue to the band. He also points out things too that like, instead of, fighting with the promoter you got electrocuted and shocked with, maybe actually instead you sue him for the money

that he owes you for playing the gig instead of just storming off. So he does raise some good points and the band seems to kind of accept this and welcome into the fold. So the bus is gone now, we're on the plane.

Mark (22:53)
So now we're in Boston, there's this all-star poker game going on with members of the Who, Eagles, Allman Brothers. We have a Humble Pie roadie played by Peter Frampton, and we learn a little bit about what's being used as the stakes in the game. We find out that Penny and the band aides are actually the stakes for one of the hands that's about to go down.

After this goes down, Penny realizes that she's probably not wanted in New York City, the band's next stop. That's where Russell's wife lives, so they're probably done with her at this point. William is yelling at Penny to try and convince her of this, and he screams at her, you got sold to Humble Pie for $50 and a case of beer. I really liked that line. I thought it was a good one.

Jon (23:40)
Ouch.

Mark (23:46)
And then we move along to New York City. So the band is loading in on the sidewalk. William, he shows he's a little bit green here. He spills all the bags all over the sidewalk. The bags open and all the contents go all over the sidewalk. He's got to clean them all up. He's looking like a klutz. However, there's some good news coming up here. Rolling Stone calls him again via landline phone. I'm impressed with the landline technology in this movie. It is pretty amazing.

Jon (24:15)
At one point, think the mom calls a valet desk at a hotel. I mean, how did you get that number?

Mark (24:15)
Anyway.

I know, I know.

And he always just seems to be there, right? Like it's not like...

Jon (24:25)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Or one of the groupies or one of the band members is right there to take the call every time.

Mark (24:32)
Anyway, they tell William, this will now be the lead story and featured on the cover. So now once he's done in New York City, he's got to go to San Francisco.

Jon (24:45)
before that there's of course yet another party to attend. This time the location is Max's Kansas City, very famous New York nightclub, extremely famous, we'll probably talk about on later episodes. And he tells the band, you got the cover. Of course they're static even though it started out as the enemy, secretly deep down of course they wanted to be on the cover, who wouldn't? And they start singing the Dr Hook song, cover of a Rolling Stone, everyone's happy, drinks are flowing, but there's some tension Penny is there and she's trying to distract

the band and she's trying to get Russell's attention. at one point she said Russell's wife asked is that girl with anybody and every single person the table puts out their hand and says yeah she's with me.

Awkward probably not true. So the manager runs over and kind of runs interference and is like hey penny like chill out He's here with his wife ⁓ She does not take this well She basically goes to find her other her other friends what have you and one of them is leaving to go with Deep Purple to England So she gives her all of her possessions including some qualuudes. Uh-oh, so she takes way too many qualuudes and basically starts to overdose and will finds her in the hotel

she's about to pass out. He confesses his love to her, but then immediately, because he's responsible guy, he calls the front desk to get a doctor. the doctor comes, and it's kind of a gross scene. They revive her. She's going to be OK. She's going to make it. And then finally, he says, hey, what's your real name? And she lets him know that it's not Penny Lane, of course. In fact, her real name is Lady Goodman.

back in California, pending graduate William Miller is not present for his graduation ceremony like he said he would be. Mom is there, she ain't happy about it at all. But before he has to take off to go back home, he walks around Central Park with Penny for a bit. And then at the airport, they gotta split up and say goodbye.

Mark (26:33)
Move along to Stillwater. They're now up in the air in their own plane. William is with them, but it looks like the plane is caught in some bad weather. There's some severe turbulence going on. Things start to crash and bang and sway from side to side. It is not looking very good.

Jon (26:51)
Russell makes a rather dark joke by starting to sing Peggy Sue, which of course, buddy Holly died in a plane crash.

Mark (26:58)
The band begins to spew out these crazy confessions about deep dark secrets and who always liked who or who hated who, etc, etc. This reminded me a lot of the Seinfeld finale from just a couple of years before this movie was out, where in the finale episode the characters are caught in some turbulence, they think the plane is going down, and they start making these ridiculous confessions.

Jon (27:22)
So they're confessing, I slept with this person, I slept with that person, I never liked you, I don't like you. It's going back and forth. Poor Jimmy Fallon's losing his mind just screaming at them, well you shut up, because he's about to die. And then finally the drummer gets his first and only line in in the entire movie. He just, says to everybody, I'm gay. And the second after he says that, the plane writes itself, they open up the doors and they say, we're gonna be okay, we're gonna make it, we're gonna be able to land.

Clearly this moment in the plane though has taken the toll on the band and nobody seems to be happy with anybody anymore.

Mark (27:55)
So the plane has landed. Now we're in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Russell ends up telling William, write what you want. Sort of an encouragement of you've seen everything, just go for it. William makes his way to San Francisco. So he walks into the Rolling Stone office and he just has this like awkward energy about him and he's got this big bunch of like scrap paper notes. Looks really unprofessional, looks really out of.

like the other staff are looking at him like, okay, something has got to be off here. Like what is going on? Is this something, some teenager pulling a prank on us or something? Anyway, he's able to convince everyone he just needs one more night to write this and get it done. So I guess they allow him to have that one more night. He ends up calling Lester for some more advice and he ends up coming to the conclusion, I'm using it all.

So all the dirty laundry about Stillwater is going into the article. It's gonna be this big epic tell all bombshell of an article.

However, once he hands it in, apparently Stillwater get contacted by Rolling Stone to verify whether or not this is real. And of course, they freak out. They are not down with this. They don't really want this going out. Even though Russell originally told William, write what you want, the other band members and their new manager are like, no way. So the band denies everything. So William's dream is crushed. Rolling Stone goes on with a story about the who instead.

They just, they're like, okay, we're moving on. Go with the who story. Forget this Stillwater mishap.

Jon (29:42)
So William has to return home with his tail between his legs. And while he's moping around the airport waiting to get home, who he's ran into? Well, his flight attendant sister, Anita. She sees him and sees, ⁓ boy, this is trouble, Will needs help.

She takes him home, mom is super happy to have everybody back under her roof, but Will's obviously bummed out having his big chance wrecked by Stillwater. And we see Stillwater hanging out with their friends, their groupies, and all of a sudden they're turning on him saying, everybody knows what you did to William. That was really uncool that you basically gave him this big story and then wouldn't let him print any of it. So Russell considers this and realizes, hmm, maybe I should talk to Penny. I didn't treat her all that great near the end.

he tries to call her up, says, I'll come out to San Francisco, I'll come see you. So she accepts his phone call and she decides, okay, here's an address, come.

Turns out the address is not to her house. It's to William's house and a really good scene when he first walks in the house. He's very confused as to where he is, why there's no penny there and the mom remembers him of course from the phone calls and she said I knew you would listen to me in the end or something to that effect. So it's a funny scene. So she lets him into William's bedroom. He is clearly bummed out lying in bed moping around and Russell realizes, okay, you know what? I'm going to get hold of Rolling Stone. I'll tell him you can print everything.

This of course makes William happy and he makes them sit down to finally have their proper interview that Russell had been avoiding since the first day they met them. So then we see that they have now gone back to the bus for 1974's tour. They're calling it the No More Airplanes tour, which is fitting considering what happened. And everyone seems a lot happier now, a lot more comfortable with their spot in the band and how things are going.

Mark (31:24)
So in this happy montage, we get a brief two to three second clip of the article on the cover of Rolling Stone as part of a bundle of magazines that's going out. Honestly, I thought it could have been a bit more significant given that this was the basis of the entire plot. Could we have not have had a little bit of, you know, a few more scenes in that montage of maybe people getting the magazine on a newsstand or you see it on a billboard or something like that. It just seemed a little bit sort of like, yeah, and by the way, it was on the cover. Let's move along.

Jon (31:55)
Yeah, I mean, the whole purpose of the movie is basically to get on the cover of Rolling Stone and basically reinforcing what a big idea that is. And for a band like Stillwater that's in the kind of almost made it almost famous category, that would have been the huge achievement. And yeah, it's a real it's a real quick afterthought kind of that. And considering they spent so much time on other things in the movie, they could have added this as well too.

Mark (32:16)
So the band's back out on the road, everybody's happy, William's a journalist now, things are going great. And the last thing we see is that Penny books that plane ticket to Morocco. So I guess it really was happening. That was almost famous.

Looking at the soundtrack for Almost Famous, music from the Motion Picture, was released in the year 2000. It is a rock stage and screen album. I'll also point out that there is an expanded version, a six vinyl LP box set that came out in 2021, that I think is over 100 songs long. So if you really wanted to get into this, you could.

Jon (32:56)
We're not going to talk about one today.

That's a three-part podcast. don't have time for it.

Mark (33:07)
Looking at the main soundtrack, begins with Simon & Garfunkel, America.

Jon (33:13)
which also basically starts off the movie, Minus Alvin and the Chipmunks. It kind of sets the tone for the movie, sets the tone for where we're going at the very start of the film. It's a kind of stream of conscious type folk song. I think it's a good fit and a good way to start everything off.

Mark (33:29)
The Who Sparks.

Jon (33:31)
This is a good song. It's an instrumental used throughout the film and it has almost a little bit of a vibe of 18 by Alice Cooper. I liked it. It's a good song. It fits with everything going on.

Mark (33:43)
Next is Todd Rundgren with It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference.

Jon (33:48)
course 70s singer-songwriter then that's write up his alley type of song

It's a breakup song I found little on the cheesy on the campy side for me.

Mark (33:59)
Yes, I've seen all good people. Your move.

Jon (34:03)
There's some really good harmonies in this one, it really fits in with the movie and what's going on. It's personally not my thing and I think it's a little bit too long of a song but that's always my criticism with the prog rock type stuff.

Mark (34:15)
Up next, the Beach Boys feel flows.

Jon (34:19)
this one they're going through kind of psychedelic-y period. It's a really bizarre song, not a surf rock song at all if that's what you're expecting from the Beach Boys. same as with the last song, there's a lot of flutes, there's a lot of piccolo going on, I guess kind of a Jethro Tull type of vibe. So yeah, different sound from the Beach Boys from what you're used to.

Mark (34:39)
Up next is the fictional band from the movie Stillwater with Fever Dog. Before we look at that, it should be noted that there's actually a Stillwater LP called Farrington Road. And this was a limited edition promotional test pressing that was given out by Cameron Crowe himself and crew members on the film. It's 12 songs long. And here on the official soundtrack, we have the first song from that album, Fever Dog.

Jon (35:10)
This is a good song. I mean, it's a really good imitation of that, time in music and that era of music. it's a very Led Zeppelin sort of type of song, as you would expect. it's perfect for the movie. And I think the songwriters did an excellent job on this one. Blues rock type of feel all the way.

Mark (35:26)
Rod Stewart, every picture tells a story.

Jon (35:30)
With all the Rod Stewart songs from around that time period, I always noticed that the acoustic guitar playing always sounds really good with his stuff. I think this one's a little bit underrated for Rod. I mean, it's a very famous song, but he has more famous ones. The lyrics completely fit in with what's going on in the movie.

Mark (35:45)
The seeds, Mr. Farmer.

Jon (35:47)
boy, this was a weird one. I did not know anything about this before watching the film. And then I watched the video for this song on YouTube, which does exist from the 1960s. It is weird, weird as hell. I strongly recommend you click on YouTube and watch this. It's watch your crops time people. This is a very bizarre song, but almost like the lead singer almost gave me like a Danzig, Glenn Danzig sort of vibe if he was into like psychedelia in the 60s.

Mark (36:15)
The Allman Brothers Band, one way out.

Jon (36:19)
Well, a lot of what happened with Stillwater in the film was probably based on experiences Cameron Crowe had with the Allman Brothers. And this, course, is one of their most iconic classic Southern rock songs. It's the live version. I know this is a live version most people prefer. It's used pretty much as the version of the song now. Perfect choice, of course, is going to be on the soundtrack.

Mark (36:38)
Up next, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man.

Jon (36:41)
Speaking of Southern Rock, this could be the Southern Rock National Anthem. A gigantic song for Lynyrd Skynyrd, maybe Only Sweet Home Alabama is probably the bigger one that they have. There's a lot of different movements in the song, a lot of different parts to it. It's been used in many different films, many different things, and of course it fits it in the almost famous world.

Mark (37:01)
Led Zeppelin, that's the way.

Jon (37:03)
I'm a little surprised it took this long into the soundtrack to get to Led Zeppelin, which is obviously a big influence on everything we saw today. It fits perfectly with the narrative of everything that's going on. Yeah, just classic Led Zeppelin.

Mark (37:15)
Next up we have the longest song on the album, over six minutes long, Elton Jon, Tiny Dancer.

Jon (37:23)
which of course is used in the famous bus scene that I guess you can debate. it one of the most iconic film scenes of all time? I'll leave it up to you guys. You wanna make a comment somewhere about it? Let us know. So yeah, of course everybody knows Tiny Dancer, very, very famous song. I'm not a huge Elton Jon fan, I'll admit. Stuff doesn't do much for me, but I think of all the songs, this might be one of the ones I actually enjoy.

Mark (37:47)
Nancy Wilson, Lucky Trumble.

Jon (37:49)
This is a quick instrumental to use throughout the film. Well done, she's a great guitar player, so of course it turned out good.

Mark (37:56)
I was maybe a little bit surprised to see this one on here considering he only made a cameo that really had nothing to do with the film, but we have David Bowie, I'm waiting for the man.

Jon (38:05)
which is David Bowie wrote, but it's Lou Reed performing it. I also, I wrote down the exact same thing. I think it's odd that they included this on the soundtrack because this is not a New York City type of movie. This is much more a Southern rock, blues rock type of thing. So it's a little odd that Lou Reed's the choice here. I mean, New York City art piece with Bowie producing, but I mean, it's classic Lou Reed song and it's, you know, a big hit. So it works okay. But I don't know. I don't think it really need to be included in here.

Mark (38:33)
Next up is the shortest song on the album at only a minute 40 seconds, Kat Stevens, The Wind.

Jon (38:38)
he's always a good performer. classic cat Stephen sound. It's a nice little break here in the soundtrack. It's short, it's kind of breathy kind of breaks up a little bit.

Mark (38:48)
Clarence Carter slip away.

Jon (38:51)
And now we kind of go into a straight up soul song. It's really fun though. It fits the movie. Even though it's not a soul movie, it is using a perfect scene throughout the film. I think it's one of the best songs here on the soundtrack actually. And I really enjoyed it.

Mark (39:05)
Closing things out, have Thunderclap Newman, Something in the Air.

Jon (39:09)
And this is what kind of starts out the movie as well too, in the background. It's one of the lesser known songs, but it's a really nice bridge from the 60s to the 70s, I think, sort of sound.

Mark (39:23)
at the critical reception for Almost Famous. This is interesting. Right now on the tomato meter on Rotten Tomatoes it's scoring 91%. On its popcorn meter 92%. That is pretty bang on for each one of those meters to be in sync like that.

Jon (39:46)
For a movie that came out 26 years ago now, I mean, that's a very high level. So good for them.

Mark (39:52)
Scoring a 7.9 out of 10 on Internet Movie Database, I think that's a little bit more in line with what I would score it.

Jon (39:59)
Yeah, I think eight about 10s right right in the wheelhouse right where you should be with this film.

Mark (40:03)
Almost Famous won many awards. Let's talk about a few of them. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The recipient was Cameron Crowe. It won Best Screenplay Original as part of the British Academy Film Awards. Once again, the recipient was Cameron Crowe.

It also won a Grammy Award, Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Film, Television or Other Visual Media. And Kate Hudson also won a Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Musical or Comedy.

Jon (40:38)
deserves all the praise and accolades that it got. Kate Hudson did an excellent job in her role and we also covered Kate Hudson in Song Song Blue, the Neil Diamond film in another episode recently of the Rock and Roll Theatre. So you can check that out too as well. She's also a great singer and we talk about that quite a bit over there.

Mark (40:53)
Famous film critic Roger Ebert, gave the film 4 out of 4 stars. He named it the best film of the year 2000 and he described it as, quote, funny and touching in so many different ways.

think that's a lot of praise. think some of that is warranted. I don't know if I would call this movie funny though.

Jon (41:16)
Yeah, that's a several times now we said that I mean, there are funny scenes. There are funny moments for sure. I mean, I find the mom character pretty funny. The way she dresses down all these rock stars. I think there's some big tensions, some big moments and some big questions even just like, you know, how rock star treat other people in their world. I mean, they kind of use them are kind of disposing of them here and there. I mean, that's what happens to the band aids. That's what happens to will. I mean, so it's showing off some real big character flaws and some kind of dark things and drug abuse and what have you. So I mean, there are

funny scenes? Would I call it a comedy? No.

But for everything that gets high praise, gets awards, that gets all the hype, there's always a hater out there. Each episode of the Rock and Roll Theatre, my brother scours the internet to find a one-star review of anything and everything we watch. So what do you got for us this week?

Mark (42:06)
This week we're going to Amazon.

We have a review from the user. Tell it like it is too. This was reviewed on January 26th, 2001. One out of five stars. And the title is, I'll do my best to read it, grammatical errors included.

What a bloated bore this movie was. No drama about eight million annoying closeups of Kate Hudson as if to say to us, look, isn't she radiant? Isn't she a superstar? While she offers up such amazingly brilliant lines as, we are not groupies, we are band aids. Wow, I am deeply moved. And that part on the bus where they all sing along.

Can a filmmaker be any more manipulative? Cameron Crowe is like a little puppy dog that pants at your feet. Do you like me, huh? Do ya? No doubt his experiences on the road could have made for some interesting storytelling. Jerry Maguire was a better film by trusting the material and the actors and telling the story first and foremost.

but Almost Famous does what it shouldn't do. It tries to be moving first and foremost.

Cameron Crowe should be forced to sit down in a dark screening room and study Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Since that's obviously the type of movie he's trying to make and with this effort failing miserably. There's not one good thing about this movie.

Jon (43:51)
Tell it like it is too. I have two questions for you. What does it should, it does what it shouldn't do. It tries to be moving and first and foremost, that makes no sense whatsoever. Also, whatever happened to tell it like it is one, I guess we'll never know.

Mark (44:11)
It is considered a cult classic despite not burning up the box office. So it didn't really come out as a heavy hitter. It didn't even make its budget back. So I don't know. Yeah, a cult classic. Yes. But I guess that's a little bit debatable of how much of a smash hit it really was. I think it's solid overall, but maybe it's a little overrated. I wouldn't agree with some of these reviews that are putting it 90 % plus. I think that's a little high.

I found it kind of long. It's somewhat forgettable. I did see this when it originally came out in the year 2000, but rewatching it for this podcast, I almost forgot everything. I didn't really find it that memorable.

thought Stillwater as a fictional band was really well done. They had fully developed original material. It looked like it was performed well. It definitely had that feel of a real band.

Almost Famous has been ranked among some of the best films in the 21st century in multiple polls. Again, I think that's running a little steep.

And in 2021, Rolling Stone published the article Still Water Runs Deep by the fictional William Miller, and that was backdated to August 30th, 1973. This was part of the expanded box set album promo.

Jon (45:34)
had a similar experience when we decided to revisit Almost Famous here for the podcast. I did see it myself as well when it first came out in 2000. I said, yeah, that'd be a great one to do on the Theatre. Once we started Bounce Around ideas when we started this podcast, then I actually I watched the movie. And I realized I forgotten 95 % of this movie. I remembered Kate Hudson was in it. I remember Jason Lee was in it. I didn't really remember much else. I did remember I'm a golden god jumping off the roof and the mom yelling don't take drugs. So it almost was like a new watch

for me. Although in other old movies we go back and watch, I end up remembering tons of things, you know, I haven't seen it in 20 or 30 years. So for me that that makes the ratings of 92 93%, what have you a little high in my opinion. It's still a very good movie. It's absolutely worth a watch. This is star-studded cast all performances are in the acting are done really, really well. It is roughly based on Cameron Crowe's life, which is pretty awesome that a 16 year old kid went on tour at the Almond Brothers of all people would probably never

allowed to his day and age so that's a cool insight into the world of rock and roll he definitely has Cameron definitely has that he has that cred

For those reasons, I absolutely recommend Almost Famous. It's a fun look back, it's a star-studded cast. I think most people who enjoy rock and roll theatre would enjoy it.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight in the Rock and Roll Theatre. If you could take one quick moment of your time, if you could like, subscribe, comment, ⁓ share, whatever the case may be, check out our TikTok, check out our YouTube. We have a bunch of cool short videos we make off the podcast, and there's a time in our back catalog. But for now, the Theatre is closed.