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Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” Doc Sputtered at Box Office During the Week, Footage Was Used On TV in 1969

Roger Friedman
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Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” Doc Sputtered at Box Office During the Week, Footage Was Used On TV in 1969

Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” was not an out of the box hit when it opened last Friday, July 2nd.

According to the website the-numbers.com, “Summer of Soul” made just $247,318 on its opening night and went downhill from there. By Thursday it took in just $81,633, for a total of just over $1 million in six days.

At the same time it’s playing on Hulu, which may have drawn off potential audience members. How it will do this weekend remains a mystery and may stay that way since Searchlight doesn’t report weekend numbers anymore.

“Summer of Soul” is an archivist’s documentary, bringing together footage from the  Harlem Musical Festival which ran for several weeks in Mt. Morris Park in the summer of 1969 before the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York.

There are some real gems of performances from Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the 5th Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone, etc.

At the time those artists signed releases and may or may not have been paid. The footage existed all these years, and was made into a CBS special for TV that aired in 1969. There were also TV specials made from the footage for various foreign countries. So the footage existed and was used. It wasn’t “lost” as it was described.

What Questlove has done is take the footage and add interviews with some contemporaries and a few people from the old days who were there. But “Summer of Soul” isn’t exactly new. It’s updated from the original CBS special.

It would also be nice to know if the musicians are being paid now from whatever money is earned. When I made “Only the Strong Survive” with Pennebaker Hegedus Films in 2002, we made sure the artists involved were paid. It should be the whole gestalt of “Summer of Soul.” But so far Cberyl Ruffin, daughter of Temptations singer David Ruffin, has indicated no effort has been made in that direction. I hope Searchlight remedies that as soon as possible.

So by all means, watch “Summer of Soul” on Hulu and enjoy it. Imagine that Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight, already stars, are still on the precipice of their monster successes of the 1970s.

Here’s an announcement from Broadcasting and Cable sent by an astute reader:

Billie Eilish Strike 3 as New Bizarre Single, Video “NDA” Flops on Arrival, Bad Omen for New Album

Roger Friedman
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Billie Eilish Strike 3 as New Bizarre Single, Video “NDA” Flops on Arrival, Bad Omen for New Album

It’s strike 3 for Billie Eilish this morning.

The pop teen phenom released a new and bizarre single last night called “NDA.” The video is strange, showing Billie dodging cars coming at her. The lyrics are about having a boyfriend sign a non disclosure agreement.

Billie’s audience rejected the single the minute they heard it. This time there’s electronic dance beats, and lyrics that are unintelligible. The result is that “NDA” hasn’t gotten beyond number 32 on iTunes, while new singles from BTS and Kid Laroi with Justin Bieber went straight into the top 5.

This is a bad omen for Billie’s album coming July 31st, called “Happier Than Ever.” “NDA” is her third flop single in a row. So far five singles from “Happier Than Ever” have been released, not one of them remotely a hit.

It’s not like her PR machine isn’t trying. She’s on the cover of Rolling Stone this month. She’s got an Apple TV documentary. But something has gone wrong in the music department, and it portends a disaster coming.

The promoters of New York’s three day Governor’s Ball must be surprised, too. Their Friday show in which Billie Eilish is headlining has not sold out. There are lots of tickets available. The Saturday show with Rocky A$AP and J Balvin is sold out. But not Billie’s day.

Did the Vogue UK magazine layout cause this? Or are the songs just bad? Fans can chime in at showbiz411@gmail.com or on Twitter at @showbiz411. I’d like to know what’s going on.

What is this video? This song?

“NDA”

Did you think I’d show up in a limousine? No
Had to save my money for security
Got a stalker walkin’ up and down the street
Says he’s Satan and he’d like to meet

I bought a secret house when I was seventeen
Haven’t had a party since I got the keys
Had a pretty boy over but he couldn’t stay
On his way out, made him sign an NDA

Yeah, I made him sign an NDA
(Once was good enough)
‘Cause I don’t want him having shit to say

You couldn’t save me but you can’t let me go
I can crave you but you don’t need to know

Thirty under thirty for another year
I can barely go outside, I think I hate it here
Maybe I should think about a new career
Somewhere in Kauai where I can disappear

I’ve been having fun getting older now
Didn’t change my number, made him shut his mouth
At least I gave him something he can cry about
I thought about my future but I want it now
Want it now
(You can’t give me up)

You couldn’t save me but you can’t let me go
I can crave you but you don’t need to know

Did I take it too far?
Now I know what you are
You hit me so hard
I saw stars
Think I took it too far
When I sold you my heart
How’d it get so dark?
I saw stars
Stars

Hulu Doc: Paul McCartney Names Top 2 Fave Beatles Songs, Talks How He Saved “Come Together,” And Being Right in Arguments

Roger Friedman
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Hulu Doc: Paul McCartney Names Top 2 Fave Beatles Songs, Talks How He Saved “Come Together,” And Being Right in Arguments

The six part Paul McCartney doc for Hulu, “McCartney 3,2,1,” is really stunning. As I went through it I thought, the more you learn, the less you know, the more questions you have. I got the feeling Rick Rubin felt that way, too. Six segments aren’t enough. I hope there are more.

This is my third piece on this series. Some things bubbled up during segments 3 through 6. First of all, Paul indicates to Rubin that of the 250 or so Beatles songs, the favorites that he wrote. One is not surprising, it’s “Yesterday,” which came to him in a dream and he still can’t believe it after 60 years.

The other favorite of his own songs, he says, is “Here, There and Everywhere.” The reason seems to be that John Lennon modestly praised the song when the album came out, conceding to Paul privately that it was essentially, “pretty good.” You see that McCartney has never forgotten that moment.

There’s an interesting discussion in segment four of “Come Together,” a song typically though to be a Lennon creation. The song has a sketchy background. Paul tells Rubin that when John brought it in and sang it to him, Paul said, “That’s a Chuck Berry song.” It was indeed very close to Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” complete with the lyrics about Flattop.

So McCartney says he fixed it, He slowed it down, added his bass, and reworked it to give it a “swampy feel.” Berry’s lawyers still sued, and Lennon settled by recording four Berry songs on later solo albums. But “Come Together” turns out to be a real Lennon & McCartney collaboration.

Paul also recalls in segment 4 that even though George Harrison wrote and sang “Taxman,” Paul played the guitar solo. He riled George up so much by showing him how it should be done, Paul recalls, that George told him, “Why don’t you do it?”

Rubin wonders if that happened a lot. In a really candid moment, Paul admits that he’d listen to a presentation from one of his mates “And then I’d ‘but’ them”– as in But, it would be better this way. “And they’d hate me for it,” he observes, sheepishly. But you know, McCartney is unguarded here for a change. He knows that he’s the boss. And he’s unapologetic about it.

Savannah Guthrie’s Second “Jeopardy!” Week Remains Below 5 Million, But Improves a Bit from First Week

Roger Friedman
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Savannah Guthrie’s Second “Jeopardy!” Week Remains Below 5 Million, But Improves a Bit from First Week

“Jeopardy!” is still in a lightning round for bad ratings.

Savannah Guthrie’s second week of guest hosting improved a bit over her first week, but still stayed under 5 million viewers.

She went up 4% to 4,9 million, which was good compared to her 4.7 million the first week.

Still, “Jeopardy!” remains a million or more viewers off from the beginning of the year.

This week, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is wrapping up his second week of guest hosting. For the next two weeks we get first George Stephanopolous and then Robin Roberts, both from “Good Morning America.”

Then, finally, on July 26th, there’s one week of LeVar Burton. Burton feels divinely appointed to the job of permanent host. That remains to be seen. GOAT Ken Jennings, already a consulting producer on the show, who had the highest ratings of any guest host, remains waiting in the wings.

America First: House Bill to Make All Flowers at Government Buildings Grown in the United States

Roger Friedman
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America First: House Bill to Make All Flowers at Government Buildings Grown in the United States

Should all flowers at federal government buildings come from the US only?

A bill hitting the House of Representative this week, offered by Democrats and Republicans, says just that.

Jill Brooke reports exclusively at FlowerPowerDaily that two legislators from Alaska, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK), are supporing the American Grown Act, aka HR 3019.

Brooke writes: “The bill will hopefully create a shift in thinking and raise awareness to help American flower growers, who in recent years are creating extraordinary blooms ranging from lilacs in Maine, dahlias in Michigan or Zinnias from Texas.”

Brooke says “Part  of the reason that South America in particular has had an advantage is because of U.S. policy worrying about the threat of communism and then later drug trafficking. In. 1961, the U.S. Agency for International Development helped Columbia’s flower industry prosper, and thirty years later, Congress offered duty-free access to flowers from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Columbia to motivate farmers to cultivate legal crops.”

 

 

Cannes: Matt Damon Stars in “Stillwater” from “Spotlight” Oscar Director Tom McCarthy Gets Raves, Standing Ovation

Roger Friedman
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Cannes: Matt Damon Stars in “Stillwater” from “Spotlight” Oscar Director Tom McCarthy Gets Raves, Standing Ovation

Standing by for the official reviews…

Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater” played out of competition tonight in Cannes and got a 5 minute standing ovation. A real one. McCarthy directed “Spotlight” to an Oscar a couple of years ago.

Early word is that Matt Damon is sensational as an American who comes to Marseille, Frances to find his daughter, played by Abigail Breslin. Camille Cottin, of “Call Your Agent,” is featured.

Is this Matt Damon’s chance for an Oscar as Best Actor? That’s the word. I’m all for that. His personal notices so far are through the roof. IndieWire: “Damon’s performance is graced with a quiet softness that offsets the sheer volume of the character he’s playing, and the light comedy of the well-intentioned culture clashes between he and his new roommates is so endearing that you almost forget the tragic reason why Bill came to France in the first place. ”

more Showbiz411 news here

Variety: … “Damon’s remarkable performance. There’s something caveman-like about the way the actor carries his body, in the scowl on his face and slow drawl of his Southern accent. The character has a temper problem, and from the looks of him, he could tear someone in two — although that might not be advisable in a foreign country.”

keep refreshing for reviews…so far three out of four of the early reviews are excellent. A spy of mine on the ground in Cannes loved it. More to come…

The New Billie Eilish, 22 Year Old Clairo, Daughter of a Top Marketing Exec, Pop Star Frankenstein Makes Cover of (Digital) Rolling Stone

Roger Friedman
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The New Billie Eilish, 22 Year Old Clairo, Daughter of a Top Marketing Exec, Pop Star Frankenstein Makes Cover of (Digital) Rolling Stone

We already have the new Billie Eilish.

Totally unknown to but a handful of people, 22 year old Claire Cottill has made the cover of Rolling Stone’s digital issue today. Her stage name is “Clairo.”

It won’t be long before Clairol hair products get involved because her father is a top marketing executive from places like Procter & Gamble and Starbucks. Geoff Cottrill is the new Showbiz Parent of the Year. In 2010, he was Brandweek’s “Marketer of the Year.” He worked at Starbucks’ HEAR Music.

Geoff Cottrill has been a co-chair of Musicares at the Grammys. So you can imagine that Clairo will be heavily featured this winter on both the Grammys and the Musicares Person of the Year show.

Clairo’s got an album coming out called “Sling.” Dad has cooked up a whole theme for her about being indie, going with an indie label. Clairo is the biggest  outsider who was ever an insider. She’s already been on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

Her single is called “Blouse.” Not to be too cynical but it’s a girl with a guitar. We’ve heard it before. “Blouse” is well produced, beautifully sung. It sounds like someone cloned Carly Simon from 1971, which isn’t a bad thing. Billie Eilish must be semi-horrified. But “Blouse” will be a bit. It’s built that way. “Blouse,” like “Sling” comes from the biggest insider producer of all, Jack Antonoff, the man behind Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, and everyone on the radio right now.

Between Fallon and the official video, she’s got 800,000 YouTube views. There’s more to come. I kind of feel bad for her. The whole thing smacks of nepotism. It’s a cynical move to create a pop star Frankenstein. Even if she’s good, how can we judge? Clairo has been forced on us like Rice Krispies.

Joni Mitchell once sang about “stoking the star making machinery.” This kind of thing is an old story. The musical “Bye Bye Birdie” was all about the making of an Elvis Presley type star. And now we have Clairo.

McCartney Hulu Doc: A New Song, An Unreleased Beatles Song, Personal Motto: “Forge ahead constantly…in music and in life”

Roger Friedman
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McCartney Hulu Doc: A New Song, An Unreleased Beatles Song, Personal Motto: “Forge ahead constantly…in music and in life”

Part 2 of the Hulu documentary about Paul McCartney is another very satisfying 30 minutes executive produced by Rick Rubin.

It’s as if someone gave Paul a shot of something called Keep Talking. He’s never been so open, voluble, or revealing.

The segment begins with McCartney, one of the greatest composers of all time, conceding that other musicians are shocked he can’t read or write music. Every time he composes something it has to be taped. In the early days, he and John Lennon, he says, had to write “memorable music,” meaning they had to remember what they’d done. They wrote all those classic, complicated songs that way! It’s mind boggling.

There are also a couple of clips from the “Let it Be” archives. This means Paul is actually scooping Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary, coming in November. There’s a full on version of “Let it Be” with Billy Preston on the Hammond organ, and a gorgeous acoustic solo take of “Blackbird” from Paul.

I don’t know if the next episodes address this, but you would almost think Paul is on some spectrum of pure genius. There’s a genuine innocence about his explanations for how all these songs happened. He sits down at the piano and plays a bit of a new song, called “Life is Hard,” and Rubin says to him, the beauty of it is that it sounds like it always existed but was never actually created. You can hear McCartney’s musical fingerprints all over it, it’s lovely. And here it is. It might be from Paul’s work on the “It’s a Wonderful Life” Broadway show.

Paul also offers his personal motto, which makes sense looking at his life: “Forge ahead constantly…in music and in life.” He lost his mother at age 14, he lost Linda, the love of his life; John was murdered, George died tragically, the Beatles broke up and Paul launched right into a solo career. That is his motto, alright.

There’s a lot more in segment 2: dissections of “Band on the Run,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Penny Lane.” Paul plays a little “Lady Madonna” and demonstrates his “other” voice. He talks about Bach’s influence on the Beatles, and how seeing Fela Kuti in Lagos while recording “Band on the Run” left a deep impression. After this, getting Fela Kuti into the Rock Hall shouldn’t be too hard. I would think Paul would the induction speech.

Getting back to the first installment of ‘McCartney 3,2,1″: Paul talks about and plays a song he and George Harrison wrote when they met called “Thinking about Linking.” The title came from a billboard for a furniture store. It seems like it’s an unknown Beatles song. It’s unreleased, but not unknown. There is actually a bootleg recording of it on YouTube. (Of course.) I present it to you here.

Susannah Hoffs Performed This Beautiful Version of “Manic Monday” on TV Sunday, Produced by Peter Asher

Roger Friedman
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Susannah Hoffs Performed This Beautiful Version of “Manic Monday” on TV Sunday, Produced by Peter Asher

Um, I think we all missed this amazing performance from July 4th on CNN. Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles sang her famous Prince hit, “Manic Monday,” live and in studio backed by famed producer Peter Asher and a wonderful band. They also played the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame.”

Peter tells me he and Susannah are working together. Also, Peter is appearing at New York’s City Winery on July 26th and 27th with Kate Taylor, Albert Lee, and Leland Sklar, which should not be missed. His show is a charming mix of real rock anecdotes and pure 60s and 70s music. It’s always an enchanting evening. And I’m looking forward to hearing Sister Kate!

You know that Peter was half of Peter & Gordon, discovered James Taylor, produced and managed James, and Linda Ronstadt during their run of hits, was nominated for an Oscar recently, what else? He also ran Apple Records, the Beatles’ label. His sister, Jane Asher, was Paul McCartney’s girlfriend in the 60s. Peter & Gordon had the only Lennon-McCartney song written just for them, “A World Without Love.” It went right to number 1.

Anyway there’s Peter sitting down, playing the guitar behind Susannah. Maybe he’ll produce a whole album with her. She’s one of my favorite singers. (Did you know she’s been married forever to award winning director Jay Roach?) Check out the cool records she made with Matthew Sweet, as well.

Paul McCartney Hulu Doc: When They Fought He Called Lennon “Four Eyes,” John Called Him “Pigeon Chest”

Roger Friedman
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Paul McCartney Hulu Doc: When They Fought He Called Lennon “Four Eyes,” John Called Him “Pigeon Chest”

I’ve just finished the first of six 30 minute segments produced by Rick Rubin and a bunch of people with Paul McCartney for Hulu. They’re called “McCartney 3, 2, 1.” The first episode is extraordinary. Rubin, a consummate record producer, draws out McCartney at his most disarming and charming in a rare discussion of the music.

The films are in black and white. Rubin looks like a cross between Methuselah and a Swami with a long ZZ Top white beard and long hippie-ish stringy hair. He’s wearing shorts! They are mostly standing, sometimes sitting, in front of a recording console. It’s just the two of them. For McCartney, who has never written a book and is very dodgy in interviews, at 79 he is giving his oral history. If you’re a fan, this is it. This is all you need.

In this episode, they talk about “Michelle,” and how it was composed, how McCartney says they all wanted to be French and he was inspired by an Edith Piaf song.

He says the name “Sergeant Pepper” came about because he mis-heard his roadie ask to “pass the sale and pepper” on a plane ride. That they wrote “With a Little Help from My Friends” for Ringo because he was so popular. “He mostly sang covers. We thought we could write him a song.”

There is a dissection of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” in which Paul praises George Harrison as a songwriter and a human. He recalls how “George’s friend” Eric Clapton came to play on it, the first time an outsider played on one of their records. “It was very generous of George,” Paul says, to let someone else play such a tasty riff.

“But that’s the little guy I met on the bus” when they were 15, he says, looking amazed. “Magical.”

Of John Lennon, Paul recalls that in the early days when they would fight, he’d call Lennon “four eyes” and John would call him “pigeon chest,” Paul says, “because maybe my chest wasn’t so developed.” It’s a poignant, disarming, funny memory, like all of those included here. I am blown away.

And there are five more episodes! Stay tuned!

“McCartney 3,2,1” drops om Hulu on July 16th.

 

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