Customer Reviews

You Are What You Eat [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you thought that this film actually had permormances by Paul Butterfield, Frank Zappa or anyone other than Tiny Tim, you're in for a big shock. This film is mostly a pastiche of hippie fooferal as opposed to a "concert" film. I could handle it if there was a little of that mixed in with live performances, but this wasn't at all what I throught it was going to be.

And odd little stream of conciousness anti-documentary. I'd had the movie soundtrack for years, and just managed to track a copy of the film down through trader's circles.

There isn't much point in trying to give a narrative about this film, it's rather stream-of-conciousness, "the moment of an experience" the soundtrack's liner notes say. There's an appearance of legendary dope-dealer Super Spade a few months before his death, lots of hippies dancing and riding motorcycles and getting high and playing in a fountain and dancing. There's footage from some sort of Be-In, and a lot of forgettable folk-rock music done by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, John Simon, and The Electric Flag and Paul Butterfield also play a tune apiece. The only performer you actually get to *see* perform is incongruously Tiny Tim, he sings Ronnie Spector's "Be My Baby" solo, and does a duet of Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" with 60's footnote Elanor Baruchian (later known as Miss Chelsea Lee of The Cake, and a back-up singer for Ginger Baker's Airforce and one of Dr. John's uncredited Night Trippers), Barry McGuire and David Crosby make cameos if you have sharp eyes. Contrary to popular myth, neither Frank Zappa or the Mothers appear in either the footage or sountrack to this film. Why Tiny Tim's East Coast session is included in an otherwise West Coast-centric film is a mystery, but it was appearantly his appearance in this film that got him his first appearance on "The Tonite Show."

If you were in Frisco during the "Summer Of Love" this film will probably delight you. Otherwise, it's unremarkable except for the relatively rare Tiny Tim performance; in this one his stage fright is almost tangible, and his falsetto almost impossibly high. Not all of this film is of the Frisco scene: Mr. Tim's performance was recorded (and assumedly filmed) in Woodstock, N.Y. in the basement of Bob Dylan's "Big Pink" house, his backing band in this film and soundtrack were, interestingly, about to become known around the world as "The Band."

I haven't seen the video, but I saw the movie when it first came out - I knew the life the movie described, and if you're willing to accept it as a frantic collage of random images from that era, and recognize that such a collage was the only way to really capture the spirit of that time, well, enjoy! It's the real goods.

didnt eat it the