The Under 700 Club: The Power of Rock (2017)
While my guitar gently weeps.
The Under 700 Club: Reviews in under 700 words for movies with less than 700 logs on Letterboxd (log count as of this publication: 170)
As I do for many of my projects on this site, I keep a constantly updated private Letterboxd list of titles under future consideration for this column. This particular list has swelled up to 63 possible entries - over five years of monthly editions. That'll never happen, but I want what I'm in the mood for to be within reach when the time comes.
However, sometimes I walk into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and watch the most kick-ass 12-minute short film and it jumps straight to the top of the list. Well, this is the first time that has happened, but I suppose it could happen again.
On a recent trip to Cleveland to visit friends, I had two requests: a Guardians baseball game and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Luckily, they are pretty close to each other, so we were able to do both in the same day. The museum is pretty great - lots of artifacts (not nearly enough KISS stuff), a wide range of exhibits, and some pretty fun interactive sections. If you've never been, it's a total bucket-list gimme. Before you reach the actual Hall of Fame inductions section, you run into a regularly scheduled short film, like when the zoo has a random 4-D cartoon. The pimply young employee called it "a light show" and while that is true, it is a light and sound experience, he didn't mention that it's a light show directed by Jonathan Demme.
That's right, the Jonathan Demme, director of acclaimed concert films like Stop Making Sense and less-acclaimed concert films I will never see like Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, directed the movie that plays every 20 minutes or so at the Rock Hall. It's like how Joe Dante directed the 4-D movie Haunted Lighthouse that played at Busch Gardens for a couple summers.
I've actually made a rule for myself that I wouldn't include short films in this column because many of them go unnoticed and unlogged on Letterboxd, but I think I can make an excuse for not only a Jonathan Demme movie, but for Jonathan Demme's last movie.
The concept itself is simple, but it's his execution that makes it so special and flavorful. Covering over 30 years of Rock Hall inductions in about 12 minutes, we're first served some of the obvious picks: Chuck Berry plays "Johnny B. Goode" (how did Chuck Berry manage to...never mind), Paul and Ringo share the stage again, anything that seems like it's essential to such a project. Gary Clark Jr. seems to be the Rock Hall's resident guitarist. Some clips last only a few lyrics, while others get slightly more time to breathe - all while the screens shift, the light show emotes, and, if you're seated dead-center as I was, the sound seems perfectly placed to land in each of your ears.
It's the final clip, however, that really brings the whole thing home. While most of the greatest rock and pop and hip-hop acts of all time only get a few measly seconds, Prince takes up the entirety of the short film's climax with his rendition of George Harrison's “While My Guitar Gently Weeps," performed at the 2004 Induction Ceremony. Draped in red in place of his usual purple, the lights echo his hue and the speakers echo his guitar solo. He rips like it's nothing, taking over the stage (it isn't until one screen comes out from underneath another that you realize oh shit Tom Petty is also right there) and taking over Demme's film. You can watch the clip on YouTube, but this is the only place to see it like this.
The Rock Hall likes to call the experience "your front row seat to over 30 years of...Induction Ceremonies" and while that is true (few of us could see any of these artists up close), it's perhaps even better insight to the work of artists, from Prince to Springsteen to Metallica to Tina to U2 to Stevie to Demme, who made the music and concert films that make up our lives. Those whose work will be remembered forever in a must-see movie at an excellent museum.
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