Last night, I went to the L.A. premiere of my buddy Lee Aronsohn's superb documentary, The Magic Music Movie. It was at the Laemmle's Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills and since it's about an acoustical band of the seventies, the invite asked that we come in seventies attire. I didn't even dress "seventies" in the seventies so I just wore my usual wardrobe and told all the folks in tie-dyed garb and headbands that I was disguised as a narc.
The band was called Magic Music and you probably never heard of them; not unless you were in or around Colorado in the early seventies. They never released an album. They never really got on television. But Lee was in Colorado and there became a tremendous fan of their live performances. They disbanded in 1976 and went their separate ways — some remaining in the music profession, some not. Four decades later, he decided it might be a good idea to track them all down, find out what had become of them and get the band together for one more concert.
I wrote about this back here, right after I first saw this film. I enjoyed it immensely then but I viewed it online via a private link. Sometimes, you just want to see a film the way movies were meant to be seen: On a big screen with nothing diverting your attention from the movie on that big screen.
I liked it even more at the Laemmle, partly because there were no distractions and partly because I was with a live, enthusiastic audience. Sometimes, a line will only strike you funny when you're among others who are laughing at it.
It all struck me as way more interesting than any story about a band who "made it." These guys didn't, at least collectively, and you could spend an hour or two theorizing that it was because they were too afraid of success…and another few hours explaining why they were too afraid of failure. A case could probably also be made that neither was the case; that they simply didn't get the breaks or exploit them properly. Whatever the reason, they seem to have no regrets; some express genuine pride in what they did even though what they did didn't make them rich 'n' famous.
Lee and his crew did a truly fine job on it so here's a second recommendation that you go see it. It'll have special resonance if you're roughly in my age bracket (I'm 66) but it's good for all ages.