Brianland

If you’re a fan of funny films and/or sixties music, boy is there a new movie for you!  The comic docu-drama “My Dinner With Jimi”, features master Hendrix, The Beatles, Brian Jones, The Moody Blues, Donovan, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison and numerous others, all seen through the eyes of the writer, humorist and lead Turtle, Howard Kaylan, aka Eddie from Flo &, and the singer of many hit songs you’ve sung in your car, from “It Ain’t Me, Babe” to “Elenore” (“You’re my pride and joy, et cetera.”) 

In 1967, their hit “Happy Together” knocked “Penny Lane” off the top of the Billboard charts, and The Turtles’ energized comedy-pop harmonies were the talk of Musicville.  So, they go to England on a tour, and on their first night end up hanging out with their Fab Four heroes, and ultimately having dinner (and lots of drinks) with Jimi Hendrix until dawn. 

Of course you’re going, “Sure.  How does somebody play Jimi Hendrix?!”  But that’s just one of the many homeruns of the film, because the actor, young unknown Royale Watkins, is Hendrix.  Plus there’s all these other funny acting cameos, including ‘Norm’ from “Cheers”, that insane, off-center comedian Taylor Negron, John Corbett from “Sex & The City” and “Northern Exposure”, and in the lead roller-coaster role of the narrating Turtle, Justin Henry, who was the little boy in “Kramer vs. Kramer”. 

The film’s set in 1967 during the pivotal transformation period in the history of rock n roll and popular music – when the troops stormed over the bridge from lip-synching on variety shows to igniting guitars on Monterey stages, from the ubiquity of Tiger Beat to the birth of Rolling Stone, from matching ties and suits into Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — a bridge that the film’s writer crossed himself, going from the poppy Turtles into Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.  This was the moment in rock n roll when it all went kerflooey — the Summer of Love, the Human Be-In, Monterey Pop, long hair, and “Are You Experienced?”  Nothing had gone wrong yet, the blush of youth was still rosy, and here were the architects of the future of music all partying together in the underground clubs in England.  Now in a film.  Written by a key player, and produced by Rhino Records, quality incarnate in the music business. 

In fact, the movie itself is like the polarity of the era, with the first half set in the paper Tiger Beat home-of-The-Monkees L.A., and the second half in the surreal, edge-cutting Speakeasy lairs of London.  And every bit of crazy dialog is based on real events;  a composite of months on the Sunset Strip, and a magical night with the Mount Rushmore of rock. 

The movie’s been years in the making and is currently distributed on an ad hoc screening basis – you can check mydinnerwithjimi.com for details – but now that it’s made this will be an eternal prankster’s delight as it eventually shows up at midnight screenings and on late-night movie channels!  “What in the hell is This?!” will be said many more times in the future because of this movie.      

You’re eventually going to see it, but this is where you first heard about it.   

This is “Spinal Tap”, written by a real rock star, about other real rock stars, set in the halcyon daze of 1967.  How can this not be great? 

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by Brian Hassett,

www.brianhassett.com

karmacoupon@gmail.com