It's The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band (1977) Poll

It's a bit long after the fact (to put it mildly), but herewith my review of "Kiss Meets The Phantom of The Park" (linked to Culture Catch from my silly weblog). It should be noted that since this DVD came out, it has been "officially officially" re-released by Kiss themselves as part of the Kissology series (appended with ersatz MST3k style commentary).

Anyway, Click here if you care.

I'd be surprised if the video ever came out in anything other than Betamax.

I own it on both VHS and DVD. Like I said, guilty pleasure. (It makes a great twofer with either the Village People's Can't Stop the Music or the starless The Apple.)

The Apple crushes both of these films no contest (so does the completely unrelated 1997 Iranian film of the same name). Can't Stop the Music would've been much improved with at least half an hour shorn. Sgt. Pepper is ultimately too dull to be a guilty pleasure. Esp. since it moves from dull to infuriating. Then death happens to all involved with your imaginary finger pistol aimed at the screen. That's prolly another reason why the finale is such an up - you can pick off each guilty participant off one by one with ease.

scratch that second "off"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Also missing from poll:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1I3YW9aZM-o&feature=related

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Now, that's a win!

If you actually enjoy music or whatever, yeah.

The Apple crushes both of these films no contest

Funny, I was thinking about this movie (which I've never had the pleasure) before I was halfway through the thread. I really must check out a cheap Amazon DVD someday - I don't own nearly enough dreadful movies.

The Apple is sort of bad and not bad enough. Ditto Can't Stop the Music, though that one really turns it on during the music numbers. It's all about Xanadu imo.

Finally heard this album.

"fuck, we should have recorded all of the songs this way, with the bands just doing it their way instead of trying to copy the beatles!"

^ OTM. Far too reverential apart from EWF. However I've got to give Robin Gibb his due for almost making "Oh Darling" an interesting song, didn't manage it but I'd listen to Robin Gibb singing anything. Aerosmith and Billy Preston also not bad. Have a fondness for George Burns' "Fixing a Hole". Steve Martin occasionally sounds a bit like David Byrne on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (Psycho Killer amirite?)

he didn't do it bluegrass then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtDTy_UuDA

From around the same time, another double LP soundtrack came out, this time for *this* also flop movie...

Can't see what that is here at work - The Wiz?

oh wait, a better guess: All This and World War II?

Yes.

did every studio make a massive flop musical as a taxloss or something? it's incredible so many bad ones were made; The Wiz, Xanadu, Can't Stop The Music, this. did we ever have a Bad Seventies Musicals poll/thread? i'd sure like to see one if so.

I would participate in that thread.

I think The Wiz and Xanadu are legitimately great in a lot of ways. Can't Stop the Music and The Apple, otoh, phew!

The Apple is awesome!

pumpin' power by the hour

Xanadu has some really good songs in it (so does the Wiz) but man the film itself is just wall to wall ineptitude. it makes me feel sorry for Gene Kelly.

The Wiz has probably my favorite song score of any musical I can think of.

crazy talk

The Wiz is one of those things where it looks like a decent musical, but its directed by someone with no clue about how to film it. All these long, wide static shots. just stupid

The direction is a disaster, no doubt. But Q's arrangements and the enthusiasm of the performers manage to cut through Lumet's predictable ineptitude.

My wife, recalling childhood fondness for this movie and disbelieving my and the video store clerk's claims to its awfulness, made me sit through this the other night. I had forgotten that there is absolutely zero dialogue

The Wiz, Xanadu, Can't Stop The Music, this. did we ever have a Bad Seventies Musicals poll/thread?

also ^^^ this. why were so many of these made in such a short time, were they all chasing Grease or something? it's just nuts.

Everything I said upthread about The Wiz, posted over again here.

you think the enthusiasm of the performers really cuts through the dreck?

The Wiz feels like it's about the remnants of humanity singing and dancing their way through their final days on a barren earth. Those long distant shots of bizarre, empty cityscapes are terrifying.

I think The Wiz might have some of the most enthusiastic performers this side of Flaming Creatures.

I meant in regards to Sgt Pepper's

At least The Wiz had been a successful Broadway musical; making a film out of it wasn't a batshit idea (on paper), especially compared with the others mentioned.

cuz a lot of the Sgt Pepper's performances are, how to put it kindly, lackluster. The Bee Gees are clearly hating it/fucking around (they make Maurice play the drums for chrissakes!), Aerosmith can barely stand up, etc.

xp

Which is worse: Sgt. Pepper's or this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WmOvoqlmZE

I'd only read about that ^ ...it's even more bizarre than I imagined. There really were dancing strawberries!

I did have a go at watching it in ten-minute sections. I think I made it through 40 mins.

It even might still be on my pad here, hang on..... Yep. One hour 51 mins total..

good god what is the story with that Rolling Stone thing that is unbelievable

Nixon singing I'm a Loser

Beatles tributes suck, that's the rule.

There was one cd that was almost ok, once..

that one sucks in ways previously unimaginable.

Broadway has so much to answer for.

I Want You (She's So Heavy) - The Bee Gees, Diane Steinberg, Paul Nicholas, Donald Pleasence, Stargard

Nowhere near enough Donald Pleasance tbh.

I can't stop laughing at this amazing bit of self-delusion.

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/16/archives/inventing-a-plot-for-sgt-pepper-sgt-pepper.html

When Mr. Stigwood and I talked, the entire music industry was abuzz with the startling success of the tasselhaired rock performer Peter Frampton, whose gentle, folk‐flavored romantic approach was breaking LP sales records as they'd never been broken before. Old‐fashioned sentiment and melody were in, and it seemed to me that a contemporary pop movie should reflect this return to romance. So I decided to cast “Sgt. Pepper” in the tradition of those American films that presented a vision of an unspoiled small town whose innocence was threatened by villainy from the slick, mean city.

Which is worse: Sgt. Pepper's or this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WmOvoqlmZE

― Doggy McBaby (Old Lunch)

This video should be played in rehab clinics. “You know how you think you’re so cool when on drugs? Well here’s a documentation on how it actually looks like”

Yeah, EWF's track is great, and Aerosmith's is actually a decent cover.

I always wondered how EWF felt about everything else sucking. It's kind of embarrassing that they brought their A game, only to have it wasted on a pile of shit. Two piles of shit if you want to count the film and soundtrack separately.

Just saw half hour of this shit on youtube and I think I hate The Beatles now.

Can’t believe there isn’t a name yet for that genre of 70s disco flop cash-in movies. I sure do love reading about them. There should be a book about them all.

It would probably have been a lot better if Martin hadn't been involved.

Just imagine what Donald Pleasance could have managed with "I Want You" if left to his own devices.

*evil jazzbo vibes*

“I want YOU...to die.”

I can imagine Barry Gibb or somebody in the studio trying to record something and George Martin standing over him, in his suit and tie, droning away, "No no, the boys would never have done it that way, that just won't do".

I believe George heard the EWF track and said 'we should have let everybody do it their own way' (or wtte)

Plus, 'All this and world war 2' came out around the same time, with more OK beatles covers than this. (I even thought the EWF track came from that)