If you’ve ever read Jack Kerouac, I encourage you to check out the documentary One Fast Move or I’m Gone. As the subtitle hints, the documentary focuses on the book Big Sur, which is deemed Kerouac’s darkest book. Because the book is basically Kerouac dealing with his demons on the page for everyone to see, the documentary gives a really intimate view of who Kerouac was, contradictions and all. Plus, it has Tom Waits in it, so it has to be good, right?
The soundtrack by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard is also worth checking out.
Wow, where do I begin? I couldn’t resist the novelty of this, but I feel a little dirty after having read it. This is pretty much a fairy tale, not a biography. I don’t think the authors had any intention of writing a realistic biography, but how do you write a “fictional biography” (as a graphic novel no less) about someone like Kurt Cobain? I don’t know.
The book is told from Kurt’s first person perspective looking back on his life after he has committed suicide. Obviously from the very beginning, liberties are taken imagining what Kurt might have to say and what he was thinking. The last few days of his life are a mystery and so certainly the authors here are imagining, just as other biographers have imagined, what happened in that time period.
I have read about many of the major scenes in this book in other well-researched biographies. Other information and dialogue appears to have been taken directly from interviews. The questionable material is much of Kurt’s inner dialogue and his thinking process. Since the book is told in the first person from his perspective, that can be a problem for discerning readers.
The artwork is okay, but I think it is hard to capture the grunge scene of the early 90s in glossy comic art. It was kind of anti-glossy, you know? The religious symbolism- Kurt with halos, Kurt with a crown of thorns, Kurt at the last supper/drug intervention- is ridiculous and only serves to perpetuate the rock icon myth, which he loved and despised at the same time. The man was mentally ill and self medicated with heroin. He was a brilliant songwriter and musician, but he was not sacrificing himself and he certainly wasn’t innocent.
All in all I see this being something teenagers, who don’t know the facts, would like. It’s all about the fairy tale rock-star-rebel-hero myth, which angst ridden teens eat up. I know because I used to be one of those angst ridden teens, and I was coming-of-age when Nirvana exploded. Looking back, the music has weathered well. It’s still brilliant. All of the rest, well… I guess I’m getting old.
If you were to take three pioneering rock guitar players and film them sitting around together talking about electric guitars, what would you get? You’d get this documentary. Well, there’s a little more to it than that.
Davis Guggenheim who directed the controversial An Inconveinent Truth is at the helm here. Global warming politics aside, this is a rock guitar players dream of a documentary- Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of The White Stripes all talking about their creative processes, guitar sounds and techniques, and musical backgrounds.
Each legend is given relatively equal time individually playing guitar and discussing their backgrounds and philosophies. Guggenheim combines live footage, animation, and archival photos to fill out their stories. In between the individual focused scenes, the legends sit in round table fashion playing parts of each others’ songs and supposedly giving each other mini-lessons (Do you expect me to believe Jack and The Edge never learned to play Led Zeppelin songs?).
The documentary opens with Jack White building a single-string instrument by hammering a nail to each end of a 2×4, running a string between the nails, propping up one end of the string with a Coke bottle, and nailing a pickup in the middle. He plugs it in and proceeds to play slide guitar. He then says, “Who says you need to buy a guitar?” Which is interesting, because this IS billed as a documentary about the electric guitar. White seems to struggle with this notion throughout the film. After the homemade instrument scene, the next time we see White, he plays the piano. When discussing his musical background, he talks about being a drummer first and moving to the guitar out of necessity. He says The White Stripes’ sound is based on the drums. And when he plays his favorite song, it is Son House singing and clapping- no guitar.
I had issues with how contradictory Jack, The Edge, and Jimmy are when talking separately about the guitar, but then I realized that was the point. They are three very different players coming from very different backgrounds. Jack White, perhaps, being the hardest to reconcile with the other two. In fact, at one point he says something to the effect of, “If you want it easy buy a Fender or a Les Paul.” Both Jimmy and The Edge are known for playing Fenders and Les Pauls. I don’t think anyone could argue that they “took it easy.”
The Edge and Jimmy talk about guitars and music like they are talking about fine wine. Jack’s grittier. Where Jimmy says you have to handle a guitar the way you handle a woman, Jack says you have to start a fist fight with it and win. Where Edge says technology pushes creativity and creates new sounds, Jack says, “Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth.” Granted these interviews were filmed independently of one another. When the three are together, they are all well-behaved and eager to learn from one another.
Guggenheim shows us The Edge playing in his studio with his massive effects board. Jack is featured in his house in Tennessee with his classic harmonica microphone and plastic guitars. We partially see him write and record a song on a reel to reel. Jimmy goes to Headley Grange where Led Zeppelin IV was recorded. Each legend plays some of his favorite records (Edge plays 4-track demos). At the round table, they all play some of their well-known songs. They all jam on “In My Time of Dying,” which is really cool. The Edge’s uniqueness in style from the other two really stands out on that tune. And they end with a cover of “Take a Load Off Fannie.”
Some of the deleted scenes on the DVD consist of Jimmy showing the others “Kashmir,” The Edge’s sound check, and Jack jamming on his porch, singing through a harmonica mic.
