Jeff Stein message

[Brian Cady <brianinatlanta2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

The site for the film festival that showed The Kids
Are Alright the Saturday after John's passing has
posted Jeff Stein's message that was read before the
film. You can see it here:
http://www.modsandrockers.com/messages.html#stein

or read it below:

Message from Jeff Stein - Director of The Kids Are
Alright 

Thanks for coming... I wish I could be there... I'm as
sad as you are... I hope this screening can shed a
little light on such a dark moment... 

"The Kids Are Alright" premiered 23 years ago - on
June 15th, 1979. There was a genre of films specific
to that time period that featured various cataclysmic
events - like "The Towering Inferno," "Earthquake" and
"The Poseidon Adventure" that were hyped as 'disaster
movies.' it was decided - due the nature of the band's
various destructive capabilities - to bill "The Kids"
as "the world's first rock 'n' roll disaster movie." 

Even then, the mission was to create a celluloid rock
'n' roll revival meeting. After all, the who had
already been a force to be reckoned with for over 15
years and had made their indelible mark by introducing
any number of 'firsts,' from smashing guitars to rock
operas. 

Before the days of interactive media, we thought of
the film as an audience participation experience. So i
was ecstatic that - at the world premiere of "The
Kids" in New York City - the crowd (infused by the
spirit of Keith Moon and swelled by the ranks that
couldn't get in to the sold-out show) partied to the
tune of $15,000 dollars worth of damage to the
beautiful Plaza theater! 

Hopefully, you'll behave yourselves today
(wink-wink... nudge-nudge...) 

No matter how hard we tried, I knew we could never
truly capture the ferocity of the who experience on
film. The omnipresent source material of the MTV world
did not exist... Many of the band's most brilliant
shows and infamous moments were either never
documented, or worst for us, somehow lost to the ages.


It was major detective work and labor of love from a
possessed who fanatic who just wanted to create a
monument to the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the
world... And then - the fan hit the shit... But that's
another story.... 

I was the director of the film - and with my brother
Kevin, the chief researcher, and Ed Rothkowitz, the
long - suffering editor and Pete Townshend's behind
the scenes support and Keith's never-ending
cheerleading and part-time editing room bartending -
we pieced together - sometimes from bits of old promos
rescued literally from garbage bins,vintage TV shows,
festival film footage and new concerts and interviews
(that I conned the band into doing) what I hoped would
be a worthy testimonial to the power and the glory of
my favorite band. 

Having gotten through the five-year plus ordeal of
cobbling together the visuals, we now faced the
daunting task of the audio aspect of the project. 

Not the soundtrack album (our motto was "one fuck-up
at a time") - but the actual sound of the film itself.


Once again, a logistical quagmire of various source
elements. 

Who else could we enlist to help overcome this musical
nightmare, but the who's very own master of the
macabre, John Entwistle. 

So the Ox became the musical director of the film. 

This was back in the day before all the digital
doohickies, etc. ( "The Kids", however, was the 2nd
Dolby film ever produced in England ) and we had only
one rule - no overdubs!!!! 

It's true Who... hiss and all, balls to the wall... It
took many months and he did a masterful job... And a
jolly time was had by all at the mix... Thank you.
John. 

But John was much more than the musical director of
the film. He was the most extraordinary bass player in
the world. He rode musical shotgun to the three most
outrageous performers to ever storm a rock 'n' roll
stage. He was the bemused anchor to the antics of that
drumming dynamo, Keith Moon, the whirling-dervish
swagger of Roger Daltrey and the aerial dog-fights and
pyrotechnics of rock 'n' roll's greatest showman -
Pete Townshend... 

The Ox was also a mischievous songwriter. He gave the
musical world great characters like "Boris the Spider"
and "Uncle Ernie" who - when channeled through Keith
Moon in the Tommy movie - sang the immortal lines:
"you wont shite as i fiddle a-bite"! 

He said more about the horrors of the music business
in one song - "success story" - than Ray Davies in an
entire song-cycle. It of course included the classic
lyric "I'm your fairy manager... You shall play at
Carnegie Hall." 

He was also a great cartoonist - check out the cover
of "The Who By Numbers." 

His phenomenal bass playing ( french-horn too!!) and
sardonic wit will be sorely missed. 

"The Kids Are Alright" was meant to be an eternal
celebration of the world's greatest band. I hope that
today it can serve as a tribute to John. 

The Who was the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the
world when the lucky few faces caught them at the
Marquee Club in 1965. 

They were the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world
when hundreds of thousands 'witnessed' at Woodstock
and the Isle of Wight Festivals in the late 60's and
early 70's. 

They were the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world
when the whole world needed them to be at Madison
Square Gardens at the benefit concert for 9-11... 

The Who still is the greatest rock 'n' roll band in
the world as they once again triumph over adversity
and hit the road one more time tomorrow. 

The Who always had the most rabid fans in the world
(sorry, Jerry...) 

The Who was always about their audience. That's the
reason we called the film "The Kids Are Alright" 

And because of the rock 'n' roll majesty of the Who,
the kids were alright then... The kids are alright
now... And the kids will be alright for
ggggg...generations to come... 

Shine on John...
Cheers Keith...
Carry-on Roger and Pete... 

Long live rock...
Long live the Ox... 

I know that Keith is standing by to clink a toast in
rock 'n' roll Valhalla! 

Jeff Stein 



=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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