Friday, August 1, 2008

Come Together

One of the oddest things to ever be released on the Apple label was the Original Soundtrack Album for the 1971 movie "Come Together." The title has no apparent connection to the Beatles song of the same name, nor does it really have any apparent connection to the movie.



The soundtrack album, released in the U.S. only, consisted mainly of forgettable incidental music by Stelvio Cipriani. It also contained the Joe South hit "Games People Play," "Love is Blue/I Can Sing A Rainbow" by the Dells, and a version the love anthem "Get Together" that was a hit by the Youngbloods. The album was produced by Allan Steckler who ran Apple for a while, and more recently has appeared at Beatlefest with Bruce Spizer.



SPOILER ALERT: I will be describing the end of the film, so if you are one of the extremely small group of people who might want to sit through this movie and also a member of the even smaller group that could actually find it, please read no further.



The movie was directed by Saul Swimmer, whose next directing project was "The Concert for Bangla Desh." Swimmer also produced the Ringo Starr movie "Blindman" and Co-Produced the Beatles movie "Let It Be."


The leading man in the film, Tony Anthony, also starred in "Blindman". The Internet Movie Database lists Ringo Starr as one of the producers of "Come Together" but his name was not in the screen credits. However, there is no doubt that this awful film had some Apple money behind it.


Harry Castleman and Walter Podrazik in "The Beatles Again" describe this movie as "one of those 'this week only' first-run neighborhood flicks, probably on a twin bill with "Chainsaw Murder" (or some such nonsense)." They were being far too kind. They also quoted Vincent Canby of the New York Times who described Tony Anthony as "the least magnetic movie personality to come along since Frankie Vaughn." He was being far too kind. It's difficult to mess up a movie about a ménage à trois, but Tony Anthony and Saul Swimmer did it. Tony's floppy hat and Mickey Mouse jacket couldn't even save it. This was an ABKCO film, so Allen Klien must have decided that backing this film would be more financially prudent than renewing Badfinger's contract.

The film did have one interesting thing going for it. Just like the 1960s, it had a surprisingly dark ending after all of that talk of love. For reasons unknown, Tony Anthony's character, whose name was Tony (I swear I am not making this up) spontaneously decided that things would be more fun for him and his two women if he started driving like a maniac on the side of a mountain. It's a little bit like the scene in "A Clockwork Orange" that we have been seeing in the videos of Grandfatheraleister and Company. Things go awry when the trio collides with a white car driven by an unidentified man.


Tony's car goes out of control in a lengthy series of maneuvers and ends up flying off a cliff and bursting into flames.



So what do we have here? Another allusion to a car crash in Beatles history. I think the tagline for the movie "Come Together" says it all: "Fantasy becomes reality in the games people play!"



You can see clips from better movies in the latest video from sonofwhom. It is called Catcher in the Rye. And yes, it has a car crash too.

22 comments:

MikeNL said...

nice post, taf :)

Anonymous said...

Dude, YOU ROCK!

For the maybe 10 times I've seen that cover, and never cared to 'look into it', you've managed not to summerize the whole abortion, but relate it to the PID world!

So cool.

Vince.

Anonymous said...

I see the song "Love Is Blue" on the movie poster.
For me, that song is always a tip off. Perhaps Paul was "Blue" or something, but "For you Blue", or Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" or, dare I say, Badfinger's "Baby Blue" - all may point to this "blue" character.
Where-as Faul seems to be "red".

My best guess regarding "Come Together" is that it may have been a way to tell the story of Paul McCartney.
He drove off a cliff with two honeys?
Remember David Crosby's song "Triad" or "Helplessly Hoping":
They are 1 person
They are too alone
They are 3 together
They are for each other

Anonymous said...

Vince, again.
When I think of "Love Is Blue", I think of that "Millineum" episode where the kid is being held captive, and forced to listen to that song OVER AND OVER AND OVER!
God, that show had it's moments!

Anonymous said...

Maltese Falcon.

Anonymous said...

'Perhaps Paul was "Blue" or something, but "For you Blue", or Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" or, dare I say, Badfinger's "Baby Blue" - all may point to this "blue" character.'

Don't forget "When We Was Fab" by Harrison; "- but it's all over now, Baby Blue"

-Rocky

Anonymous said...

nice vid from sonofwhom.

Totally forgot about "Six Degrees of Separation",
but, I always thought "Conspiracy Theory" was an "X-Files" rip-off.
Still, good mix!

Vince

Tafultong said...

Talk about "Blue," there was an outstanding version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" done by Graham Bonnet in 1977. I found a killer live version (possibly semi-live) on YouTube.

I also have the original 45 record from the U.K. What label you ask? RING-O Records!

Anonymous said...

just a funny pic, no special relevance to this post:

http://www.postmodernbarney.com/images07/zatb3.jpg

Anonymous said...

Yes, that IS a nice vid from sonofwhom. The Macca interview bit that starts at 4:49 backs up exactly what I said in the previous thread- he has things that he'd rather not talk about, and have to "justify".

Anonymous said...

"Produced by Tony Anthony and Saul Swimmer"

Huh?!
Are those real names? Tony Anthony, maybe...
Saul Swimmer?! I think not.
But who was Saul? Well, the apostle Paul, before his conversion,
according to the Biblical book of Acts.
Swimmer?
Listen to the 15 repeats at the end of "I Want You/She's So Heavy" - sounds like a rough night at sea, doesn't it?
The kind you might end up going for a swim in, after the boat has sunk, eh?

"When you're down is where you find yourself
When you drown, there's nothing else
If you're lost you'll need to turn yourself
Then you'll find out that there's no one else

To make the moves that you can do
When you fall from grace your eyes in blue
Your every breath becomes another world
And the far horizon's living hell"

("Take A Breath" - David Gilmour)

Saul Swimmer, eh. aka McCartney?

Anonymous said...

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Swimmer

Anonymous said...

heh why does tony look so strange with the two ladies kissing him?

Anonymous said...

When you fall from grace your eyes in blue

· · · — — — · · ·

I'm open to falling from grace

Tafultong said...

Anonymous said...

When you fall from grace your eyes in blue

Take a breath by David Gilmore

I'm open to falling from grace

6 Underground by Sneaker Pimps

Anonymous said...

ask yourself...... ?

if Paul is Dead, why does he want you to think he is alive?

if Paul is Alive, why does he want you to think he is dead?

MikeNL said...

I've asked myself that question many times my friend... but i have yet to find the answer to that question

the answer to that question, i don't know.

Mike McCartney

one soul displaced
one heart replaced

Anonymous said...

Consider the plight of the monkey who has lived all his life in the jungle. He has no reason to suppose that "reality" is anything other than that which he supposes it to be. One day, he finds an anomalous object, a half-empty Coke can. Being a half-way intelligent monkey, he soon discovers how to enjoy the tasty dregs left in the can. Having enjoyed the drink, he is bound to ask himself where grows the tree from which this succulent fruit could be picked. He then spends the rest of his life in a fruitless search for a non existent Coca-Cola tree--forever unaware that he is asking the wrong question about the origin of the can. (David Barklay)

YKMN

Tafultong said...

Vince wrote:

you've managed not to summerize the whole abortion, but relate it to the PID world!

Thanks Vince. I realize that it's a stretch, but someone suggested that the Beatles side projects were likely to have more blatant clues because they generally reached a smaller audience. So, when I find something peculiar in one of those, I like to put it out there.

Tafultong said...

YKMN wrote:

Consider the plight of the monkey...

Wise words, YKMN. Thank you for the comment.

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Elliot James said...

I finally caught Cometogether by buying the DVD from Something Weird Video. I liked the hippie-trippy style of the flick and the whole free love-is-blue Euro vibe in Italy until the downer of an ending which technically was very realistic looking, especially compared to the bullshit CGI car crashes in modern films. Tony Anthony, a cool cat in the Stranger films, doesn't get the chance to do any real porny scenes with Luciana Paluzzi and Rosemary Dexter which is what he and Saul Swimmer should have shot instead of killing all three in a nihilistic, soundless ending.