Brendan Toller’s music documentary Danny Says tells the story of Danny Fields, the rock ‘n’ roll gadfly and visionary talent spotter who was integral to the emergence of the Velvet Underground, the Doors, the Stooges, MC5, the Ramones, and many more. After premiering in March at SXSW – where Variety called it “pure gold” and named it one of the breakout films of the fest – Danny Says screened at Chicago’s CIMMFest and Knoxville, Tennessee’s Scruffy City Film & Music Festival (where it won the award for best feature doc). The movie next plays May 9 at the Montclair Film Festival, with Toller on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
Fields’ stories from the rock ‘n’ roll trenches are the force propelling the movie’s rollicking ride, which ends chronologically when Fields stepped down as the Ramones’ manager in the early ’80s. (For more background on the doc, check our 2013 conversation with Toller when Danny Says was in production.) When we met the director at CIMMFest we asked for a list of his favorites, and he obliged which a selection from among the tales too multitudinous to be contained in one film. (Don’t worry, viewers, there’s lots of juicy stuff that made the final cut – some of it winningly animated by Emily Hubley and Max Rosenthal, who will also be in Montclair.) In deference to Toller’s frequent-flying fest schedule, we gave him dispensation to reduce the usual 5+1 to a more traditional top five. Take it away, Brendan.
As you can imagine, with 250 hours of primary source material about the main subject and nearly 60 other interviews, there were a lot of interesting tales told in the making of Danny Says. Additionally, Danny Fields kept an archive filled with thousands of photos, audio recordings, and ephemera, which was recently acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Library, home to the papers of Eugene O’Neill, Mark Twain, and (most recently) the Loud family.
So without further ado and in no particular order, here are five fabulous items left on the cutting room floor from Danny Says:
1. Iggy’s bird
Iggy Pop phones Danny Fields about the death of his parakeet and an upcoming Stooges gig with the MC5. Nuff said.
2. When Danny met Henry
If we had another hour of running time, Danny Says would have extended into the ’80s and beyond. After managing the Ramones, Danny went on to various roles in the music industry and became friends with Michael Alago, a similar musical mastermind who signed Metallica to Elektra and has worked with seminal acts like PiL, White Zombie and Nina Simone. In fact, Michael Alago has his own documentary in the works by director Drew Stone. Michael and Danny met working at New York City’s Ritz after a Black Flag soundcheck.
3. Jack Bruce gets … what’s the word? Dosed.
When Cream first came to the States in 1967, who did Robert Stigwood and Brian Epstein hire to be their press agent? Yep, Danny Fields. Below is an edited recollection of the antics that ensued:
Danny Fields: I was hired to work for Cream.
Brendan Toller: Doing?
DF: Publicity. Brian Epstein and Robert Stigwood were partners in the invention of Cream and I had to, uh, tell the world who they were, which was very difficult. Especially then, because “Eric Clapton is God” in London – how do you tell people that here in America? There wasn’t much of a presence. Clapton wasn’t exactly a dazzling performer, you know? Once the Who had a chance to perform live here, every kid told every other kid in New York, for sure. And people in the Who confided to me that in the motherland it would be the opposite because “Eric Clapton is God.” They write that on St. Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace, you know? “Eric Clapton is God.” [Shrugs] Duh?! You know, you really can’t – it doesn’t travel well, that graffiti, to some place where he’s never been. So Eric found a groupie, and Jack Bruce, I don’t know … [sigh]
BT: What’s your memory?
DF: My memory is Al Kooper, Steve Katz, and I took Jack Bruce to Central Park on Easter Sunday in 1967. And it was the first New York Be-In. It was big, like Woodstock, except all of Central Park; a half million people. A hippiesse had a brown paper bag full of rainbow popcorn, which equals LSD! And, ha ha, you know, we laughed and said “God is great,” or whatever you say to a hippie. And I turned around and saw Jack Bruce taking a fistful of rainbow popcorn – it was like a Homer Simpson [munching noise]. And I said, oh my god, that may have been, uh, not tainted – what’s the word? Dosed. “Jack! I think you just dosed!” We had to get him back because it was show time at Murray the K [the RKO Radio Theater on 58th Street]. So we staggered onto Central Park West, threw him in a cab because he started going, “Whoaaaaa,” and it was like a race against time. And I said, “Jack have you ever taken acid?” “No, but I’m going to someday.” “Oh, well, why don’t you hold onto here and get behind there and catch him if he falls.” He was the singer in that band so its hard to do without – besides the bass, he sang the words. And we got him back to the theater and Eric Clapton was waiting and as I remember Eric said, “What the fuck have you done to my bass player?”
4. Bob Dylan and Edie’s hat
Bob Dylan often shies away from his association with Edie Sedgwick. The Warhol muse and Girl of the Year embodied the tragic cliche of living fast and dying young. When Edie moved to New York City she crashed with Danny Fields, smoking lots of cigarettes and stealing bottles of Listerine. Edie is said to have inspired Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” and “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat,” as discussed here by the ever-wonderful Justin Vivian Bond.
5. Losing Joni Mitchell
When Danny worked for Elektra Records in the late ’60s he tried his darnedest to get Joni Mitchell signed to the label for her first solo album. Get well Joni!
DF: Joni was hot. How could someone so hot have just been sitting there at Max’s Kansas City? I brought her to meet [Elektra president] Jac Holzman and of course he knew who she was, she didn’t have to audition. He said, “Well, we would love to have you work with us.” She said “OK, I must tell you about this dream I had and its non-negotiable. I want to do a painting for the cover of my first album.” When albums were big - you have to explain this to people – like, they were big enough to look important. “OK,” he said. “But I have to – you know, our image is created by our art department and the director of it must approve any substantial anything to do with album covers and the image of the company.” Jac picked up the phone and said, “Bill [William S. Harvey, Elektra's art director], will you come here for a minute? I have the lovely, talented Joni Mitchell sitting here and here’s where I defer to you.” Door opens and Bill Harvey leaned in, never closed the door, never even came into the room! “We’d love to work with her, but she wants to be able to create her first album cover.” William S. Harvey said, “No, that’s out of the question, that’s not possible,” and stepped out of the room and closed the door. And Jac said, well, that’s that.
