Born Innocent

Went down to Jersey City to see Born Innocent last night. Finally. It was fun to finally see, though bittersweet. One thing that Steven said really stuck with me. "It's hard when you're very up front about wanting to be an arena band, and then you never make it." In their minds, in our minds, they were true rock stars in the way the carried themselves. In their look, their songwriting, everything. So what held them back? There seemed to be a different take from the different brothers - I think that Steven just wanted to be a Rock Star, and Jeff - he just couldn't help himself - he intentionally did the wrong thing at exactly the right time. He couldn't help himself. Steve didn't actually say this on camera, but the narrator asked Jeff - did you choke? And Jeff was clearly hurt. I don't think they exactly "choked" - but they had some really nice at bats, and they didn't hit home runs. Being on the late night shows. Etc. 

On the other hand, the New York Dolls never played stadiums. So. 

And when Redd Kross did play big festivals, what did they do? Played Yoko Ono songs at Beatlefest. Played the Who at Redding or whatever. Played the Beatles when all the A&R guys showed up. Basically, treated it all like a joke. At a certain point it works - particularly with all of us that have an deep and abiding need to be insiders. But that's what I think Steven was talking about. It's self-sabotaging. And Steven, maybe, was a bit more guileless and just wanted to be a rock star. Heck, he WAS a rockstar. But he didn't get a chance because of his loyalty to his big brother. 

One thing that was an important part of the story that I had no idea about, was Steven getting abducted by this weird older woman that was supposedly pregnant with his child at 12 - they ran away to Vegas. It was like the kid in Creation Lake that gets his teacher pregnant. His parents and Jeff seriously did not know where he was. And then Neurotica came after that - is that right? Teen babes from Monsanto was actually before Neurotica - which I was had backwards. I always thought that the cover album happened because they had an issue with a major label and composition rights, and therefore couldn't do an album of originals. Maybe it was with Posh Boy. Anyway - don't know. 

It was cool to see so many people I was connected with, interviewed. Kim and the Fastbacks. Jennifer from L7. Mark and Steve from Mudhoney. Etc. Even Roman Coppola. 

But I agree with the guy that wrote the companion book - Having Steve and Jeff on camera was 1000 times more interesting than anyone else, particularly Thurston Moore. 

I'm going to re-listen to some of the catalogue through the eyes and ears of the movie - also looking forward to reading the book. I'll keep ya posted.