He was a stalwart of the counterculture.
Earlier today I read an article about Haley Kiyoko. It was in the "New York Times":
nyti.ms/3zray37 I realized instantly it was hype, that it only existed because a publicist had pitched a story related to Kiyoko's new record, but it was brief and I wanted to catch up on a woman that I was not sure I'd seen live or not. Halfway through the article, I realized I was confusing Kiyoko with another "artist," but just before I was about to stop reading I read about Haley's perfume. It said she had her own fragrance, "Hue." I stupidly thought that "Hue" was a commercial product that she loved, because how could a woman with so little career traction have her own perfume? I mean this album coming out on Friday is only her second! Although she's been releasing singles since 2013, but only one charted, 2018's "Curious," which made it all the way to #40 on the U.S. Pop chart, but it went to #37 on the U.S. Dance chart!
Yes, Ms. Kiyoko has her own perfume. That used to be a victory lap, the perfume, the clothing line. Now it's a feature right from the get-go.
As for Ms. Kiyoko's life... She loves to watch "Friends," three episodes a night. And she loves Adobe's Premiere Pro, because she uses it to create her clips for social media. COULD SHE BE ANY EMPTIER?
Haley Kiyoko is 31. When Bob Rafelson was 32 he created the Monkees, along with Bert Schneider.
Seen as somewhat of a rip-off of the music scene, "The Monkees" was a breakthrough because it brought the younger generation to TV, in a relatively uncompromised form. Never mind that the band had hits which survive to this day, Micky Dolenz's breathy "ahh" in "I'm a Believer," and his pregnant vocal in the theme to the television show are magic. And Davy Jones had a good voice and Michael Nesmith actually had cred and...
This was not New Kids on the Block.
But Bob Rafelson's death wouldn't have hit me so hard if he was only responsible for "The Monkees."
Ultimately, Rafelson directed the Monkees' movie, "Head," which you have to be stoned to watch, it was not an auspicious debut.
But "Head" was in '68. in '69 Rafelson and Schneider produced "Easy Rider." Made on a tiny budget, "Easy Rider" captured both the excitement of the sixties and the ultimate ennui of the seventies. We were all searching, we were all looking, no one is testing limits in movies today. Marvel movies are the standard, and their fans bitch when they don't win Oscars! Well, none of them are in the league of 1974's "Hearts and Minds," co-produced by Rafelson. I still remember when it won the Oscar. It was a surprise, it was a counterculture breakthrough, it was an acknowledgement that we got it wrong in Vietnam.
But what lasts is "Five Easy Pieces."
That's the movie that made Jack Nicholson a star. And Karen Black too. You couldn't be an adult, a late teenager, without seeing this 1970 film. It was about alienation, rejection of one's past...
Today kids don't reject their parents' careers, they want IN! Yes, use your connections to get me into a good college, get me a gig at the bank, I'm all about the bucks, I don't want to risk my lifestyle.
Whereas it used to be about coming to Hollywood and making it on your wiles and your wits. A degree didn't mean much, although Rafelson did go to Dartmouth. And it wasn't about money so much as about thinking.
When did it all start?
Most people say "The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967.
But as great as those sixties films were, it was the seventies that are revered as the best decade for films since the thirties.
And what did the seventies start with, what got the ball rolling? "The Last Picture Show." You left the theatre feeling...empty and numb. Take that those of you who need someone to root for, who need a happy ending. And "The Last Picture Show" was produced by BBS, the production company run by Rafelson, Schneider and Stephen Blauner.
You might say Rafelson is Zelig, but in addition to being everywhere, he took action, he was responsible, he was known, HE WAS AT THE CRUX of the counterculture in film.
Rafelson also specialized in alienation. That was a feature of the sixties and seventies, feeling alone, like you don't fit in, and you don't want to fit in. Today, everybody is eager to sell out, they want to buy in, to be an outsider is to be discounted and forgotten, whereas the alienated were our heroes fifty years ago. They were the leaders. They were the musicians. Their perspective was skewed, and their art told us they were on the right path and we needed to get on it.
"The King of Marvin Gardens" was not as successful as "Five Easy Pieces," either commercially or artistically, but if you were a film buff, and we all were, you had to see it. We were fans of the creators. We appreciated their singular vision.
And when money became paramount in the film business, Rafelson did a remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" that was so vivid, so edgy, so SEXY, that despite being unlike the pablum it competed with, it still made it into profits.
Not that Rafelson was a warm guy. He got canned at Universal for clearing Lew Wasserman's desk. He stood his ground. Corporate executives compromise, politicians compromise, but not artists.
Like Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was an alienated college dropout who had a vision, and it had to be executed on his terms. Many didn't like this, he got canned from his own company, but when he came back everyone realized he was the secret sauce, he was the heart of Apple, he was our leader, who pushed the entire world into the future. Focus groups? Why would he listen to the people, they don't know what they want until you give it to them!
Jobs was informed by Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the movies of the sixties and seventies, they carved him into who he was. If you're being carved by today's records and movies I have pity for you.
Rafelson was an original. Far from warm and fuzzy.
And now he's dead.
Nobody lives forever, he was 89, that's a pretty good ride. He smoked, he died of lung cancer. You can almost say he beat the odds.
But with Bob and his brethren go the ethos of what once was, the leaders of what once was. That's what John Lennon represented, not Paul McCartney, and Lennon is gone too.
The artists of yore tested limits, pushed the art form further, and it was clear who were the amateurs and the professionals.
But today it's all about getting rich. You want to be a "brand." A conglomerate, someone like the empty Kim Kardashian. If she's your hero...I'm laughing. At you. She has done well in business, but I'm not listening to a single word she says, she's uneducated, not very intelligent, not very articulate, and furthermore, her look is the product of plastic surgery. Otherwise, she was just an average girl in your math class. And really, I give kudos to Kim and the Kardashians, they blazed a trail. But it's got nothing to do with art, it's got nothing to do with the mind.
The mind... That was everything back in the sixties and seventies. Could you parse truth, could you analyze? Talking about movies was a thing, you sat around for hours discussing films. Today's movies you can't even talk about for MINUTES!
And why even be a director, the dream of the boomers? The boomers wanted to forge art, not create cookie cutter dreck.
Rafelson is why we wanted to come to Hollywood, why we wanted to create, why we wanted to hang, why we wanted to be involved! We wanted the power to do the same thing. And then the positively pedestrian Stephen Spielberg came along and changed the entire paradigm. That's why they never gave him an Oscar before "Schindler's List," he had craft, he could put the pieces together, but he couldn't touch our souls, couldn't create art, still can't, IT'S NOT IN HIM!
But the renegades...
Jack Nicholson, a Rafelson crony, was an unknown outsider, and through sheer grit and sheer talent, he broke through and became our hero. Jack was cool, he was different, he knew something we didn't, and we wanted to hang with him, hoping some of that fairy dust would rub off on us.
Talk about being born that way...
Lady Gaga is a poor imitation of Madonna. Oh, maybe she's a bit better than that, but where is her string of hit records? You'd think she's Barbra Streisand, and she's not, AND STREISAND WAS NEVER COOL! Barbra had a great voice, could act pretty well, but if you were looking for someone who channeled the zeitgeist, you didn't look to her.
There is no counterculture anymore. It used to be a badge of honor to be on the outside looking in, joking about those who drank the kool-aid, knowing you could topple them with your mind. A mind is still more important than bucks. One person can make all the difference, but in truth everybody's depressed, they don't see opportunity.
I could go on, but let me just say that I saw Bob Rafelson died and I not only thought of his creative output, I was struck that an era was gone, and its progenitors are passing.
Maybe you had to be there.
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