Documentary Now! (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee Part 1 - full transcript

Good evening.

I'm Helen Mirren,

And you're watching
"Documentary Now!" season 50.

Some rock bands endure
for decades;

Others are gone in an instant.

But every so often that instant

creates music
that lasts forever.

Please enjoy tonight's film.

Gentle & Soft:

The Story of the Blue Jean
Committee.

Hey!
We're the Blue Jean Committee!



♪ Gonna dance around the city ♪

♪ Sing a song just like
a southern melody ♪

♪ Mama, you're a dancer ♪

♪ You're a dancer ♪

A band like Blue Jean Committee,

that only comes once
in a lifetime.

Those were amazing shows,

and the people that are there

really marked the times
in their life

by the time they spent watching
Blue Jean Committee.

For the two years
that record was popular,

it was like Fleetwood Mac
"Rumours."

Every song was a single,

and every single was great.



I was completely blown away
by that record.

We'd all tried to capture
that thing,

but they really got it.

That was the quintessential
California record.

"Catalina Breeze,"

the fantastic album of the '70s

in that moment, they were
on top of the world.

♪ Baby, you're a dancer ♪

♪ Oh, baby ♪

♪ Dancer ♪

♪ Freeway, ride me along ♪

♪ Freeway, ride me along ♪

The sonic quality of the music

is real tranquil and placid
and relaxing,

and it is really in conflict
with their actual relationship,

which was extremely bombastic
and... and aggressive.

As sisters, you know,
we love each other,

and, like, when we listen
to that music,

like, we feel the love.

Like, there was love
there at one point.

You know, you can't make music
like that

and not, you know, love
each other.

♪ Gentle ♪ - ♪ Gentle ♪

♪ And soft ♪

- Morning.
- Morning.

In all of the pictures
and everything.

In the magazines I used to read
and to be in 'em,

that's really something.

You go, "Well, you know,
there's someone I admire."

There's someone I admire,

"and what's... what's my mug
doing in there?"

So that was, uh, really nice,

and it's very, uh, very
thankful for every moment

that someone said
something nice.

It meant a lot to me.

You don't mind
the camera's here, right?

Yep.

So, uh, it was...
it was a good feeling.

My name is Gene,
I live in, uh, Chicago,

and apparently you guys are
interested in talking to me

about the Blue Jean Committee.

Yeah, it's a glamorous job.

You know, you do it
for the love of it.

Yeah, I'm not mad at Clark.

You know, I mean, to be honest,

I mean, I haven't thought about
him in quite a few decades.

Perfect.

I've got a lot of good memories,

but, uh, as far as, you know,

thinking about what Clark
is like,

it's been a long time since

I've, uh, really thought
about him.

I hadn't seen him
in a long time.

Oh, we got this house
in, uh, '98.

It's my money.
I bought all this.

I bought all these guys out.

I'm trying to buy that guy out,

'cause, see... see how his
telephone pole

is obstructing my view
of the ocean?

If you're sitting here,

I can't see the ocean from here,

so I got to knock all that out.

Fame is... it's nice.

I mean, fame is a good thing,
you know?

I live here.

Got my nice house.

It's... it's all been worth it.

When I look at what I've got,

I say, "Thank god I thought up"

this Blue Jean Committee thing."

They had such a sound.

I remember the first time
I heard it.

I was driving down PCH,
top down,

heard this thing; It was like
nothing I'd ever heard before,

and yet everything
about California

all at the same time.

They somehow captured everything
we'd all been after.

And I was blown away.

I said, "Where the heck did
this music come from?"

Well, I'm Chicago born and bred.

People always said I was a bit
of a handful,

which was probably a nice way
of saying

I was a little dickhead.

My pop was the foreman at
the old Vienna Beef factory

over on North Damen.

My parents both worked at.

Schwenke's Sausage
and Rendering.

That's where they met.

Schwenke's is the best.

Mom did, uh, quality control.

She took it real serious,

and my dad worked on the line.

He was a packer.

I used to, uh, play
with the hairnets;

To bring 'em back home.

But mostly I liked
playing music.

My earliest memories were, uh,
loving all the doo-wop groups.

This is going back a long ways,
you know.

Doo-wop is, uh...

it's... it's not just oldies;

It's ancient-ies.

So, uh, me and Clark,
we met at sausage school,

and, uh, we knew each other
from, you know,

the hallways and stuff.

I saw him here and there,

and, uh, think he was, uh,
kind of a trouble-maker.

I was on the wrestling team.

Pee-wee state
champ, 102 lb. Division

three years running.

Thank you.

In school I'd play little
assemblies and stuff,

and I'd play for everybody,

And I'd play, uh,
"Glad All Over"

by the Dave Clark Five.

You know, and I loved being on
the wrestling team.

The wrestling team
was a great thing,

but wha... what the problem was,
I started noticing

that the guys with the guitars
were getting more chicks

than the guys in the team,

which, you know, I didn't like.

So one day Clark finally
comes up to me,

first time he'd said anything
to me,

and he says, "Hey, you're in
my group now."

I don't think there
was one moment

when Gene and I decided
to become a band,

to be honest with you.

It happened very organically.

I said, "Okay, we're in
a group now."

Uh, can I go down the hall?"

He says, "No."

We're in a group now,
starting now."

I said, "Okay."

So we dropped out of sausage
school to play music.

Uh, Mom and Dad didn't like
the music thing.

You know, now their little
Eugene Skrowaczeski

is Gene Allen,

and he's singing all these
ootsie-tootsie songs

to a bunch of dopers
on the north side.

Me and my gals pals thought
it was pretty cool, though.

I think Derene Berezowski
blew him,

or at least a tug job
of some kind took place there.

First time I heard Gene & Clark,

I was just coming out
of Philadelphia

and was living in New York
and traveling...

just starting to tour
all over the world.

I wouldn't call it
a brand-new sound,

but it was so much of its...
of its time.

And I was going, "Okay, man,
these guys",

I think maybe they have
a future."

Me and Clark, we just went out
and we played, uh,

you know, open mics and diners
and pizza places

and wherever would have us.

And so we... so we, "We got to...
got to find a recording studio."

We got to... you know, where
we gonna do this thing?"

In Chicago there wasn't
a lot of places,

so, uh, I booked us some
studio time in this little place

over on the north side,
Capstone Studios.

The original Capstone Studios

was open in 1967 at the corner
of Clybourn and Halsted.

No, it was Halsted and North.

No, it was right there where
Clybourn does that little jog.

It's a FedEx Kinkos now.

FedEx Kinkos is one block up
on Halsted and Clybourn.

We were one block down
on Halsted and North,

where the Boston Market is now.

There's not a Boston Market
at the corner

of Clybourn and North.

Not now, no,

but there was one,

and now it's a...
what do you call it...

a Panera Bread corporation.

The Panera Bread
is at the corner

of Clybourn and Halsted,

and that is a fact,
case closed, next subject.

There's a pretty funny story

about where the name comes from,

you know, the...
the Blue Jean Committee.

We saw, uh, "Easy Rider,"

and we thought, "Well, that's
kind of... of a good look."

"We should wear some blue jeans,

"look like some, you know,
regular guys,

but still with some style."

So we went to Marshall Field's
and we got, uh...

What they now refer to as
a Canadian tuxedo, right?

A bunch of dungarees and jeans,

and, uh, looked pretty good.

So we stroll into our first
session at Capstone,

all excited.

So these guys walk in,

I says, "Who sent you?
The Blue Jean Committee?"

I just go ka-bap.

Just punched them,

you know, right in the mouth.

Put me in the hospital.

Completely flattened his nose,

gave him a concussion.

Yeah, nerve damage.

I'm still numb from here
to here.

The funny thing is,
a couple days later,

Clark comes into the same exact
room and says,

"You know what we should call
ourselves?

The Blue Jean Committee."

He had a point. What can I say?

When you're right, you're right,
you know?

Gene had this vision

for this album that
really transported people

to Chicago.

I wanted people to...
to really feel Chicago

and smell Chicago and... and, uh,

we just wanted to be
a good Chicago blues band.

Let's put it that way.

♪ Chicago ♪

♪ Oh, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Chicago ♪

♪ Oh, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Chicago ♪

♪ Chicago ♪

♪ Oh, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Can I get a couple of beers ♪

♪ Hey, miss ♪

You should tune that up
a little bit.

♪ One, two, three, four ♪

So we cranked out two records,
lickity split:

Our debut "St. Stanislaus'
Matinee"...

♪ Hey, miss ♪

♪ Can I get a beer ♪

♪ And then a couple of beers ♪

♪ Hey, miss ♪

Then in February of '72, uh,

put out "221 Pulaski Parkway."

We had "Wind Off the Lake"
and "Goodbye, Dan Ryan," uh...

"Lip Service."

That's... that's about mustaches.
Uh...

♪ Lip service ♪

♪ Watch out ♪

♪ For that lip service ♪

♪ Uptown, downtown ♪

♪ Everybody's steamin' ♪

♪ In the outskirts
and in the in-skirts ♪

♪ Everybody's steamin' ♪

And it tanked, big-time.

It tanked, you know,
and we had, uh,

financed it ourselves.

That's the hard part.

We were out of cash,

up to our eyeballs
in remaindered LPs.

I think it hit Clark
pretty hard.

Oh, things got bad.

Clark, he holed himself up

in this little apartment

over at Wabash and Cullerton.

Tried to drink himself to death.

Wabash and Cermak.

Cullerton.

We're not going through
this again.

I went to a dark place, man.

Drinking and druggin'.

I was paying for sex.

I'm walking out of Bennie's

with a 12'er of Old Style,

when I saw the most beautiful
sight.

I saw two seagulls
cruising along.

They got me thinking about
the ocean and the sand

and beach balls and, you know,
stuff like that,

and, you know, for the first
time in a while I felt good.

Wasn't till I sobered up
that I realized

that the birds were pigeons,
but...

you know, who gives a shit?

I mean, it's a better story
with seagulls.

Then Clark called me
and said that.

We're gonna have a meeting.

He says, "You know what?"

Chicago."

I said,

"Nobody says 'Chicago."'

And he says, uh, "California."

We're gonna be
a California band."

California was the vibe.

You know, feeling the breeze
and the air

and the sun on your skin.

You know, that kind of shit,
you know?

Write music about that.

It's not that hard.

Uh, you know,
people often mention

how the beach boys didn't surf,

and they sang all these songs
about surfing, you know?

I... I mean, I think it's
an interesting analogy

to the Blue Jean Committee who
wrote about living in California

while residing in Chicago.

"California," I said,

"You know, we're not even
from there.

"I don't know what to...
you know, what are we

"gonna write about?

"Hills and... and grapes?

Wine? I don't know."

I... I just... I knew beer
and blues.

The fact of the matter is no
one gave a shit about Chicago.

I mean, we're not making
any money.

Everything was about California
at the time.

I mean, that's just where
the money was.

So then, uh, Clark says he'll
write the songs if he has to.

I mean, we had nothing.

We had no songs and no album.

So we're, uh, you know,
stuck on an island, in a way.

We're just stuck out there
in Chicago

with, uh, some kind of
half-baked plan,

and then, uh, what changed
everything

was meeting, uh, Alvin Izoff.

That name means a lot,

and when you're hungry
in the music business,

that's who you want to talk to.

He was the biggest manager
in the world at the time.

If anybody can make this happen
for us,

it was gonna be him.

He was California music.

Yeah, Izoff, I'd call him
a world-class asshole for sure.

Clark had gotten a tip
from a pal of ours

who worked at, uh, O'Hare.

He was a skycap.

Alvin Izoff had been coming
into Chicago.

He was trying to sign
Peter Cetera.

Clark got an idea that we should
camp out at terminal 3,

just wait.

And, uh...

we just waited.

I leave baggage claim
at O'Hare Airport.

I hop in the back of my limo.

Suddenly the door flings open,

and this lunatic hops in,
waving a cassette tape.

He was scared shitless.
He's a little guy.

Little guy.

He said, "Who are you?"

And I go, "I'm your next star."

Shut up. Listen to the tape."

I had my forearm on his neck
like that.

Gets in my face and says,

"Teach me how to be
a California pansy."

Then we hit him
with our vocal warm-up,

which was on the tape.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

♪ Kielbasa ♪

Boy, could they sing.

And you could see in his eyes

the guy saw money,
you know what I mean?

My big thing was reinventing
a band's image.

The band Shreveport,
remember them?

I totally changed their look.

The whole California thing,
however,

was a major issue.

You got to remember,

we'd never even been there.

I gave up after about six hours.

I said, " it, let's just
fix the wardrobe."

Word on the street
was that me and Gene

had gone vegetarian.

Which was not true.

And in Chicago that's
a death sentence, you know?

You can get away with insulting

a lot of things in this city,

because we're a liberal town.

Yeah, but don't insult
the sausage.

Then my cousins caught wind
of it,

and they went bonkers
and firebombed my apartment,

almost killed me and the girl
I was banging at the time.

I mean, it was nuts.

Yeah, that was a scary time.

It's the first time in my life

I ever wanted to get out
of Chicago.

And, uh, that was the key
to everything.

And so we had to hole up
in the studio.

It was the only place
we were safe,

which was a weird blessing
in disguise

because that let Gene,

his little dweeb mind of his

was able to come up
with something,

and that... that became
the "Catalina" record.

Every song on that record
is incredible.

- Yeah.
- Every single one.

I mean, like, now it's, like,

everyone talks about, like,

"What are the singles
on your record?"

I mean, every song on that
record could have been a single.

Was a single.

It's like...

I don't even know how
they chose.

Monday night we roll tape.

You know, Alvin's trying
to mess with our clothes

and our look and everything.

I... I thought,
"What about the sound?"

I love music,
and I want to break down

what that sound is.

I found it, the harmonies and
the vibe of the whole thing,

and, uh, somehow the lyrics
were there too.

♪ Wiseman say if you want
to know a man ♪

♪ Walk a mile in his shoes ♪

You know, what's crazy
is it was so fast.

You know, it was...
it was one night, you know?

And we were exhausted.

And Gene just wouldn't stop.

They recorded six
number one hits

in 72 hours.

Not just the hits,
but, like, the whole record.

♪ Weather gets rough ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Strap 'em on, lace 'em up ♪

♪ Put on my walking shoes ♪

The songs just started coming.

It was like Gene had flipped
a switch.

"Walking Shoes,".

"She's Going to Hollywood."

"Montecito Memories."

You got "Hibiscus."

They had "Funny Feeling."

"Satin Symphony."

"Gentle & Soft."

"Gentle"... I mean...

All career-making songs.

And I needed something
that distinguished me

from everybody else,

not just in BJC, but everybody
else in the game.

So we were laying down
vocal harmonies.

You know, a standard issue way

is the singer sings
a fifth, he sings a seventh,

but that... it sounds like
everybody else.

Nothing unique in that.

No, and then Clark
found his own thing.

It was magical.

It was like a signature sound.

I don't know, I just...
I just kind of bare down

and I get up there.

I can sing pretty high,
you know?

Seemed as if it was being sung

by a woman...
or maybe not even a woman,

like a really young,
very waifish small girl.

Didn't want to
let Clark hear that.

No, you don't let him hear that.

You'd have a boot up
your ass real fast.

Falsetto is a very phallic
form of singing,

just very... it's a very manly...

It's very, "Yeah!"

Got a lot of confidence,

got a lot of strength.

"Catalina Breeze."

That's one for the ages.

It's just the perfect album

for that time.

It summed up all our lives.

One, two, three, four.

♪ TV says you got them
high-class blues ♪

♪ Seems the caravan to Aruba ♪

♪ Is not the road
that you would choose ♪

♪ A barstool intellectual ♪

♪ With a master's degree
in small talk ♪

♪ And going to the movies ♪

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

♪ Catalina ♪

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

♪ Catalina ♪

BJC! BJC! BJC!

"Catalina Breeze,"

that's a song for the ages.

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

♪ Catalina ♪

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

♪ Catalina ♪

I suppose in retrospect,

it's predictable that this was
going to self-combust

when you have one guy
in the band doing everything

and the other guy
just singing high.

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

♪ Catalina breeze ♪

Okay!

All right.