The silver screen, from celluloid to cathode, has always been domain to the transmission of rock and roll's narrative, if not the music itself. Elvis constituted a whole genre of film, "the Elvis movie", wherein the singer was transformed into action hero, heartthrob and a friend to children and animals everywhere, even doing his own thinly vieled biopic early on in Loving You. The Beatles starred in several movies about themselves, depicting not only their rise to fame but also their break up, and even suffered their own Saturday morning cartoon show! As much image as it is sound, rock and roll is perfect for moving imagery, and most every major and minor moment in its history has been documented and/or mytholgized on film or TV. But some works are better known than others. Here's my list of the best of the rarest, broken down by type...

BIOPICS:
The musician docudrama has a long history, particularly for making stars. Sal Mineo's Gene Krupa set the bar and Gary Bussey's career could only go downhill after his stunning debut turn as Buddy Holly. Bird, Ray, What's Love Got To Do With It, even Living Proof: The Hank Williams, Jr. Story comprise a most fecund genre, which was delightfully parodied by 2007's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. But if you want an eyeball peeling over-the-top rock and roll biopic that makes Dewey Cox seen understated, I suggest you try to find Shout: The Johnny O'Keefe Story from 1986. A two part mini-series from down under, it unreels the true life fable of Australia's Elvis and ends up telling us everything we ever needed to know about rock stardom. This is one crazy masterpiece!

CONCERTS:
There's the concert documentaries of a single act, like U2: Rattle & Hum or Madonna: Truth or Dare (the model for all these being 1970's Elvis: The Way It Is, about the king's comeback Vegas debut). This sub-genre produced the first "mocumentary" This Is Spinal Tap from 1984, which subsequently overshadowed even the most serious attempts at perpetuating the rock band documentary.

Then there's the 'festival' film. While it would seem this sub-genre is distinct to the late 60's/early 70's, bookended by the classics Woodstock and Gimme Shelter, these multi-act statements actually have a broader span, from 1964's The T.A.M.I. Show to 1981's Urgh! A Music War. Must-see's in the festival genre include Wattstax, Soul To Soul, Our Latin Thing and the amazing Let the Good Times Roll from 1973, which shows original rock gods like Little Richard and Bo Diddley reclaiming their legacy live on stage.

Once the rarest festival film of all for being unfinished and unreleased for 30+ years, Festival Express finally came out in 2003. Documenting a troubled tavelling rock concert featuring 60's icons like The Gateful Dead and Janis Joplin, it highlights the period's tension between audience and performers, between the hippy ideals of freedom and the captialism of show business. This subtext forms the entire basis of a festival film few have ever seen, The Day The Music Died. Stictched together in 1977 with entirely made-up scenes, it documents the ill-fated New York Pop Festival of 1970, an event completely undone by the revolutionary politics of the day. To quote one IMDB reviewer, it's "an amazing mess of a movie about an amazing mess of an era".

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Backstage dramas are a dime a dozen, and rock and roll has been fodder for a few. Best known is perhaps 1980's The Idolmaker, based on promoter/producer Bob Marcucci's creation of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Seldom seen is 1975's That's the Way of the World, featuring Harvey Keitel as a record producer trying to keep his soul while serving both his label bosses and working on his own project, a band played by none other than Earth, Wind and Fire!

ZEITGEIST:
There are many movies that have tried to capture the feeling of livng in moments of rock and roll history, some better, and better known, than others. For Beatlemania, nothing can beat the forgotten ensemble flick I Wanna Hold Your Hand from 1978. The much rarer American Hot Wax of the same year may be historically inacurate on many levels, but few films have romaticized the advent of rock and roll better.

Tom Hank's That Thing You Do! from 1996 tried earnestly to capture what is was like to be a band going from the garage to near stardom in 1964 but fell flat. Better at capturing that trajectory but in a much different era is the impossibly rare Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains from 1982. Not only does it show what a punk rock epiphany was really like, it is a trenchant commentary on media, stardom and being a female. This stunning gem never saw a proper release in its day and was unavailable on DVD or even VHS until recently released on DVD by Rhino in 2008!

Bonefish Johnny is an armchair musicologist and roots rocker located in south Florida. Johnny can be reached at his website bonefishjohnny.com

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