This is a document of the abortive 1970 trans-Canadian railroad tour featuring Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, The Band, Sha Na Na, etc. Obviously inspired by Woodstock, the idea was to travel to several major Canadian cities, play a big day-long show at each, and collect a tidy sum. As with Woodstock, though, the dark side of hippiedom surfaced and there was a big hue and cry about the "outrageous" ($16 I think?) sums charged for the shows, so many people got in free and the promoters nearly lost their shirts.
Contemporary interviews with survivors (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh of the Dead; Buddy Guy and the principal promoter) are interspersed with archival (16 mm?) on-the-train footage and concert footage. The interviews are disappointingly pedestrian and similar, "oh it was so cool man we hung out and partied on the train and drank our asses off and took all these psyechedelics and then we got to play a lot and bummer that these kids were so ungrateful and bashed the police and bashed us because we didn't want to give it away free"...other than the promoter guy whose name I forget, they were all fairly dispensible. The train ride stuff was pretty cool, particularly a shot of Garcia doing a mostly-solo old gospel tune, and a nice vignette of The Band's Rick Danko, Joplin and Garcia doing a stoner improvisation...but there wasn't enough of this stuff overall, which is certainly rare and unique material.
The concert footage was pretty awesome, though, and is the reason to see the film. Buddy Guy is incandescent in the one song we get to see complete("Baby Here I Come), Janis amazing on "Cry Baby" and almost as great on "Tell Mama" (though obviously messed up, on this song and everywhere else in the film...on the road to death), The Band impressive on "The Weight" and even more powerfully emotive doing "I Shall Be Released". The Dead's three songs are fine, but nothing really special from them; I wish they'd showcased Pigpen just a bit, as he was still singing in 1970...what, no "Hard to Handle"? Well worth seeing if you're a fan of any of the principle musicians...not much as a documentary. I'm a fan, so I liked it, but it's not for a general audience, really. Ya gots ta be a hippie, dude.
Contemporary interviews with survivors (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh of the Dead; Buddy Guy and the principal promoter) are interspersed with archival (16 mm?) on-the-train footage and concert footage. The interviews are disappointingly pedestrian and similar, "oh it was so cool man we hung out and partied on the train and drank our asses off and took all these psyechedelics and then we got to play a lot and bummer that these kids were so ungrateful and bashed the police and bashed us because we didn't want to give it away free"...other than the promoter guy whose name I forget, they were all fairly dispensible. The train ride stuff was pretty cool, particularly a shot of Garcia doing a mostly-solo old gospel tune, and a nice vignette of The Band's Rick Danko, Joplin and Garcia doing a stoner improvisation...but there wasn't enough of this stuff overall, which is certainly rare and unique material.
The concert footage was pretty awesome, though, and is the reason to see the film. Buddy Guy is incandescent in the one song we get to see complete("Baby Here I Come), Janis amazing on "Cry Baby" and almost as great on "Tell Mama" (though obviously messed up, on this song and everywhere else in the film...on the road to death), The Band impressive on "The Weight" and even more powerfully emotive doing "I Shall Be Released". The Dead's three songs are fine, but nothing really special from them; I wish they'd showcased Pigpen just a bit, as he was still singing in 1970...what, no "Hard to Handle"? Well worth seeing if you're a fan of any of the principle musicians...not much as a documentary. I'm a fan, so I liked it, but it's not for a general audience, really. Ya gots ta be a hippie, dude.