The Reasons I’m Disappointed in the HBO Show “Vinyl”

Pilot Episode: Vinyl

Ever since the Scorsese/Jagger project was announced over a year ago, I’ve been waiting with Christmas anticipation for its opening. Having recently watched and re-watched the terrific CNN documentaries on both the 60’s and the 70’s, I now had a special interest in “Vinyl.” The Valentine’s Day pilot launch coincided directly with release of my own book living through the music business during those years in “Sex, No Drugs & Rock’N’Roll: Memoirs Of A Music Junkie.”

Disappointed!

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The mosh pit of clichés cinematically intercut in non-linear music video sequences was just boring ‘seen it all before’ bullshit, apparently self-indulgently produced by two ‘has-beens’ trying to be ‘hip.’

The Andrew Dice Clay character was ridiculously unrealistic. Sure there were cokehead promotion men, but anyone that powerful at radio back then would have been mafia controlled. If such a character was ever ‘bumped off’ by a record company executive, the police would be the least of his worries.

Was the barely audible second body mentioned in the landfill Corso? If not, it would have been a better story line. Also, in the 1971 chapter of my book I noted “The Mercer Arts Center was a complex of live venues cut into the backside of the broken down Broadway Central Hotel, which also housed Art Bar, frequented by the glittering Max’s Kansas City crowd. On stage that night with just my acoustic guitar, it was hard to hold the audience, especially when a tall blonde pranced in wearing nothing but gold spray and pasties,” but unlike in the show, it was empty when the Broadway Hotel collapsed in 1973.

Furthermore, no superstar band like Led Zeppelin would ever have even considered signing with an indie label like American Century. But they did have a run in with the Germans when, in 1970, Eva Von Zeppelin, heiress to the airship designer, sued in an attempt to stop them from using the family name.

Context? What Context?

And where was the context? What about the caldron of anti-war demonstrations, civil rights riots, Watergate political corruption, gas line road rage, boiling into the music? What caused the transition from The Beatles to the Sex Pistols? Where were the real characters that coexisted with the lunatics? What happened to the mafia characters alluded to in the fifties flashbacks? None of this was explored.

BTW: Just saw the trailer for Episode 2, and will probably watch re-runs of Shark Tank instead…we’ll see.

My book Sex, No Drugs and Rock n’ Roll (Memoirs of a Music Junkie) is available now! Take a look at some excerpts here or my About section for more about yours truly.

Follow me on Twitter at @LEKalikow or Facebook at LEKalikowAuthor!