This is a test.
For the next 60 seconds, this station will conduct
a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.
This is only a test.
- Is that you? - Hey.
Long time?
Still selling ice creams off your bicycle?
Bollocks.
American R&B?
Did you... Did you nick them all?
I sent off to Chicago. You know, mail order?
I play that Little Queenie.
Still wearing out the stylus on your mum's Philips, Keith?
Fuck, Mick. I don't play it on the fucking hi-fi.
I got me a Rosetti steel-string. DeArmond pickup.
Nice. I've been singing a bit myself recently.
With ol' Dick Taylor.
Is that right?
You go for Jimmy Reed?
Baby, What You Want Me To Do.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that song.
This meeting took place
some 20 years after the bombing of London
and the end of World War II.
We know what happened to those two boys.
They became The Rolling Stones.
A couple years after that meeting on the train,
my brother and his friends also started a band.
Not so many people know what became of them.
In fact, like with most bands, you've never heard of them.
Those black diamond Rogers are cooler than shit.
Swiv-O-Matic hardware.
This fucking guy I know goes to Hancock Regional?
He has a 6118.
That's where I fucking go.
I fucking go to Delbarton Academy.
Fucking eats shit.
I'm fucking transferring to Hancock senior year.
What's your friend's name?
Gene Gaunt.
Fuck, I know him!
He's like one of my best friends this year!
Him and me are in a band.
With Billy Schindewulf on drums.
Gaunt's double picking!
They're clapping on the on-beat.
Fags.
Preceding the hearse,
a 13-man Marine Honor Guard,
their bayonets glinting in the glare of camera lights.
Not going to work today, Dad?
Carmine and me are deciding whether to open the store.
Lots of businesses are closed.
Good. I'm happy for them. They're so rich.
I saw my sister Louise at the Celentano wake.
She started right in.
How I should find Ma a new doctor.
Mrs. Kennedy rode with her arm stretched across the coffin.
She was wearing the same pink suit
that was spattered with blood when the President was shot.
Had one of your nightmares last night.
What the hell were you hollering about this time?
This colored boy was trying to come up the lawn to get me.
The kids in schools in the south
stood up and cheered when he got assassinated.
Don't believe everything you hear.
No, you're right.
Let's believe "The heartbreak of psoriasis"
and all those other commercials you sell airtime for.
Buick and those jerks.
The men who had the genius and the daring
to develop the Dynaflow transmission... Kenneth.
Are jerks.
I'm going to volunteer to go down there.
That's a crafty dodge from your plunging grade point average.
How's the bird?
Happy Thanksgiving, Mother.
I think we got a bongo-drum playing beatnik in our midst.
Stop it, you little fag!
You're a fag!
Stop toying with your yams and sit up.
The Southerners cheered because President Kennedy
wanted to pass voting laws for colored people.
Exactly, Gracie.
That is the precise reason JFK went and garnered
such animus for himself down in Dixieland.
Garnered such what?
Look it up, Mrs. Allen Ginsberg.
Clocks are made by men. God creates time.
No man can prolong his allotted hours.
He can only live them to the fullest
in this world or in the Twilight Zone.
You can give this program back to the Indians,
as far as I'm concerned.
- It's cool. - Now, Mr. Serling.
Next time, we enlist the aid of a very talented scribe...
There is a fifth dimension beyond that known to man,
between light and shadow.
At the end of the show, nothing is ever what it seemed.
Real life's too much like what it seems.
Dad, this Army recruiter who came to our school,
he said they got a tank now, the M60,
can drive right through a steel and concrete building.
Maron.
I want to go to a college that has ROTC.
Keep your grades up.
Achieving your goals is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.
Night.
Good night.
It's hard to imagine now,
but the next historical event came only three weeks after the assassination.
SCOTT Muni, WABC.
What's that?
Hey, Bette.
It's hot in here.
I know who he was looking at you. He was, I swear.
It's not just Grace Deitz.
Chicks in general just...
Wait, wait.
Let's face it. I'm a crap drummer.
I'm a shit athlete.
And that is the biggest sin, if you're from around here.
He's right, man. Jocks get 90, 95% of all the poontang.
You played varsity ball till you got disallowed for grades.
The reason me and Wells never asked you
to be in the band is Schindewulf.
The guy's got the fastest bass-drum foot in the county.
I love her, man!
Hey, shut up! You want to bring the cops here?
Nothing has ever worked for me with girls.
I got this skinny physique. I got this skuzzy complexion.
Rolling Stones. Aren't they great?
They're gonna leave right after the show for London.
They're challenging The Beatles to a hair-pulling contest.
What the fuck are you doing, man?
My old man's going to go fucking apeshit!
You see The Stones on Hollywood Palace last night?
Yeah.
This definitely decides it.
I'm starting a band like them and The Beatles.
Wells is in.
You want to play drums?
What about Schindewulf?
He's doing so putrid at school,
his old man's making him join the Marines.
And when our record comes out,
he's got to be available to go on tour.
England, whatever.
Anyway, I need someone to back me up on vocal.
When we fuck around making fun of those songs on the radio,
you sound pretty good.
Isn't Wells going to sing?
He sucks, man. He's got a putrid voice.
Don't tell Wells I said that about his voice.
You know what's interesting?
How Charlie Watts beefed up the Bo Diddley on Not Fade Away.
Like...
He brought it front and center like in Bo Diddley itself
rather than Buddy Holly.
Two chords. And no changes. It's like percussion.
Bo Diddley bought his babe a diamond ring.
If that diamond ring don't shine.
He gonna take it to a private eye.
If that private eye can't see.
He'd better not take the ring from me.
Mojo come to my house, ya black cat bone.
Take my baby away from home.
Up in that fo' door, where you been?
Up your house and gone again.
Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley, have you heard?
My pretty baby said she wasn't for it.
We sat around for two damn months
waiting for that battle of Anzio.
See, them Jerrys, they had us pinned down with those 88's.
You're such a retarded driver.
That lieutenant in Italy, he told us,
he said, "Any of you colored troopers"
"tamper with these local women,"
"you gonna be hung on the spot."
I must have got the clap from all that clapping I was doing
when the generals passed by in their command car.
Anyway, you're going away to college next week.
You wanna make sure you keep your dick powdered.
Happy Thanksgiving, Earth people!
This is what I pay that goddamn college $2,000 a year for.
There's people with longer hair than me.
Fags.
Look at the coat.
Looks like he just got off the boat at Ellis Island.
What?
He kills himself down at that store six days a week,
plus Friday till 9:00,
with that psoriasis. And this is what you do?
I will play just the one song.
Leave 'em wanting more.
One second!
Dial.
NOW -
Colgate Palmolive.
What does that mean?
I left my roach clip at Oberlin.
What's a roach clip?
Fuck the roach clip. Here.
Watch how we do things at Steinholz Academy.
Get creative.
Come on in there! I got to go!
Flush it down the john! Our futures could be ruined!
Waste not, want not.
Come on! Whoever's in there!
Don't get so uptight, man.
Come on, already!
This is so unfair.
What do you mean, he went home?
The popular girls only came here to see the band.
We can't do the song without our lead singer.
I should have just listened to Dave Smith.
He said he wanted to bring his band over.
They do all John Lennon.
I'm into advanced time signatures, 5/4, 6/8...
Will you just play the song?
I told you I'd give you a box of M-80s.
Everybody! Let's hear it for the Gene Gaunt Band.
Wait. Wait. No.
One, two, three.
Wait. Wait.
You suck sour owl shit!
What's this crap? He's not the lead singer of the band.
Time is on my side.
Yes, it is.
Time is on my side.
Yes, it is.
Now you always say.
That you wanna be free.
But you'll come running back.
You'll come running back.
To me.
Easy!
Time is on my side.
Yes, it is.
Time is on my side.
Yes, it is.
You're searching for good times.
But just wait and see.
You'll come running back.
To me.
Go ahead, baby. Go ahead.
Go ahead and light up the town.
And, baby, do anything your heart desires.
'Cause you know.
I'll always be around.
And I know, I know,
like I told you so many times before,
you're gonna come back to me, baby.
Come back, knocking on my door.
Time, time, time is on my side.
Yes, it is.
Time, time, time is on my side.
Yeah!
You suck sour owl shit!
Jocks, go home!
A bientot! See you Monday.
Bye!
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Easy for you to say.
- Who won? - Hancock,
131107.
The new coach, he's a lollapalooza.
Thanksgiving at Aunt Louise's is nice,
but why don't we have everybody over here
for some holiday?
In that postage stamp of a dining room?
Yeah, there are a lot of people.
My sisters are as free as birds.
They don't have to work. I do. It's nice, too, isn't it?
They know that, but they have me bring the antipasto.
Think the Army's gonna let you drive tanks
dressed like a fruit?
The Army?
Why would I want to join that?
What the hell you talking about?
We had a whole conversation.
When?
Vietnam is ridiculous.
What did you say?
Plus, this friend of mine, he said that in World War ll
they threatened black soldiers with hanging
for looking at white women.
Why would I want to be associated
with an institution like that?
Look at him. High heels.
They're Cuban heels.
You wanna wear Cuban heels, go live in Cuba.
They have nothing to do with Castro.
They're nigger shoes!
- Pasqual! - Don't "Pasqual" me.
He looks like he just got off the boat!
You already said that.
That hurt!
Let me tell you something, my friend.
One day, you and me, we're going to tangle.
Go ahead. Try it.
You want me to try it?
You left and went to college, now you're a tough guy?
I'll try it.
Stop it! Both of you!
Don't make me use my judo moves, man!
I want to kill myself!
My shirt!
Be careful not to track any snow in.
Hi, Grace.
I'm not content to be with you in the daytime.
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time.
Oh, hey.
- I really like your dress. - Thanks.
- Did you get it for Christmas? - Yeah, from my mother.
- It's nice. - The music's neato.
I'm going to check out the band.
Great party.
All day and all of the night.
I believe that you and me last forever.
Oh, yeah, all day and nighttime yours.
Leave me never.
The only time I feel all right is by your side.
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time.
All day and all of the night.
It's too fucking cold. Let's go inside.
Yeah. Okay.
She may not be coming back to school next year.
Are you serious? Where is she gonna go?
- I don't know. Rutgers? - Really?
That grass seemed kind of weak.
You smoke a lot at Vassar?
This guy from Harvard I was dating, he did.
Harvard?
The guy liked that place?
I guess. He's an adjunct professor.
Medieval Persian poetry.
Your basement is cool.
That.
Yeah.
So, what, you're not going out with that guy anymore?
The Persian guy?
He's not Persian. That's not what I said.
How come you never talked to me in high school?
We talked.
Miss Vogel's class?
Once. You said something about the pencil sharpener.
I really liked you.
- Yeah, I know. - You knew that?
Fucking Wells.
He didn't say anything.
You like Wells, don't you?
My parents and his mother belong to the club.
Anyway, he likes this girl at Oberlin.
But you like him, don't you?
He's funny. He makes me laugh.
- You have a good voice. - Pardon?
Thanksgiving at Karen's house, when you sang lead?
The band sounded more soulful than tonight.
I hope that doesn't piss you off.
Anyway, it's just my opinion.
You guys don't have a name yet?
Wells' latest idea:
He wants to call us the Lord Byrons.
He's got a lot of say.
He's an art genius, trades off lead guitars, keyboards.
Time is on your side.
If you are at home when a surprise attack occurs,
crawl beneath a table if it is very near.
Or drop to the ï¬‚oor with your back to the window.
The immediate danger is over in about a minute.
The ball is moving! Five! Four!
Three! Two! One!
Happy New Year!
He won't even call me!
I'm so sorry. Let's go upstairs.
He won't even call me!
You're gonna be all right.
Submitted for your approval,
one Max Phillips.
A slightly worse-for-wear maker of book
who is soon to discover that man is
not as wise as he thinks, said lesson
to be learned in the Twilight Zone.
Grace went to the Little Falls diner with some people.
I was just looking for a bathroom.
Could you help me with this?
Robert Johnson.
I so dig Chicago blues.
That's all we played during Freedom Summer.
Delta blues. Chicago's electric.
- You were down there? - Voter registration.
Cool.
Did she say who she was going to the diner with?
Would you like to watch my sister eat?
No.
I don't get it.
How come the English knew all about the blues
and we didn't?
Yet it's been right here under our nose the whole time.
I've seen Gracie make a poop,
if that holds any interest for you.
Lead Belly.
"Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton."
We sang this stuff in elementary school.
Huddie Ledbetter and Lead Belly were the same person?
I'm moving. The Village.
This is a series on Dad.
This paint
represents his blood by way of whiskey sours.
His summer favorite.
Yeah.
This is Murray the K.
This meeting of the Swinging Soiree is now in session!
Look.
What the hell is that?
It's a UFO.
It can't be a UFO. It's completely stationary.
It's a three.
It's an omen.
No, it's an S.
He's right. It looks like an S.
It's an S and a three.
It means success for the three of us!
Holy fucking shit!
I've rolled and I tumbled.
I cried the whole night long.
I got up this morning.
Feelin' that something gone wrong.
The band sounds good.
Which do you think is better?
Our songs that are more bluesy
or more melodic?
When you sing with Gene,
your voice seems to make the songs work.
So, your sister...
She's so outrageous.
I know you look up to her and all,
but I don't think you think it's going so good.
Well, baby, I ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore.
I ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore.
It's time to chip in, cut the demo.
I can't believe it costs 200 fucking dollars.
If we're not ready for the studio now, we never will be.
Man, that is such a cliche.
Why do people say that?
Whether or not one is ready at any given point in time
has nothing to do
phenomenologically with
whether one might be increasingly ready later.
Maybe we could be more ready.
Maybe Van Gogh wasn't ready to cut off his ear
and if he'd waited...
I think I can sing that song better.
What?
I think I can sing that song better than you.
Actually, I agree.
Actually, I think that goes for most of our songs.
Look, man, the session's costing us $200.
He's got a better voice than you. Sorry.
He can lay down drums on a separate track.
All of a sudden you care about money?
You don't even have to work.
And you never bought one fucking guitar pick
- for this band. - You are uptight!
We're talking about Damiano singing lead,
not about familial wealth.
I don't really see the logic.
Okay.
Nah, it's not okay.
I don't want to do this demo if it's just gonna be shit.
Not shit.
You know what I mean.
Hello?
Hi.
Hey.
- How's your cellar? - What?
The other night, you said your cellar was flooded.
Oh, yeah.
All right, let's stop. Take it from the top.
Yeah!
You can get any man you want going.
And you do it.
And don't say you don't know that you do.
Well, baby, I ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore.
So quit it.
I love you, I love you I do, girl.
But you ain't gonna cheat on me.
I need you, I need you I do, girl.
Choose, is it him or me?
Yeah!
You better watch your step or, girl
I thought the tall kid was gonna sing backup.
Well, baby, I ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore.
I ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore.
Got to admit, that's pretty good.
Did you hear the A side where I sang the lead
on the Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup tune?
Yeah.
I didn't like that as much.
Hey.
Yo, Schindewulf!
Have you seen the Return of the Magnificent Seven?
- Guillermo! - Eugenio!
- Dave Smith. - Hey, Billy.
I was saying, where are you stationed?
The Da Nang sector. I can't divulge the base location.
Hey, somebody said that you were in the Marine Band
down at the White House.
I tested out to D.M. school.
- You don't play drums anymore? - No.
What's D.M. school?
I got a scholarship to BM. school.
I produce such immense logs.
Distinguished Marksman. I'm a sniper.
Remington model 700, 7.62 millimeter.
All right.
You kill guys with that thing?
Have you forgotten your old friend?
I told you we were closed.
I'm Hank Quinlan.
I didn't recognize you.
You should lay off those candy bars.
It's either the candy or the hooch.
I must say, I wish it was your chili I was getting fat on.
Anyway, you're sure looking good.
You're a mess, honey.
Yeah.
That pianola sure brings back memories.
Look at this fucking guy.
Fore!
Now that's some funny shit, man.
Look at this guy.
Watching Dr. King on the TV, leading that march in Chicago?
- Did you see that, Leon? - Shit, yeah.
They threw stones at him.
Damn!
It was hard to get up and come to work today.
Had those bullfrogs on your mind.
What?
"Woke up this morning, had those bullfrogs on my mind."
- I don't follow you. - Blind Willie McTell.
When you're singing the blues,
the lyric line often starts,
"Woke up this morning."
Then life just comes and fucks you over, right?
I don't sing blues. I'm a deacon at my church.
Like that Son House tune, man.
"Woke up this morning, had those Statesboro blues."
"Looked over in the corner, sister had 'em, too."
You want to hear some gorgeous blues
you need to listen to Duke Ellington or Tony Bennett.
Tony Bennett? He's Italian.
What kind of movie is this?
Nothing happens.
And there's no orchestra to tell you,
like, "Watch out, this guy's going to get killed."
I think the trees are the music.
Capezios.
Neat.
Pas de bourree.
Plie.
My little swan.
Here, Dad. For you.
I told you I wasn't giving you anything for Christmas,
and I didn't want anything from you.
He's quitting college.
So I told him I wasn't getting him anything
and I didn't want anything from him.
Oh, Pat.
I need to devote my full time to the band.
Christmas. Big deal.
It's Jesus' birthday!
He's probably blowing out the candles right now in Vietnam,
plus the lives of about 40,000 children.
Don't talk like that.
You don't like it, go live in Red China.
I went down to Newark for the pastries for today.
The Fabias got a new colored housing project
going up right across the street.
Nobody built free housing
for the Italians when we had nothing.
All Mama and Papa gave each of us for Christmas
was a navel orange.
That's all they could afford.
What I want to know, Douglas MacArthur,
what are you gonna do about the draft
without a student deferment?
What are you gonna do, tiptoe through the tulips
down there at the draft board?
He's going to loaf with that Eugene Gaunt.
Yeah, well, Mom, you wouldn't understand being in a band.
That's my true family.
Your true family, there, they're gonna pay
your enormous food bills, I assume.
I told you I'm going to get a job.
Doing what? Ditch digger and philosopher
the rest of your life?
Just till we make it.
Let me call The Red Skelton Show right away.
Make sure they got a dressing room stocked with delicacies.
You're so hung up on this, man.
Why don't you just hire me at the store?
Looking like that?
You look like you just got off the boat!
Dougie, come on, your dinner!
Why bother feeding him?
He's cannon fodder for the Army in Vietnam!
I know you already have it,
but you said that Joy always steals your records
and gets paint and cream cheese on them.
I love you.
Happy New Year.
Movie, Long Island champagne,
heater, if we need it.
This is better than our own little house.
When you find this Mr. Perfect,
does he get some kind of award?
The thing is, with this apartment now,
I'm going to need bread to pay rent.
Grace was saying that
their milkman's nephew has this band that plays
at this bar down in Asbury.
The Jersey shore is all Four Seasons people.
They wouldn't understand what we do.
More and more greasers nowadays
are not combing it back.
Grace was saying that...
Look, man, there's something I need to rap with you about.
They should really put more than
one of these fat blobs in each can.
Yeah, that's definitely where it's at with baked beans.
On the other hand, it's a treat to wait for it.
The beans themselves are pretty boring.
Yeah, okay.
Look.
The summer after high school,
actually, right through that year,
Grace Deitz was blowing me.
She used to blow De Souza, too.
I know this for a fact.
Did he fuck her?
I don't know.
But anyway,
getting back to me,
I didn't fuck her. But she did blow me regularly.
And I thought you should know because,
A, in the future, we'll face a lot of stresses and strains
what with magazine shoots, press conferences, etcetera.
Look, man, she's stone free to do as she please.
Exactamente.
Especially concerning outdated sexual mores.
There's one more piece of fat.
Gracias, man.
Look, this had to be done, me telling you this.
For the good of the band.
Better you found out now than after we made it.
The last thing we need is an Anita problem
like you hear about with Keith and Brian.
He's my best friend.
Some best friend who tells you that.
So it is significant.
A minute ago, it was just part of the sexual revolution.
Right. Things have really changed.
Yeah, I know. I'm cool. Now things have changed.
But you were blowing him in late '64,
which by my calculations
means that Christmas break party at your house.
Nobody in Hancock was rapping about
any fucking sexual revolution then.
You know that as well as I.
You must have blown him the night you told me
time was on my side.
He's trying to drive a wedge between us
because I give you my opinions on the band.
Holy fuck! I'm right!
It was a long time ago,
and, frankly, it's none of your business.
You blew De Souza, too, didn't you?
- I know this for a fact. - Fuck you, man.
How am I supposed to not think about that when we're kissing?
I don't know! Think of toothpaste!
You had intercourse with my sister.
I could've freaked out over that, but we weren't together then.
I didn't have intercourse with your sister.
You're a liar. Why would she make it up?
She's insane?
Don't you call her insane.
You were up in her room, drinking.
You didn't go in there to ball her?
No. You're fucking amazing.
High school, it's the jocks you go after.
Then Wells, 'cause he's lead guitar,
and now me, 'cause I'm lead singer.
Is that what you think?
That's your M.O.
I believe in you.
God...
What was I thinking? You're a small person.
You were in high school, and you still are.
Exactly! High school.
Once a conceited bitch, always a conceited bitch.
I thought we were best friends.
Look, he told you for the good of the band.
I want to leave this fucking world.
Fucking A, man!
Dave Smith gets signed to Elektra Records.
Dave's writing original songs.
Really?
I keep telling you guys! Andrew Oldham!
The Stones, he locked them in a room...
And got Jagger and Richards to write their own songs.
Doing covers is a thing of the past.
Except, they had two huge hits.
Not Fade Away, Buddy Holly. It's All Over Now...
Two hits? I need this to be my career.
Shame on you, man.
Need is like peasants starving in Southeast Asia.
Nobody needs a career!
I think we should all move to the East Village,
get an apartment there.
Corky Curto went to the East Village the other night.
Sees a guy beating his dog to death with a baseball bat.
Corky goes over to intervene.
The dog was a rat!
There's a music scene there, not here.
Look, I don't want to lord this over you,
but I've been, like, the main music figure in this town
since high school.
I feel like I owe it to the people to remain...
What the fuck are you two doing?
I feel like I owe it to the people
to remain loyal to our roots.
Celebrity has responsibilities.
In June, 1967,
The Beatles released.
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Dominic, I'd like you to meet my son, Orlando.
Pleasure to meet you, son. We're all proud of you.
That summer is known to history
as the Summer of Love.
I got cancer.
Mycosis fungoides.
That's what he called it.
Looks like psoriasis, but it moves to the lymph glands.
What's going to happen?
Could be a year or two.
I started writing some lyrics.
I've been messing with this progression.
It's a little more McGuinn-ish than what we usually do.
That's right. There.
I had the cards close to my vest.
When the table got kicked over.
It's what you wanted.
Though you thought nothing and said even less.
And now even your carrier pigeons.
Have been picked off by the vultures.
There's only one thing left for you to confess.
Last chorus. Here we go.
Am I still penciled in on your calendar.
Am I still the late night call.
When you've got nothing to say.
I know it's New Year's Eve And you say you love me.
Last lover standing.
In minor C this time.
Last lover standing.
Who'll be the last lover standing.
On Saint Valentine's.
Day.
You really wrote that?
It sounds like an actual song.
What'd you think, Eugenio?
It was okay, I guess.
What about the other one? Sniper?
It's about the war.
How Schindewulf's old man made him join up.
It's like a protest song?
It sucks.
Later, alligator.
Jesus Christ on the cross!
These openings are a tight squeeze.
Bullshit!
I told you not to let her drive any of the vehicles.
She comes out from the city, pilfers all our
toilet paper and provisions,
and shears off a goddamn mirror?
She must be doing it on purpose!
Why would she do that?
And what's with wearing the plastic
lemon juice applicators?
I don't know, Dad. ReaLemon is one of your sponsors.
Is your sister taking this LSD?
You better come clean right now.
No.
This is Emile.
What the hell is this?
Yeah, that keeps happening.
It's my strabismus.
What are you talking about? You're not cross-eyed.
Well, how come I keep seeing double then?
Or quadruple if I want to?
You walk barefoot in New York City?
Walking on gobs and chewing gum and God knows what?
Train kept a-rollin' all night long.
With a heave and a ho.
But I just couldn't let her go.
Train kept a-rollin' all night long.
The fireworks display is tomorrow night
for the parents. Fuck that!
Watch your language! There's young children present!
Keep it going, Mr. Drummer Man!
Compliments of the capitalist pigs at Lackawanna Railroad.
Why shouldn't we have a little patriotic taste of our own?
O, say can you dig it?
Magnesium! I've been horribly burned!
Do it again!
He's asleep, boys.
It's band business, Mrs. Gaunt.
I'll go see.
Listen, man, you got to tell him he's out of the band. I can't do it.
It was your idea!
This cat first taught me the key of E, man!
- Wells! - You'll be better at it!
Submitted for your approval,
Douglas Damiano.
A shy, retiring sort, it turns out he, of all those involved
has what it takes for success in music.
He can plunge the knife in his best friend's back.
Lento told me I had absolutely
done the right thing in taking over lead.
Fine.
We want to write originals and your bag is those covers...
I said fine!
Pimply faced lead singer.
Chick voted Most Popular in high school.
You're a fucking cliche.
If you weren't so fucking jealous,
maybe you wouldn't have burnt your scalp and ruined the show.
You cats don't understand the concept of entertainment!
It's fine for Moon to trash his drum set,
but me doing my juggling thing is persona non grata?
Who the fuck even knew you had a juggling thing?
Really? You're gonna sit there and tell me
you never saw me juggling
those Pepsi cans outside the sub shop?
My scalp is fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.
Wells is right. You embarrass us.
- Corky Curto? - What about him?
He got kicked out of Dave Smith
for playing faster triplets than Dave?
So?
Me and him been talking about starting a band.
Yeah?
We jammed the other night,
got, like, three Butterfield tunes down perfect.
I sounded almost exactly like Mike Bloomfield.
You are a good guitar player.
Fuck!
My fucking neck!
You fucking...
You used the time I swallowed that joint
to steal my fucking life, man!
What the deuce?
What the hell are you doing? Jesus!
Hi.
I didn't even know you were out here again.
I took the 33 bus.
Me with all those squares.
I see they got the mirror fixed.
I had to take the car in.
I should have gone away this summer,
instead of working at that stupid gift shop.
Mom asked me to come out.
For a family meeting.
How moderne.
They think they're so cagey, but I overheard them talking.
Dad wants to put me in jail.
What?
Grandma Deitz's stag-handle carving set is missing.
He's got it in his head that I hooked it.
Joy.
He's gonna get the pigs to grab me while I'm sleeping.
But I'm not gonna be here. I'll be gone.
There goes that master plan for Mr. Sherlock Deitz.
If you need somebody to get you out in a hurry,
I'll do it.
Drive getaway?
They wouldn't have you put in jail.
My copy of Sirens of Titan is gone.
You haven't seen it, have you?
Have you asked Kenny?
Kenny reads Kurt Vonnegut?
He's a funny writer.
It doesn't matter anyway.
You saying you're gonna help me escape?
It really touches me.
Everything's going to be okay.
Hello?
Hi, Neil.
Can you hold on a minute?
What?
Fuckers! It was a trap!
I got Bobby a new TV,
with the antenna and everything.
- Yeah? - One week, gone with the wind.
How do you want your steak?
Burn it up.
Who could've taken his TV?
There's no mulignans up in Cranston.
You're not supposed to say those words anymore, Dad.
You never were, but now even more so.
You should call them "Afro-Americans."
What's so different now?
- Martin Luther King? - Fine.
Fag, too. You shouldn't call people that anymore.
- Now what? - Come on.
Why not?
It's rude to homosexuals, that's why.
The new term is "gay."
I bet she got some finook as a teacher
over there at her new school.
Uncle Johnny!
Please, Mrs. Damiano, let me.
No, no, hon. Go sit down.
I'm sure your mother would be very upset
if you got a spot on that beautiful Pucci dress.
That must've cost a pretty penny. Jose?
Pasqual, how you been doing?
He's scheduled for two weeks of treatment
at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, that's how he's been doing.
Drop it on my daughter's birthday.
I'm fine.
Douglas, how's the group?
Rock and roll, keeps you young, right?
Not really, Aunt Josie. It's an art form.
Does Dostoyevsky keep you young?
Actually, I'm thinking of moving to Los Angeles.
Why don't I just slit my wrists?
Mind your own business, Josephine!
Grace is gonna transfer to UCLA.
But we wouldn't be going together.
- A girlfriend of mine is transferring, too. - Yeah.
Sorry, I forgot to say that. Anyway, the band's messed up.
And I might take a film course.
Going back to college? Good.
Giving college credits now for making movies.
Laurel and Hardy had a Ph.D.
Film and music are the only two forms of art
that both take place within the medium of elapsed time.
I'm trying to get my customers
to pay their goddamn bills on time.
I could give a crap about movies and music.
People. It's my birthday.
No, no!
I can report you to the house fellow
for having a man in the dorm.
- Listen to this. - What?
Oh, yeah. Orson.
He said, "The camera is far more"
"than a recording apparatus."
"It is a means by which messages"
"come to us from the other world."
"This is the beginning of magic."
See? He probably stole that from Rod Serling.
Music has the same attributes.
Especially since Hendrix and you-name-it.
Plato,
he said,
"When the mode of the music changes,"
"the walls of the city shake."
I love you.
Do you believe in me?
Yes.
Here's salami.
Day off down at the job?
No. But it's Ash Wednesday.
- I was going to go... - Yeah. Yeah, right.
Your mother and Evy, going to Lauderdale,
visit Aunt Lee. I'll buy dinner.
We need to discuss what happens
when you become man of the family.
Okay.
Don't make a federal drama out of it.
All fathers and sons should have this conversation.
You're almost 21!
A haircut is too much to ask, I'm sure,
but you show up at that restaurant without a tie and a jacket,
you and me are going to tangle, my friend.
I finally got Jerry Ragovoy to listen to your demo.
How'd you arrange this? It's been two years.
Good question. I'm Joe Jerk-Off, right?
- No, I... - Here's the important part.
I have a promise from Jerry to try to set up an audition
for you guys in Manhattan with an eye to signing you.
He wrote Time ls On My Side.
I'm not sure we're ready.
I told that guy.
I told your pal on the phone about this.
One simple question, you see how uptight he got?
I think maybe this is a setup.
A setup? For what?
I'm not sure yet.
I want to keep him talking until he reveals himself.
Fuck this. Either we do the audition or I quit.
We haven't played in four months.
Since Skip got mono.
And I think I speak for Doug
when I say nobody's holding any grudges.
You're the one who wants to do this audition.
I'll do it this once.
But?
It has to say "With special guest, Gene Gaunt."
If it works out with Ragovoy, we would still move out to L.A.?
I think you should focus on the audition right now.
You should become an actress out there.
I told you, I thought about it, and people say I should.
And I love movies, but I don't think acting's right for me.
I could be a writer or edit film, too.
I just meant...
And I'm also really interested in veterinary.
You should become a glamourpuss star and I could do the music.
Are you listening?
Is that all you value about me, my looks?
I was only kidding.
When I was your age, I courted this wild gal.
She had a Cord Phaeton. It was a V16 engine.
Yeah, I know. I know.
It was like a 'Vette back then.
Anyway, she was a pistol. You know what she'd do?
I have absolutely no idea.
She'd drive us at night
up to the cliffs overlooking the Hudson.
She'd have her golf clubs in the trunk,
and we'd drive golf balls into the river.
She wanted to get married, but it was the Depression.
I was worried about job security.
So, how's your fra diavolo? Good?
Yeah, real good.
You're not eating much.
Big lunch.
Over here, two.
I used to take that gal here.
Didn't bother her at all, she was the only woman in the place.
Well, Mom's skeeved out by shellfish, that we know.
Yeah.
Dad, how come after the Depression,
you never got drafted into the war?
Well, actually, I didn't wait to get drafted.
I tried to sign up. Seabees.
But the place where I was working then,
we made belt buckles and canvas fasteners.
For Uncle Sam. Vital to the war effort.
So I didn't get to go.
Lucky me?
You know,
my friend from when I was a kid, Tom, with the one leg missing?
Yeah.
Iwo Jima.
And our buddy, Russ, he never left that island.
Those weeks when I was at the Lahey Clinic
getting those treatments?
I met a patient there. About my age.
Same lymphoma as me.
There's only about 60 cases in the whole U.S.
Kate.
From California.
L.A.? San Fran?
You could say I fell in love with her.
I was thinking seriously about leaving your mother.
I shouldn't say "seriously." it probably wasn't serious.
Anyway,
what would she do?
What do you mean?
Like, you'd go there? Or she would come here?
No, no. Your mother.
What would she do?
I don't know.
I'd take... I'd take care of her.
What, that guy go to Scotland for the Scotch?
Dad. I was saying that I would take care of Mom.
You know they're still pulling lobsters out of New York Harbor?
Uncle Murf has got a friend who has got a trawler out in Sandy Hook.
It's nice that I can trust you with my secrets.
Your reputation for discretion is well-known.
And I appreciate the glimpse into your mystery.
Tell me just one thing and then you're on your own.
Am I still penciled in on your calendar.
Am I still the late night call.
When you've got nothing to say.
I know it's Christmas morning.
And you say you love me.
But who'll be the last lover standing.
Come Saint Valentine's Day.
I had my cards close to my vest.
When the table got kicked over.
It's what you wanted.
Though you thought nothing and said even less.
And now even your carrier pigeons.
Have been picked off by the vultures.
There's only one thing left for you to confess.
Am I still penciled in on your calendar.
Am I still the late night call.
When you've got nothing to say.
I know it's New Year's Eve.
And you say you love me.
But who'll be the last lover standing.
Who'll be the last lover standing.
Come Saint Valentine's Day
I took the liberty of writing some things down during your set.
Is that a recording contract?
Goin' To A Go-Go, Easter Parade.
You never know. You might get asked to play it in season
if people are drinking enough.
Those are two of twenty.
Maybe Baby.
I'll work up another five.
I want you to learn them.
Play as many bars and coffeehouses as you can.
Ensconce yourself here in New York. Pay your dues.
Make your living from it.
Play seven nights a week, two shows a night,
and then call me in six months.
This material, we'll lose the mystique we built up with our fans.
Fellas, let me tell you something.
The band that tries to manage itself
has five jerk-offs as a client.
What's your percentage gonna be, Jerry?
Can you just listen?
Learn 25 new songs?
It's a huge amount of time and effort.
That's why it's called the music business.
It's an art form.
So they say. Since Pepper.
But, okay. Let's stipulate for now it's an art form.
Art, painting, literature.
The whole kreplach is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.
But playing for drunks every night? Getting booed?
The Beatles spent two years playing German strip bars,
dodging bratwurst.
It's musical boot camp.
What'd you think of their song?
Keep writing.
That fucking Rickenbacker thing
you had going was out of sight, man.
So what are you going to do now?
We shouldn't get back together?
I don't think so, man.
How do you tell Doug and everybody that I embarrass you?
We have more laughs and adventures than anybody.
Since we were six years old.
Made me want to cry when I heard that.
You ever read The Tibetan Book of the Dead?
There is no past.
No future, either.
Just the now.
So, you don't need to get hung up on
whether you're in the band or some other band
or no band at all.
Yeah, but you'll be in the band.
And Doug.
I can return the van after I drop you off.
Bike's looking excelsior.
Hey, you should take it for a crank.
Keep your hand on the clutch!
Keep her in first till you hit the street!
Shift!
Gaunt takes the snap. Looking for a receiver.
Montan goes wide.
Here comes Gaunt with a Hail Mary!
Twenty-six before 7:00 on WABC.
This is Big Dan.
My ears are still frozen.
- What? - Shit.
Oh, you! Don't you try anything!
Wake up! Wake up!
You are not graduating from Kotex.
Try convincing your future husband it was just tampons.
I guess this puts the kibosh
on Jerry Ragovoy's timetable.
Fucking tragedy, man.
On the brink of success.
Part of me is thinking of going to film school.
UCLA.
You still rapping about that?
I like the idea of putting music together with film images.
Maybe, I don't know.
You'd go out there with Deitz?
She's switching to pre-veterinary.
Frankly,
we can't wait around for you
when it comes time to record with Jerry.
Jerry never guaranteed we'd record.
This delay,
actually a blessing in disguise.
Gives us a year to finally be ready.
A year.
If you can't wait around, we understand.
Good thing I happen to be taking voice lessons.
At least now, if you go to L.A.,
we won't be out a lead singer.
Bye!
You know as well as I do, the church says this is a sin.
And on top of everything else,
our grandchildren are gonna have mental illness
in their genes.
Chains!
- What'd you say? - Hold your horses!
What?
My father put snow chains in the trunk.
Here. Now you keep your goddamn mouth shut.
Dad...
Okay, good! They're easy to install!
Bye!
I gave him a pork shoulder.
I put it in with his things.
Here's a long life to Vassar.
Wave we her flag unfurled.
My mother has got your room all ready. Hi, Doug.
We just got invited to this party in Hollywood.
Come on.
Do you know where Rod Serling lives?
That's Charlie Watts, man.
Fuck!
Have you seen Grace?
She was with the dog.
What?
It was shaking and had diarrhea,
or somebody maybe gave it DMT.
I got to tell her I just saw Charlie Watts!
Did a tall girl go in the bathroom?
I'm looking for my girlfriend.
I have to pee so bad.
They didn't want anyone coming down this way.
Somebody said Jagger
was in there for a while with some chicks.
Nobody at that party really, actually saw Jagger.
I saw Charlie, man.
What, you think The Stones all ride around together
in some stupid van
like you and your wiffle-ball friends back in Jersey?
That place was packed. She could have been looking for you.
And then left.
She told me you said you believed in her.
Hi. Get in.
You look lonesome.
Come on, man.
Get in.
Radio magic. KMJK.
The music of tomorrow.
I had to write this term paper.
And I made it about how America has given the world
two inventions of enormous power.
One is nuclear weapons.
The other is rock and roll.
It's a question, I wrote,
which one is going to win out in the end.