Original subtitles

[woman] How was that?

[man] Now, a very pretty legato, very pretty melody.

You like that?

I like that. But it's gotta be harder, you know,

when we write the lyric to it, it will be different.

[vocalizing]

[man 2] When I met Carole back in New York,

I was shaking in my shoes 'cause I knew all about Goffin and King,

the legendary songwriting team. And I knew how great they were.

And she was a brilliant arranger and had arranged a lot of singles

for the Drifters and other big acts. So she really knew her stuff.

[man 3] Carole came from New York to California probably around '68.

She had, uh, recently been separated from Gerry Goffin,

and I guess it was the beginnings of her new life.

In those days I didn't really write lyrics.

Didn't need to. After we got divorced, I needed to. [chuckles]

And I really wondered if I could do it, but I guess I did.

[applause]

That was the beginning of my career as a solo writer.

[playing "You've Got A Friend"]

♪ When you're down and troubled ♪

♪ And you need some loving care ♪

♪ And nothing, nothing is going right ♪

[Kortchmar] What was expressed in that song is something that everyone feels,

and everyone would like someone to feel about them.

That was also one of her first lyrics. As a way to start, it's pretty incredible.

[King] Songwriting became my place of identification.

I did find that place through my music where I was really happy.

♪ You just call out my name ♪

♪ And you know wherever I am ♪

♪ I'll come running ♪

♪ To see you again ♪

[Adler] Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor,

Joni Mitchell, Elton John. Singer-songwriters.

You could put a name on the genre.

They were basically poets that could put their poems to music.

[man] I don't think you'll ever see a creative burst like that musically again.

You could probably buy ten albums a week that became pretty classic albums.

I mean, that's astonishing.

♪ Ain't it good to know You've got a friend ♪

[woman] That was always my optimism.

That if I described my own changes through whatever the decade was throwing at us,

that there were others like me. And it turns out that there were.

[vocalizes]

♪ You've got a friend ♪

[audience cheers]

[camera shutters clicking]

[man] The dream's over.

-[man 2] In 1971... -[woman] Music said something.

[protesters chant]

[woman] The world was changing.

[man 3] We were creating the 21st century in 1971.

[radio: chimes sounding]

[female announcer] Welcome to Los Angeles, supercity of the future

metropolis of Southern California.

[Adler] In 1971, the industry had shifted from New York to California.

It was just so appealing.

Up in Laurel Canyon you could get the feeling

of being in the country five minutes away from the Sunset Strip.

["California" playing]

♪ Sitting in a park in Paris, France ♪

♪ Reading the news and it's all bad ♪

♪ They won't give peace a chance ♪

♪ That was just a dream some of us had ♪

♪ Still a lot of lands to see ♪

♪ But I wouldn't want to stay here ♪

♪ It's too old and cold And settled in its ways here ♪

♪ Oh, but California ♪

♪ California, I'm coming home ♪

♪ I'm going to see the folks I dig ♪

♪ I'll even kiss a Sunset pig ♪

♪ California, when I get home ♪

[Mitchell] When I first got here, I remember driving around

up in the canyons in Crosby's car with the good stereo.

It reminded me of cottages at the lake.

There were no sidewalks. There were no regimented lines.

The ruralness, having lived in New York and then come here,

having trees in the yard, you know,

having ducks in my neighbor's yard floating around on the pond.

[woman] There was very much a neighborhood culture.

You went over to somebody's house, you took your guitar and you played together.

Musicians do that.

♪ But he kept my camera to sell Oh, the rogue, the red, red rogue ♪

[man] I was living in Laurel Canyon, and it was fantastic. I was in heaven.

Laurel Canyon in my mind was beautiful women, freedom,

sunshine, great dope, much creation.

♪ I'm coming home ♪

♪ Oh, make me feel good Rock 'n' roll band ♪

♪ I'm your biggest fan ♪

♪ California, I'm coming home ♪

[Mitchell] When I realized how popular I was becoming, it was right before Blue.

Oh, my God, a lot of people are listening to me.

Well, then they better find out who they're worshipping.

Let's see if they can take it. Let's get real.

So I wrote Blue, which horrified a lot of people, 'cause it was a man's world.

Kris Kristofferson went, "Joni, keep something of yourself."

'Cause it was unprecedented in its vulnerability in a certain way,

but it was all I was capable of.

This is a song that isn't really finished, you know.

It needs another verse to it still, but, um, it's got a little bit of it there

and, uh, when I go home late at night,

this is a song that I really like to sing right now, so I'll play it for you.

♪ My old man ♪

♪ He's a singer in the park ♪

♪ He's a walker in the rain ♪

[Nash] The album that Joni made, called Blue, is a brilliant album,

but a little painful for me.

I'd just broken up with Joni.

♪ We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall ♪

♪ Keeping us tied and true, no ♪

♪ My old man ♪

♪ Keeping away my blues ♪

♪ But when he's gone ♪

♪ Me and them lonesome blues collide ♪

♪ The bed's too big ♪

♪ The frying pan's too wide ♪

[Nash] She was writing from her heart to her fellow women

and these other people called men.

I think that's what makes it so incredibly relevant.

[Mitchell] They all recoiled because the game was

to make yourself larger than life.

Don't reveal anything human, and my thing is why?

♪ But he comes home ♪

♪ And he takes me in his loving arms ♪

♪ And he tells me all his troubles ♪

♪ And he tells me all my charms ♪

[Ronstadt] Joni Mitchell was redefining the way people write songs.

You write about what you feel, what you're thinking, what you're going through.

And that was her way of trying to process that sadness.

[woman] She wanted to get to the heart of things.

And she wasn't afraid of getting to the heart of things.

But hearing that from a woman, it felt very exposed.

And I'm not sure that people were all that comfortable at the time.

[applause]

♪ Good morning, Mrs. Jones ♪

♪ You certainly got your laundry Clean and white ♪

♪ Better than clean, better than white ♪

[together] ♪ Bold's extra power gets clothes bright ♪

[Mrs. Jones] I'm sold on Bold. [audio distorts]

[Atlas] It was really the very traditional role

that the husband went out to work

and the wife was really educated but she was devoted to her home.

I mean, the happiest you could be was you found a cleaner for the floor. [chuckles]

♪ Another Pleasant Valley Sunday ♪

And this was the traditional suburban household

that was put forth in terms of mainstream media.

[Mitchell] We were raised on Disney, "Someday My Prince Will Come."

We came up in affluence.

Our mothers had bought in to the white picket fence,

but the wives were unhappy.

The home contained, for the most part, unhappy women.

You lost a little weight, did ya? You look--

-I don't know. I don't know. -You look awfully, uh...

-Thin? -Awfully thin.

-Haggard. -No...

[Atlas] American Family was the very daring documentary film

where you see this journey of a woman, who was raised pretty traditionally,

realize that her marriage was not what she thought it was.

-My face fall off? [chuckles] -No, you got a little Vaseline on it.

[both chuckling]

[Atlas] She came out of that time when the expectation of women

of her education and her economic class,

it was to get married and stay married.

And all of a sudden, it was like, "Oh, my heavens. What's gonna happen?

Is she really gonna leave her husband?"

Great. Is she in town?

Is she in town now, Marline, or, uh, is she just going through?

[woman] Who, Milly? She's in town. Oh, you should see her. My God, she's--

[Pat Loud] What do you care for, Bill?

[Bill Loud] Oh, I-- [laughs] Whoop.

I just wanna authenticate everything, Pat.

And make sure that we have all our records straight.

[woman chuckles]

Well, for the record, she's just passing through.

[laughter]

[Kortchmar] We watched what looked like

a very normal Californian family in Santa Barbara.

There was a lot of skeletons in the closet,

and this kind of ripped the veneer off the polite American family.

And that's what made it such an important document at the time.

We all watched it every week.

♪ Looking out on the morning rain ♪

[woman] We really were holding up a mirror to our society in 1971.

And people saw themselves. They really did.

[speaks indistinctly]

♪ Oh, when my soul Was in the lost and found ♪

♪ You came along to claim it ♪

[woman 2] Carole King's Tapestry.

My brother Lance introduced that album to me, of course,

'cause he was sort of the pioneer of the music scene.

We played it over and over again.

You know, as a young woman, I just remember being mesmerized by it.

♪ I didn't know Just what was wrong with me ♪

♪ Till your kiss helped me name it ♪

♪ Now I'm no longer doubtful ♪

♪ Of what I'm living for ♪

♪ 'Cause if I make you happy I don't need to do more ♪

[King] "Natural Woman" was written with Gerry Goffin,

and then recorded by Aretha Franklin based on a demo that I did.

But I wanted to record it myself in the very simple way that I did.

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Like a natural ♪

♪ Woman ♪

[Kortchmar] The breakup with Gerry,

did you find it difficult to write about it?

[King] I didn't find it difficult to write about

because, in fact, writing about it

gave me that opportunity to put it in perspective

and to remember not only my personal feelings as a woman,

but we were gonna last forever.

We were gonna live happily ever after.

[Atlas] When she made that sea change to write for herself,

songs that she was going to sing,

obviously that meant a lot to her personally.

And that was very powerful.

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Like a natural ♪

♪ Natural woman ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ You know you make me feel ♪

[man] I was mixing one of the last tunes on the album.

Lou came down to listen to it.

And then I looked at him and I said, "Gee, Lou, is this as good as I think it is?"

And he said, "Yeah, I think we got a good shot with this."

♪ Woman ♪

[Kortchmar] There's no question that people turned to Tapestry for comfort.

The authenticity, the sincerity of emotion.

They would recognize somebody that they felt understood them.

[King] The single incident that made me a performer

was James Taylor pushing me out onstage.

James Taylor was gonna open at the Troubadour,

and they asked me to be his opening act.

[man] Hello, I'd like to welcome you to the Troubadour this evening.

Any of you who don't know me, my name is Doug Weston.

[applause]

[Kortchmar] At that point, the Troubadour was the only game in town.

It was the perfect place for a singer-songwriter

to debut their act in Los Angeles.

Carole was very reluctant to perform.

She was terribly shy about performing, getting onstage.

[King] I had my act really carefully worked out,

and I knew exactly what I was gonna do.

And at the end of my third number, I hear this voice coming over a speaker.

A disembodied voice saying...

[woman, on PA] Carole, we're going to have to ask everybody to leave.

There's been a report that there's a bomb.

[King] And I'm saying, "As long as it's not me!"

And everybody laughed, and the tension was broken,

and what I learned that night was that the audience want me to be myself.

That was the thing that put me over

into being the person you see onstage now.

♪ You've got to get up every morning With a smile on your face ♪

♪ And show the world All the love in your heart ♪

[Kortchmar] That period of time at the Troubadour between '70, '71, '72,

everyone played there. Cat Stevens played there.

Elton John of course made his famous debut there with just a trio.

And tore the hell out of the place.

[man] A lot of people have started their careers there. Joni Mitchell played there.

They all thought that I was gonna be a typical, um, singer-songwriter.

♪ And the future you're giving me Holds nothing for a gun ♪

♪ I've no wish to be living 60 years on ♪

[John] The shock of me coming out, playing "Sixty Years On"

in hot pants and a starry T-shirt and big wing boots.

They weren't ready for that.

I think people were expecting to see a very shy young man.

And we just rocked the house away.

[Adler] The crowd, which was a very music business crowd,

also realized that here's a major star.

It was an awakening to what this performer was.

How he could perform as a singer-songwriter.

This was a new dimension of singer-songwriting.

[John] It just happened on the first night.

The next day we got incredible press reviews.

And it just spread across America.

And the album went soaring up in the charts,

and it just happened from there.

We happened in America first, before we happened in England.

-[man] Does this surprise you? -I wasn't ready for it.

I thought we might be quite successful in America,

but never as successful as that. It just happened so quickly.

[John] We were so high on being in LA. It looked so glamorous.

The cars were glamorous.

The sheer excitement of being able to go to a record store.

Buy American vinyl.

The quality of the albums was astounding.

You could buy Miles Davis.

You could buy Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder.

There was so much going on.

You know, anything we did at that point was so exciting.

Meet these people. Hear American accents.

Just everything I watched as a kid on The Liberace Show,

on The Andy Williams Show.

There it was. Right in front of my eyes.

And we were all like kids in a candy store, I can tell you.

Ladies and gentlemen, a few months ago a young man came over from England.

And he shot right to the top of the pop music field.

His first album is a hit.

His first single is a hit.

-And I hate him. -[audience laughs]

No, I really like him. I mean I really like him.

[audience laughs]

And here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Elton John.

[applause]

[playing "Your Song"]

♪ It's a little bit funny ♪

♪ This feeling inside ♪

♪ I'm not one of those Who can easily hide ♪

♪ I don't have much money But, boy, if I did ♪

♪ I'd buy a big house Where we both could live ♪

Elton John, a remarkable man from the world of pop,

whom some would claim to be Britain's newest musical superstar.

Elton John and his lyric-writing partner, Bernie Taupin,

could well be the most inventive and original team of songwriters

since Lennon and McCartney.

♪ I hope you don't mind I hope you don't mind ♪

♪ That I put down in words ♪

♪ How wonderful life is ♪

♪ While you're in the world ♪

[John] I'd never really heard my record on the radio before,

and so when I started to hear "Your Song" on the radio,

it was like a dream.

♪ But the sun's been quite kind ♪

♪ While I wrote this song ♪

♪ It's for people like you ♪

♪ That keep it turned on ♪

[John] It was a very, very hardworking journey.

I mean, it was pedal to the metal. You know, we were all over the place.

♪ How wonderful life is ♪

♪ While you're in the world ♪

[song continues]

[song ends]

[cheers, applause]

Thank you! God bless you, Fillmore!

Ah, well then.

[cheering, applause continues]

[John] It was essential for my career that I went to America

because, basically, that's where my music comes from.

[male announcer] This is the Chelsea Hotel in New York City

where Lance Loud has been living for the past two months.

He's sharing a room with a friend named Soren Agenoux.

They are awaiting the arrival of Pat Loud, Lance's mother.

[Lance] Because, for one thing, I want to make sure we get into that play tonight.

[Pat Loud] I instinctively knew Lance was gay,

although the word never came up.

But it was pretty clear.

Lance, from the time he was, like, 13, was nuts about Andy Warhol.

And he had quite a correspondence with him.

[Lance Loud] Sitting here talking to--

[Atlas] Lance Loud didn't conform to what people expected of young men then.

-Hello. How are you? -[woman] Kiss me quickly.

[Atlas] Seeing him reflected in a series like that on television,

there'd never been anything like that before.

And it took a while for anything to be like that again.

And it was very powerful.

[Pat Loud] I hadn't been hardly any place. I'd been in Oregon and California.

And when they said "Chelsea Hotel,"

I thought, "Oh, that's a nice little English place.

And there'll be just a charming little old lady

taking care of it at the front desk."

So, I walk in there and I get almost knocked over by the scent of marijuana.

[receptionist] Yes, uh, what's the name, please?

I guess I should dress up or something-- I need--

-I keep feeling like I should just-- -Lance? Get over here.

Hello. [kisses]

-How are you? -Fine.

-I couldn't even find you. -[Lance] Oh, this is Soren.

-Hi. -Hi, Soren. How are you doing?

Nice to meet you.

-I thought-- -You look really nice.

I thought you were going to come down and be in the lobby,

and I got down there and you weren't there.

-You look so nice. Yeah. -Thank you, love.

Well, it's certainly a surprise. I was just going to go upstairs to see you.

I thought you were...

[Pat Loud] Lance wasn't like anybody I've ever known.

He was difficult beyond belief, but he was a fascinating person.

[Lance] We're going to the, uh, La MaMa Theatre tonight.

-We-- -What play?

Vain Victory with Jackie Curtis.

It's the ultimate of the underground, you'll just think it's so neat.

-[Soren] You'd like it. -Yeah.

Ondine and all the underground stars are in it. It's a big play.

All these wonderful people I haven't even heard of.

All the people you-- Oh, I know, hey! But you've dreamed of them.

[chuckles] Do you wanna go upstairs?

-Mm-hmm. -Okay.

I hope that my room is as elegant as yours.

My dear, it's much more elegant.

-[Pat Loud] We'll see you later, Soren. -[Soren] Okay. Nice meeting you.

[Pat Loud] The first person I meet in the hotel is a very famous drag queen.

Holly! This is my mother. This is Holly.

[Pat Loud] Holly Woodlawn, who was in a lot of Andy Warhol's movies.

Oh, we-- we're gonna be back in a second.

-Okay, fine. -Okay.

[Holly Woodlawn] My friends called me up and said, "Oh, turn on the radio.

Because Lou Reed just wrote a song about you."

[Lou Reed] ♪ Holly came from Miami, FLA ♪

♪ Hitchhiked her way across the USA ♪

[Woodlawn] And then we went to a party.

And he was there. And he was in the corner.

He was a shy, quiet guy.

So I asked him, "How do you know so much about me?"

He said, "Holly, because you have a big mouth." [chuckles]

Because all he said was, you know, the truth.

I plucked my eyebrows and shaved my legs.

And, uh, became a "she."

♪ In the back room She was everybody's darling ♪

He was surrounded by that because of the Factory,

the Warhol crowd, and all that.

So I think he's just, uh,

sort of, I don't wanna say "voyeuristic,"

but I, you know, he just wrote songs about what he saw and knew.

When Lou wrote "Walk on the Wild Side,"

he made me immortal.

[Lance] There are all those different individual little cells of people,

and they're all famous and all, like--

Now that I look back at my life, I keep thinking, like, you know,

when I was 13, I-- I don't know, it was like being a little mouse

and trapped in a box in some-- in a little quiet room--

I'm not saying that we led such, you know,

a super average, ordinary life, but--

But you went into your room one year

and you didn't come out for about two more years.

[chuckles] I know.

Except at night when you lurched out the window.

I know, but it was all frustration, you know.

I felt so frustrated at being-- I don't know, it--

There-- There's always been something in me

that I could never understand, but, um--

[Pat Loud] Well, you were pretty hard to understand, yourself.

♪ I said, "Hey, babe Take a walk on the wild side" ♪

-Is the close-up just a part of it? -[Lance] Yeah.

[sings indistinctly]

♪ Jackie is just speeding away ♪

♪ Thought she was James Dean for a day ♪

♪ Then I guess she had to crash Valium would have helped that bash ♪

[Raymond] I think people's jaws fell on the floor.

And it was all presented to you as, "Mom's visit to New York." You know? [chuckles]

Uh, can-- c-- Is there some place around here

that I can get some food and cook for you?

-[kisses] Uh. We'll find that later. -[Soren] Come on, let's go.

[man] One of the things that was pretty radical for its time about the series

was that being gay, homosexual, in 1971,

was pretty shocking.

The family didn't disown him,

and in fact, I think in some ways,

Pat became the gold standard of gay moms.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Atlas] She was so open and willing to see things differently

than, perhaps, the way she was raised to see things.

It was a huge eye-opener for a lot of people in 1971.

[chuckles]

[John] People were being very brave because they felt they could.

You know, I grew up in the '50s, you couldn't say boo to a goose.

People, behind their curtains, they were gossiped about.

You couldn't get divorced. You couldn't, you know.

If you were pregnant, you were sent away.

The '60s opened up the possibilities,

and in the '70s it just went straight the way.

And I think that had a lot to do with people's creativity,

and I think it had a lot to do with people thinking, "Listen, I can do anything."

[man] We're here to let America know that we exist.

We're not a myth of any type.

The early 1970s

was about particular socially excluded and marginalized groups of people

coming together to defend who they were.

And to demand their place in the sun.

We want the freedoms. The freedoms to love in public,

that belong to the heterosexuals in this country.

And we're going to have them.

[John] I never had a problem. I just thought everyone knew that I was gay.

I was living with my manager who was gay. The costumes, you know.

[man] When he became Elton John,

he was rebelling against everything he wasn't allowed to do as a child.

He was escaping this repression

that was forced upon him when he was younger.

[John sings indistinctly]

[John] But it wasn't to do with being gay as much as saying,

"I'm just gonna push the envelope and have as much fun."

And also, I'm stuck at a piano.

You have to do something with a piano. It's a plank.

-Rock and roll! -[audience cheering]

[camera shutter clicking]

Whoo!

[John] I think that's what the early '70s were all about.

The incredible feeling of "Nothing's impossible.

There are no rules."

They might think that Elton John is, like, an old guy that comes and sits down

and plays his piano and sings his songs.

But he's not really, you see.

-I'm a lunatic. -He's, um, a raving lunatic. [laughs]

-[interviewer] What did you say? -I'm a lunatic.

[vocalizes]

Uh, I just get influenced by some people.

I mean, everybody has their idols and their influences.

And you-- I-- I listen to a lot of records and subconsciously they must influence me.

Not consciously. I haven't sort of sat down and said,

"I must write a song like Bob Dylan or Leon Russell."

But subconsciously it might come out sounding a bit like that.

[man] So Bernie Taupin is not absolutely necessary for your piano playing?

Oh, God, you're joking. Yes, he is. He's very necessary.

'Cause I-- I don't like singing other people's songs.

[stammers] Let's-- First and foremost, we're songwriters, we're not artists.

I didn't wanna ever appear onstage.

I just wanted to sit back, make the records,

and, uh, you know, just be very lazy.

[cheers, applause]

I thought it only fair that I should introduce Bernie Taupin,

-who never really faces his public. -[applause]

And without Bernie there wouldn't be any songs, anyway.

One here that I've sort of done the other day

called "Tiny Dancer," which is about Bernie's girlfriend.

Uh, and it's-- It just sort of-- just sort of felt like--

I looked through all the lyrics and that was the one I fancied writing.

Reg has to write very fast because he can't, sort of--

He hasn't got the patience to sort of spend hours or days

on something, you know. I mean, that's-- that's Reg.

Yeah, I mean-- [stammers] You look at it, the words.

Uh, "Blue jean baby, LA lady, seamstress for the band.

Pretty-eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man. Ballerina."

As soon as you get to the word "ballerina" you know it's not gonna be fast.

It's gotta be sort of gentle.

[playing "Tiny Dancer"]

♪ Blue jean baby, LA lady ♪

♪ Seamstress for the band ♪

♪ Pretty-eyed ♪

♪ Pirate smile ♪

♪ You'll marry a music man ♪

♪ Ballerina ♪

♪ You must've seen her ♪

♪ Dancing in the sand ♪

[Tatchell] I can understand why he didn't come out in that particular period.

Because the potential damage to his career

thanks to homophobic record companies, producers, promoters,

review editors and so on, could have been quite devastating.

♪ Piano man ♪

♪ He makes his stand ♪

♪ In the auditorium ♪

[man] I think what Elton sang was Elton's music.

And it was reflective of what was going on inside of him.

It wasn't about being gay, it was about being expressive and individual.

I didn't care what he said he was. He was heroic in my book.

♪ Oh, how it feels so real ♪

♪ Lying here with no one near ♪

♪ Only you, and you can hear me ♪

♪ When I say softly ♪

♪ Slowly ♪

♪ Hold me closer, tiny dancer ♪

♪ Count the headlights on the highway ♪

[Mixner] We were allowed to live a gay lifestyle

as long as we didn't tell anybody.

We were allowed to be effeminate. We were allowed to dress like Elton.

I mean, you know, if you don't believe Liberace's gay,

you can get away with a lot. [laughs]

How do you like my hot pants, Art?

Sensational. Where'd you get 'em?

I've had hot pants since I was 12 years old.

Oh, join the club.

[Tatchell] I'd say that 1971 was a year of revolutionary consciousness

among a whole series of marginalized, disadvantaged groups

who'd been excluded from the mainstream.

That wasn't just LGBT people,

but also women asserting their right to be women and their right to equality.

[male reporter] I haven't read your book yet

but I'm told it's very interesting and also highly readable.

Considering the subject, what is its main thrust?

It's really an attempt to describe the situation of women

in a way free of jargon

or academic pretentiousness but without condescension.

So that women could understand in a hopeful way

and not a frightening way

that everything could be otherwise.

That they could become architects of a new life.

♪ I am on a lonely road And I am traveling ♪

♪ Looking for the truth in men and in me ♪

[Greer] Women saw what I was driving at,

and they took the message that they weren't crazy.

The fact that they had the ideal life and were hating it

and half dead in it suddenly became okay to say.

♪ Oh, you're not real, no, no ♪

♪ Do you think you're fooling me ♪

♪ With these false pretensions ♪

♪ Of phony camaraderie ♪

[hums]

[Tatchell] We, in the Gay Liberation Front,

very much identified with the message of Germaine Greer's book, The Female Eunuch.

We saw a correlation between sexism and homophobia.

That it was a certain type of macho straight man

who oppressed both women and LGBT people.

♪ All I really, really wanted love to do ♪

♪ Was to bring out the best in me And in you too ♪

[male announcer] The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer.

The woman who has written what is now called

by The New York Times "The best feminist book so far."

Anyone want a signed copy of The Female Eunuch?

[man] I would like to ask Germaine Greer,

I really don't know what women are asking for.

Now suppose I wanted to give it to them...

-[audience clamors] -[Greer] Listen, you may as well relax

because whatever it is they're asking for, honey, it's not for you.

-[man] Now-- -[audience laughs]

[Pat Loud] She just made you stop and say, "Yeah, she's right."

We even gave up our family names and took our husband's last names

and look what a fucking mess they made of the whole thing.

[female narrator] What is the matter with all these women?

[baby crying]

They are being asked to accept and to be happy

in a way of life which is out of date and frustrating.

When one lonely wife complained of feeling like an aging Cinderella,

her agony column adviser told her

that though her husband could not be expected to change,

she could change herself.

[Bill Loud] That's feta cheese.

[Pat Loud] Well, don't put it in there.

-Where do you-- Where do you put it? -Huh?

Where would you put the cheese?

If it's a cheese, it goes in the cheese container, doesn't it?

[Pat Loud] I had personal problems with Bill.

Bill was screwing around quite a bit

and it made me feel rejected and ugly.

I was, like, 45.

And I didn't think I had any future whatsoever.

And I was pretty, well, lost.

[Bill Loud] How is your dancing?

Fun. Last week I had a private lesson.

No one showed up, just me.

So I had a private tap lesson. It was so much fun.

[Pat Loud] One of my motivations to do An American Family

was that maybe some of these women that he was having affairs with

would see that he had a lovely family

and say, "Well, I feel guilty. I'm not going to pursue that anymore."

I was very naive.

[Atlas] Pat Loud imagined that she would have

this kind of Hallmark card kind of life.

And then circumstances, as it has done for many, many women,

changed that for her.

And she had to have that awakening

and find the strength within herself to forge a different life.

[Bill Loud] I do know that. I do know that.

And I can talk to you because I not only feel friendly to you, you know,

I got amorance towards you, besides.

-Oh, you're so full of shit. -[laughs] Uh...

[Greer] In most marriages, you make allowances,

you try to fit in, you try to make it work,

you try to keep it happy and calm, and fulfilled and all,

and then one day you think, "You know what?"

[Pat Loud] Ha ha.

"Too Late Now." You know that song?

That Carole King song? Too late, baby!

["It's Too Late" playing]

♪ Stayed in bed all morning Just to pass the time ♪

♪ There's something wrong here There can be no denying ♪

♪ One of us is changing Or maybe we've just stopped trying ♪

♪ And it's too late, baby, now It's too late ♪

Well, I'm really tired. I'm going to get that dinner for you.

-[Bill Loud] Sounds good. -[Pat speaks indistinctly]

Wrap it up for the night.

♪ And I can't hide And I just can't fake it ♪

♪ Oh, no, no, no, no ♪

[Adler] It took us three weeks to make Tapestry.

The album exploded. It wasn't one of those that we had to sit around

and wait and see what was gonna happen. It truly exploded.

[Kortchmar] Everywhere you went, it was playing out of every car,

playing in all the stores.

You could not go shopping without hearing it. It was absolutely everywhere.

[King] These songs were the soundtrack of a certain generation.

But I meet people in their teens, and they say, "My mother played it for me."

And now it's, "My grandmother played it for me."

They say this song got them through their divorce,

and that song they conceived their child to.

So I'm always like, "It's okay, I didn't need to know that."

[vocalizes]

♪ There'll be good times again For me and you ♪

♪ But we just can't stay together Don't you feel it too? ♪

♪ Still I'm glad for what we had ♪

♪ And how I once loved you ♪

♪ But it's too late, baby, now It's too late ♪

♪ Though we really did try to make it ♪

♪ Something inside has died And I can't hide ♪

♪ And I just can't fake it ♪

♪ Oh, no, no, no, no ♪

[Pat Loud] I consider you one of the most ludicrous

schizophrenic... people I've ever known.

And I'm sorry but...

if it weren't so sad you'd make me laugh,

but I think you're a goddamn asshole.

[Pat Loud] I have spoken to a lawyer and, uh, this is his card.

He would like to have you get in touch with him.

-Okay. -And I'd like to have you move out.

It's just like that.

Well, that's a fair deal.

[Pat Loud] I figured you'd think that.

You know, I-- Pat, I think it's, uh, shortsighted on your part, really. I...

[Pat Loud] I don't like to talk bad about Bill.

He's gone, he's not here to defend himself.

He did a lot of good things for our children and for me.

But he betrayed me and he betrayed his family.

[Greer] People do say to me that I destroyed the family.

They don't even say I helped to destroy it, they say, "You destroyed the family."

And I always have to say, "You do me too much credit.

The family destroyed itself."

[Pat Loud] When I threw Bill out of the house,

or asked him to leave the house, I should say,

I was probably certifiably nuts by that time.

[Atlas] All of a sudden in real time, we were watching a marriage dissolve.

It isn't that people didn't get divorced before.

But nobody played it out for millions of people to see and make judgments on.

Pat and Bill Loud were living a quiet life up in Santa Barbara.

And now we maybe know more about them than we know about ourselves.

You may be wondering why they would consent to do such a thing.

By the way, don't let our cameras bother you.

-Okay. -[audience laughs]

We have absolutely been through hell with the critics

and, uh, it's really tough.

When I saw myself billed as "Homo of the Year, 1971"

-I was really despondent for a while. -[Cavett] Yeah.

But I took two aspirin, it was gone. And, um...

[audience laughs, applauds]

[Delilah Loud] My mom sold the house,

then she figured out how to reinvent herself in New York in her 40s.

She did it brilliantly. And that's always been a great inspiration to me.

[speaks indistinctly]

[Pat Loud] I think I learned to be a survivor.

I learned that life isn't over because you've passed through one phase

and you're entering another.

And you can be successful even when you think you've failed.

[Soren] What a romantic time. Friday night. Yeah.

♪ I feel the earth move under my feet ♪

♪ I feel the sky tumbling down ♪

♪ I feel my heart start to trembling ♪

♪ Whenever you're around ♪

♪ Ooh, baby, when I see your face ♪

♪ Mellow as the month of May ♪

♪ Oh, darling, I can't stand it ♪

♪ When you look at me that way ♪

[John] The thing that music does to people is they resonate at a time in their life.

There are certain times in my life where I've needed inspiration and support.

Certain songs have lifted me. And they stay with you forever.

And everybody has those kind of songs. That's what you want as a songwriter.

[Mitchell] A good song will knock somebody off the back of their chair.

You know, the communication factor of the--

-the directness of working in that media. -[male interviewer] Yeah.

[John] You know, they don't come along like that very often.

I mean, with Carole King, Joni Mitchell, you don't get much better than that.

[applause]

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

[man] 1971.

[man 2] The government was extremely dangerous.

We sold survival kits on wax.

[man 3] Angela Davis was a national figure.

-All power to the people. -[protesters cheer]

[man 4] The police stormed the prison.

[male reporter] It's an awful scene. People are dying here at Attica.

[sighs] Listen, I'm-- I'm gonna cut this off.

[man 5] Revolution was inevitable.

["Ball of Confusion" playing]