Original subtitles

[lively instrumental music]

- Good evening.

I'm Helen Mirren,

And you're watching �Documentary Now!" season 50.

Some rock bands endure for decades;

others are gone in an instant.

But every so oiten that instant

creates music that lasts forever.

Please enjoy tonight's film

Gentle & Soft:

the Story of the Blue Jean Committee.

- Hey! We're the Blue Jean Committee!

[lively rock music]

I Gonna dance around the city I

I Sing a song just like a southern melody J'

I Mama, you're a dancerI

- I You're a dancer I

- A band like Blue Jean Committee,

that only comes once in a lifetime.

- Those were amazing shows,

and the people that are there

really marked the times in their life

by the time they spent watching Blue Jean Committee.

- For the two years that record was popular,

it was like Fleetwood Mac "Rumours."

Every song was a single,

and every single was great.

- l was completely blown away by that record.

We'd all tried to capture that thing,

but they really got it.

That was the quintessential California record.

- �Catalina Breeze,"

the fantastic album of the '705

in that moment, they were on top of the world.

- I Baby, you're a dancerI

IOh, babyI

- I Dancer I

- I Freeway, ride me along I

I Freeway, ride me along I

- The sonic quality of the music

is real tranquil and placid and relaxing,

and it is really in con?ict with their actual relationship,

which was extremely bombastic and--and aggressive.

- As sisters, you know, we love each other,

and, like, when we listen to that music,

like, we feel the love.

Like, there was love there at one point.

You know, you can't make music like that

and not, you know, love each other.

[vocalizing]

- I Gentle I - I Gentle I

- IAnd soft I

[whirring]

- Morning. - Morning.

- In all of the pictures and everything

In the magazines I used to read and to be in 'em,

that's really something.

You go, �Well, you know, there's someone I admire.

There's someone I admire,

and what's-~what's my mug doing in there?"

So that was, uh, really nice,

and it's very, uh, very thankful for every moment

that someone said something nice.

It meant a lot to me.

You don't mind the camera's here, right?

- Yep. - [laughs]

So, uh, it was-- it was a good feeling.

My name is Gene, I live in, uh, Chicago,

and apparently you guys are interested in talking to me

about the Blue Jean Committee.

Yeah, it's a glamorous job.

You know, you do it for the love of it.

Yeah, I'm not mad at Clark.

You know, I mean, to be honest,

I mean, I haven't thought about him in quite a few decades.

Perfect.

I've got a lot of good memories,

but, uh, as far as, you know,

thinking about what Clark is like,

it's been a long time since

I've, uh, really thought about him.

I hadn't seen him in a long time.

- Oh, we got this house in, uh, '98.

It's my money. I bought all this.

I bought all these guys out.

I'm trying to buy that guy out,

'cause, see--see how his telephone pole

is obstructing my view of the ocean?

If you're sitting here,

I can't see the ocean from here,

so I got to knock all that out.

Fame is--it's nice.

I mean, fame is a good thing, you know?

I live here.

Got my nice house.

lt's--it's all been worth it.

When I look at what I've got,

I say, �Thank god I thought up

this Blue Jean Committee thing."

- They had such a sound.

I remember the ?rst time I heard it.

l was driving down PCH, top down,

heard this thing; it was like nothing I'd ever heard before,

and yet everything about California

all at the same time.

They somehow captured everything we'd all been alter.

And I was blown away.

I said, �Where the heck did this music come from?"

[laid-back jazzy music]

- Well, I'm Chicago born and bred.

People always said I was a bit of a handful,

which was probably a nice way of saying

l was a little dickhead.

My pop was the foreman at the old Vienna Beef factory

over on North Damen.

- My parents both worked at

Schwenke's Sausage and Rendering.

That's where they met.

Schwenke's is the best.

Mom did, uh, quality control.

She took it real serious,

and my dad worked on the line.

He was a packer.

I used to, uh, play with the hairnets;

to bring 'em back home.

But mostly I liked playing music.

My earliest memories were, uh, loving all the doo-wop groups.

This is going back a long ways, you know.

Doo-wop is, uh...

it's--it's not just oldies;

it's ancient-ies.

So, uh, me and Clark, we met at sausage school,

the hallways and stuff.

I saw him here and there,

and, uh, think he was, uh, kind of a trouble-maker.

- l was on the wrestling team.

Pee-wee state champ, 102 lb. division

three years running.

Thank you.

- In school I'd play little assemblies and stuff,

and I'd play for everybody,

And I'd play, uh, �Glad All Over"

by the Dave Clark Five.

- You know, and I loved being on the wrestling team.

The wrestling team was a great thing,

but wha--what the problem was, I started noticing

that the guys with the guitars were getting more chicks

than the guys in the team,

which, you know, I didn't like.

- So one day Clark finally comes up to me,

first time he'd said anything to me,

and he says, "Hey, you're in my group now."

- I don't think there was one moment

when Gene and I decided to become a band,

to be honest with you.

It happened very organically.

- I said, �Okay, we're in a group now.

Uh, can I go down the hall?"

He says, "No.

We're in a group now, starting now."

I said, "Okay."

[laughs softly]

So we dropped out of sausage school to play music.

[groovy rock music]

- Uh, Mom and Dad didn't like the music thing.

You know, now their little Eugene Skrowaczeski

is Gene Allen,

and he's singing all these ootsie-tootsie songs

to a bunch of dopers on the north side.

Me and my gals pals thought it was pretty cool, though.

I think Derene Berezowski blew him,

or at least a tug job of some kind took place there.

- First time I heard Gene & Clark,

l was just coming out of Philadelphia

and was living in New York and traveling--

just starting to tour all over the world.

I wouldn't call it a brand-new sound,

but it was so much of its- of its time.

And I was going, �Okay, man, these guys,

I think maybe they have a future."

[laid-back jazzy music]

- Me and Clark, wejust went out and we played, uh,

you know, open mics and diners and pizza places

and wherever would have us.

- And so we--so we, "We got to-- got to find a recording studio.

We got to�you know, where we gonna do this thing?"

In Chicago there wasn't a lot of places,

so, uh, I booked us some studio time in this little place

over on the north side, Capstone Studios.

- The original Capstone Studios

was open in 1967 at the comer of Clybourn and Halsted.

- No, it was Halsted and North.

- No, it was right there where Clybourn does that littlejog.

It's a FedEx Kinkos now.

- FedEx Kinkos is one block up on Halsted and Clybourn.

We were one block down on Halsted and North,

where the Boston Market is now.

- There's not a Boston Market at the corner

of Clybourn and North.

- Not now, no,

but there was one,

and now it's a-- what do you call it--

a Panera Bread corporation.

- The Panera Bread is at the corner

of Clybourn and Halsted,

and that is a fact, case closed, next subject.

- There's a pretty funny story

about where the name comes from,

you know, the-- the Blue Jean Committee.

- We saw, uh, �Easy Rider,"

and we thought, �Well, that's kind of--of a good look.

"We should wear some blue jeans,

"look like some, you know, regular guys,

but still with some style."

So we went to Marshall Field's and we got, uh...

- What they now refer to as a Canadian tuxedo, right?

- A bunch of dungarees and jeans,

and, uh, looked pretty good.

- So we stroll into our ?rst session at Capstone,

all excited.

- So these guys walk in,

I says, �Who sent you? The Blue Jean Committee?"

- ljust go ka-bap.

- Just punched them,

you know, right in the mouth.

- Put me in the hospital.

- Completely ?attened his nose,

gave him a concussion.

- Yeah, nerve damage.

I'm still numb from here to here.

- The funny thing is, a couple days later,

Clark comes into the same exact room and says,

�You know what we should call ourselves?

The Blue Jean Committee."

- He had a point. What can I say?

When you're right, you're right, you know?

Gene had this vision

for this album that really transported people

to Chicago.

- I wanted people to� to really feel Chicago

and smell Chicago and--and, uh,

we just wanted to be a good Chicago blues band.

Let's put it that way.

[bluesy music]

[clunky, out-of-tune blues music]

I Chicago I

- I Oh, whoa, whoa I

- I Chicago I

- I Oh, whoa, whoa I

- I Chicago I

I Chicago I

- I Oh, whoa, whoa I

- I Can I get a couple of beers I

I Hey, miss I

[guitar tuning]

You should tune that up a little bit.

I One, two, three, four I

- So we cranked out two records, lickity split:

Our debut ��St. Stanislaus' Matinee"...

- I Hey, miss I

I Can I get a beer I

IAnd then a oouple of beers I

I Hey, miss I

Then in February of '72, uh,

put out "221 Pulaski Parkway."

We had ��Wind Off the Lake" and �Goodbye, Dan Ryan," uh...

"Lip Service."

That's--that's about mustaches. Uh...

I Lip service I

I Watch out I

I For that lip service I

I Uptown, downtown I

I Everybody's steamin' I

I In the outskirts and in the in-skirts I

I Everybody's steamin' I

-And it tanked, big-time.

- It tanked, you know, and we had, uh,

financed it ourselves.

That's the hard part.

- We were out of cash,

up to our eyeballs in remaindered LPs.

- I think it hit Clark pretty hard.

- Oh, things got bad.

Clark, he holed himself up

in this little apartment

over at Wabash and Cullerton.

Tried to drink himself to death.

- Wabash and Cermak.

- Cullerton.

We're not going through this again.

- I went to a dark place, man.

Drinking and druggin'.

l was paying for sex.

I'm walking out of Bennie's

with a 12'er of Old Style,

when I saw the most beautiful sight.

I saw two seagulls cruising along.

[tranquil acoustic guitar]

They got me thinking about the ocean and the sand

and beach balls and, you know, stuff like that,

and, you know, for the first time in a while I felt good.

Wasn'ttill lsobered up that I realized

that the birds were pigeons, but...

you know, who gives a shit?

I mean, it's a better story with seagulls.

- Then Clark called me and said that

We're gonna have a meeting.

He says, ��You know what?

[bleep] Chicago."

I said,

"Nobody says '[bleep] Chicago.�

And he says, uh, "California.

We're gonna be a California band."

[dramatic organ music]

[laid-back rock music]

- California was the vibe.

You know, feeling the breeze and the air

and the sun on yourskin.

You know, that kind of shit, you know?

Write music about that.

It's not that hard.

- Uh, you know, people often mention

how the beach boys didn't surf,

and they sang all these songs about sur?ng, you know?

l--l mean, I think it's an interesting analogy

to the Blue Jean Committee who wrote about living in California

while residing in Chicago.

- "California," I said,

"You know, we're not even from there.

"I don't know what to-- you know, what are we

"gonna write about?

�Hills and�and grapes?

Wine? I don't know."

l--l just--l knew beer and blues.

- The fact of the matter is no one gave a shit about Chicago.

I mean, we're not making any money.

Everything was about California at the time.

I mean, that's just where the money was.

- So then, uh, Clark says he'll write the songs if he has to.

I mean, we had nothing.

We had no songs and no album.

So we're, uh, you know, stuck on an island, in a way.

We're just stuck out there in Chicago

with, uh, some kind of half-baked plan,

and then, uh, what changed everything

was meeting, uh,Alvin lzoff.

[lively percussion]

That name means a lot,

and when you're hungry in the music business,

that's who you want to talk to.

- He was the biggest manager in the world at the time.

If anybody can make this happen for us,

it was gonna be him.

He was California music.

- Yeah, lzoff, I'd call him a world-class asshole for sure.

- Clark had gotten a tip from a pal of ours

who worked at, uh, O�Hare.

He was a skycap.

Alvin lzoff had been coming into Chicago.

He was trying to sign Peter Cetera.

Clark got an idea that we should camp out at terminal 3,

just wait.

And, uh...

we just waited.

- I leave baggage claim at O'Hare Airport.

l hop in the back of my limo.

Suddenly the door llings open,

and this lunatic hops in, waving a cassette tape.

- He was scared shitless. He's a little guy.

Little guy.

He said, �Who are you?"

And I go, "I'm your next star.

Shut up. Listen to the tape."

I had my forearm on his neck like that.

- Gets in my face and says,

"Teach me how to be a California pansy."

- Then we hit him with our vocal warm-up,

which was on the tape.

- One, two, three, four.

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

- I Kielbasa I

[tape clicks]

- Boy, could they sing.

-And you could see in his eyes

the guy saw money, you know what I mean?

- My big thing was reinventing a band's image.

The band Shreveport, remember them?

I totally changed their look.

The whole California thing, however,

was a major issue.

- You got to remember,

we'd never even been there.

- I gave up after about six hours.

I said, "[bleep] it, let's just fix the wardrobe."

[upbeat rock music]

[camera shutter clicks]

[somber music]

- Word on the street was that me and Gene

had gone vegetarian.

- Which was not true.

- And in Chicago that's a death sentence, you known

- You can get away with insulting

a lot of things in this city,

because we're a liberal town.

- Yeah, but don't insult the sausage.

- Then my cousins caught wind of it,

and they went bonkers and firebombed my apartment,

almost killed me and the girl I was banging at the time.

I mean, it was nuts.

- Yeah, that was a scary time.

It's the ?rst time in my life

I ever wanted to get out of Chicago.

And, uh, that was the key to everything.

-And so we had to hole up in the studio.

It was the only place we were safe,

which was a weird blessing in disguise

because that let Gene,

his little dweeb mind of his

was able to come up with something,

and that--that became the "Catalina" record.

- Every song on that record is incredible.

- Yeah. - Every single one.

- I mean, like, now it's, like,

everyone talks about, like,

�What are the singles on your record?"

I mean, every song on that record could have been a single.

- Was a single.

- It's like...

I don't even know how they chose.

- Monday night we roll tape.

[guitars noodling]

- You know, Alvin's trying to mess with our clothes

and our look and everything.

l--l thought, "What about the sound?"

I love music, and I want to break down

what that sound is.

I found it, the harmonies and the vibe of the whole thing,

and, uh, somehow the lyrics were there too.

I Wiseman say if you want to know a man I

I Walk a mile in his shoes I

- You know, what's crazy is it was so fast.

You know, it was-- it was one night, you know?

And we were exhausted.

And Genejust wouldn't stop.

- They recorded six number one hits

in 72 hours.

- Not just the hits, but, like, the whole record.

- I Weather gets rough I

- IYeah I

- I Strap 'em on, lace 'em up I

I Put on my walking shoes I

- The songs just started coming.

It was like Gene had ?ipped a switch.

- "Walking Shoes,"

"She's Going to Hollywood."

- "Montecito Memories."

You got "Hibiscus."

- They had "Funny Feeling."

- "Satin Sym phony. "

- "Gentle & Soft."

- "Gentle"-- I mean...

-All career-making songs.

- And I needed something that distinguished me

from everybody else,

notjust in BJC, but everybody else in the game.

- So we were laying down vocal harmonies.

You know, a standard issue way

is the singer sings a fifth, he sings a seventh,

but that--it sounds like everybody else.

Nothing unique in that.

- No, and then Clark found his own thing.

It was magical.

It was like a signature sound.

- I don't know, ljust-- I just kind of bare down

and I get up there.

I can sing pretty high, you know?

[Clark singing high-pitched falsetto]

- Seemed as if it was being sung

by a woman-- or maybe not even a woman,

like a really young, very wai?sh small girl.

- Didn't want to let Clark hear that.

- No, you don't let him hear that.

You'd have a boot up your ass real fast.

- Falsetto is a very phallic form of singing,

just very-- it's a very manly--

It's very, "Yeah!"

Got a lot of con?dence,

got a lot of strength.

- �Catalina Breeze."

That's one for the ages.

It's just the perfect album

for that time.

lt summed up all our lives.

- One, two, three, four.

[laid-back guitar strumming]

I TV says you got them high-class blues I

I Seems the caravan to Aruba I

I Is not the road that you would choose I

I A barstool intellectual I

I With a master's degree in small talk I

I And going to the movies I

I Catalina breeze I

- I Catalina I

- I Catalina breeze I

- I Catalina I

IHaI

i?

[audience] BJC! BJCI BJC!

[cheers and applause]

- �Catalina Breeze,"

that's a song for the ages.

- I Catalina breeze I

- I Catalina I

- I Catalina breeze I

- I Catalina I

- I suppose in retrospect,

it's predictable that this was going to self-combust

when you have one guy in the band doing everything

and the other guy just singing high.

- I Catalina breeze I

-IOhI

- I Catalina breeze I

-IOhI

- Okay!

-IOohI

I Ooh, ooh I

I Ooh, ooh I

I Ooh, ooh I

I Oh, oh, oh, oh I

All right.

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