Doc Watch: Punk and Jazz

DANNY SAYS (B) - This enlightening documentary hangs out with the stealthily charming Danny Fields, the Zelig of rock and punk in the '60s and '70s who figured in the histories of the Beatles, Doors, Stooges and Ramones, among other famous acts.

A bit slapdash, with crude but entertaining animations, "Danny Says" relies heavily on a series of interviews with Fields over several years as he looks back on his career in the orbit of Jim Morrison, Andy Warhol and others. (He once tried setting up Morrison with Nico, but Morrison was obsessed with his next score more than the German chanteuse.) Fields comes off as a bit whiny and incoherent, but if you have the patience for his blase personality, his rambling stories are funny and insightful.

Fields was a buttoned-up Jewish boy at Harvard Law at the dawn of the '60s when he dropped out and eventually fell in with the counter-culture. He ran a fanzine in the mid-'60s that publicized the famous John Lennon quote about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus, and he helped launch the legend of Morrison. He hosted a radio show during the heyday of WFMU in New York. After wearing out his welcome at Elektra Records, he burned through the Lou Reed / Andy Warhol / Iggy Pop scene and made his mark on Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers and the Ramones, who hired him as their manager after Fields agreed to buy them some new equipment (he borrowed the money from his mother).

Fields was best pals with Linda Eastman McCartney, so there are plenty of photographs to stock the documentary about the man who gained entree to classic rock royalty. After his fall from the punk scene, Fields helmed the teeny-bop rag 16 magazine, injecting his own aesthetic by placing Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper alongside Shawn Cassidy and Leif Garrett.

Fields is a real character, and director Brendan Toller (who in 2008 chronicled the decline of record stores) captures the allure of a unique figure in modern music. As a crusty old man with tales to tell, he is welcome company for an hour and a half.

THE GIRLS IN THE BAND (2011) (C) - The horn section of the feminist movement chimes in.

This flat documentary stretches back to before World War II to give props to the women who toiled in the jazz scene dominated by men. Director Judy Chaiken takes a rather chaste approach and tries to do too much, leaving the viewer overwhelmed and under-informed.

Chaiken brings in a couple of dozen women, cycling them through repeatedly, making it difficult to keep track of any of them. She also burns through decade after decade, insisting on bringing us up to date on the present day, and she drowns under nearly a century of material.

Many of the reminiscences by these musical pioneers are fun and insightful. But too often, Chaiken relies on trite era footage (VJ Day, bra burnings) for the historical road markers that she speeds through. It is both dizzying and numbing at times.

BONUS TRACK
The theme song for "Danny Says" by the Ramones: