Movie Review: "Gypsy: Rock & Roll Nomads"

"Gypsy: Rock & Roll Nomads": B.  In the mid-sixties the three most popular rock bands in the Twin Cities were, arguably, the Accents, Gregory Dee & The Avantis, and the Underbeats.  Gypsy: Rock & Roll Nomads is the story of the band which originally called themselves the Underbeats before moving to Los Angeles in 1968.  The documentary received a warm welcome at its initial showing last week as part of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.

The Underbeats played at numerous venues throughout the Cities, including Mr. Lucky's, the Prom Ballroom and Danceland.  They also performed at teen clubs throughout the five state area and invariably drew large enthusiastic crowds.   The band was booked every weekend.  The roster changed over time, but its principal core was the trio of keyboardist James "Owl" Walsh, rhythm guitarist Jim James and lead guitarist Enrico Rosenbaum.   Although he kept a low profile, Enrico was responsible for writing almost all of the Underbeats' original music.

Notwithstanding the group's wild popularity on the five state circuit, the promised land in the music industry was LA.  The guys felt their careers had reached maximum potential as a Minnesota band, and only a move to the West Coast could send them to new heights.  While Johnson, a draftee, was fulfilling his obligations in Viet Nam, the band picked up stakes in 1968 and rented a house in the Los Feliz section of the big city.  Their back yard abutted that of the La Bianca family, murder victims at the hands of the Manson family.  In the City Of Angels there would be access to more radio stations, labels, promoters, booking agents, music halls, print media coverage, and other necessities for their dream to go national.

Among the first orders of business was to change their name to Gypsy, after briefly considering the moniker Spare Change.  Much of documentarian Aaron Goodyear's movie concentrates on those years in the Santa Monica hills.  One of Gypsy's early breaks occurred when they were hired to be the house band at Whiskey A Go Go, the pre-eminent venue for soon-to-be breaking artists in LA..  There they would be following in the footsteps of bands like Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Doors, who also got their starts in that rollicking Sunset Strip club.

Blessed with three members who could sing lead, Gypsy's forte was vocal strength.  That, coupled with excellent production values and arrangements, set them apart from the competition.  Rosenbaum's music was catchy, electric, up tempo and danceable.  Although some members fell victim to the California rock star life style of drugs, booze, parties and groupies, they took their musical mission seriously, playing up to nine shows a week and rehearsing their craft diligently.  They were asked to tour as the warm up band with some of the big names in the business, like the Guess Who and Chicago.  Thanks to St. Louis radio station KSHE, which allowed their DJs to spin records of their own choosing, Gypsy established that city as their primary fan base.  The documentary contains video of a packed Busch Stadium, where the fans cheered the band on with Beatlesque hysteria.

The film briefly explores why Gypsy, in spite of its stellar Rosenbaum-penned repertoire, never made it as a national artist.  The main reason, albeit obvious, is that Gypsy never had that monster hit which could serve as their gateway to stardom.   The band never landed a song in the Top 40, as their most successful single, Gypsy Queen - Part 1, reached its zenith at # 62 on the Billboard charts in early 1971.  A second important cause of their shortcoming, if you want to call it that, was the selection of the label with which they chose to sign a recording contract.  According to Walsh and James, they opted for Metromedia instead of Atlantic Records because they thought the former company would give them more one-on-one support than the larger Atlantic could offer.  As it turned out, Metromedia simply did not have the resources or the experience to promote and underwrite a newcomer like Gypsy in its attempt to get noticed out of the dozens of competitors trying to go beyond the LA scene.

I was impressed with the work that went into the making of Goodyear's documentary.  He wisely inserted interviews with Minneapolis rock historian Rick Shefchik (the author of Everybody's Heard About The Bird: The True Story Of 1960's Rock 'n' Roll In Minnesota), who elaborated on the music landscape of the Twin Cities in the sixties.  Goodyear, whose day job is being a cameraman for WCCO sports, and Walsh were present at the Festival showing for a Q & A.  Although the film does show concert footage from the later years of Gypsy's run - they disbanded in 1975 -- it is sorely lacking in video coverage from the Underbeat days.  The irony of that omission is inescapably noticeable and disappointing , given the local angle marketing of the film by the Festival.  There is also no video from any of the dozens of shows Gypsy played at Whiskey A Go Go.

The death of Prince occurred five days ago, yet the Minneapolis Star Tribune still carries related stories as front page headline news.  One of the reasons Prince was cherished here is because even after he became a megastar, he continued to live and work in the area.  This leads me to wonder about the Underbeats' decision to bid farewell to Minny in 1968 and make its way to the coast.  Other of their Twin Cities contemporaries chose to stay in Cold Country and ended up with Top 40 hits, to wit, the Castaways from Richfield (Liar, Liar hit # 12 in 1965) and The Trashmen from Minneapolis (Surfin' Bird hitting # 4 in 1963, followed by Bird Dance Beat reaching # 30 in 1964).  Was heading to LA the right move for the Underbeats?