Pop Gear

I was up before dawn for some reason, and I saw something strange "letterboxed" on the "cable." It was the last twenty minutes or so of a 1965 movie called POP GEAR, which appeared to be a series of non-narrative sequences of bands lip-synching on weird candy-colored stage sets. I recognized Eric Burdon and the Animals. The Beatles even pop in at the end. Other than that, there were a lot of anonymous fellows in Beatles haircuts and matching suits. One group seemed to be lip-synching something called "Goodbye Google-Eye," and another favored us with a "pop" rendition of the William Tell Overture. During a second song about eyes, the young men were positioned amid a lot of stained glass windows with eyes painted on them. That'll give you some idea. And that's just for starters (or finishers, as I came in at the end). Some serious-looking young men did a very odd rendition indeed of the old Louvin Brothers favorite "In the Pines," heavily influenced, it seemed, by the aforementioned Animals. And then after it seemed to be all over a guy came out and sang a song telling me that I had just been watching POP GEAR. Total running time of POP GEAR: 70 minutes. That just happens to be Barry B.'s idea of the perfect running time. He has a firm belief that NO movie should last more than 80 minutes, though 70 is his ideal. Laurel and Hardy, he says, had the right idea. (Pictured, The Animals in POP GEAR.) Barry B. would love POP GEAR! And so will you. That's the "blog" guarantee.