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Vinyl: Inside the Episode #1 - [www.youtube.com]

Vinyl: Episode #2 Preview - [www.youtube.com]

Vinyl: Weeks Ahead Trailer - [www.youtube.com]

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with sssoul
The scene of the collapsing club was fun to watch

It happened in real life, if you click on the link in the NYT review. I don't care for Marty's music forays myself either, but there are other chefs involved in this mess. Surely Mick winced when he read the line about cleaning up Chubby Checker's vomit in the bathroom stall.

It's very hard to buy Ray Romano snorting coke. I keep expecting his sitcom family to burst in with disapproving looks. Anyway, the New Yorker also gave it thumbs down, and Billions is a better show (with better music):

[www.newyorker.com]

Bad casting decision for Robert Plant, I mean....come on...you can make any one look like anyone in Hollywood, but at least get a guy who sounds a bit like him when he talks....

Richard Hell (whose James Jagger's character is based)has reviewed Vinyl
http://www.stereogum.com/1859526/richard-hell-reviews-hbos-vinyl/franchises/sounding-board/]Vinyl[/url]

I watched episode one last night. That'll do it for me and I had high hopes for VINYL.

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DeanGoodman

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with sssoul
The scene of the collapsing club was fun to watch

It happened in real life, if you click on the link in the NYT review. I don't care for Marty's music forays myself either, but there are other chefs involved in this mess. Surely Mick winced when he read the line about cleaning up Chubby Checker's vomit in the bathroom stall.

It's very hard to buy Ray Romano snorting coke. I keep expecting his sitcom family to burst in with disapproving looks. Anyway, the New Yorker also gave it thumbs down, and Billions is a better show (with better music):

[www.newyorker.com]

*Billions: the Caucasian mafia

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rbk
I watched episode one last night. That'll do it for me and I had high hopes for VINYL.

I got through the first hour, then went to bed. I wasn't that impressed, but I'm going to try again and watch it to the end.

I watched the first episode last night,I don't watch much television but I will stick with this for a while mainly because I have always had an endless fascination with New York.There are also some hot women in the show which always helps.

Nate

I had been looking forward to this HBO show for a long time but recent trailers looked suspiciously hokey. Last night's pilot confirms that with a older inappropriate cast members trying to look cool. Music/Rock n Roll is an animal that can't be captured on film not like this...at least on a fiction project.

If you wanted to see the evolution of music/rock and roll, blues, grunge, jazz and so on, you might want to pick up a copy of David Grohl / Foo Fighters Sonic Highways. This series is an incredible lesson and experience in music. I am still adding cds to my collection based on all the mentioned artist highlighted on this HBO project.

Don't get me wrong. I am a Martin Scoresse film fan and Mick...what can I say? !!! My love of the Stones is why I check in every day to this website. Maybe David Chase could have given this project more of a Sopranos contemporary feel. I also know this was not intended to be a music documentary but if the series was done right it would be...right?

So in closing, maybe episode two might be better but I am counting the days when I will see the band again.

You can't always get what you want!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-02-16 21:06 by bassaleman.

Almost Famous did a magical job linking lore to fandom, and paid tribute to the entire culture of rock n' roll. Yet, they used a fictional band and young groupies as a vehicle to celebrate the lore and legend of 70s rock. Vinyl is similar, yet using a fictional label, and actors portraying the rock stars of legend. And is is a darker road than Almost Famous. I liked it, and I admit I did struggle with some of the actors, particularly the actor playing Robert Plant. But then it clicked for me, and I got past it. Somewhat like HBOs Game of Thrones not following the book, they are two stand alone projects. And Vinyl is a stand alone using a deep treasure trove of first-hand accounts from someone who was there, and channeling that through a brilliant director to create a layered dramatic adventure. I enjoyed the pilot and am looking forward to see how this plays out. James Jagger was good, and it was interesting listening to his voice, and his cockney accent and hearing so much of Mick there. Perfect? No. But pretty fun to watch.

Yikes! This thing is getting trashed. Richard Hell called it 'innocuous trash' in his Stereogum review. Let's start off with the obvious - It's not a documentary. This is a fictional story based on real life events. The first episode is all about setting up the characters so you know who they are and what their about in future episodes. Heck, I found the first episodes of The Walking Dead painfully slow. Now I've taken the bait, hook, line and sinker. I missed the season premier to watch Vinyl. I found the Andrew Dice Clay's graphic murder totally out of place. Someone on Michael Des Barres Facebook page likened Vinyl to Good Fella's based in the 1970's Bowery. Could not have said it better myself. I will keep on watching it and hopefully it will get better.

Scotty
Irvine, CA

"Rock and Roll is a nuclear blast of reality in a mundane world where no one is allowed to be magnificent." - Kim Fowley

It's an interesting piece of jumbled up pseudo-history of the music scene in the 70's. The music business really is/was hell on earth. Guess-who? (Woo hoo...) is the big boss, and the musicians are his lowly puppets, trying to please him and appease him, like slaves, just like in the scene where Little Jimmy Little gets beat up by the mob and told, "You'll play for me!" Sex, drugs, violence, lying, cheating, betrayals, addiction, orgies, murder, pain and suffering, emotional torture, needles, fear, greed...Hell on earth. All for the love of music? Really? There's got to be something better.

More James, please.

Maybe people are looking at this as a truthful documentary of how it was in the record business? I went into it knowing it was mostly entertainment and don't feel cheated. Really, there was a murder and then a building fell on him and he survived. I kind of believe things like orgies during business meetings. Well, maybe not of that size though. But there were some things that were believable. They practically took the scene with Peter Grant form The Song Remains The Same movie. Think they did good on that part. Also this was a long episode, the rest should be just under an hour, that will help I think.

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Straycat13
It's an interesting piece of jumbled up pseudo-history of the music scene in the 70's. The music business really is/was hell on earth. Guess-who? (Woo hoo...) is the big boss, and the musicians are his lowly puppets, trying to please him and appease him, like slaves, just like in the scene where Little Jimmy Little gets beat up by the mob and told, "You'll play for me!" Sex, drugs, violence, lying, cheating, betrayals, addiction, orgies, murder, pain and suffering, emotional torture, needles, fear, greed...Hell on earth. All for the love of music? Really? There's got to be something better.

More James, please.

I remember the 1971 interviews when Mick and Keith were moaning about the (in the UK) power which EMI and DECCA had over the record industry. How recording artists were ripped off by the labels, Managers etc. "Better the Mafia than Decca" was Keith (or Anita's) quote.
Really, nothing changed...if anything the personal and business morals got worse.
Of course, by the early 70's the Stones were at the top of the game, getting better deals and ownership of their product.
As for the lesser mortals, it was business as usual.
And of course RS Records never really was much more than a vanity label for its owners.I had hoped they might start putting out, for example old blues stuff, in the publuc domain....or following Brian's lead, world music. And from Charlie some jazz.

Interesting start. The guy that played Plant was pretty lame as well as the anorexic looking Grant. Very bad miscasts there imo. Otherwise, Zep doing Something Else was good as they could belt that one out. Dolls club show portrayal was fun. Otherwise, a rollicking adventure has begun. James Jagger has good camera presence. People need to remember the record business was pretty crazy in those years. Why not play that up?

HBO Renews ‘Vinyl’ for Season 2


HBO

Elizabeth Wagmeister

“Vinyl” has been renewed for a second season at HBO. The Season 2 pickup comes after only one episode has aired, just days after the series’ debut this past Sunday.

The 1970’s sex-and-drug filled music drama premiered to some of HBO’s lowest ratings ever, but the renewal does not come as a surprise with both critical acclaim and A-list talent packed into the show both in front of and behind the camera.

Created by Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese, Rich Cohen and Terence Winter, the drama stars Bobby Cannavale and Olivia Wilde.

Opening to just 764,000 viewers with its two-hour premiere, “Vinyl’s” debut came in lower than other HBO dramas in recent years including “The Leftovers,” “True Detective” and “The Newsroom.” Still, “Vinyl” did open on a competitive holiday weekend and with the early renewal, the premium cabler is showing a big sign of early support.

Scorsese, Jagger, Winter, Victoria Pearman, Rick Yorn, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, John Melfi, Allen Coulter and George Mastras serve as exec producers. Winter is showrunner and Jagger is the exec music producer.

[variety.com]

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latebloomer

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rbk
I watched episode one last night. That'll do it for me and I had high hopes for VINYL.

I got through the first hour, then went to bed. I wasn't that impressed, but I'm going to try again and watch it to the end.

I'm pretty sure the episodes are only an hour long…lol

According to Rotten tomatoes, critics give it 75% favorable but audience gave it slightly less.

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[email protected]
It's not a documentary. This is a fictional story based on real life events.

... Is it? It seems more like a fictional story with a lot of allusions to actual music-business denizens.
I don't think the story per se is supposed to have actually happened to anyone.

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Maindefender

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latebloomer
I got through the first hour, then went to bed. I wasn't that impressed, but I'm going to try again and watch it to the end.

I'm pretty sure the episodes are only an hour long…lol

Episode 1 was two hours. Long. :E

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with sssoul

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[email protected]
It's not a documentary. This is a fictional story based on real life events.

... Is it? It seems more like a fictional story with a lot of allusions to actual music-business denizens.
I don't think the story per se is supposed to have actually happened to anyone.

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Maindefender

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latebloomer
I got through the first hour, then went to bed. I wasn't that impressed, but I'm going to try again and watch it to the end.

I'm pretty sure the episodes are only an hour long…lol

Episode 1 was two hours. Long. :E

That would wear on my attention span…..lol

I watched the last hour this morning, actually watched the whole thing again. I liked the second half much better, despite the usual Scorsese tricks, like bodies in the trunk. The music makes up for any shortcomings in the plot and it does have terrific costumes, sets and acting. I thought James Jagger did a very credible job as punk rocker Kip Stevens. Now I'm looking forward to tonight's episode.

The NY Times article has a few cool historical pics that were part of the pilot.


Arthur Kane and David Johansen of the New York Dolls on stage at Mercer Arts Center, NYC. December 31, 1972. Credit Bob Gruen




The wreckage of the Broadway Central Hotel collapse on 637 Broadway, near East Houston Street. Credit Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times



[www.nytimes.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-02-21 19:39 by latebloomer.

Just finished watching the pilot and enjoyed it despite some "holes" (my fave was the Dolls/Slade thing since I remember Creem's tendency to compare the two on a USA/UK vibe). The scene with zep going onstage reminded me of almost taking the steps onstage before an usher (nicely) pointed me in the right way to my seat at the old Chicago Stadium for the JP sickness show in '77

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with sssoul
I loathe Scorsese with a depth and breadth that's difficult to express.

Hmm, would love to hear more about this (accepting that it's difficult to express). Would that be the man or his films? Loathe is such a strong word.

Mean Streets? Raging Bull? The Age of Innocence? Casino?


On the internet nobody knows
you're Mick Jagger

The series is not a documetry. It is a pretty accurate take on the music scene in the early 70's. Take it from someone who lived thru the era in New York City.

On a story and character level, I often found the first two hour episode to seem almost like it was written by a committee--no clear vision or sense of the world that was being created--kind of like a poor marriage of Mad Men and The Sopranos with a Scorsese soundtrack playing at the reception by a band that knew a few deep cuts and a lot of hits. I think it may have been too expansive an opening episode to allow audiences to get to know its principal characters, and suffered as a result.

What I found most interesting was the cinematography and lighting for the period stuff--when they went back to the sixties they lit and shot the musical scenes in ways that imitated the period (the Otis Redding scenes were lit and framed like moments from Woodstock), similarly when they got into the early seventies, the lighting became more shadowy atmospheric later work of Chip Monck (who had done Woodstock and Altamont). They also seemed to play around with approximating the look and feel of different film stock and the raster scan of earlier television.

Given that the show's called Vinyl, and is about a lost historical period and (nearly) lost analog format, I found the attention to detail on the lighting, framing, stock and resolution really nice and perfectly appropriate for someone like Scorsese to play around with but not have it dominate the rest of the work. I'll keep watching just to see how these elements evolve, and to give the rest of the show a chance to improve.


On the internet nobody knows
you're Mick Jagger



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-02-21 21:34 by camper88.

Having only seen the 2-hour pilot (I am pretty sure the remaining episodes will be one hour long), I found it slogged along too slowly and I did not like the main character guy. I mean I did not like his acting, his dancing, his look. I love to watch a show with some unlikeable characters, but I did not feel the actor was the right match. I enjoyed watching James Jagger, though, and wanted to see more of him and the story about the 'Nasty Bits'... I'm going to give it another episode, and hopefully my overall opinion of the show will improve.

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camper88
the Otis Redding scenes were lit and framed like moments from Woodstock [parentheses removed]

If that's the case, no wonder people are vexed by the whole thing.

Yes, each episode is one hour. Last nights was very good. This will be a good series if this trend continues.

I think Bobby Cannavale did a really good job with his character.

Apart from that, on the first episode the story seemed weak to me, but the soundtrack was so good it kept me watching it.

I'm very curious to watch the rest of the series.