You Are What You Eat

OK, to answer a few questions that others seem to have had:

1. Yes, this film *is* available, after a fashion. It's out there in collector's circles. I recently found a copy recently on a pirated DVD-R for under $20.00. It is the complete version, not the edited version. The transfer quality was excellent, whereas the quality of the original film reel was only good to very good.

2. The film soundtrack was released several years ago on CD. You can occasionally locate copies of it on E-Bay. That's where I got mine.

3. This is a very disjointed and boring film. If you are a Tiny Tim fan, or a Peter Yarrow fan, you will probably not be disappointed, but otherwise, unless you were part of the San Francisco Scene in the Summer of Love, you'll probably be as bored to tears as I was: this film was, according to the Album's liner notes an "anti-documentary" "about a particular moment in time." If you were there, you'll probably spot some familiar faces in the "Family Dog" sequence and in the "Be-In" footage. If you weren't, you'll see "just these spotty, dirty, kids" as George Harrison once described them-- it's clear this was not the Clearasil generation...

4. There is no logic, rhyme or reason to this film. No continuity. No order. Unrelated footage cuts in and out of scenes for no discernible reason.

5. The Tiny Tim sequences were filmed in the basement of Bob Dylan's "Big Pink" house with "The Band" (in their last appearance as "The Hawks" )as his back-up band in Woodstock, N.Y. Why Yarrow included them on this film, that otherwise limits itself to San Francisco is beyond reasoning. The raw tapes of this session are available on the bootleg "Bob Dylan, Tiny Tim and The Band: "Down In The Basement". What Mr. Tim (a New Yorker) has to do with the rest of the film, set as it is in San Francisco, and why they interspersed one of his performances with audience shots of the Beatles fans at Candlestick Park from two years earlier, is beyond explanation. (The only Beatles/Tiny Tim connections I know of are that the Beatles attended Mr. Tim's debut at the Royal Albert Hall in '68, and Mr. Tim later sang "Nowhere Man" on the Beatles 1969 Beatles Fan Club Christmas Record-- both of which are antecedent to this film's release.) Tiny's duet is with the lovely Elanor Baruchian, a young lady of his accquaintance (not his girlfriend as reported on The Band's website)who used to appear on the same bill with him at The Scene Club in New York City in 1966. Ms. Baruchian changed her name to Chelsea Lee and was a founding member of the Psychedelic Folk Rock trio "The Cake" and later was a vocalist in Ginger Baker's Air Force, and one of Dr. John's Nighttrippers. It was Tiny Tim's appearance in this film that opened the door for him to his invitation to appear on Laugh-In, The Tonight Show, and all of the subsequent fame to follow.

6. Frank Zappa, near as I can tell, does not appear in this film. His music certainly does not. Another reviewer claims that he is sitting on a chair on the side of the stage during the psychedelic light show of the topless go-go girl dancing... frankly, I nearly went blind trying to determine that the girls were, in fact, topless, and didn't notice Mr. Zappa anywhere on this film. The band playing during the Psychdelic Lightshow & Topless Go-go dancing was The Electric Flag, not The Mothers of Invention, who were an *L.A* Band, not a Frisco Band.

7. David Crosby *does* make a five second cameo in this film. He has no lines.

Seems like You Are What You Eat is a lost example of the maxim, "never trust a hippie with a camera". I ran across a second hand video of a rather poor quality copy of this film, several dubbing generations beyond its origin. The copy I have is only 40 minutes long and there's no sign of Frank Zappa, musically or otherwise. What's left is a pointless but sometimes charming collection of film clips from the 60s that serve as a reminder of the cultural foment of the period. The highlight is the German helmet commercial, where we see a number of children--black and white!--wearing Nazi helmets and officers caps. The live footage of Tiny Tim seems to have been intercut with crowd footage from Beatles concerts (probably at Candlestick Park)and features him warbling I Got You Babe with an equally tuneless (but cute) female counterpart. And who can forget the sight of a shirtless Barry McGuire doing some psychedelic frugging? It's so good the filmmaker chose to include the same scene twice! There's a brief glimpse of David Crosby in his best '67 regalia. The Family Dog eat flowers in the park, thus providing the film's title. The rest of the film consists of young people dancing with gay abandon. At 40 minutes it's just the right length; if a 75 minute cut truly exists somewhere I'm not sure I could stand it.

"You Are What You Eat" is an artifact capturing that brief patchouly scented moment when the world's youth migrated toward its free love Mecca, the Haight Ashbury. Before the mean spirited chill of hard drugs, Charlie Manson, Nixon and Pol Pot shocked everyone back to their senses. It's puzzling, incoherent and unflatteringly besotted with unattractive flakes pontificating nonsensically, yet still rather engaging. The truncated 40-minute copy in circulation seems to be missing several key elements.

Scenes of notorious San Francisco pot dealer Super Spade which are described in reviews at the time of the film's release are nowhere to be seen. The fact that before "You Are What You Eat" was even released Super Spade was murdered and left in a sleeping bag beneath a cliff by the Point Reyes lighthouse seems ominously portentious. Rumors after his death of imminent mob control of the Haight caused a whole, new emigration of older hipsters to the countryside in search of some utopian dream that wasn't there.

Tiny Tim duets with his then girlfriend Eleanor Baruchian on "I Got You Babe" while mania-addled girls (inserted from The Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert) scream for their idols. Nature, leaves and flowers accompany a plaintive " Don't Remind Me Now of Time" sung by Peter Yarrow with whispers of "in the sky". Hell's Angels Motorcycles and a black screen precede the film's first title "The Heart Attack" (a narrator recounting how a loved one died after seeing motorcycles and while taking pictures of the Pope).

Youthful frolics include a desert ceremony with bearded conga drummers, ritualized dancing, body painting and a proper "Freak Out" with Zappa on stage (the music in fact a jam featuring John Simon & The Electric Flag with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar).

The action cuts off in an abrupt ending with credits that can only be read when played in slow motion. We need to see the other 35-minutes to properly judge this peek at the freak scene in full flower. I think a nice clean transfer from the original negative to DVD (with 5.1 surround sound) is in order.

I found this soundtrack long ago, and it is really wacky and psychedelic. The Peter Yarrow song, "Silly Girl," is sweet and gentle as it segues into "Desert Moog," an early use of this keyboard. The Tiny Tim "Be My Baby" is hilarious, as are the seemingly meaningless quotes of the preacher man. I would really like to see this movie - the photos on the cover give some clue as to how irreverent and experimental it must have been. "The Helmet Commercial" for the German motorbike helmet is like old Firesign Theatre stuff. This soundtrack has influenced some funny moments in my personal life, as I have found myself thinking of the quotes and of Tiny Tim serenading some hog or politician's wife. Seeing this film would certainly solve a mystery for me.

"You Are What You Eat" has been uploaded to YouTube. Here is the link: http://youtu.be/_U9-k3086x4 It is not the clearest transfer, but I think it is now complete. It has the Super Spade scenes I mentioned in my 2002 review. "You Are What You Eat" is an artifact capturing that brief patchouly scented moment when the world's youth migrated toward its free love Mecca, the Haight Ashbury. Before the mean spirited chill of hard drugs, Charlie Manson, Nixon and Pol Pot shocked everyone back to their senses. It's puzzling, incoherent and unflatteringly besotted with unattractive flakes pontificating nonsensically, yet still rather engaging. The new version is 1:11 long.

The film begins with notorious San Francisco pot dealer Super Spade who is described in reviews at the time of the film's release. The fact that before "You Are What You Eat" was released Super Spade was murdered and left in a sleeping bag beneath a cliff by the Point Reyes lighthouse seems ominously portentous. Rumors after his death of imminent mob control of the Haight caused a whole, new emigration of older hipsters to the countryside in search of some Utopian dream that perhaps wasn't there.

Tiny Tim duets with his then girlfriend Eleanor Baruchian on "I Got You Babe" while mania-addled girls (inserted from The Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert) scream for their idols. Nature, leaves and flowers accompany a plaintive " Don't Remind Me Now of Time" sung by Peter Yarrow with whispers of "in the sky". Hell's Angels Motorcycles and a black screen precede the film's first title "The Heart Attack" (a narrator recounting how a loved one died after seeing motorcycles and while taking pictures of the Pope).

Youthful frolics include a desert ceremony with bearded conga drummers, ritualized dancing, body painting and a proper "Freak Out" with Zappa on stage (the music in fact a jam featuring John Simon & The Electric Flag with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar).