During
rare nights-off from the Rolling Stones’ constant tour, their
saxophonist-sideman, Tim Ries is allowed to book gigs for his “Rolling Stone
Project” at nearby jazz clubs. When I saw him play Dazzle in Denver, Ronnie
Wood was also there, checking out the show incognito in the back. It was nice
to see him digging the music. As the last full official band-member, Wood has
an interesting place in rock & roll history, but he wasn’t plucked out of
obscurity. Wood reflects on his career in music and chaos that came with it in
Mike Figgis’s documentary profile Somebody Up There Likes Me, which would
have screened at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, had the CCP and their loyal
stooges at WHO not lied to the world regarding human-to-human transmission of
the coronavirus.
Figgis
has always been very hands-on composing music for his films. He is probably
best-known for Leaving Las Vegas, but his subsequent career has been
very up-and-down. Fortunately, his approach with Wood is quite similar to Red,
White, and Blues, his laidback contribution to Martin Scorsese’s PBS
anthology, The Blues. Figgis’s musical background also presumably helped
build rapport with Wood, who discusses health and addiction issues with great
frankness.
Figgis
does not interview a lot of talking heads, but the ones he does are pretty impressive,
including fellow Stones Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts. He also
talks to fellow Faces member Rod Stewart, Imelda May (who played with Wood
early in her career), and Wood’s wife, Sally. We also get to hear Wood
rehearsing informally in the studio.
Probably
the biggest scope in Somebody Up There is the revelation Wood was invited
to join the band earlier than he did, but his management never informed him of
the offer. There are also plenty of “Behind the Music”-style confessions of
hard parting and destructive drug abuse. However, Wood was wise enough to
always exercise some degree of restraint, which is probably why he is still
alive.
Frankly,
Somebody Up There is a livelier film than the Bill Wyman documentary, The Quiet One, but it still can’t beat Beware of Mr. Baker, probably the
greatest rock & roll doc of the last twenty-five years, profiling his wild-man
contemporary, Ginger Baker. Regardless, Figgis gives the film a similar
after-hours-hang vibe that made his contribution to The Blues so much
fun. As rock docs go, this is a good, solid one. Recommended for fans of the
Stones and British blues rock, Somebody Up There Likes Me is sure to be
distributed widely by Eagle Rock Entertainment, even though it will not be
formally screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
