Hola. Several folks expressed interest in the Alan Greenberg interview and I won't get to it until the weekend at the earliest so here is an excerpt from the interview I did with him in YETI #1 -- this was done like 4 years ago and also I sold part of it to NY Press 'cause the secret to being a hack is to GET PAID MORE THAN ONCE FOR THE SAME WORK. it's very important, that's why I used the caps.
The cool thing is where he says "the proper answer would be book lneght" 'cause that's what the idea is. now, with me working on it with him...
YETI: Detail for me the complete history of Love In Vain in terms of it being optioned and who's been interested in making the film, from beginning until now.
Alan Greenberg: The proper answer would be book length, so here are the highlights: Mick Jagger read the work-in-progress and optioned it immediately upon completion, only to have his messy divorce with Bianca severely limit his effectiveness. Prince began years of pursuit of L.I.V. by announcing to the press that he would star as Robert Johnson, then offering me the directorship of Purple Rain to sweeten the deal, prompting me to consider Patti Smith in blackface instead while raising funding enough to make the film on a shoestring--with everything falling apart late in pre-production when one of the financiers was murdered by his son. After L.I.V. was wooed and pursued and then nearly destroyed by Sundance Institute, it was rescued by Martin Scorsese, who agreed to direct the film for Warners, calling it the sequel to Raging Bull and his most important film since Taxi Driver. After circumstances beyond Marty's control prevented him from directing Love In Vain, he decided to Executive Produce it and now we're looking for the right director.
As for fans of the screenplay, principal among those who have contacted me are Bob Dylan, Werner Herzog, David Lynch, Keith Richards, David Byrne, Ismail Merchant, Roman Polanski and, I am especially proud to say, Johnny Shines (Robert Johnson's infamous running buddy). Just before he died, Johnny was quoted by Allen Barra of the Village Voice as saying that my screenplay "has finally cleared up all the lies and crap about Robert and his life," which means more to me than the loftiest critique. Via promoter Bill Graham, Dylan sent me the one perfect response, his message being, "It's about time."
YETI: Do you remember the first time you heard Robert Johnson?
Greenberg: Yes. I was twenty years old, had just rented an apartment in New York City, and played the first Columbia album over and over and over one day as I was building my bed. It was the only time I've ever built a bed.
YETI: Was it difficult doing research for your R.J. screenplay some twenty-plus years ago?
Greenberg: Research is boring unless it's difficult. And there was nothing boring whatsoever about researching Robert Johnson. And keep in mind that to research Robert Johnson requires listening to his world of music, all of it, the entry to which continues to be as profound and fascinating a move as any I've made. When I began my research the summer of 1977 the only thing resembling a book about Robert was a songbook that contained a short biography even shorter on facts by Samuel Charters. So I hit the road, spending considerable time in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. My modus operandi was chatting with octogenarian women who may have had some contact with Robert Johnson-"Or maybe that was Robert Nighthawk," as one of them said after telling me about her love affair with Robert Johnson for hours-and hanging out on street corners, in jook joints or abandoned gas stations with octogenarian men who may have heard or played with Robert.
Before setting out I'd been invited by the respected historian Mack McCormick, who by then had researched Robert for almost twenty years, to come visit him in Houston, where he'd happily and generously open his vault of research for me; when I'd spent the last of my borrowed money driving the 1500 miles to take him up on his offer, he welcomed me graciously and said that for $35,000 and 6% of the film's profits he'd let me see his stuff. Of course I rejected the offer before proceeding to have a few drinks with Mack, during which time I picked his pockets of quite a bit of important and unknown information on Robert, doing so more and more with every drink he had. I guess it offended me to have someone put a price tag on historical information so vital to United States and world culture. The aim of biographical writing is to bring the subject back to life, which isn't possible without factual flesh and blood.
YETI: What do you think about the state of R.J. scholarship/ worship?
Greenberg: The Book has yet to be written. The legend has been well tended by Greil Marcus, whose "Robert Johnson, 1938" in his book Mystery Train helped guide me toward my own sense of Robert Johnson in the published version of Love in Vain. Scott Ainslie has published a handsome guitar book with extensive biographical commentary, and Robert Palmer used my notes to write about Robert in his book Deep Blues, but thus far the most extensive factual writing on the subject of Robert Johnson has been done by Steve LaVere in his notes to the R.J. box set that came out ten years ago, and by Peter Guralnick with his slight but pithy Searching For Robert Johnson, a book that began as the introduction to Love in Vain. I am so taken with Peter's writing that wistfully I only wish he would write The Book on Robert as he did with his two-volume monument to Elvis.
YETI: What more is there to learn and discover about RJ?
Greenberg: What the experience of seeing the film Love in Vain will provide, which is an intimate and often daimonic sense of Robert's humanity and circumstance, rendered as supra-reality, aspiring to hallucination. Then again The Book may appear somewhere and beat me to it.
YETI: What can we still learn today from his music?
Greenberg: That truly vital music requires a step into the unknown, one armed with disciplined vision and open to songs in the air more than the airwaves.
YETI: Are you really that patient?
Greenberg: Absolutely not. The years of waiting for the world to come around to Love In Vain have been exceedingly grim. It's a good thing happiness isn't a goal for me.
YETI: I mean haven't there been times that you like almost lost it or just grabbed a video camera and went and shot L.I.V. on your own?
Greenberg: After twenty years of calling Hollywood's bluff, of watching Love In Vain as it was fumbled around Tinseltown, I finally got the rights back (this year) by exercising a loophole in my Warners deal. Immediately I rid myself of the most recent bunglers, then sent word to Dylan and Scorsese that I was shooting Love In Vain in digital video, come hell or high water, and were they with me or against me. Each vowed to get behind the film to insure it would get made, and soon the need for a low-budget approach vanished. I will recommend to whoever directs that he consider using digital video cameras for jook joint imagery, and in certain other scenes as well.
The cool thing is where he says "the proper answer would be book lneght" 'cause that's what the idea is. now, with me working on it with him...
YETI: Detail for me the complete history of Love In Vain in terms of it being optioned and who's been interested in making the film, from beginning until now.
Alan Greenberg: The proper answer would be book length, so here are the highlights: Mick Jagger read the work-in-progress and optioned it immediately upon completion, only to have his messy divorce with Bianca severely limit his effectiveness. Prince began years of pursuit of L.I.V. by announcing to the press that he would star as Robert Johnson, then offering me the directorship of Purple Rain to sweeten the deal, prompting me to consider Patti Smith in blackface instead while raising funding enough to make the film on a shoestring--with everything falling apart late in pre-production when one of the financiers was murdered by his son. After L.I.V. was wooed and pursued and then nearly destroyed by Sundance Institute, it was rescued by Martin Scorsese, who agreed to direct the film for Warners, calling it the sequel to Raging Bull and his most important film since Taxi Driver. After circumstances beyond Marty's control prevented him from directing Love In Vain, he decided to Executive Produce it and now we're looking for the right director.
As for fans of the screenplay, principal among those who have contacted me are Bob Dylan, Werner Herzog, David Lynch, Keith Richards, David Byrne, Ismail Merchant, Roman Polanski and, I am especially proud to say, Johnny Shines (Robert Johnson's infamous running buddy). Just before he died, Johnny was quoted by Allen Barra of the Village Voice as saying that my screenplay "has finally cleared up all the lies and crap about Robert and his life," which means more to me than the loftiest critique. Via promoter Bill Graham, Dylan sent me the one perfect response, his message being, "It's about time."
YETI: Do you remember the first time you heard Robert Johnson?
Greenberg: Yes. I was twenty years old, had just rented an apartment in New York City, and played the first Columbia album over and over and over one day as I was building my bed. It was the only time I've ever built a bed.
YETI: Was it difficult doing research for your R.J. screenplay some twenty-plus years ago?
Greenberg: Research is boring unless it's difficult. And there was nothing boring whatsoever about researching Robert Johnson. And keep in mind that to research Robert Johnson requires listening to his world of music, all of it, the entry to which continues to be as profound and fascinating a move as any I've made. When I began my research the summer of 1977 the only thing resembling a book about Robert was a songbook that contained a short biography even shorter on facts by Samuel Charters. So I hit the road, spending considerable time in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. My modus operandi was chatting with octogenarian women who may have had some contact with Robert Johnson-"Or maybe that was Robert Nighthawk," as one of them said after telling me about her love affair with Robert Johnson for hours-and hanging out on street corners, in jook joints or abandoned gas stations with octogenarian men who may have heard or played with Robert.
Before setting out I'd been invited by the respected historian Mack McCormick, who by then had researched Robert for almost twenty years, to come visit him in Houston, where he'd happily and generously open his vault of research for me; when I'd spent the last of my borrowed money driving the 1500 miles to take him up on his offer, he welcomed me graciously and said that for $35,000 and 6% of the film's profits he'd let me see his stuff. Of course I rejected the offer before proceeding to have a few drinks with Mack, during which time I picked his pockets of quite a bit of important and unknown information on Robert, doing so more and more with every drink he had. I guess it offended me to have someone put a price tag on historical information so vital to United States and world culture. The aim of biographical writing is to bring the subject back to life, which isn't possible without factual flesh and blood.
YETI: What do you think about the state of R.J. scholarship/ worship?
Greenberg: The Book has yet to be written. The legend has been well tended by Greil Marcus, whose "Robert Johnson, 1938" in his book Mystery Train helped guide me toward my own sense of Robert Johnson in the published version of Love in Vain. Scott Ainslie has published a handsome guitar book with extensive biographical commentary, and Robert Palmer used my notes to write about Robert in his book Deep Blues, but thus far the most extensive factual writing on the subject of Robert Johnson has been done by Steve LaVere in his notes to the R.J. box set that came out ten years ago, and by Peter Guralnick with his slight but pithy Searching For Robert Johnson, a book that began as the introduction to Love in Vain. I am so taken with Peter's writing that wistfully I only wish he would write The Book on Robert as he did with his two-volume monument to Elvis.
YETI: What more is there to learn and discover about RJ?
Greenberg: What the experience of seeing the film Love in Vain will provide, which is an intimate and often daimonic sense of Robert's humanity and circumstance, rendered as supra-reality, aspiring to hallucination. Then again The Book may appear somewhere and beat me to it.
YETI: What can we still learn today from his music?
Greenberg: That truly vital music requires a step into the unknown, one armed with disciplined vision and open to songs in the air more than the airwaves.
YETI: Are you really that patient?
Greenberg: Absolutely not. The years of waiting for the world to come around to Love In Vain have been exceedingly grim. It's a good thing happiness isn't a goal for me.
YETI: I mean haven't there been times that you like almost lost it or just grabbed a video camera and went and shot L.I.V. on your own?
Greenberg: After twenty years of calling Hollywood's bluff, of watching Love In Vain as it was fumbled around Tinseltown, I finally got the rights back (this year) by exercising a loophole in my Warners deal. Immediately I rid myself of the most recent bunglers, then sent word to Dylan and Scorsese that I was shooting Love In Vain in digital video, come hell or high water, and were they with me or against me. Each vowed to get behind the film to insure it would get made, and soon the need for a low-budget approach vanished. I will recommend to whoever directs that he consider using digital video cameras for jook joint imagery, and in certain other scenes as well.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
tara81:
Hmmm! Soulseek-- where can i find that?! I just download kazzaa lite, and it seemed okay.. let me know where i can get soulseek and i'll try that too! Fuck, i'll try anything twice hehe 
clovesbud:
Yeah, the turntable is called a Handytrax and you can get one at Vestax.com for about $130. It's worth the money for me because it has a 78 speed, so I can rummage for old Sinatra and Raymond Scott records.
