I'm sure most of us know the soundtrack album. Has anyone actually seen this movie? Do Earth Wind & Fire have starring roles with Harvey Keitel or just cameos? I've seen this up on ebay a few times but they are always 10th generation copies that still go for ridiculous amounts of money.

psykosoul said:

that movie is a mystery... i never seen it personally

I've never seen it and have wondered about it. I'm sure it's just about as good as Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band.

found this review:
The movie

The movie "That's the way of the world" is not a very good one. As a matter of fact it was taken off after only 3 days of showing in the US. But of course it's a collector's item for all fans.

It's about the record company business. A talented producer named Buckmaster (played by Harvey Keitel) hears a young beginning band and wants to produce their first album. The guys are of course our friends EWF. In the movie they are called "The Group" and Maurice has a speaking role as the leader.

While Buckmaster is producing the album, his boss (Ed Nelson) orders him to produce a band called "The Pages" (A family band in the Carpenters style, only much worse). During the movie Buckmaster learns about the deceiving world of recordcompany business (People keep telling him "that's the way of the world").

EWF are performing an instrumental version of "That's the way ..", and "Happy feelin'" is done twice. Verdine is seen being lifted up in the air while still playing his bass, and there is Freddie with his rotating drum set.

Maurice says: This guy Sig Shore who had done the movie Superfly came to see us about doing a film. We decided to do the soundtrack. We were in the movie, trying to act. The movie flopped after three days. But the album stood on its own. It was our time: the momentum had been building through the previous albums, through our live shows. We'd been a community band. That's The Way Of The World put us in the mainstream."

psykosoul said:

Now that, I'd love to see! I remember seeing some early footage of Verdine playing upside-down, but didn't know it was from this movie. Thanks for the info, psyko.

Buckmaster and The Group.


Since none of us has actually seen this movie, I'm wondering if TTWOTW could be the greatest album to come from a movie that bombed so hard (3 days). If you ask me, That's The Way Of The World is as good as EW&F got, even if on some days I might think they have another album in their catalog equal to it.

Supernova said:

I thought that would've been Stevie's Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants

okaypimpn said:

I don't even know any details about that one. Did the movie have the same name? How long did it run?

Supernova said:

From my understanding it was a documentary...an extremely rare one to find...of the same title, yes, and featured Stevie running through a field of sunflowers singing the title song. The shot from my avatar (also included in the album's inner sleeve) was taken from that scene.

psykosoul said:

I have this movie on VHS.Bought it for only $15 from a guy who was selling copies a few years ago.I'll try to find his email address and see if he has any more copies.It's not really a great movie,but if you're an EW&F fan,it's an interesting item to have.Extremely rare too.I know many other fans who have never seen it and lots of folks don't even know that it even exists .It appeared in theatres briefly in early 1975,but it was a box office bomb,which is why it was quickly pulled.

The movie is very low-budget,like many of those "blaxploitation" films that came out around the same time.It stars Harvey Keitel as a music producer named Coleman Buckmaster.He works for a shady,greedy record label.He's in the process of producing Earth Wind and Fire,who are known as "The Group".They're pissed at him because he's taking forever to get their album completed.Coleman believes in The Group,but the problem is,the record company wants him to focus on another act called "The Pages".This is a three-member family singing group that consists of a woman,her brother and their father.They specialize in a Carpenters-style music...lush,commercial pop.The record label insists that these folks--and not "The Group"---are gonna become the next big thing.Coleman takes them into the studio and they work endlessly on a song called "Joy" which is expected to be a huge hit.

Predictably,there are alot of arguments between Coleman and the greedy record execs.Things get even more complicated when he begins a relationship with the lead singer of The Pages.But the most frustrating thing about this film is the way EW&F's music is used (or should I say abused?).I think most of us would agree that their 'That's The World Of The World' album is one of their strongest,most inspired albums.But in this film,the songs are,for the most part,used as instrumental background music! The only two songs that are heard completely (with vocals) are "Happy Feeling" and "Shining Star"(which is heard on a radio station as Coleman is driving around town).There is an early scene where we see EW&F in the studio,rehearsing the song "That's The Way Of The World".But the only real performance scene takes place at a skating rink,where they are shown performing a kickass version of "Happy Feeling".The movie concludes with another performance of this same song.Meanwhile,instrumental versions of songs like "Reasons","See The Light",and "Yearning Learning" are indifferently laid over the action,even though the lyrics to these songs are powerful and insightful and could have been used to advance the otherwise weak storyline.

Not a great film by any means,but it's worth hunting down.I'll try to find the email address of the guy who sold it to me,and I'll post it here.

okaypimpn said:

Whoa.
Sounds like we should get some popcorn,
throw in UTCM for good measure and get
Leonard Pinth-Garnell to host an evening of...

...Bad "Pop Music" Cinema.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm