Copyright Vulture
Biopics that stretch through the entirety of a musician’s life can be a slog — or, even worse, sanitized through a greatest-hits lens to appease estates to get them across the finish line. Two recent films about fabled rock stars, however, smartly chose to deviate from the norm and zoom in on very specific parts of their protagonists’ lives, warts and all. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere focused on the somewhat tortured creation of the Boss’s 1982 album, Nebraska, while last year’s A Complete Unknown followed Bob Dylan during his early folk years until he dared to — gasp — go electric in 1965. (The latter earned Timothée Chalamet an Oscar nomination, while Jeremy Allen White is a serious contender in the current Best Actor race.) Both films were met with a strong critical consensus that praised the unique angles of storytelling, even if Dylan is proving to edge out New Jersey’s crown prince at the box office by a fairly large margin. So that got us thinking: What should the next time-stamped music biopic be about, even if it’s a month or a year in the life of a particular legend? To learn more and to give Hollywood something to chew on, we’ve gathered eight biographers of legacy artists who are overdue for the cinematic spotlight and asked them to pitch what they think is their most compelling period to be adapted into a script. Despite their levels of fame and notoriety, the members of this octet have yet to headline films of their own. We’ll politely request a producer’s credit if any of them come to fruition. Prince The Purple Rain sessions. Matt Thorne, author of Prince (2013): The story behind Purple Rain. Prince’s favorite films were Amadeus, The Idolmaker, and A Star Is Born. Where his story is different from Dylan’s or Springsteen’s is that he didn’t just want to make himself famous — he wanted to make all his friends, his band, and Minneapolis famous. It’s still fairly unknown how hard he fought at the start. One of the stories I love is he became friends with a guy named Chris Moon who worked at an advertising agency and had a studio of his own. He allowed Prince to use his studio whenever he wanted. So Prince brought all his band members to the studio. There was one time when he had sent the band outside for a break, so he was there by himself. Chris heard drumming and thought the band had returned. He looked through the window, and it was just Prince drumming to a professional standard. He got a drink, came back, and heard Prince on the piano being amazing. And a few minutes later, he was playing bass guitar. Prince could basically do anything. With Purple Rain, none of the “rise to fame” is there, but there’s still tension. He did a show for Warner Bros. to decide whether they were going to pay to put him on the road, and it was a disaster. He ended up having to go away, rehearse, and start all over again. It’s the journey to becoming the megastar we all know and love. Prince was always interested in portraying the ease of the story and making it seem like it was all predestined. But there are all of these funny things that happened along the way that could’ve derailed his career. There’s a grittier story waiting to be told. For example: He went to New York to stay with his sister, and he met somebody from a not-very-good record label called Tiffany Entertainment. She told Prince that he should be a 1970s “lover-man singer” and wear silk costumes. People were projecting their version of Prince onto him, and there are many ways he could’ve become somebody he wasn’t. The original version of Purple Rain was called Dreams. As it got developed, it became glossier and less realistic. The original version of how Prince saw his earlier life would be really exciting to look at. And there’s the fun side to it. He signed up for an after-hours class about the business of music. He met all these people around Minneapolis who taught him about contracts. Having to negotiate all of those egos isn’t well known. He was kicked out of his aunt’s house and moved in with his friend, André Cymone, and they set up a practice room in the basement. He had done five albums before then where he was developing his sound and putting everything together. Unlike Bob Dylan going, I’m arriving in town, I’m meeting all these people, and I’m going away and you’ll never see me again, this would be Prince going, We’re gonna get the world to come to us. Forget Los Angeles, forget New York — we’re gonna make Minneapolis the center of the universe, and all of you are gonna be stars. . Should be portrayed by … Myles Truitt. He was in a New Edition miniseries when he was younger, so I know he can sing. There’s something about the way he looks and moves. The stuff he’s done recently is a bit more “macho,” but I feel he’s got an androgynous quality within him that can come out. Madonna Her Ray of Light reawakening. Lucy O’Brien, author of Madonna: Like an Icon (2007): After the debacle of the Sex book, where Madonna was making a bold statement about female desire, she was taken aback by how much she was judged and pilloried for it. She retreated for a few years and then recorded Bedtime Stories, which was a slightly softer album. It was her way of finding her way back before thinking, Where do I go now? The time preceding Ray of Light was of tentative exploration and rethinking who she was. There was that very bold and brassy Madonna who climbed the ladder of success. But she reached that peak in popular music. It was almost like she hit the ceiling and realized she was being typecast. People saw her in a certain way: “She’s an okay singer,” “She’s an okay dancer,” and “She’s just good at marketing.” She wanted to prove in lots of ways that she was genuinely an artist and musician. So that set her up on the road to Ray of Light. She strengthened her voice for Evita and became more confident. Then she gave birth to Lourdes, her daughter. She wrote a diary entry for Vanity Fair and said, “My life will never be the same again.” You could almost separate the two parts of her career from Lourdes’s birth. Ray of Light cements that whole period of her transformation in terms of who she was and letting go of that distraction of fame. Choosing William Orbit to work with her was a real left-field choice. He’s a gangly gentleman. She was a bit taken aback by the fact that he had only a few keyboards and a sampler — he didn’t have a big polished studio she was used to. That took a bit of time for her to get used to, but it freed her as a songwriter. William came from the trance, club, and acid-house scene. He’s opening up her creativity. “Ray of Light” is an uplifting track about being reborn. And then she ends with “Mer Girl,” which is so devastating. She’s singing about her dead mother and being buried with her mom. She realized, I’ve been running from this my whole life. It’s one of those profound moments musically. William said when she walked out of the booth, she was almost white. He was so struck by where she’d taken herself. I think it was her own Dark Side of the Moon. It really resonated with people. It went several-times platinum. It won four Grammy Awards, which she never won before. She said at the ceremony, “I’ve been in the business for 16 years, and this is my first time actually winning.” I would say it was the most pivotal turning point in her career. . Should be portrayed by … I know she’s a little mature now, but Kate Winslet would have been great for Ray of Light. She has that luminescence and strength of character onscreen. Dolly Parton Breaking free from The Porter Wagoner Show. Lydia Hamessley, author of Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton (2020): People don’t know a lot about Dolly Parton beyond the greatest hits. When you ask someone to share the three songs that come to mind, it’s always “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” and “9 to 5.” The 1970s time period is her “imperial phase.” In terms of a strong narrative, the early part of her career is what should be examined. You have her move from the mountains of Tennessee to Nashville. But on a deeper level, there’s her struggles with Porter Wagoner and her shift away from him. Dolly’s goal wasn’t finding a fairy-tale ending with a man; her goal was musical autonomy. It’s a very dynamic and important phase in her life, but I still think, Oh great, we’re telling a woman’s story about getting out from under a man’s thumb. I wouldn’t want to give Porter a whole lot of credit in that sense, and I don’t want it to be Dolly and Porter’s combined story. It’s essential, though, in her development as an icon. She joined him and The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967. At first, she was just happy to have a job. She ended up staying for seven years, but those last couple of years weren’t happy for her. It wasn’t like she sought out being on his show. Porter was losing his “girl singer” and needed to replace her. He had heard Dolly’s songs in Nashville. He phoned her up, and when she went to the meeting, she assumed he wanted to buy some of her songs. She was having moderate success as a songwriter at that point. She wasn’t on the stage too much yet. What Porter was actually doing was checking her out as far as putting her on the show. He hired her, and she started making a very good salary; $8,000 was a shitload of money in 1967. The audiences didn’t like her at first because they missed Norma Jean, the previous “girl singer.” Dolly was upset and cried about it, but Porter said, “They’ll come around.” He helped introduce her to an audience and then eventually she overshadowed Norma Jean and, at times, Porter himself. When the five years were up, she kept trying to break away, but it took a couple more years to get there. She was a singer and songwriter in her own right, and she wasn’t going to be somebody’s “girl singer” forever. Then she had several No. 1 albums right after she left. . Should be portrayed by … Carrie St. Louis. She played the “middle Dolly” in the musical in Nashville this summer. I found her to be the one who most fooled me into thinking I was seeing and hearing Dolly. She gave a beautiful performance. Neil Young His topsy-turvy 1980s. Arthur Lizie, author of Neil Young on Neil Young: Interviews and Encounters (2021): If I were to hit the controversy, the film should start in the mid-’80s in the Geffen Records period. Not that Neil Young would endorse this interpretation, but start with his homophobic rant in Melody Maker in 1985 and then focus on him being sued by his record label and going off the tracks when he released Trans, his electronic album that goes into all these different forms. He eventually got sued for “not producing Neil Young albums.” It’s a compelling period of time that typically leaves people scratching their heads about what was happening. I don’t know if we ever find out what happened, but in terms of storytelling, there are several interesting vignettes that can be told. He said from the stage once, “It’s all one big song.” His life and his songs are all part of the same tune, but things start to go awry in the early ’80s in terms of his family life. His son was born with cerebral palsy, and he already had a son born with cerebral palsy. He starts to dig deeper into technology and look for technological solutions to his family issues. Those end up coming out in public in ways people hadn’t expected before. We know Neil as an introspective and solo acoustic artist. He’s a member of bands like Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, then with his own band, Crazy Horse. And he suddenly becomes a different type of family man and actually takes part in his son’s life. Exploring that arc would be very fascinating. It ends up with a great resolution where he performs “Rockin’ in the Free World” on Saturday Night Live in 1989. That could be a closing scene. He comes through adversity and ends up, surprisingly, back on top once again. This happened four or five times in his career. . Should by portrayed by … Joe Keery would do a good job. He’s been playing two-years-out-of-high-school on Stranger Things for so long, so what is he — 40 at this point? He already has the musician chops with his stage persona, Djo. Billy Joel “Piano Man,” of course. Fred Schruers, author of Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography (2015): Since “Piano Man” closes every concert before the encore — as much as I think he’d like to change things up — you’d have to do Billy Joel’s slow rise to prominence that crescendos with the recording of that song and him embracing the start of his hitmaking. The main question should be “Why didn’t he make it sooner?” Well, because he wanted to be just a songwriter for a while. He didn’t like his own performances so much. As a young man on Long Island, he struggled along and met Jon Small, who’s a local guy. He’s married to the woman who would become Billy’s first wife, Elizabeth Weber. I would compare the infamous Weber family to the Borgias. Billy wasn’t from that “Five Towns” thing on Long Island. He was instead from humble Hicksville, as the legend goes. So he got into this family who were a little wealthier and more spoiled — you know, that particular type of Long Island lifestyle. Despite the contrast, he and Jon became friends and worked together. Billy was recruited into his band, the Hassles, and then eventually moved to Los Angeles for several years and wrote “Piano Man.” It’s the durability of “Piano Man” that makes it so important as well as the autobiographical nature of it. It’s his good-bye to Hollywood and the start of something much bigger than himself. . Should be portrayed by … You know what’s strange? This isn’t recency bias, but I find Jeremy Allen White to be a lot more like Billy Joel than Bruce Springsteen. I think he could’ve immersed himself in Billy more fully. What’s unfortunate is if the Springsteen film made only $9 million in its opening weekend, you need to play ball with Hollywood and get some star power. Oasis When it all fell apart. Richard Bowes, author of Some Might Say: The Definitive Story of Oasis (2020): The first few years of their lives are archived and well told. What’s more interesting for a biopic would be the period after their immediate success. They played the biggest shows ever seen in the United Kingdom, which was Knebworth in the summer of 1996. The film should start at that point — it was a What’s next? attitude. Immediately afterward, they were due to fly out to America, and Liam decided he didn’t want to join. So Noel went ahead with the tour without him, Liam joined, and there was an argument that resulted in Noel quitting the tour. There was a big question mark over what would be their future. They then went back to the studio to record a new album, which they deemed the answer to their issue. That album, Be Here Now, was lavish and overproduced. A lot of their inner circle peeled away. There was madness in the studio. The album was the fastest-selling album in the U.K. at the time. There was so much hype, and inevitably the album couldn’t live up to the hype. It was too long — it was 72 minutes. They toured as “the biggest band in the world” with a ludicrous stage setting. It was almost Spinal Tap in nature with all of their props. Noel went through his “fat-Elvis period,” as he called it. After the tour, Noel quit drugs but got addicted to prescription drugs. He wrote the next album, the comedown album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. That period — March 1997 to September 1999 — there’s still not much footage about it. They went to the south of France to record it away from the British media. The two remaining members, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan, left because they thought it wasn’t fun anymore. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants didn’t get a good critical response at all, but the Gallaghers had to recruit two new band members to replace them. By the end of that troubled tour, there was a fight in Barcelona, which was the biggest physical altercation the brothers ever had. But when they ended that tour, there was a real sense of getting it out of their system, they reconciled, and they were looking forward to a future with the new band members. It’s one of the lesser-told chapters of their career. But also, in the U.K., pop music kind of moved on during this time. It moved from the height of ’90s guitar music to a different area of pop. That’s another element of why the pendulum swung for Oasis. . Should be portrayed by … Joseph Gilgun would be quite a good Liam but would require a bit of Hollywood magic given Liam’s age in the ’90s. And I like the idea of Cillian Murphy as Noel. He’s got a gravitas and seriousness about himself. Noel is a much deeper and wistful character than Liam. But you run the risk of caricature because the brothers are so defined. Carly Simon Joining the Laurel Canyon crowd. Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us (2009): When I was working on my book, Carly told me, “I expect to have my feelings hurt.” She’s so head-forward and honest about her feelings. I think a film should begin in April 1971, when she released her first song, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.” She played the Troubadour, opening for Cat Stevens, who became one of her many boyfriends. This was the first hit pop song in which a woman doesn’t want to get married or get tied down by a man. Usually it’s the man who expresses that feeling in music. But this was a time of change with feminism and Ms. magazine. It was also during the moment of Carole King’s Tapestry and Joni Mitchell’s Blue, two of the most beautiful and evocative records of the ’70s. Carole was an of-the-people type of singer, and Joni was very elite, aloof, and an “artiste.” But Carly wrote the song that defined feminism. She had never been to California before 1971, which is interesting because she was someone from an elite background. She still had never gotten on a plane to California from the East Coast. It was exciting for Carly, and she had her stage fright as usual. But this time period introduced her to America. She showed us that having sex with a lot of people wasn’t cheap or trampy. This was an elite woman who really showed us that she had affairs with men such as Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson, and Mick Jagger. She fell in love with James Taylor and married him. She was happily neurotic all her life. She just embodied so much. She was an urban woman, a feminist, and somebody you looked up to and felt you were like her. . Should be portrayed by … Kat Dennings would be good. She’s a tall and long-legged woman. You have to have a fabulous big mouth to play Carly. She’s sexy, but her whole thing is you could have a cup of coffee or a drink with her and you could laugh and compare stories. Stevie Nicks From Fritz to Buckingham Nicks to Fleetwood Mac. Zoë Howe, author of Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours (2015): There’s a good reason why we should focus on Stevie Nicks’s youth. It should be meeting Lindsey Buckingham for the first time — singing “California Dreamin’” as teenagers in a youth club and then joining Fritz, which was kind of like a school band. Stevie elevates everything she joins, and that’s what happened in San Francisco. Fritz supported a lot of big hitters like Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. During this time, she’s finding her stage persona and performing style. She’s picking up tips from not only Janis and Grace Slick but also people in the audience, these groovy women who looked really stylish. She’s got this magpie element and is building a “character.” But then it’s incredibly dramatic where they’re encouraged to split away from Fritz, their old friends, and move to Los Angeles. It’s a heartbreaking moment, but it leads to Buckingham Nicks. They caught people’s attention when they were supporting all of these incredible acts. Bill Graham was interested in managing them. The late producer Keith Olsen was a catalyst in so many ways for their careers. When they got to Los Angeles, Keith recorded with them and was like, “It’s all about these two voices.” There’s this color and magic, and these voices are meant to sing together. They could go further on their own without the band. Keith was a guardian angel, although the rest of Fritz wouldn’t agree. It’s natural to want to imagine an upward trajectory: Fritz is really hot, Buckingham Nicks, and then Fleetwood Mac. But Buckingham Nicks were a low point. Their eponymous album came out, they were hugely passionate about it, and it just didn’t get the push that it needed. They were very disappointed. They were writing these beautiful songs and didn’t understand why it wasn’t working. Stevie worked as a waitress to keep a roof over their heads and keep body and soul together. It’s maybe surprising on the outside that they would question whether or not to join Fleetwood Mac when the opportunity came up. Keith had to go around on New Year’s Eve and talk them into joining the band. They were so convinced to make a go of Buckingham Nicks and try to record a second album, but life changed for everyone that night. That would be an amazing tipping point for the film. Fleetwood Mac initially wanted a replacement guitarist for Bob Welch. They were looking at Lindsey, but it was made very clear they were a package deal — they stuck to their guns like that. Of course, they completely loved her and saw her star quality immediately. How could you not? But Stevie was always keenly aware that she was an add-on, even though she was the ingredient that would propel them into this new stratosphere. She was always conscious of being like, They didn’t want me at the beginning. Do I really have to prove myself here? Anxiety can often lead to creativity. That uncertainty followed her around for a long time. . Should be portrayed by …
