Peter Case - A Million MIles Away (Documentary)

 

I never got a chance to see the Nerves and, in fact, didn't hear them until years later - this doc has some great early pix/footage - and I believe that the Plimsouls started a bit before I got to LA but they were still very much an underground band when I started hanging out on the scene. While they were very much a power-pop group (a genre that I always dug, but had moved away from somewhat by that time), they still had enough garage roots and plenty of hooks'n'energy to captivate. I distinctly remember a New Year's Eve show of theirs where Paula Pierce came up to me and said that I had to hear this new song of theirs, "A Million Miles Away", which, of course, didn't make them stars, but did give them a national profile.

This doc is particularly fascinating because it has actual film footage of Peter as a folk-singer/hippie teenager in San Francisco in the early 70's after running away from home. No idea how or why this footage exists as he was just another of a million long-haired folk singers in the town at the time, but it is pretty great. In SF he meets Jack Lee and Paul Collins and, in a disorienting fast-forward of a few years (which happens multiple times in this doc with no explanations), the Nerves are in LA and touring the country opening for the Ramones! 

But, the three personalities were too strong (each went on to their own bands) and they split up before they could hit it big (and Blondie recorded Jack's "Hanging on the Telephone" just after the split) and with another fast-forward, Peter has the Plimsouls and are playing big local shows. A lot of the footage simply says "LA" so I'm not sure where or when all of the gigs were, but they were still a club band when I arrived in mid-79 and it took a while before "Million..." gave them their big push, such as it was.

But, despite all of the breaks that they got, they couldn't hit the big time, they broke up and Peter, being the obstinate chameleon that he is, went back to being a folk singer. He was still on a major label, Geffen, but they weren't sure what to do with him and he floundered for a few years, but eventually found his way and became a reasonable successful folkie.

Of course, there is a lot more to the story and a lot of relationships, health issues (after the Plimsouls he seemed to stop taking care of himself), record company woes and lots'n'lots of shows, but at the end he is in a loving marriage with a supportive wife (who, funnily, recounts that she didn't care for him at all when they first met) and a reasonably successful folk career.

Definitely interesting, and goes to show that even the bands and songwriters that got plenty of breaks (that I was definitely jealous of at the time) didn't guarantee any type of true success and sometimes ya kinda gotta do it almost on your own. Worth watching, for sure!