The name Danny Fields may not mean much to some people but to those in the know he is “The coolest man in the room”, a number one fan and groupie and even the “Mayor of New York City”. The man seems to have seen and done it all in music, having fully immersed himself in sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll for some fifty years. Danny Says is the title of a Ramones song and a documentary about this charismatic rocker, punk and chameleon.
Fields was born Daniel Feinberg in 1939 in Brooklyn. As a child he didn’t have many friends but he was a smart boy. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Pennsylvania and was admitted to (but later dropped out of) Harvard Law School. He really found himself back in New York though and in particular, in Greenwich Village.
In the sixties after a brief stint at Liquor Store Magazine, Fields would go on to write for Datebook. He was the editor responsible for publishing John Lennon’s infamous, “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus” quote. He also became a publicist for The Doors despite there being some animosity between himself and their lead singer, Jim Morrison.
From there he would go on to become friendly with Andy Warhol’s crew at the Factory and became a Radio DJ, the director of publicity at Elektra Records, a band manager and the man who discovered The MC5, The Stooges and The Ramones, among others. This documentary is the second one by filmmaker, Brendan Toller who met Fields when he produced his first film, I Need That Record, which was about the demise of independent record stores in America.
Danny Speaks features lots of talking head interviews with the subject as well as: Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Jann Wenner, Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), John Cameron Mitchell and Judy Collins, among others. There are lots of animated sequences used to break up the interviews as well as compliment and reconstruct various anecdotes like the time Jim Morrison was kidnapped and stoned and other shenanigans involving The Stooges et al (Iggy Pop is a genius and some of his quotes are absolutely hilarious). The film also features lots of music from the artists Fields worked closely with as well as exclusive audio, video and photographs that this cool man took and captured over the years.
Danny Says is a bit of a shambolic rockumentary that is a tad long but very interesting. Danny Fields is one charming man and it’s easy to see how he made so many famous friends. Fields was also a lucky guy who has lived one exciting rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle without the need to go to rock ‘n’ roll high school. This documentary is a must-see for any discerning music fan as it chronicles the love, lust, bile and shenanigans of music’s brightest and finest.
Review Score: FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Danny Says screened at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
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