Velvet Goldmine: Who was that Jack Ferrie guy....

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Just saw Velvet Goldmine over the weekend for the first time.

If the Brian Slade character is David Bowie and the Curt Wild character (My God! Didn't Ewan McGregor look just like Kurt Cobain with that long stringy, blonde hair?) was Iggy Pop, who in the heck was the Jack Ferrie chacter supposed to be?

There was that one scene near the beginning where they show Curt Wild and Ferrie being interviewed together in Berlin (but that would have made Jack Ferrie David Bowie.)

Great movie though.

You gotta love Christian Bale as a teen wanking over his copy of the NME while looking at the Bowie and Pop characters.

― Steven Ward, Monday, 11 July 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

Brian Ferry + Lou Reed + Marc Bolan + Brian Eno

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Bryan*

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Taking Sides: "Velvet Goldmine" versus "Almost Famous"

I thought it was exceptionally dire, myself.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

no no no, Ferrie is obviously an amalgam of Transformer-era Lou Reed (note the allusions to his having "started it all" plus roots in New York, his "Berlin" album, etc.)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

I keep waiting for a real good DVD of this film to come out. There's a basic edition floating around, but I know that if I cave and buy it, they'll release the deluxe edition just to spite me.

This is a film I initially hated in the theater, but my love for the soundtrack made me revisit it and now its one of my all-time faves.

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

this film is so dense and funny. a lot of people's hatred seems to stem from the various liberties taken with historical references, but the whole film is about equating making up a myth with establishing a gay identity - the style and substance of the movie perfectly complement each other, its a hall of mirrors where there are no fixed facts, just transformative fantasies.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

no no no, Ferrie is obviously an amalgam of Transformer-era Lou Reed

What, Lou Reed by way of Steve Harley? It was an amusing movie, worth seeing once or twice on cable. It did kind of miss a lot of the thud that actually came with glam. A Slade song was in it but no characters or extras that packed the similar wham.

― George Smith, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

the movie is not intended to be a glam documentary - its an ode to the spirit of glam and treats its characters as dolls to be dressed up and manipulated at will within that context. It's not a checklist of which band charted when with what song.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

I read: Lou Reed by way of Steve Harvey?

Whole different movie...

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Jack Fairy, no?

― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed by way of Paul Harvey?
GOOD DAY

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

its an ode to the spirit of glam and treats its characters as dolls to be dressed up and manipulated at will within that context.

Yeah, sort of. But spirits of glam differ from others.

It's not a checklist of which band charted when with what song.

Indeed. I said it was a fun movie.

― George Smith, Monday, 11 July 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

I did not look upon it as a cinematic roman à clef or a statement about a time but as a story set in a mostly mythologized time (once upon a time) and amlgamating different bits of pop music histroy and trivia. It wasn't great but it was a good bit of fun.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

The worst part of the movie is Citizen Kane-esque framing bit with Christian Bale in the 80s. The glam part is actually really really good.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

The whole film is Kane-inspired, not just that first part. This is one of my fave films too

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

yes.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 08:14 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed by way of Paul Harvey?
GOOD DAY
How about Lou Reed by way of Jackie Harvey?

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

My, what a mystery this is. Might it have been clearer had his name been "Brian Ferrie"? Jesus Christ, people...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

Bogus, man.

― Tigerstyle Shamanic Vision Quester (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

fifteen years pass...

Found this while searching for something else entirely...

WHOA, I have seen this movie probably dozens of times, and I never caught that it was Jack Ferrie and not Jack Fairy? (It would have been more obvious if he were more Bryan Ferry-like, but he was far more Lou Reed than he was Bryan Ferry.) Yet another layer of meaning that makes it better and better.

There is another thread on this film, I know argh, because I feel like we did discuss it a lot more than this!

― Branwell with an N, Thursday, 6 August 2020 09:29 (five years ago)

I know loads of people "hate" this film, and yeah there were creaky bits...

But compare this to the more contemporaneous "Never too young to rock" which looks like it was filmed in a service station or two.. Demolished ones..

― Mark G, Thursday, 6 August 2020 10:42 (five years ago)

I've seen this movie about a hundred times and I could swear the ending credits listed the character as "Jack Fairy". Anyway, I didn't see any Bryan Ferry in his character (and I don't think Ferry would've been so generous with his and Roxy Music's back catalog for the soundtrack if he had been portrayed in such a way), and Lou Reed was partly represented by Curt Wild (especially the part where the Bowie analogue Brian Slade connects with Wilde on a romantic level). Also, I have no idea why anyone would dislike this movie unless they hate the glam rock scene of the '70s or something, IDK. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and literally changed my life.

― We Live as We Dee, Alone (deethelurker), Friday, 7 August 2020 12:42 (five years ago)

I think I got a real Lou Reed vibe from the whole "everyone rips him off blind" aspect, of this being the person who originated the whole scene/concept, but never got the credit for it?

But again and always with this film, you can never really try to read anyone as a direct copy or analogue of any original rock star, they're all mash-ups and confluences and 'the vibe rather than the facts'. For me, seeing a Ferry connection was just another layer of "a-ha, I didn't notice that in there, very clever!"

― Branwell with an N, Friday, 7 August 2020 12:56 (five years ago)

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