01/06/09
Text: Nik Mercer
Plexifilm's masterfully-crafted Arthur Russell documentary, Wild Combination had us swooning over the classical cellist-cum-San Franciscan hippie-cum-N.Y.C. disco innovator for the better part of December which is... a good thing, no doubt! But, while we were pouring our hearts into Russell, we completely missed another film that certainly rivals Wild Combination: You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story.
Most of us (read: none of us) have ever heard of this mysterious Mr. Wilson, but trust, once you check out the new DVD and listen to his "lost" album of the same name, you'll never forget. As the story goes, Wilson was a horror film-obsessed 24-year-old composer living in Endicott, New York in 1977 when he churned out one of the strangest albums of the era. The record skips all over the place; one minute it's an avant-garde anomaly, the next it's a new wave-leaning nugget, and the next it's a jazz-infused electronic ditty.
Sure, such impossible-to-place musicians have always existed, but Wilson truly is one-of-a-kind, and director/producer Michael Wolk's documentary makes that dauntingly clear. Within the first minute of the film, we find that Wilson was (a) a musical genius, (b) ahead of his time, and (c) a creepy, sometimes scary nut. "James Brown meets David Lynch's Eraserhead... and the backing band sounded like Steely Dan on crack" is how Adrian Milan of Motel Records put his sound and style―and he's not far off.
Wolk begins the movie by introducing Wilson through his friends, colleagues, and other associates, and then moves into a gutsy trip to Endicott to find the man himself. The adventure is enthralling and certainly verifies the widespread notion of Wilson being a very strange recluse. While his music isn't for everyone, the film is definitely a worthy addition to any audiophiles collection.
Oh, and we almost forgot to mention that the DVD also comes with Wilson's album on CD!
