Eddie and the Cruisers
by P.F. Kluge
I can't think about Eddie and the Cruisers without hearing the opening keyboard tinkle of The Darkside. I just can't. It's not a favorite movie of mine, but it is a fun movie. Seeing it for the first time was magical, sort of. I saw it on film in a 90 seat theater and didn't know much about it, other than the week before the theater ran the original trailer to advertise it's revival screening, and that it was always a movie I was interested in seeing. I also knew the song The Darkside from having grown up in New Jersey, home of a trillion and one classic rock stations, but I didn't know of it's connection to the film.
A few weeks ago, working my Christmas gig at the video store, my best friend (and co-owner of the store) got into an argument with a customer purchasing a battered VHS copy of the film. This guy swore up and down that Eddie Wilson was not only real, but he remembers exactly what he was doing when he heard the news the Eddie had 'died'. The argument got heated when my friend, more opinionated than I am, wouldn't back down and let the misinformed remain so. The patron wouldn't back down either, and I'm sure we lost a repeat customer. Believe it or not, less than an hour later, the scene repeated itself, except with a different customer. Again, buying a copy of the film, sun bleached VHS cover and all, as well as a copy of the rare Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! VHS (for which we get $15! Fifteen bucks for a VHS, now that's amazing!) this guy lit in on how he missed Eddie so much, and how his music meant so much to this guy, and how he remembered what he was doing (roofing his house) when he heard the Eddie was dead. I didn't argue with the guy, but my friend did, and I mentioned that the film was based on a book. The guy related that if the film was based on a book (which it is, and is mentioned in the opening credits) that the book was an account of the real Eddie Wilson. With that he left with is overprice, hard to find VHS tape.
These two encounters are what encouraged me to dig out my DVD of Eddie and the Cruisers which then propelled my interest into the novel. How could someone create something so visceral and amazing that people have altered their own personal history to make room for a fantasy?
Christmas came, and with it a fresh copy of the lingering reprinting of P.F. Kluge's cult novel. It's a wonderful read. It's a mystery, like the film, steeped in Rock-lore and that's just it, he so perfectly wrote about the death and pop-culture resurgence of a cult music icon that it has stuck in the minds of people as reality. And what I think helps is the Kluge wrote the book in the late 70's just as most of the greatest rock legends were winking out. But he was the first to take the idol worship to the next level. He saw that people were going to look back and yearn for those tender years before they even did. Sure, he had Elvis and Jopplin to guide his hand, but he marketed pop-culture nostalgia in 1980 the way Cobain's fans (Van Sant being one of them) do today.
The book is by no means perfect, but like a great pop-song it hits all the right notes, or most of them. I still would say the the Hollywood ending is superior to the book's, because it does what reality and Elvis fan's can't. I'd also say that the result of the mystery is a let down, and the violence surrounding it is unnecessary. These are the few things the movie got right, that and casting Micheal Pare. But the rest, the rest is perfectly captured by a young writer who's foresight is pretty astounding.
Grade A