SCOPDOM SCOP
I am frightened. I have paddled upriver to the core of this
retrospective without enough cigarettes, without enough coffee, no aspirin. I
have met fear and I face it in the eyes of each member of Scopdom Scop. They are
all scared, and in turn it frightens me.
EYE MUST FOLLOW is more than a greatest-hits package, it is
more than mere docudrama. It is a fearless Jungian introspection, a
soul-searching inventory of right and wrong. We all have a dark side, and we
must get to know it if we are also to know the good. But for God's sake,
somebody should have stopped these guys. (Although some of their production
skills would have added a little punch to more than a few Metallica videos.)
EYE MUST FOLLOW is Scop's eye behind the camera's eye. A serious evaluation of a lifetime's work, and it doesn't look like anyone's laughing. Most of the candid shots of band and crew members Bob Brink, Michael Zugin, and John Nelles reveal a certain regret, an almost apologetic "did I do that?" Never, however, do they give in to the second-guessing.
Witness:
Michael: It's gotta spew out.
John: It's as plain as the nose on your face.
Bob: I'm deeply disturbed by it. I don't think I'll ever go
out in public again. How much can I be expected to take? (Then he goes on to
blame the media: blah, blah, blah.)
OK, well maybe sometimes...
My favorite segment is the live performance. Bob, upside down, wearing one of his many tribal masks, sings (sings?) through a megaphone. The audience is stunned. They might as well have been performing in front of Asian children at a Chinese Chuck E. Cheese. Some people danced, 'though I don't know why. The plain fact that they chose to perform live gives you some insight into this group.
Bob explains:
I'm not sorry for what I've done... I'd go right back out
and do the same goddamn thing all over again. The trouble is, I DO care... You
wouldn't think from looking at me that I care...
Well, now that you mention it...
Then the tape cuts Immediately to the "I've Wasted My
Life" video, with superb lyrics that won me over from the start:
I wasted my life
I wasted my life
Do the Watusi
Faye Wray go-go dancer.
At least I think that's what he says.
Of course, the videos include shots smothered in all the
Scopsters' favorite themes, motifs returned to again and again like a string of
pearls draped around the swine's neck of time. Cowboy hats, bad trumpet playing,
electrical tape... images from the deepest, darkest corners of the creative
mind. Bob at one point states that he "refuses to be part of this... I
refuse to be part of this... time." But we know better. Bob, and Michael
and John as well, are deeply rooted in this time and this culture. They are the
bad dream of the war generation, and they have chosen to record it on film and
tape - not for posterity - but for us, the living. Step up to EYE MUST FOLLOW
and look into the fun-house mirror. Your reflection, as well as mine, is warped.
Of course there are clips from Scop's semi-famous,
semi-feature-length "Too Cold To Cry", featuring my all-time favorite
fictional character, Dane Bones. The film is way too difficult to describe, so
the quick random clips that don't make any sense are totally appropriate.
I have been left here hurt
Underneath my waxy blanket...
I want you to meet some of my... buddies.
No, thanks. I think it's safer just to watch Scopdom Scop on
video and watch it in bed. That way I can cover up beneath my own blanket when I
get scared. But wait, there's more:
Like a penguin hanging
From your ceiling...
(At this point, we hear John in the background asking,
"Should I turn this off?" You should have thought about that earlier.
But let me ask you, did Dr. Frankenstein hesitate? Does William Hurt hesitate in
Altered States? I think not. And Bob continues, even when he runs out of lyrics,
chanting unintelligibly, running out the string like a doomed sailor.
What?
Keep rolling tape! Do not stop, no matter how fearful. Artists
are always filled with dread, and a large part of this is a feeling of hubris:
creation is the domain of God and not we humans. Well, God's got nothing to fear
from these guys, but the rest of us should watch out. It's interesting to note
at one point someone (I believe it's Michael) utters this classic line:
I'm not ready to perform yet. It takes thirty years to
practice and then you go out in public.
Remind you of a certain other Messiah?
-Alex Rafferty
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