Peter Case: A Million Miles Away - Take Yes For An Answer (DVD)

Peter Case
A Million Miles Way -Take Yes For An Answer
Passport 2020 Productions
2023

The dilettante music lover might wonder why there's a biopic/documentary available devoted to a living musician named Peter Case. Yet fans of the man have long known what a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page reveals: the Buffalo-born musician/songwriter boasts a résumé so expansive it might be refused as implausible if tendered as a film treatment.

Born and raised in western New York and transplanted by his own restless nature to California, Case has evolved into the archetypal troubadour since the Seventies. His allegiance to authenticity has been unwavering over the course of a career now lasting over fifty years, all the more so as it comes sans any faux revisionism or contrived regression.

What may be most surprising in that regard is Case's tenure in a prototypical punk band called the Nerves and his leadership of the more mature and seasoned Brit-pop influenced likes of the Plimsouls. Both bands now seem antithetical to his modern folk approach which he embraced later in the Eighties, but the fact is, both groups gained some measure of deserved recognition. The former's arrived when a song by one of its members, Jack Lee, became a hit for Blondie ("Hanging on the Telephone"), but only after the trio split. The latter's fame, such as it was, came by dint of radio airplay for early indie releases, but all the more so via "A Million Miles Away" which appeared right at the cusp of the post-punk/New Wave fad of its time (played by the band in a scene from the movie Valley Girl (Atlantic Releasing, 1983).

A scrupulous timeline of this cinematic narrative bespeaks Peter Case's own remarkable memory. And that's not to mention the various sources of footage capturing him in both the earliest days of his time in San Francisco and latter-day appearances as a solo artist. Interview segments with the likes of the aforementioned Lee, musician Chuck Prophet (co-founder of the Paisley Underground group Green On Red) and producer musician Steven Soles (Rolling Thunder Revue, the Alpha Band) invariably clarify the visuals and provide an extremely well-rounded view of not only Peter Case's career, but also his inimitable personality.

Through it all, Case himself never seems in the least stuck in time or dated. Perhaps that's because the matter-of-fact tone he adopts and maintains in his own on-camera conversations suggests he's simply following his muse. As he relates a conversation with label founder David Geffen (from whence derives this picture's subtitle) during which the artist asks right out to be released from his contract, it's almost as if he'd prefer to scuffle.

Frustration with corporate support on that front notwithstanding, Case's earliest records contain the same urgency and level of commitment as subsequent ones, issued on the long-time home of modern folk, Vanguard Records, and the more eclectic label Yep Roc. He is ever willing to follow his instincts, perhaps too much so when it comes to his self-professed prickly persona. Still, as depicted in the clip from an appearance on David Letterman's late night program, Peter Case has always exhibited style. And to an extent, the no-nonsense directing of A Million Miles Away, by Fred Parnes, displays the same attribute: only at a couple points does the fleet pace lag, so when the momentum oddly and abruptly dissipates, at roughly the one hour mark of this near ninety-minutes total, it's utterly confounding.

Granted, it's a daunting task indeed to construct a piece of film that will accurately depict the nuances of a subject so eloquent as Peter Case. But after portraying his marriage to Victoria Williams—with on-screen input from the latter—the musician/songwriter is pictured frolicking with a child, right after which he mentions the challenge of caring for his children in the wake of divorce.

Otherwise, there's not even passing mention of those circumstances, much less detailed explanation. That is, until radio personality/journalist Denise Sullivan discusses her own relationship with Case and that dialogue revolves as much around her invaluable assistance during his heart-health scare of 2009 as their shared destiny: the admirable continuity of this film attests to how their paths had crossed years before the two became a couple.

At that juncture, A Million Miles Away turned halting and erratic, after beginning and then unfolding, as a fluid series of generally chronological observations on that sequence of pivotal events that constitute Peter Case's life. The producers, including Parnes, Chris Seefried and Jordan Krause, seemed to have lost their shared train of thought and were thus at a loss for a fitting conclusion.

The closing scene of the musician pondering the state of the world today accurately captures his good-humored humility as well as rightful pride in the work he does. Yet this somewhat stunted denouement begs the question of a longer cut of the piece or even a sequel that fully encapsulates this subtitle of the three men's collaboration: Take Yes For An Answer.

If financial constraints were the source of hurried and forced edits, perhaps an arts endowment or a grant could subsidize such a future project. Resources along those lines might also provide more bonus features in digital form, in addition to the trailer on the physical configuration of the DVD, as would the inclusion of a complete concert, from any era of Case's career.

In that respect too, while the web, including Case's website, offers plentiful of information, some discographical annotation in the credits of the video would elucidate the scope of a most extensive body of work, especially for novices and the merely curious for whom viewing this title is their introduction to Peter Case. But his loyal followers might well benefit too, if only because seeing such features and added content would supply additional confirmation of the validity of their allegiance.

Still, while such hypothetical remedies might well mitigate the less-than resounding end effect of watching A Million Miles Away, the main content of the work is ultimately worth multiple viewings, all the better to marvel at the great adventure that is this venerable musician/songwriter's ever-so-colorful life and times.

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