You Are What You Eat

"You Are What You Eat" is an artifact capturing that brief patchouly scented moment when the world's youth migrated toward its free love Mecca, the Haight Ashbury. Before the mean spirited chill of hard drugs, Charlie Manson, Nixon and Pol Pot shocked everyone back to their senses. It's puzzling, incoherent and unflatteringly besotted with unattractive flakes pontificating nonsensically, yet still rather engaging. The truncated 40-minute copy in circulation seems to be missing several key elements.

Scenes of notorious San Francisco pot dealer Super Spade which are described in reviews at the time of the film's release are nowhere to be seen. The fact that before "You Are What You Eat" was even released Super Spade was murdered and left in a sleeping bag beneath a cliff by the Point Reyes lighthouse seems ominously portentious. Rumors after his death of imminent mob control of the Haight caused a whole, new emigration of older hipsters to the countryside in search of some utopian dream that wasn't there.

Tiny Tim duets with his then girlfriend Eleanor Baruchian on "I Got You Babe" while mania-addled girls (inserted from The Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert) scream for their idols. Nature, leaves and flowers accompany a plaintive " Don't Remind Me Now of Time" sung by Peter Yarrow with whispers of "in the sky". Hell's Angels Motorcycles and a black screen precede the film's first title "The Heart Attack" (a narrator recounting how a loved one died after seeing motorcycles and while taking pictures of the Pope).

Youthful frolics include a desert ceremony with bearded conga drummers, ritualized dancing, body painting and a proper "Freak Out" with Zappa on stage (the music in fact a jam featuring John Simon & The Electric Flag with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar).

The action cuts off in an abrupt ending with credits that can only be read when played in slow motion. We need to see the other 35-minutes to properly judge this peek at the freak scene in full flower. I think a nice clean transfer from the original negative to DVD (with 5.1 surround sound) is in order.

This supposedly contains footage of the Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Girls and Boys in San Francisco.

I landed at the "Greta Garbo Hotel for Wayward Girls and Boys Too" (that's the real name, not "boys and girls" as popularized by the song) in the summer of 1966 when I was 16 years old. That was the summer before the "summer of love" and it was a heady time. I had announced to my parents that I intended to spend the summer on my own in San Francisco and for some reason they let me do it. My older sister - college age - was already out there and they must have thought she would look out for me. I arrived with backpack and guitar in hand, crashed at her place for a few days and found out that I could rent a room at the Greta Garbo for about $25 a week so she and her friends dropped me off.

The real name of the hotel had been the "Kirkland" and there was an old sign with that on the outside of the building. I don't recall that it said "Greta Garbo..." anywhere but there was a huge old movie poster of GG in the lobby and, of course, every one knew it by that name.

I took up residence in one of the front rooms on the second floor. Very sunny with a big bay window facing the street. Bathroom and kitchen were down the hall. Doors were locked by padlocks, the original old fashioned keys probably lost long ago. The place was incredibly seedy but I loved it.

jz@what.org

I agree with ALittleHawk. The locations were not solely in San Francisco, there are other locations and definitely one of them takes place in New York City. That's where Tiny Tim and Eleanor Barooshian were located at. Though, as to the claim that she was his girlfriend may be disputable. She looks very young in this clip. 1968?

The Cake were formed in 1967 and she looks to appear as a young woman in her very early 20s, although she was actually in her late teens. I think she is a year older than Jeanette Jacobs, who was born in Queens, in 1950. I have been having a difficult time searching for this movie as I realize it is rare.

I am actually trying to find more videos of The Cake, the best girl vocal group, IMHO, of the late 1960s.

I saw this at the Guild Theater in Portland when it first came out. It was a series of disconnected segments about various hip things going on in California in 1966-68, all set to music. Almost like a set of music videos.

A couple of the segments had to do with Family Dog, one of the more well known communal groups. One terrific segment was Frank Zappa playing a concert in LA. He was just sitting in a straight-back chair in one corner of a club with a light show going on playing unbeatable guitar.

Another part I vaguely remember was a song about a boy in his house. The song was silly/sweet and the camera followed a fiesty little three-year-old all over. Tiny Tim's number was mostly a head shot of him singing.

Peter, of Paul and Mary was one of the producers.

I liked it so much I went back to see it again. Mostly for the music. I'd like to get the soundtrack. I never met anyone else who saw it.

"You Are What You Eat" has been uploaded to YouTube. Here is the link: http://youtu.be/_U9-k3086x4 It is not the clearest transfer, but I think it is now complete. It has the Super Spade scenes I mentioned in my 2002 review. "You Are What You Eat" is an artifact capturing that brief patchouly scented moment when the world's youth migrated toward its free love Mecca, the Haight Ashbury. Before the mean spirited chill of hard drugs, Charlie Manson, Nixon and Pol Pot shocked everyone back to their senses. It's puzzling, incoherent and unflatteringly besotted with unattractive flakes pontificating nonsensically, yet still rather engaging. The new version is 1:11 long.

The film begins with notorious San Francisco pot dealer Super Spade who is described in reviews at the time of the film's release. The fact that before "You Are What You Eat" was released Super Spade was murdered and left in a sleeping bag beneath a cliff by the Point Reyes lighthouse seems ominously portentous. Rumors after his death of imminent mob control of the Haight caused a whole, new emigration of older hipsters to the countryside in search of some Utopian dream that perhaps wasn't there.

Tiny Tim duets with his then girlfriend Eleanor Baruchian on "I Got You Babe" while mania-addled girls (inserted from The Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert) scream for their idols. Nature, leaves and flowers accompany a plaintive " Don't Remind Me Now of Time" sung by Peter Yarrow with whispers of "in the sky". Hell's Angels Motorcycles and a black screen precede the film's first title "The Heart Attack" (a narrator recounting how a loved one died after seeing motorcycles and while taking pictures of the Pope).

Youthful frolics include a desert ceremony with bearded conga drummers, ritualized dancing, body painting and a proper "Freak Out" with Zappa on stage (the music in fact a jam featuring John Simon & The Electric Flag with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar).