User reviews

It's interesting to see modern reaction to what is essentially an historical artifact. This is one fragment in what was at the time a search for a whole new language. Nobody speaks this language today, and perhaps that's just as well. I came to YAWYE as an Electric Flag fan who saw their name on the soundtrack album. (The Electric Flag also did the soundtrack for Peter Fonda's "The Trip".) If you think of YAWYE as a light show with pretty cool music you won't be far off target. If you're expecting the language of modern cinema, you won't get it at all. I, for one, am glad it exists. If I told you there was such a time, you wouldn't believe me...

"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).

I saw this movie in San Francisco when I was about 14. My memory of it is very vague. From what other people have posted I realize that I had misconceptions about it. I was under the impression that it was a Frank Zappa film, but according to another reviewer, he was only in one segment. I suspect the reason for that may be that my older brother and his friend wanted to see it because they liked Frank Zappa. I am giving it a rating of 7 because I remember liking it and nothing else other than the "My Name is Jack" segment mentioning the "Greta Garbo Home For Wayward Boys and Girls." I would like to see it again some time. I wish it was available on DVD and there was more information available about it.

OK, to answer a few questions that others seem to have had:

1. Yes, this film *is* available, after a fashion. It's out there in collector's circles. I recently found a copy recently on a pirated DVD-R for under $20.00. It is the complete version, not the edited version. The transfer quality was excellent, whereas the quality of the original film reel was only good to very good.

2. The film soundtrack was released several years ago on CD. You can occasionally locate copies of it on E-Bay. That's where I got mine.

3. This is a very disjointed and boring film. If you are a Tiny Tim fan, or a Peter Yarrow fan, you will probably not be disappointed, but otherwise, unless you were part of the San Francisco Scene in the Summer of Love, you'll probably be as bored to tears as I was: this film was, according to the Album's liner notes an "anti-documentary" "about a particular moment in time." If you were there, you'll probably spot some familiar faces in the "Family Dog" sequence and in the "Be-In" footage. If you weren't, you'll see "just these spotty, dirty, kids" as George Harrison once described them-- it's clear this was not the Clearasil generation...

4. There is no logic, rhyme or reason to this film. No continuity. No order. Unrelated footage cuts in and out of scenes for no discernible reason.

5. The Tiny Tim sequences were filmed in the basement of Bob Dylan's "Big Pink" house with "The Band" (in their last appearance as "The Hawks" )as his back-up band in Woodstock, N.Y. Why Yarrow included them on this film, that otherwise limits itself to San Francisco is beyond reasoning. The raw tapes of this session are available on the bootleg "Bob Dylan, Tiny Tim and The Band: "Down In The Basement". What Mr. Tim (a New Yorker) has to do with the rest of the film, set as it is in San Francisco, and why they interspersed one of his performances with audience shots of the Beatles fans at Candlestick Park from two years earlier, is beyond explanation. (The only Beatles/Tiny Tim connections I know of are that the Beatles attended Mr. Tim's debut at the Royal Albert Hall in '68, and Mr. Tim later sang "Nowhere Man" on the Beatles 1969 Beatles Fan Club Christmas Record-- both of which are antecedent to this film's release.) Tiny's duet is with the lovely Elanor Baruchian, a young lady of his accquaintance (not his girlfriend as reported on The Band's website)who used to appear on the same bill with him at The Scene Club in New York City in 1966. Ms. Baruchian changed her name to Chelsea Lee and was a founding member of the Psychedelic Folk Rock trio "The Cake" and later was a vocalist in Ginger Baker's Air Force, and one of Dr. John's Nighttrippers. It was Tiny Tim's appearance in this film that opened the door for him to his invitation to appear on Laugh-In, The Tonight Show, and all of the subsequent fame to follow.

6. Frank Zappa, near as I can tell, does not appear in this film. His music certainly does not. Another reviewer claims that he is sitting on a chair on the side of the stage during the psychedelic light show of the topless go-go girl dancing... frankly, I nearly went blind trying to determine that the girls were, in fact, topless, and didn't notice Mr. Zappa anywhere on this film. The band playing during the Psychdelic Lightshow & Topless Go-go dancing was The Electric Flag, not The Mothers of Invention, who were an *L.A* Band, not a Frisco Band.

7. David Crosby *does* make a five second cameo in this film. He has no lines.

Seems like You Are What You Eat is a lost example of the maxim, "never trust a hippie with a camera". I ran across a second hand video of a rather poor quality copy of this film, several dubbing generations beyond its origin. The copy I have is only 40 minutes long and there's no sign of Frank Zappa, musically or otherwise. What's left is a pointless but sometimes charming collection of film clips from the 60s that serve as a reminder of the cultural foment of the period. The highlight is the German helmet commercial, where we see a number of children--black and white!--wearing Nazi helmets and officers caps. The live footage of Tiny Tim seems to have been intercut with crowd footage from Beatles concerts (probably at Candlestick Park)and features him warbling I Got You Babe with an equally tuneless (but cute) female counterpart. And who can forget the sight of a shirtless Barry McGuire doing some psychedelic frugging? It's so good the filmmaker chose to include the same scene twice! There's a brief glimpse of David Crosby in his best '67 regalia. The Family Dog eat flowers in the park, thus providing the film's title. The rest of the film consists of young people dancing with gay abandon. At 40 minutes it's just the right length; if a 75 minute cut truly exists somewhere I'm not sure I could stand it.

This movie is nearly unwatchable.

I first saw it at its release in the theater, and if I was not such a fan of Peter Yarrow, I would have walked out and asked for my money back. At least half the theater crowd did.

On the other hand, the two songs written and played by Yarrow are beautiful and its a shame he never recorded longer versions, nor put them on any album. They are lovely tunes. I don't think the sound track is available on CD. The movie can be found on VHS.

It could have been done as a documentary of San Francisco life in 1969 and left out the psychedelic techniques.

This film was not solely about San Francisco, as one poster claims.

It was an experimental film about an experimental way of life.

It was filmed in L.A., Woodstock, SF, NYC, possibly NM. the Calif. desert.

I believe the little blonde boy was Godot, who died when he fell through a skylight when he was around 5 years old.

We did film at the Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Girls & Boys. That is what the John Simon song is about. (My Name is Jack)

YAWYE broke the Bonnie and Clyde records at Carnegie Hall Cinema when it first opened.

I have an original poster & the Soundrack and I had a cameo role in the film.

The minister was Rev. Malcolm Boyd.

One of the topless girls was John Sebastian's wife,Cecci

It was recently shown at the Cinamatique Film Festival at the Egyptian in Hollywood, Barry McGuire and I introduced the film and discussed it for a rather large audience, before the screening.

Michael Butler the producer of HAiR the Broadway musical and later the film version, was a co producer.

You hear a horn honk in the SuperSpade scene. Carol Wayne who was watching us film, accidentally honked the horn on DP Barry Feinstein's Harley, which was in their living room!

I'd love to see all the films the worst of the critics on this board have produced, directed or written!!LOL

"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.

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.

I found this soundtrack long ago, and it is really wacky and psychedelic. The Peter Yarrow song, "Silly Girl," is sweet and gentle as it segues into "Desert Moog," an early use of this keyboard. The Tiny Tim "Be My Baby" is hilarious, as are the seemingly meaningless quotes of the preacher man. I would really like to see this movie - the photos on the cover give some clue as to how irreverent and experimental it must have been. "The Helmet Commercial" for the German motorbike helmet is like old Firesign Theatre stuff. This soundtrack has influenced some funny moments in my personal life, as I have found myself thinking of the quotes and of Tiny Tim serenading some hog or politician's wife. Seeing this film would certainly solve a mystery for me.

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've been an owner of this soundtrack album since 1968, and have always enjoyed it. It's a nice little time capsule of a long gone era.

I understand that the film is simply a documentary of a concert. Yes, it's true, I missed seeing the movie, although I had an opportunity to. You can't find it anywhere, either.

Peter Yarrow once told me (we spoke briefly in 1976) that Paul Stookey was the whispering voice on the song "Don't Remind Me Now Of Time" and that "EVERYBODY" was in on that recording session.

I believe that the movie title track was the best recording the Paul Butterfield band ever made. It's really hot!

If you ever see this LP at a used record store or convention, don't hesitate to buy it.

Even as a curio,this exercise in tedium is hard to take. I saw an

excellent print, full length, and believe me, you might be better off

with truncated versions. In editing this the big question would be "What

would you leave in? It's just a jumble of disconnected would be scenes; dispite John

Simons musical connections, the score is terrible. Zappa is seen but not

heard; the Lovin Spoonful must be hiding in there really well. The most

interesting musical note is one number where we hear the Band very

distinctly, backing Tiny Tim! Again, they are not in the movie.

In the most offensive scene, the film makers got permission to film

THE CROWD at the last Beatles show at Candlestick Park. (Yet here we get

a flash of them leaving). Then the crowds reactions (tearful young

girls) where spliced in to footage of Tiny Tim camping it up. So as

these girls watched something beautiful and historic passing from the

world; there emotions were turned into jokes.

The rest is just plain dull and awful.

Jimisen (above) states: "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." Could this be "My Name Is Jack," the song John Simon wrote for the film? Manfred Mann's cover version, with some altered lyrics ("Here Comes Superspade" becomes "Here Comes Superman," e.g.), scraped the lower reaches of the Top 40 in 1968, here in NYC, anyway, and certainly had both those qualities. A YAWYE video release is long overdue, if for sheer time-capsule value alone. Bring it on!