I recently re-watched Cameron Crowe’s semiautobiographical masterpiece Almost Famous and am pleased to report it is as good as I remember it, possibly better. The movie is full of memorable moments that all spring from one key scene. When his sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel) leaves home to be a stewardess she leaves William Miller (Michael Angarano and Patrick Fugit) a gift that will set him free. A bag of records including:
- Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
- Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
- Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones
- II, Led Zeppelin
- Axis Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Wheels of Fire, Cream
- Blue, Joni Mitchell
- Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
- Tommy, The Who
I understand the albums we see are baste on Crowe’s own record collection from the time. Despite being recorded before I was born I own most of these albums we see. One thing has always bugged me about the scene, we get a glimpse of another cover but I have never been able to work out what it is. In the hope of finding the answer I took to the internet. I didn’t find the answer I was looking for but I did find THIS script from the movie. As is often the case it differs from the finished film, it contains this description of the scene:
William locks the door. He reaches under his bed. It’s a black leatherette travel bag, with tartan design. He unzips the bag — it’s filled with albums. He flips through the amazing, subversive cache of music. Cream’s Wheels of Fire… the seminal Bob Dylan bootleg Great White Wonder… the Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out… The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds… Abraxas by Santana… Jethro Tull’s Stand Up… The Mother’s of Invention’s We’re Only In It For The Money… Led Zeppelin… Crosby, Stills and Nash… Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew… and The Who’s Tommy… with a note taped to it.
Take a look at this, as he flips through them its the third album we see between Sweet Baby James and Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! Any ideas who what it is?
Almost Famous is the film that actually made me realize I didn’t know nearly as much about music as I thought I did. Have you seen the director’s cut of the film?
What a great, great film, especially for a young teen discovering real rock and roll music for the first time!
The third album is Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) by The Rolling Stones.
http://www.allmusic.com/album/big-hits-high-tide-and-green-grass-mw0000650699
The third vinyl is “Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)”, the first official compilation album by the Rolling Stones
Thanks to Amihay Borenstein & César Tudela, that’s been bugging me for years!
Am I crazy or what?! I’ve watched this clip soooo many times and for the life of me, I do NOT see JT’s Sweet Baby James ANYwhere let alone before Roling Stones High Tide and green grass which is where you said it is.
Am I blind???
I think you are correct, but you can see it in the film
It is definitely in that clip. I wish I could show you a screenshot! It’s right before the Rolling Stones album 🙂
Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), an early compilation album of the Stones.
High tides and green grass the stones
Hi there, sorry for the wait:
It looks like “Big Hits (High Tides and Green Grass)” by The Rolling Stones (1966).
Hi. That album just before “Ya-Ya’s” would be the Stones’ “Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)”. But it comes after “Pet Sounds” in the clip, not “Sweet Baby James”, unless I missed something. 🙂 Happy hunting!
I posted this so long ago, I forget all about it. Must look back at it. Probably a good time to watch the film again.
Nope, fandangigroivers is correct; it comes after Sweet Baby James. Sweet Baby James is shown for the BRIEFEST second after the albums are all outside of the bag.
I mean “fandangogroovers”. Oy, new phone 😉
Haha! I was looking to see if anyone had a list of the albums that they used in that scene in Almost Famous, so when I found your post I was excited for the challenge! I didn’t see any of the replies under your question for some reason, until I spent quite a long time trying to find out what that album was 😀 I was stuck on thinking it might have been a Mamas & the Papas album because a couple of them smashed together — as blurry and tiny as it was — looked like a woman with blond hair and a mini dress for some reason 🤣 Proud to say, I figured it out on my own — finally Googling “British Invasion album covers” worked. I never owned that album but it looked so familiar! I think I have most of the others 😉
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Pooba/albums_that_appear_in_almost_famous/
The Dylan’s one looks like “Blonde on blonde”….
“Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” wasn’t released until September of 1970… If I recall correctly this scene takes place in 1969.