Danny Says

Danny Says is an apt title for Brendan Toller's dishy profile of music publicist Danny Fields. Aside from the fact that the Ramones—one of many bands Fields worked with—wrote the title song about him, Fields's entertaining anecdotes are at the center of this film that features a briskly-paced blitz of interviews, photos, and animated segments. Fields recalls that he grew up in a traditional Jewish home in Queens, knew he was gay from an early age, and doesn't appear to have spent much (if any) time in the closet. An excellent student, he graduated from high school at 15 and went on to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law, although he spent as much time partying as studying. Through his association with Andy Warhol's Factory, Fields segued from law into management and publicity, which proved a natural fit. Fields talks about the people he knew the best, including Edie Sedgwick, Jim Morrison, and members of the MC5 and the Stooges. Whether he was working for record companies, such as Elektra, or editing magazines, like Tiger Beat, he had a knack for being at the right place at the right time, helping to promote the most influential American punk and proto-punk acts of the 1960s and ‘70s. Fields also worked with a few outliers—including Judy Collins and Alice Cooper—but he tended to leave whenever situations grew too corporate for his taste, which means that he didn't make as much money as he could have. Still, Fields expresses few regrets, and his salty stories are often as insightful as they are amusing. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a 2015 Q&A with film subject Danny Fields and music critic Byron Coley at Amherst Cinema in Massachusetts (53 min.), a 1975 audio recording with Fields and Lou Reed (38 min.), an interview with director Brendan Toller (14 min.), interview outtakes (5 min.), an Elektra promo film of Nico's “Evening of Light” featuring the Stooges (6 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an entertaining profile.] (K. Fennessy)