Leon Redbone - "Champagne Charlie" 1978.

My first film, and one of the precursors to music videos. Some of the ideas for this came out of my work with "Quadrophenia" and the Who.  I had the notion around 1974 that the most important writers for my generation were the singer/songwriters, and that they were invisible on the most pervasive of mediums: television. So I - with another filmmaker - developed a treatment for the Who for a television special. The Who would sing the narrative ("Quadrophenia") but the acting would be carried by actors (Malcolm McDowell). It didn't sell. In this little film, Leon plays two characters: the performer and a gambler in the bar-room. My dear friend Georgia Bergman - who I had known since early Rolling Stones days - oversaw this production and went on to build the music video department for Warner Bros Records. This was several years before the advent of MTV.