what do you love about music? To begin with ...

To begin with is also the title of Stillwater's first album. Stillwater is the fictional yet oh-so-real band careening from one inspired-by-real-life incident to another, in Cameron Crowe's crowning tribute to rock n' roll, Almost Famous. I love Led Zeppelin, and the fact that Crowe pulled off a coup convincing them to loan their songs (5 in all -- That's the Way [the first of them all -- it augments the on-the-road sequences, The Rain Song, Misty Mountain Hop [wonderfully used when they get to New York], Bron-Y-Aur, Tangerine [heard at the end, just before the final credits roll]) was enough reason to watch the film. Crowe is also famous at getting Zeppelin to open up to the press and get a cover story for Rolling Stone. The film is chock-full of homages and references, and counter-references ... to both music and film. The IMDB trivia page meticulously lists most of them.

The only regret is that I picked up the single-disc original release. Since then, Crowe put together Untitled (finally getting to use his original choice of title for the film), a 2-disc "bootleg" release with deleted scenes, and audio commentary. Someday ... In the meantime, rock on.