Among the incredible lineup of movies at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival was the world premiere of a cool documentary about the folk-rock band Gunhill Road, best known for their 1973 Top 40 hit song “Back When My Hair Was Short.”
The name of the film, Every 40 Years, is a reference to the 40-year gap between the band’s heyday and their reunion that saw them performing a couple of gigs and recording a fine new album.
The film was co-directed by Eric Goldrich, the son of Gunhill Road pianist Steven Goldrich, who wanted to learn more about that phase of his father’s life and also to document the band’s reunion. Mixing vintage footage with new interviews with the band and associates — including Kenny Rogers, who produced their first album — Every 40 Years tells the touching story of a band that tasted fleeting success, then got a chance decades later to make music together again.
There’s also a local connection — Gunhill Road singer/guitarist/songwriter Glenn Leopold lives in Santa Barbara, having moved here toward the end of a successful career in the animation industry, something he got into after the band petered out. Leopold, Steve and Eric Goldrich, and Gunhill Road bassist Paul Reisch were in town for the premiere, and the band even played their first real West Coast gig at The Red Piano afterward.
Leopold talked to Noozhawk after the busy week of the documentary’s premiere and The Red Piano concert.
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Jeff Moehlis: I enjoyed watching the documentary Every 40 Years. Do you think it accurately captured the history and spirit of Gunhill Road?
Glenn Leopold: I think Eric Goldrich, who directed it, really did capture it. I think it has the feeling of those ’70s days when you didn’t know who you were going to be signed with and what they were going to do for you, and whether the record was going to do anything. It was a whole different scene. Music has changed so much today from the way it was then. I don’t know if you can really duplicate 42nd Street — you had all these low-budget theaters there, and now of course it looks like Blade Runner or Vegas on steroids. I think it did capture the spirit of what we were doing there.
JM: I was lucky enough to catch you guys perform at The Red Piano also. What’s it like to get back together and play?
GL: The first time was in 2011, so that was really surreal because it had been like 35 years since we’d sung together. I had some trepidation at first. Paul [Reisch] and Steve [Goldrich] were practicing without me in New York, and then when I came out we did the first song, and all of a sudden the voices were blending, it was like being right back in the ’70s again. And so that was really fun.
And then we did it on stage with other people and with a big audience at the Outpost in the Burbs in New Jersey, and it all clicked. That gave us the impetus to keep going from there and maybe record again. I never thought that we’d end up with a movie, and I never thought we’d have a 19-track album. As our piano player, Steve Goldrich, puts it, it’s been quite a ride, and it just keeps on going.
JM: Will we have to wait 40 years for the next Gunhill Road album?
GL: I think if we do that it’ll be called “Dust in the Wind,” because we’ll be dust by then. No, I think we’re probably going to go back in and record some more. The idea of showing the documentary and then playing would be a fun way to try to drum up some interest or something.
We’ll record again. Obviously, it’s not like a money-making proposition. But it’s really just being out there and touching people, and putting these songs for whatever posterity is, and having people respond to it. We can’t wait 40 years. I don’t think our vocal cords will allow us to do that. And it’s too much fun to do it. I mean, it’s been six years just to get this thing made.
When Eric was doing the documentary, I don’t think he realized how much work it was going to be. I kind of knew, because I know a lot of people who work on documentaries and how much work it takes to go through the footage and get the story that you want to tell. So from 2011 to recording the album in 2013, then having it mixed by 2014 and playing The Bitter End and then the album came out in 2015, and here it is the beginning of 2017, so you’re talking about six years [laughs] that already went by.
So no, it won’t be 40 years, I can guarantee you that. It’s too much fun working with the guys and really connecting with people. I think that’s why people do all the stuff that they do anyway creatively — it’s to touch other people. You can’t even put a price on it. It’s really so much fun. It’s great. We’ve all been really lucky to be friends for 50 years and to play together again, which is something we never thought that we would be doing. People really respond to us and to the story.
Click here for the full interview with Glenn Leopold, including much more on the band’s history and his animation career in which he worked on Scooby Doo and The Smurfs.
— Jeff Moehlis is a Noozhawk contributing writer and a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara. Upcoming show recommendations, advice from musicians, interviews and more are available on his web site, music-illuminati.com. The opinions expressed are his own.