Forgotten Movie Songs #14: "Tell Me" from ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE

The ending to James William Guercio's Arizona highwayman cop film Electra Glide in Blue has cinematographer Conrad Hall's camera performing an awe-inspiring pull-back from the final image, thus dwarfing our film's hero, Robert Blake, by having the valley's buttes swallow him up with their majesty. When paired with the epic ode to a lost America, called "Tell Me," the shot--in spite of its beauty--becomes an unforgettable picture of sadness. This uncommon character study/murder mystery justifiably became a cult sensation after its disappointing release in 1973. And I believe both the song and the score--each written by Guercio--have a lot to do with its appeal. (The very cult-flavored supporting cast--including Mitchell Ryan, Billy Green Bush, Royal Dano, Elisha Cook Jr., and Jeannine Riley--deserves some credit, too.)

Guercio wrote, produced and directed his one and only film after becoming a distinctive, Grammy-winning producer and songwriter for jazz/pop outfits like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago. He did go on to produce one of Hal Ashby's last movies, 1981's little-seen Second Hand Hearts, again with Robert Blake and co-starring Dyan Cannon. But his time seemed taken up with running his Caribou studios in Colorado's Rocky Mountains (at least until it burned down in 1985). And though he was later an owner of the Country Music Channel, Guercio pretty much escaped the music industry to delve into the cattle and oil-drilling business. I get the impression that, despite his director's commentary for the MGM-released DVD, Guercio doesn't very much want to revisit his dalliances with the movies and music, because it's very difficult to hear his work anywhere but on YouTube these days (and posts featuring "Tell Me" are constantly being taken down by, I assume, requests from the songwriter, and then put back up again by fans who love the song). Nevertheless, a re-release of the score to Electra Glide in Blue is definitely in order; there's clearly a market for it.

The song is called "Tell Me." The music and lyrics are by James William Guercio, and they are powerfully performed by Terry Kath, the late lead singer for Chicago who, with Peter Cetera, makes key cameos during the film's most exciting sequences.



Tell me about the sun
Tell me about the rain
Tell me about the fields
Tell me about the plains

Will they come again
I don't know
Will they ever come again
I don't know

God above, is there not anything that we might do
To try and make this world of ours a better place for me and you?

Tell me all about man
Tell me so I can understand
Tell me somebody all about wars
Please try and tell me just how much more

Oh pray it's not too late
Oh no
Please everybody, everybody, everybody pray it's not too late
It's not too late

Oh come on, mmmmm
Yeah come on
Lay down a little prayer for us
Come on, say a prayer for us, please

God Bless America today
God Bless America today

(repeat)