Director: Doug Richards (AKA Jerry Douglas) The Back Row (1973)
Starring: Casey Donovan, George Payne (The Kid From Montana), Robin Anderson (The Hippy), David Knox (The Sailor), Warren Carlton (The Cashier), Chris Villette (The Hard Hat), Arthur Graham (The Student), and Robert Tristan (The Roommate).
George Payne in his first film spots Casey Donovan (in his 3rd gay porno film) at New York’s Port Authority bus terminal, following him down into the subway, and eventually into an adult movie theatre. George is painfully shy, and reticent, but Casey has no trouble getting it on with several of his fellow patrons. Original music composed and conducted by William R. Cox – thanks zephyr!!! (the theme song from this film is very similar to Everybody’s Talkin’, from Midnight Cowboy). The music in this preview, I don’t think is from the film; the preview is from a Hand In Hand preview tape, and is likely original music that perhaps was written for another film.
9 replies on “The Back Row”
You’re welcome BJ, thanks for the link to my slideshow :) This is among the more noteworthy porn films of the 70s, what with both Casey and George Payne starring as well as it being directed by Jerry Douglas under a pseudonym, and is well worth your devoting a post to on the current version of your blog, especially now that you get to add clips as much as you want without having to take them down to save bandwidth. That preview was quite interesting, sometimes I think that previews can be even hotter than the scenes or films they come from.
After having listened to the whole film score a few times in the past week or so, it sounds to me like the music that plays in this preview clip is an instrumental “reprise” of what I called song 4, the one where the lyrics start out plaintive and then he starts singing really loud, “in a very little while, you will have to go away, it may be in a minute or an hour or a day…” The notes seem to be the same, as I was able to start singing along to it while watching the preview. William did that in the rest of the score, some of it was very different music with sounds like bells or the organ you might hear in a church, some more folk-rock sounding, but there was also a hint of a refrain from a previous or upcoming song that he would work in there too. Like if you go see Phantom on Broadway, and you hear parts of two or three songs but with different tempos or lyrics as the play progresses, a reprise or refrain that comes and goes, then comes back but reminds you of when you just heard it. That makes sense in my head anyway, not sure about the words I just typed out but the score has elements of that to it that I heard.
How did you feel about Chi-Chi’s remake? I enjoyed it, and if course the original version was included. I don’t know if there have been other remakes of classic porn, but this wasn’t bad. Of course, (safe-sex aspect aside), it didn’t have the rawness–no pun intended, or the feel of spontaneity as the original. I’d be up to see someone else’s take on it, and now that barebacking is back in fashion, Michael Lucas could probably get it done.
By the way I like the new format of your blog.
glad you like the new format – still tweaking, but getting there!
as far as Chi Chi’s version – I can’t recall if I’ve seen it, other than previews when it came out.
other remakes? the only one that comes to mind is Men in the Sand – some may call it a remake, an homage, or a rip-off ( I think Wakefield Poole was very unhappy with it).
Brian, one other porn remake of which I’m aware is Route 69, the original Laguna Pacific/William Higgins film released in 1984:
https://gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/8/1698.html
… and then the 2017 Falcon remake, directed by Tony Dimarco:
https://gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/3/59733.html
At the risk of using up too many links, because I saw BJ say that someone’s comment was assumed spam because of how many there were, I won’t link to the review of the remake I saw on xbiz, but I will quote from it: “As they drive their Mustang convertible through the desert, the conversation turns to sex and Fane confesses he spent one entire summer jacking off to his favorite classic Falcon porn scenes. As he describes the action to his horned-up travel companion, the radio experiences interference and starts playing 70s gay porn music. Suddenly, Route 66 becomes “Route 69″ where classic gay porn scenarios come to life, reenacted by today’s hottest stars.” I saw part of this remake, the scenes I saw were about as hot as I think current studio porn is, which it can be but isn’t as reliably as it used to be, by any stretch.
I remember the original Route 69 mostly for the scene with the two guys on a bunkbed stripped down to their underwear, smoking a joint before the action between them starts up. Costello Presley did the music in this film, and the song that plays in that scene is one that he sings as well, with lyrics about animal reaction (“the beast is in control”). An Australian group called Parralox did an excellent cover of this song in the 2010s, using the now-old style 80s synth machines that Costello would have used, and it’s on youtube if you want to hear it titled Animal Reaction, I think it’s great. The first Route 69 was one of the first porn films I saw, I was brave enough to try and rent it even though I was scared I would have been carded, but the guy at the independent video store just smirked at me and let me have it, the film I mean. A wonderful time was had by my hand and I when I watched it and finally figured out how certain things were done.
oh my! – need to re-read, but for future reference, the cut off for links is 6 – then the robot holds comment for moderation –
interesting – was it a remake of Route 69, or just a re-use of the title – just based on the description of the 2017, they go back to “classic Falcon scenes” which wouldn’t include Higgins, would it? and I no longer have my copy, sold it 2 or 3 times!
Does anyone know if there is a high quality version of the soundtrack available anywhere? The music is so funky and amazing it deserves a reissue.
while I can’t say I am totally 100% sure, i would doubt there’s a soundtrack available from any porn movie…
The Dark Entries releases of Patrick Cowley’s porn music would probably be the closest, in terms of being remastered and sounding professional. School Daze, Muscle Up and Afternooners. Not all the songs on those three albums were heard in the films of the same name but all the music from those films is included on one of the albums, if that makes sense. Unless and until DE ever gets around to releasing the Forbidden Overture soundtrack from Turned On, which you managed to get excellent sounding clips of what that sounded like on your post about it from a few years back.
Re: The Back Row, it’s hardly high quality (though I did my best) but I included one song from that movie in the audio clip below. It starts out with good ol’ Jack Wrangler’s heartfelt theme to A Married Man, Smoggy City, which blends into Our Love Will Last Forever from The Idol, then wraps up with If I Could from The Back Row.
https://soundcloud.com/user-927775001-435453740/70s-gay-porn-ballads-mix