Danny Says

From the beginning, Queens born Danny Fields (née Daniel Feinberg) hardly lived life on the straight and narrow. To keep his family’s energy up, his doctor father kept a bowl of amphetamine pills on the dining room table. Young Fields did manage to get into Harvard law school but soon dropped out to spend all his days and nights with the likes of Nico, Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol in the 1960’s Factory scene. Fields positioned himself as a pop culture tastemaker and landed a managing editor gig at the teen magazine Datebook. Fields quickly realized the power of provocation after he splashed John Lennon’s infamous “We’re more popular than Jesus’’ quote on the front cover, setting off a firestorm which effectively ended the Beatles touring days. Shortly after, Fields became the legendary "company freak" at the innovative Elektra record label where he earned the wrath of a kidnapped Jim Morrison, discovered and signed underground heroes the MC5 and Iggy Pop in a single weekend and tried to manage the unmanageable Ramones. Drawing on rare footage and audio recordings (including an incredible cassette snippet of a delirious Lou Reed listening to the Ramones for the first time), this fascinating chronicle is capped by the wry and wistful reminiscence of Fields, the little-known Jewish godfather of punk rock. -Thomas Logoreci