harvey keitel give a typically top rate performance in one of his first ever lead role a brash and ambitious and uncompromising young staff producer coleman buckmaster and a real talented hot shot with a discern golden ear and the son of a famous jazz pianist to boot . coleman eager to cut some track with the smokin r and b outfit the group ( none other than earth and wind and fire in their awesomely funky prime ) and but his rigidly commercial greedhead label a chord record run by uptight and mob connect middle of the road square jerry ( a properly unhip ed nelson ) want him to record a hit single for the hideously insipid carpenter like pop pap trio the page and an allegedly squeaky clean bunch which include smarmy pedophile step dad franklin ( a perfectly vile bert park ) and bitchy and neurotic daughter velour ( a fine and flighty turn by perky and comely brunette cynthia bostwick ) and and hedonistic smack addict son gary ( former 50 juvenile sitcom staple jimmy boyd ) . the extremely naive and idealistic coleman must learn pronto how the music business truly work and play the lowdown dirty game a best he can or else he will lose both the group and his credibility . adopt an acrid and incisive and corrosively harsh and unsparingly bias script from syndicate columnist and rock journalist robert lipsyte and director sig shore ( who most famous for produce superfly ) show a decidedly cynical and unflattering depiction of the various bribe and pay offs and broken promise and back stabbings and duplicity and double dealing which be an unpleasant and yet intrinsic part of the largely corrupt rock music business and with particularly thoughtful thematic aside concern art vs. commerce and fighting to retain one artistic integrity and and the then recent push to homogenize rock into bland and useless and creatively stagnant mainstream respectability . moreover and this gritty and downbeat gem offer a rare fascinating and minutely detailed and wholly believable backstage glimpse at the record process a record booth console cowboy coleman struggle gamely in his own word to make chicken salad out of chicken st. appear in nifty bit be disc jockey and legendary fifth beatle murray the k a leering and lecherous dj big john little ( velour bite his hand after big john paw her thigh during a live on air interview . ) and new york soul dj and host of nbc friday night video frankie crocker a his own jazzynjivin self and r and b singer songwriter doris troy ( she pen the lovely just one look ) a a church pianist and and tubby and bald pat 70 blaxploitation favorite charles macgregor a a priest at a wedding . the rather poor sound and allan metzger sloppy cinematography inadvertently add to the film overall ragged and rough around the edge documentary style authenticity . although technically a bit lacking and this movie overall still rate a one of the great and most bitterly pessimistic unsung behind the scene rocksploitation gem from the 70 .