Excellent Billy Preston review!
Shelley
Great Billy Preston review and I definitely agree about the long list of producers and executive producers - too excessive for sure.
Can't wait to see this, as I am a huge fan - is there a media-contact you can refer?
Bravo!
D
Ben and Bob Merlis are handling the PR this film … and I thank them again for giving me early access to it so we could run our review before the official opening.
Yes, you DO definitely want to see it … Billy was an extreme talent. As I said, we campaigned for his inclusion in The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame for years … not only for the incredible Who’s Who list of artists he worked with but also for his own incredible accomplishments as well. (kk)
Thank you for your honest review of the new Billy Preston documentary … I have GOT to see this film.
As it happens, I will be Sedona, AZ, when it plays there in March … and will definitely be checking it out.
Frank Lindsay
Keep this link handy as they are updating it all the time …
But here are some of the many special screenings already booked for “Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It” (kk)
https://www.billyprestonfilm.com/#screenings
Another review: https://t2conline.com/the-glorious-corner-812/
In hindsight, my take-away from the film is that it's a good documentary well worth seeing. I just feel that they paid too much attention to the "bad side" instead of playing up just how good Billy really was. The element of that greatness is there ... but in review seems to have been lost in the shuffle. (kk)
On CBS Sunday Morning, Don Henley implied that 2026 will likely be the last year for The Eagles. He’s been putting off surgery for what he called “drummers’ back,” which has been bothering him for years. Henley also said that their appearance at The Sphere (which wraps up in March) has been filmed for home video release … which means the rest of us will finally get a chance to see it.
You can watch a long, extended video of that interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BKHl5lo6iA
This just may be the longest I've ever heard somebody talk without actually saying something!!! (lol) Don't get me wrong, I love Don Henley AND The Eagles ... always have and always will ... but after it took him 41 minutes to say that this just may be the end of the road for the band, three days later they added two more dates to their stay at The Sphere! You can now catch them April 10th and 11th as well as every weekend in March. The Eagles also have a pre-arranged appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 2nd. Then maybe THAT will be it (???) I can't help but wonder because when they first announced their farewell tour, the idea was to go anywhere and everywhere the fans wanted to see them so that ALL their fans could have one last shot at seeing the band. Then this Sphere residency came up and they decided to play there every weekend for months on end ... meaning the fans had to come and see THEM if they wanted to experience that "last show." And they did ... fans flew in from all over the world to see this show ... and Henley said a film of this experience would be released on home video ... so we've all got that lasting memento. But are they really done? Only time will tell. (Let's face it ... hell has already frozen over once before for these guys!!!) kk
A few music news items from Tom Cuddy …
Kent:
I wasn’t sure if you saw the full obituary for Gary Theroux. I had no idea Gary lived just two towns away from me in Connecticut. He leaves a HUGE hole in the music business.
-Tom Cuddy
https://share.google/r0NokDq0H18PF1rXz
I did see this – but am happy to share with the readers. Thanks, Tom. (kk)
I am so upset about Gary Theroux.
Harvey Kubernik
Exclusive: Mama Cass from the
Mamas and Papas Finally Getting Her Biopic, Starring "Baby Reindeer"
Actress - Showbiz411
https://www.showbiz411.com/2026/02/07/exclusive-mama-cass-from-the-mamas-and-papas-finally-getting-her-biopic-starring-baby-reindeer-actress?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fentertainment
Did you interpret The Guess Who publishing story the same way I did … that Burton holds the publishing on tunes like American Woman, even though he wrote it with Randy? Maybe over the years Randy sold his share.
Guess So …
Monkees fan?
Then you might enjoy this spotlight feature from Me-TV’s “Collector’s Corner” …
https://metv.com/lists/meet-katherine-mccabe-inside-the-collection
If you’re a fan of the Swingin’ London era of British pop music and films, have we got the box set for you!
https://bestclassicbands.com/film-and-tv-music-of-swinging-london-whats-it-all-about-box-set-2-9-26/Cl
If you find yourself at a loss as to how to express your love this Valentine's Day Weekend, here are a few suggestions from our resident Love Doctor, Chuck Buell ...
Our FH Buddy Harvey Kubernik has a new book coming out and I can’t wait to read it!
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1. Listen with Your Eyes
2. Blues Hues: Godfathers and Sons
3.Dreamsville: Jon Burlingame on Peter Gunn & Henry Mancini
4. ‘Hello, I’m Johnny Cash’
5. Dont Look Back on D.A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan Journey
6.Ed Sullivan’s Long-Running ‘Really Big Show’
7. Tina Turner: The Mouth That Roared
8. Happiness Is a Warm Curry: The Beatles, India & Ravi Shankar
9. The Frank Zappa Expedition with Alex Winter
10. The Doors’ R-Evolution Was Televised
11. The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter with Merry Clayton & Albert Maysles, and Tony Funches Inside Altamont
12. Through Alison Ellwood’s Lens: The Go-Go’s, Women of Troy, Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time
13. Moonage Daydream: Brett Morgen on David Bowie’s Universe
14. Stax o’ Facts: Soulsville U.S.A.15. Bold as Jimi: Experience Hendrix Live on Film
16. Talkin’ ’Bout Our Generation: Ready, Steady, Go!
17. Micky Dolenz: Life with The Monkees
18. The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard with Neil Norman
19. The Harder They Come! & Bob Marley and the Wailers Live in Hollywood with Roger Steffens
20. Have You Got It Yet? Roddy Bogawa on Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
21. Alive at Winterland 1974: The Grateful Dead Movie22. Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple with Bill Teck
23. Les Blank and Leon Russell: A Poem is a Naked Person
24. Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite
Epilogue
About the Author
Photo Credits and Acknowledgments
Check out BearManor Media's 2000+ titles at http://www.bearmanormedia.com
In his 21st and latest book, Screen Gems: Pop Music Documentaries & Rock and Roll TV Scenes, published on February 11th 2026, by BearManor Media, pop culture historian Harvey Kubernik – native Angeleno, child of Hollywood, and a music journalist for more than 50 years – offers a bio-regional memoir perspective as he dives deep into 24 noteworthy productions.
As music documentaries enjoy what some insiders are calling the genre’s “Golden Age,” Kubernik explores films spotlighting the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Tina Turner, the Doors, Leon Russell, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles in India, Motown, Stax and Chess Records recording artists, Frank Zappa, Laurel Canyon, The Monterey International Pop Festival, David Bowie, the Seeds, Stevie Van Zandt, the Go-Go's, and Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, as well as seminal television programs like The Ed Sullivan Show, Women of Troy, Ready, Steady Go!, Elvis Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite, and The Johnny Cash Show.
Harvey Kubernik, who has been involved in the documentary world for decades follows his distinctive muse in this lively compendium that reveals the intersection of TV, film, and music. He implements exclusive interviews conducted over the last half century with groundbreaking, influential documentarians D.A. Pennebaker, Murray Lerner, Albert Maysles, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and Mel Stuart, alongside contemporary filmmakers like Baz Luhrmann, Andrew Solt, David Leaf, Morgan Neville, Alison Ellwood, Thom Zimny, Roddy Bogawa, Beverly Lindsay-Johnson, Jonathan Holiff, Alex Winter, Neil Norman, and Bill Teck.
Providing further depth and perspective are Kubernik's interviewees Keith Richards, the Doors' Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore, Jerry Garcia, Ice Cube, Johnny Cash, Tina Turner, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, the Supremes' Mary Wilson, David Bowie, Merry Clayton, Micky Dolenz, Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche, Bobby Womack, Tom Petty, Steve Cropper, Wayne Jackson, Marshall Chess, the Temptations’ David Ruffin, Roger Steffens, Jon Burlingame, Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, Billy Cox, Jello Biafra, Paul Stanley, Smokey Robinson, the Seeds’ Daryl Hooper and Jan Savage, Ice-T, Andrew Loog Oldham, Howard Kaylan, Berry Gordy, Jr., Al Kooper, Kim Fowley, Jim Keltner, Marty Balin, Henry Diltz, the Miracles’ Bobby Rogers, Bill Graham, Ken Scott, Tony Funches, Martin Lewis, Bob Johnston, Robbie Robertson, and many more.
Kubernik's cinematic, multi-voice narrative also mixes the recollections of record producers, engineers, photographers, university professors, authors, and writers discussing the documentaries.
Nearly 100 photos and artifacts illustrate Kubernik’s 378-page expedition through the documentaries and exploration of the genre’s surge in popularity in recent years.
Screen Gems: Pop Music Documentaries & Rock and Roll TV Scenes opens with a foreword penned by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ 1963-1967 record producer/manager, author, deejay and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
The book wraps with a back cover testimonial from another Rock Hall member: DJ, actor, author, singer-songwriter, and producer Stevie Van Zandt, musical director of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR SCREEN GEMS:
“As usual, Harvey takes you where the action is, so to speak. He’s made a career of documenting the Renaissance of the ‘60s by going directly to those who created it. Always insightful, entertaining, unusually candid, and historically essential. I love reading Harvey’s work. In spite of him making the rest of us seem lazy!” -- Stevie Van Zandt
“Harvey Kubernik is our city of Angels musical muse-he takes us to the source. He is the source. Our Thomas Paine with a backbeat. Harvey has a third ear; he writes with it, and that is what separates him from the cut & paste. He is our reference library and he reps us well.
“Then there is also the homework which Harvey has always done for you. Harvey takes all that you have enjoyed and embraced. From Hollywood's Gower Gulch, CBS’ Television City, Peter Gunn, RCA on Sunset and Ivar, Stax wax, Tina Turner, D.A Pennebaker’s cameras, to RKO Pictures, M-G-M, AIP, Roger Corman's New World and makes it yours." - Andrew Loog Oldham
“There are thousands and thousands of documentaries about music figures, famous and near-anonymous; concert videos; histories of various styles and the cultures surrounding them. Too few published commentaries have had the broad picture deconstructed, separating the visual wheat from the chaff, sending us off in the right directions to find the truly revealing, memory-tickling gems that deserve cinematic immortality. Fewer yet are the participants in many of them revealing their depths in the way that Harvey Kubernik has in the unprecedented volume. He's a national treasure.” -- Roger Steffens, broadcaster, author of So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley.
“Unique, informative, and highly entertaining, Harvey Kubernik's Screen Gems is a deep dive into the history of 20th century popular music on film and TV, written by someone who has lived and breathed it since before the Beatles played Ed Sullivan. You want real detail, you want attitude-plus-integrity, you want a sense of how art emerges from life? Here it is. To paraphrase David Bowie, you don't need iMDB when you've got HK.” -- Dr. James Cushing, KEBF-FM DJ, poet, Pinocchio’s Revolution
“In name-it-and-play-it style, Harvey Kubernik’s Screen Gems: Pop Music Documentaries & Rock and Roll TV Scenes details the fascinating backstories behind two dozen recent music docs.
“But I think the meat is in his interviews. Kubernik’s extensive pre-interview research leads him to ask to incisive questions that his subjects appreciate, and the Q&A format gives interviewees room to expound on their backgrounds, films, and the burgeoning music documentary genre.
“The chapters for the films I’ve seen in theaters or online expanded my appreciation of each production, while the chapters for the ones I haven’t seen prompt me to see them.
“Front to back, the book is not only a compelling read for music and music doc fans – almost every chapter could be a book unto itself – but also an excellent resource for students of these musicians, films, and filmmakers.” -- Stephen K. Peeples, music journalist, radio writer-producer, book editor, and Grammy nominee
“Without a doubt, Screen Gems is the first book to explore the rock documentary in-depth. Once again, Harvey Kubernik couples his encyclopedic knowledge with the willingness to investigate behind the scenes and talk to the people that actually make the movies and music. If you want gossip and lightweight fantasy, go elsewhere. If you want to learn about the art form and the people that fight hard to push it forward, this is the place.
“Most books about rock in movies are by 'double outsiders'--people who wish they understood movies and definitely don't understand rock. As a Hollywood native with a music biz insider's eye for the secret details upon which pop history turns, Harvey Kubernik puts shame in their game.
“Nobody truly gets L.A. pop the way Harvey Kubernik does. As a native Angeleno who grew up in the eye of the hurricane and surfed it all the way home, he comes at it with an intricate, intimate cinematic POV that goes beyond history or rock journalism. He knows the backstory of every player, every song, and it's not just that he can tell you who played bass on what second take on some random recording session. He can do that! But more importantly, he understands the soul of the thing. It's in his blood.” -- Daniel Weizmann, author, and novelist, Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series
“Harvey Kubernik’s Screen Gems: Pop Music Documentaries & Rock and Roll TV Scenes goes deep into the heart of the cinematic side of rock and roll. From Motown to the Monkees, Ed Sullivan to D.A. Pennebaker and Johnny Cash to Frank Zappa. Harvey documents two dozen productions that feature Ravi Shankar, Leon Russell, Elvis Presley and Tina Turner among other ground breakers. Further insight comes from Harvey’s interview subjects: Keith Richards, Ray Manzarek, Baz Luhrmann, Andrew Loog Oldham and so many more. Screen Gems is both memoir and critical study, a deeply researched volume on why rock documentaries and televised pop music remain relevant. Read, absorb and get educated.” -- Michael Macdonald, writer, journalist
"When Harvey Kubernik rings from his ancient landline for even the most pedestrian reason, the conversation will inevitably shift to the sharing of an exhilarating personal anecdote about someone he met or something he saw. His empirical journey through the kingdoms of pop culture in the realm of truthful reportage is unrivaled. Harvey's coffee table volumes deserve their own shelf at the Smithsonian.” -- Lonn M. Friend, writer, author, Life on Planet Rock
“There are authors who have lived it and breathed it. And there are authors who can only read and dream about it. Harvey Kubernik is a native of Los Angeles who lives with an endless goldmine of stories in his head and keyboard. Kubernik relishes diversity and has always championed the forgotten East L.A. sound and its communal R & B heritage in his writings.
“In his new book Screen Gems, Kubernik touts and covers documentaries near and dear to the heart and soul of East L.A., such as 18th & Grand The Olympic Auditorium Story and Zappa. Growing up in East L.A., I admired Frank Zappa’s connection to Doo-Wop, Pachucos, and El Monte Legion Stadium.
“While others have chosen to ignore the Sounds of East L.A., Kubernik continues to revive his intense alliance to one of L.A.'s finest and obscure homegrown genres. It gives me great pleasure to know that all of Kubernik's rock 'n' roll life has been one big intersection with East L.A. favorite sons, such as Thee Midniters, Cannibal & the Headhunters, and the Premiers.” -- Gene Aguilera, East Los Angeles music historian, Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, author, Mexican American Boxing from the Golden State.
“Wouldn't you love to spend time with the legendary musicians depicted on the cover of Screen Gems: Pop Music Documentaries & Rock and Roll TV Scenes like Bob Marley, Frank Zappa, Tina Turner, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, and all the others who appear throughout this great new book?
“Appeal in all the arts is about making you want to spend time with their creators, to inhabit their world for a short spell, enjoying their company and their takes on life even as that work informs and delights you (graphics art icon Milton Glaser's explanation of the job of all art.) And even better than spending time with these great artists is taking a well-guided tour with them via one of our era's most astute and multi-faceted chroniclers, Harvey Kubernik.
“He by-passes the lock-step conformity that our entertainment business has become as a matter of course, and we're damn lucky to have him.
“Reading his work glistens as time well spent indeed, as these subjects are folks he knows well from mutual work together and/or being at the right place at the right time with them in our pop culture for the last fifty years. Any intelligent writer can catalog: Harvey retains the gift of insight to help you understand both the context of that art and the artists' intentions throughout, from his having worked and lived through it all with them.
“I've seen and appreciated a goodly amount of the works cited in this book. Now I really look forward to spending time with Harvey and his interviewees/friends/colleagues to learn even more, from the artists' and various filmmakers' points of view themselves, about why I've loved, archived and treasured these very documentaries over the years. Lemme at it!” -- Heather Harris, photographer, graphic artist, music journalist
“Harvey Kubernik is a film music historian who understands the fusion of film and rock and roll. He’s walked inside the intersection of it. Screen Gems is Harvey’s sustained cinematic meditation explaining how documentarians and television directors lensed pop music in their work for all of us.” -- Harry E. Northup, actor, writer, poet
“Harvey is a music history savant who’s written numerous books on such topics as Laurel Canyon, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and 1967’s Summer of Love. He has dedicated his entire life to rock and roll, and his memory is extraordinary. Harvey experienced it all firsthand." --Bob Lefsetz, writer, podcaster, The Lefsetz Newsletter
"For those thoroughly discriminating amongst us who know and wish to listen with their eyes as well as both ears, Harvey Kubernik's most authoritative view of on-screen rock 'n' roll instructs plus informs as it brightly illuminates the always-on-key figures on both sides of the lens. Oh! And you can also dance to it!" -- Gary Pig Gold, musician, writer, musicologist
“For nearly sixty, Harvey Kubernik has been at the center of music on television. Why do I say that? Because when he was a kid in his hometown of Los Angeles, his mother worked on The Monkees TV series! So, he was always behind-the-scenes, and his career as a journalist (among so many other cool gigs, he was Melody Maker’s L.A. correspondent) and author (over 20 books and counting) has put him in the middle of everything. In Screen Gems, his latest tome, he showcases the best music on TV and music documentaries in his classic style: he includes just about everything that matters making this another of his definitive books on the chosen subject.” -- David Leaf, author, Adjunct Professor the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
“Harvey Kubernik is a cornucopia of American culture. . . He’s onto the most important development since bebop, that is, the absolute cultural primacy of rock ’n’ roll. . . His book, Hollywood Shack Job: Rock Music in Film and On Your Screen, is a totally original scan across this history, uncovering major and minor players, aficionados and accomplices of every stripe.” -- David E. James, author, (Ret.) Professor, School of Cinema-Television, University of Southern California, author of Rock ‘N’ Film: Cinema’s Dance with Popular Music.
In 2006, Kubernik published his first of three books of a planned quartet chronicling music documentaries on film along with epic television moments, Hollywood Shack Job: Rock Music in Film and On Your Screen (University of New Mexico Press).
Kubernik interviewed directors. Paul Thomas Anderson unfolded the Boogie Nights soundtrack, Curtis Hanson discussed L.A. Confidential, Melvin Van Peeples reminisced about Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song, Baz Luhrmann explained Moulin Rouge, Mel Stuart detailed his Wattstax production, Chris Weitz examined About a Boy, and Paul Justman observed Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The Band’s Robbie Robertson ruminated on The Last Waltz, plus, Jim Jarmusch’s words-eye-view to Neil Young’s Year of the Horse, along with Harvey’s conversation with Martin Bruestle, The Sopranos music supervisor.
During 2020, Kubernik published Docs That Rock, Music That Matters (Otherworld Cottage Industries).
Harvey reminded us of groundbreaking television shows American Bandstand, Shindig! Shebang, Upbeat, Elvis…The ’68 Comeback Special, adding to multi-voice narratives on rock, pop and soul music documentaries showcasing The T.A.M.I. Show, The Big T.N.T. Show, All Things Must Pass, BANG! The Bert Berns Story, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, as well as The Ramones’ Rock and Roll High School, Brian Wilson, John Lennon, James Brown, Paul Butterfield, and Otis Redding.
This book spotlighted directors Steve Binder, Curtis Hanson, Murray Lerner, D.A. Pennebaker, Colin Hanks, Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana, David Leaf, John Anderson, Bob Sarles, John Ridley, Herman Spero, and Allan Arkush, who acknowledged mentors Martin Scorsese, Roger Corman, plus working at Bill Graham’s Fillmore venue. Television icon Dick Clark talked about his legendary TV career.
Harvey Kubernik is the author of twenty books, including Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon (2009); Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll in Los Angeles, 1956-1972 (2014); Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen (2015); Heart of Gold: Neil Young (2016); and 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love (2017).
Harvey and his brother Kenneth Kubernik wrote The Story of The Band: From Big Pink to The Last Waltz (2018) and Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child (2021).
Over the last half-century, Harvey has been published in newspapers and periodicals including The Hollywood Press, The Los Angeles Free Press, Melody Maker, Crawdaddy, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Shindig!, Sounds, MOJO, The Los Angeles Times, Phonograph Record Magazine, Ugly Things, Goldmine, Uncut, and Music Connection magazine.
Harvey currently contributes to the music websites bestclassicbands.com, bestclassicbands.com, forgottenhits.com, trackingangle,com, musicconnection.com, rocksbackpages.com, and cavehollywood.com.
Since 2012, Kubernik has the written monthly cover stories for Record Collector News magazine.
Kubernik’s work has been in anthologies, including The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats and Drinking with Bukowski.
His 1995 interview, Berry Gordy Jr.: A Conversation With Mr. Motown, is in The Pop, Rock & Soul Reader, edited by David Brackett and published in 2019 by Oxford University Press.
Kubernik wrote the liner notes for CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry and The Essential Carole King; Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish; Elvis Presley: The ’68 Comeback Special; The Ramones’ End of the Century; and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival.
Kubernik is a former West Coast Director of A&R 1978-1979 at MCA Records, now a division of Universal Music Enterprises. During his tenure, he paired Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with engineer/producer Jimmy Iovine resulting in Damn the Torpedoes, and worked with songwriter John Hatt on his Slug Line LP produced by Denny Bruce. Kubernik suggested the Petty/Del Shannon 1981 LP, Drop Down and Get Me issued on the Network/Elektra/Asylum label. He received an “Organic Catalyst” credit on the album. Petty penned the foreword to Harvey’s Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll in Los Angeles, 1956-1972
Harvey spoke at the special hearings in 2006 initiated by the Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation.
In 2017, he appeared at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in its Distinguished Speakers Series. During 2023 he was on the panel discussing the forty-fifth anniversary of The Last Waltz at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
He has lectured on music and movies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. He is active in the documentary field as an interview subject, consultant, writer, and producer.
In 1977 and 1978, he co-produced and hosted 50/50, a weekly television music and interview program filmed at Theta Cable in Santa Monica and subsequently broadcast on the Public Access and Z Channels in Los Angeles and in New York on Manhattan Cable. His in-studio guests included multi-instrumentalist/record producer Michael Lloyd, musician, producer and video pioneer Todd Rundgren, author Danny Sugerman, and legendary New York-based DJ Murray the K. Kubernik programmed film clips and videos by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, the Doors, Pink Lady, and 20/20.
During 2006 Harvey was a creative consultant and contributed supplemental writing on the AMC cable television channel for two documentaries: Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955-1970) and Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The 1970s. Ringo Starr and David Bowie narrated the programs.
In 2007 Kubernik was lensed for the MGM/Sony Pictures New Wave Productions Deluxe Edition DVD of Jailhouse Rock starring Elvis Presley. Harvey is in the video short The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock.
Harvey served as consulting producer on the 2010 singer-songwriter documentary, Troubadours: Carole King/James Taylor & the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter, directed by Morgan Neville. It was then broadcast on PBS' American Masters series in 2011.
During 2012, Kubernik was interviewed along with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor in the band’s 2012 documentary Queen at 40, directed by Matt O’Casey for BBC Television. It was distributed in 2014 as Queen: Days of Our Lives – The Definitive Documentary of the World’s Greatest Rock Band on DVD and Blu-ray via Eagle Vision.
Kubernik was an interview subject for the 2013 BBC-TV documentary Bobby Womack: Across 110th Street, directed by James Meycock. Interviewees included Ronnie Wood, Chuck D, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Barney Hoskyns, actor Antonio Fargas, Bill Withers, and family members.
Harvey and archivist Gary Strobl initiated and collaborated with ABC-TV in 2013 on the network’s Emmy-winning one-hour Eye on L.A. Legends of Laurel Canyon program hosted by Tina Malave.
In May 2014, Matt O’Casey showcased Kubernik in his BBC- TV documentary on singer Meat Loaf, titled Meat Loaf; In and Out of Hell, broadcast in the US market in 2016 on the Showtime cable TV channel.
In 2014, Kubernik was a consultant and interviewed about the musical legacy of Los Angeles for the Australia television series Great Music Cities for subscription television broadcaster XYZnetworks Pty Ltd. Interviews with Slash, Brian Wilson, Steve Lukather, Keith Richards, and Lonn Friend were also lensed for the documentary.
Kubernik is an interview subject in director Matt O’Casey’s 2019 BBC4-TV digital arts channel feature Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird. The cast included Christine McVie, Stan Webb of Chicken Shack, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine’s family members, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Mike Campbell, and Neil Finn.
In 2019 Kubernik was a talking head in the David Tourjé-directed documentary John Van Hamersveld: Crazy World Ain't It that had its world premiere in 2019 at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The career of illustrator, designer, graphic artist, and photographer Van Hamersveld is discussed by Harvey, visual artist Shepard Fairey, world champion surfer Shaun Thompson, Jeff Ho of the Zephyr Surf Team, graphic designer Louise Sandhous, and others.
In 2020, Kubernik served as consultant on the 2-part documentary Laurel Canyon: A Place In Time directed by Alison Ellwood. It premiered on Epix-TV and Executive produced by The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Amblin Television; Craig Kallman and Mark Pinkus, Warner Music Group and Alex Gibney.
During 2025, Kubernik was spotlighted in the Siobhan Logue-written and directed documentary The Sound of Protest, airing on the Apple TVOD TV broadcasting service. The film features Smokey Robinson, Hozier, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Two-Tone's Jerry Dammers, Angélique Kidjo, Holly Johnson, David McAlmont, and Rhiannon Giddens.
Harvey was an interview subject with Iggy Pop, the Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, Love’s Johnny Echols, the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs, Victoria and Debbi Peterson, and founding surviving members of the Seeds in director/producer Neil Norman’s documentary The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard. In spring 2026, the GNP Crescendo Company will release the film on DVD/Blu-ray. Author Miss Pamela Des Barres serves as the film’s narrator.
Kubernik appears in the documentary Elvis, Rocky and Me: The Carol Connors Story that premiered January 3, 2026 at the 37th Palm Springs International Film Festival. She was Elvis Presley’s lover, and Rocky Balboa’s lyricist. The twice Academy Award nominated songwriter’s career is captured by director Alex Rotaru with on-camera interviews from her friends including Dionne Warwick, Dianne Warren, Bill Conti, Talia Shire, David Shire, Barbi Benton, Mike Tyson and Irwin Winkler. Her many songwriting credits include the Rip Chords 1964 hit “Hey Little Cobra,” and the 1980 Billy Preston & Syreeta Wright duet “With You I’m Born Again.” During 1977, Carol Connors co-wrote “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky).”
A native of Los Angeles, California, Harvey Kubernik was born on February 26, 1951 at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Echo Park, overlooking the Hollywood 101 Freeway. Harvey attended Coliseum Street Elementary School in downtown Los Angeles and Muirfield Elementary School in the Crenshaw Village District, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, and then El Marino Elementary School in Culver City.
Kubernik graduated from Los Angeles’ Fairfax High School (1969). He holds an Associate of Arts degree from West Los Angeles College (1971) and a Special Major B.A. degree in Literature, Sociology, Health (1973) from San Diego State University.
At SDSU in 1972, Kubernik initiated the school’s first History of Rock Music course, with Dr. James L. Wheeler in SDSU’s Literature Department. It was the first-ever accredited course of its kind in regular curriculum upper-division academia: Billboard recognized it as “the world’s first university-level rock studies program” in the magazine’s April 14, 1973, edition.
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And here's a scoop for you all ...
Based on the current climate and immediate reaction to Harvey's just published expedition, he's already been prepping a 4th volume on music documentaries and seminal TV shows to complete his planned quartet that began this century. The next book will bring the reader into his favorite record labels, landmark San Francisco and Los Angeles venues, legendary music-makers and the recent 2025 and 2026 documentaries that are now in theaters and being streamed. And, I'm told, he's hoping to include information on the soon to be released and streamed Dick Biondi documentary, "The Voice That Rocked America," in this new edition! (Biondi was a big jock in LA, too, ya know!!!) kk
