I am basically taking the night off, this being the first day in a while when there is no where I have to go and nothing I have to do. Now that I’m finished with work that is.
By way of recompense, or added reward, depending on the way you look at it, let me urge my readers with a musical bent to set their Tivo to record Ed Sullivan’s Rock & Roll Classics, which is on PBS at 10:00 PM today. I recorded it with my EyeTV at 2 in the morning Sunday. I’m actually surprised it’s on at 10:00 PM tonight, since when I got around to editing it, the two hour show slimmed down to about 64 minutes, sans pledge breaks. What a shameful thing to inflict on those poor Insomniacs that were actually watching at that time. It’s hard to believe that anyone who’s not desperate would put up with that many commercials during prime time.
But that 64 minutes contains some rock and roll gems. I’ve spent a lot of time trolling youtube for Friday Night videos looking for real live non lip synched performances. Some groups are impossible to find. I couldn’t, for instance, find the Animals doing the House of the Rising Sun in a real live version. But Sullivan had them along with the Beatles, the Stones, Beach Boys, Four Seasons, Supremes, the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone and a host of what we must now consider minor groups (e.g., Herman’s Hermits, the Turtles). All live performances, sometimes more live that Sullivan liked, as when Jim Morrison welched on his promise to remove the word “higher” from Light My Fire. Who knew it was a drug song? I thought it was about sex.
Anyway, if you get a chance, tape it. Don’t by any means put up with the fundraising. Great music. Sullivan was a great judge of talent.
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