Wednesday, October 28, 2009

45 Years Ago Today (The T.A.M.I. Show!)

And what a show! Bo Diddley! Marvin Gaye! The Rolling Stones! Smokey Robinson! James Brown collapsing on stage and wrapped by attendants in an ermine stole-- only to cast it off and begin again! (The Rolling Stones, mere newbies at the time, the mere latest thing, chose to follow James Brown! Baaaaad idea! But give Mick credit for learning some Brown dance moves back stage before going on.) And of course, OUR MAN-- or about half to a third of him, shot bizarrly from up close and below in a misguided effort to feature the go go girls instead of the Go Johnny Go man-- but he got a bunch of songs in, fast, and was part of something that was pretty incredible. Here's a tidbit that I found on youtube.



You can buy a tape of the show on line, with an older Chuck Berry narrating-- but it lacks the James Brown with cape routine that I swear (in my dementia) I watched on television years ago with Stevo and Danny. That's like showing Woodstock without Jimi, Hamlet without a soliloquy, or any of those Rock 'n' Roll Revivals without Chuck Berry to close the show with a bang.

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