Friday, October 2, 2009

The first time, ever I saw his face...

Was on this show, the Mike Douglas Show-- but it wasn't this time.  I'm guessing by Sonny and Cher's disco hairdoos that this is during the same period though, a no-man's land after his late 1960s boomlet and before he struck it big again with the London Sessions.  He has a sad, "why am I here?" affect that might explain why, when I first saw him on Mike Douglas and Dick Cavett, I was interested but not really affected.  It took a live show (even sadder-- but definitely compelling) to get me drawn in, and it took the original records to make me a fanatic.  Once I heard those it was all over.  But Chuck Berry kept working through thick days, and the thin ones like this.  (I'm sure I saw this.  I saw him on Mike Douglas several times before the famous John Lennon show.)



I'll say this for Mike Douglas-- he was a nice guy, and he had a lot of really great musicians on his show.  I saw Chuck Berry on that show at least four or five times, including the big one with John Lennon,and I saw B. B. King there, too.  Good thing about Mike Douglas-- he talked to his musical guests as if they mattered.

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