Burt Sugarman’s The Midnight Special – Million
Sellers (Guthy-Renker
Entertainment DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Compilation: B
Back in
1972, a TV special that also served as a pilot launched the most important live
concert series in TV history. Though
music had found its way onto other TV shows like Your Hit Parade, American
Bandstand, Shindig, Soul Train and other important series, The Midnight Special began as a special
to get young 18+ voters to vote. However,
it quickly became the hottest live TV music show around and never were TV music
performances more raw or as unrestricted (they did not have to worry about
commercial breaks as much at hours TV was though to be ended for the evening)
and more like full-length albums than singles with commercials in between than
they are here.
That made
it a dead-on match with the rise of FM radio, vinyl record albums on the
incline and the big business music was becoming. It also took advantage of the giant audience
The Beatles had made for music only months after disbanding. It was a great idea with great timing and
also helped create late night TV. It
would be ten years before MTV, but that was never (especially now that they
don’t do as much music anymore) a true successor to real live performing. The Million
Sellers volume is a great place to start and in many cases, literally
includes some of the bets performances of the careers of the artists
listed. They are so good in fact that
even if it an artist you don’t like, you’ll still be impressed:
Roy
Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman –- Long
before it was trivialized as a song to an unworthy blockbuster with a
convoluted script, Orbison’s 1964 classic was an inarguable Rock classic,
combining his classic vocals with a great balance of Blues and Country. Here, he delivers it as well as you could
ever imagine.
Fleetwood
Mac – Rhiannon –- Stevie Nicks gives
an exceptionally effective performance of her hit from her debut album with the
band that began
Peter
Frampton – Baby I Love Your Way –- The
original version of the hit from the mega-selling Frampton Comes Alive double album is still the best and this is
some of the bets footage I have ever seen of Frampton doing anything. Likely one of the best performances of his
you will ever see, though the editing can get campy.
John
Denver & Cass Elliot – Leaving On A
Jet Plane –- From the very first show, the soon-to-be solo superstar and
Mama Cass herself from The Mamas & The Papas (doing her solo thing along
with an animated appearance around the same time on The New Scooby-Doo Movies of all things) but the duet works.
The Bee
Gees – Jive Talkin' –- One of the
least manicured performances you will ever see of the singing Brothers Gibb,
this remains one of their greatest and most influential songs and they are in
rare form here.
Linda
Ronstadt – You're No Good –- No one
made more great remakes into hits that were so honest that they seemed like
originals, but that was how much Ronstadt loves music and this is one of the
best live performances I have ever seen her give.
The Guess
Who – American Woman –- Maybe the
earliest attempt to imitate Led Zeppelin, the group had another huge hit with
this still decent song (even if the lyrics contradict themselves) and the
subtle performance of it here is most interesting.
Al Green –
Let's Stay Together –- Green was one
of the greatest Soul singers ever and this is him at his ingenious live best
(before finding religion) and he gives an amazing performance that easily
rivals the hit record, which is not easy to do.
Aretha
Franklin – Respect –- Years after the
record hit #1 on several charts, The Queen Of Soul delivers a one-of-a-kind
performance of her classic that shows how fresh the record could, can and
always will be. Oh, and her voice is in
remarkable prime form here.
David
Bowie – Space Oddity –- A big for
Bowie a few years after in its re-release, this is one of his most serious TV
performances, which only adds to what was his (and the song’s) otherworldliness
at the time. He sound great and a
version all Bowie
fans will want to own.
Blondie –
Heart Of Glass –- Debbie Harry was
amazing and one of the queens of New Wave, here doing their classic chart
topper in a different key and it still works.
In their time, they were one of the bands most alive when they were live
and this is yet more evidence of that and yes, she can sing.
Labelle –
Lady Marmalade –- The original (and
really only) version of the hit has Patti Labelle’s inarguable singing and the
trio wear their great gaudy glam outfits.
When you see and hear them perform the original at full length, the
remake’s flaws are evident all around.
The Steve
Miller Band – The Joker –- The title
song of the band’s hit album remains a fun #1 hit record that announced one of
the more interesting Rock bands of the 1970s had arrived.
Billy
Joel – Travelin' Prayer -– This often
forgotten early hit by Joel from his Piano
Man album showed him still experimenting and playing around with music
genres before moving on to some of the biggest hit albums and records in the
industry’s history. Very interesting.
Donna
Summer – Last Dance –- The Queen of
Disco was also good at stage performance and has a routine to introduce this
hit form the hit film Thank God Its
Friday. Even a less-aggressive song
like this worked for her because of her great singing and she delivers well
here.
The 1.33
X 1 image is all from color analog NTSC video (earlier clips would be from
2-inch reel-to-reel tape) and is in pretty good shape, including hardly any
aliasing or other flaws, so the master tapes were taken care of well enough and
that pays off here. The Dolby Digital
5.1 mix is really just spreading out the older audio and does this as well as
it can, making it preferable to the Dolby 2.0 mix, but it still shows its age
and only so much can be done to upgrade the sound. Fortunately, they have cleaned the sound the
best they could and get whatever bass out of the original tracks they could.
Extras
include Stand-Up Comedy clips by Richard Pryor and Steve Martin in their early
prime, photo gallery and two clips promoting this great DVD series.
To order
this and all volumes of The Midnight
Special issued to date, visit this link for more details:
http://www.midnightspecial.com/?uci=US-MS-O-D-FD-01
- Nicholas Sheffo
