Would you buy a best-of "The Midnight Special" if it was released?

Gordon McMurphy · 01-17-2004, 11:08 AM

The Midnight Special ran from 1973-1983. During it's run, many of Rock's greatest artists appeared on it. Like Neil Young memorably playing 'Like A Hurricane'.

It would be so great to see a "best of" 2-disc set or even a boxed set of the shows best performances.

In the UK, there was The Old Grey Whistle Test, which was great and there have been two releases of it on DVD: a 2-disc set and a 1-disc set, both are great. Live performances. There seems to be a market for these kinds of releases, and The Midnight Special was an awesome show, and it would be great to revist it and have it's best moments preserved on DVD.

Is there any chance we'll ever see it on DVD?

DouglasBr · 01-17-2004, 02:17 PM

I'd be interested. I'd also like "In Concert" and "Don Kirschner Presents" (or whatever it was called) as well. LOTS of great performances from that era.

John Watson · 01-17-2004, 02:20 PM

There's a goldmine out there, often of programs that were once issued for sale on video cassette, that have not reached DVD for re-issue.

I gather licensing is one of the big problems

I'm not sure if I remember The Midnight Special series, but if it was live, would be great.

Recently I found something called : "So you wanna be a Rock n Roll Star" of appearances on THE BEAT GENERATION (1967-72). I'm assuming that was a British TV show?

The Ed Sullivan Show releases of the past year were panned, and what I read about them was depressing - some lip-synched material, incomplete renditions, etc.

Edit - While I was typing I guess Douglas posted - I do remember "Don Kirchner Presents"

Gordon McMurphy · 01-17-2004, 03:16 PM

In Concert was great. I saw the Joni Mitchell one a few weeks ago; it was excellent. The Neil Young one is great too; it's funny to see him at that period, he's real mellow, yet... still intense, if you know what I mean. His quips are quite funny too. Who else appeared on In Concert? What was Don Kirschner Presents? I've never heard of that one.

So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star

Sound interesting. Lip-synched mostly, according to the user comments, but still a good artefact of the era.

There is indeed a goldmine out there, but a lot of it is tangled up in legal issues, but an effort should be made to try and get the best stuff out there.

Larry House · 01-18-2004, 02:12 PM

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert was terriffic ... from what I remember these were all live performances, in fact a lot of them were taped with audiences, if I remember correctly. Quite a lot of the big names of the era appeared, too, not just less notable acts.

For those who don't know, Don was a music industry executive who started out working in the famous Brill Building in New York at the same time as Carole King, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector (briefly), etc. He "created" the Monkees and the Archies. He was somewhat awkward in front of the camera in the tradition of Ed Sullivan (this was later parodied to great effect by Paul Shaffer on Saturday Night Live, always representing "PolySutra Records").

I'm sure there's much more on the internet and other sources, this is what I remember off the top of my head.

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Gary->dee · 01-18-2004, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Would you buy a best-of "The Midnight Special" if it was released?

Yes!

I just recently pulled out and watched some of my old videotapes of the Midnight Special shows that used to air on VH-1 a while back. I'm glad I was smart enough to record them!

John Watson · 01-18-2004, 03:51 PM

My mind may be playing tricks on me, but I'm starting to recall THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. Especially a performance by Arethra Franklin, and the camera closed in on her from behind, from the floor?

Of course, she wasn't singing The Bertha Butt Boogie, probably Respect, but I'd buy a copy of that show, whatever it was.

SNL always had excellent live performances. Have any of them ever been issued to DVD?

Personally, I would love compilations of good 80's videos, Especially New Wave, when music TV was coming into existence. The few DVD's I see like this are cheesy looking and have lots of songs I've never heard of

Gordon McMurphy · 01-19-2004, 08:05 AM

Hey, Gary that sounds great! Which performances were on it?

John, there is an SNL music boxed set: Saturday Night Live: 25 Years Of Music - Performances and Sketches There's some great stuff on it, well worth getting.