Anyone old enough (and many who aren't) to remember the Beatles first television appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (February 1964), and to remember the swooning and excitement, is exactly the right age to appreciate the nostalgic trip offered by the T.A.M.I. show.
The 112-minute DVD features The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown and the Flames, The Barbarians, Marvin Gaye, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, Billy Kramer and the Dakotas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, and The Rolling Stones - quite a stellar line-up!
The Beach Boys, at one point, insisted that their performance be removed from all copies and from the master, but so many copies had been made that their part in the concert was preserved, which also allowed them to add the footage to a "best of" album/DVD in 2004. The bootleg copies also facilitated the collector's edition DVD.
As far as I know, these same artists never appeared anywhere else together; for that alone, the movie is a unique document; it's a piece of rock and roll history. Until now, I had no idea such a thing even existed.
Mostly though, for me, it's about memories and nostalgia. Gosh Mick Jagger has aged since those days - and I just don't want to think about what that implies for the rest of us who remember so well!
17 comments:
I don't remember the TAMI show. I suspect my parents kept it from my young impressionable mind. I could wax poetic on the horrors of Lawrence Welk for you, though.
Cheri,
Ah yes, Lawrence Welk - all those cleanly scrubbed and neatly coiffed young people.
Everyone has a peak period in their life, and music is the best and quickest way back into that era. For me it was definitely 1963-9.
Just to read your list is enough to make me smile: Beatles, The Beach Boys, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, The Supremes and The Rolling Stones etc
Hels,
The music is attached to so many memories. It's amazing, actually.
I enjoyed the video and seeing those screaming females. It helped me remember why I couldn't take the concerts back then. And
I might have seen the show...but I simply don't remember. I was too much of a folky in the sixties and there were few of the rock groups that I really enjoyed.
I liked the Beach Boys, but was not really addicted to their music. I was mostly into Peter Paul and Mary; The Kingston Trio; Joni Mitchell; Judy Collins, and Linda Ronstadt.
Strangely I did like one rock group - The Moody Blues, but they never got very big like the Beatles or the Stones.
Christi,
I remember going to beach parties where everyone sat around singing Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary songs. It was really a simpler time.
But I also remember being so excited when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan.
I love this old stuff, but was far from even a single cell at the time.
I could view these old videos of music and pop culture forever.
I remember the first time I found old midnight special videos on you tube - several years ago. I stayed up all night viewing as many as I could,
cooper,
It's interesting - my parents' old stuff doesn't interest me much at all. You remind me how we have all aged since those days!
Thanks for the great memories! The music back then was incredible. I thought I would never find "new" music appealing but oddly enough, I do. I have been to several Doo Wop shows here in Pittsburgh. Even though some of the group members had passed on, their replacements were just as good and the harmony delightful. I am probably more of a fan of Mick Jagger today than I was then. I am amazed that he can still "work it" on stage!
Cher,
Yup, Mick can still move it!
Chris,
Thanks, I needed this! Normally, my tastes DO go back to my parents' time, big band. Or in their comfortable late 40s, Hefner's background lounge jazz or Rat Pack Sinatra or brassy Brit band backup to James Bond themes.
I've got a jones myself for jazz.
As for 'The 60s', I too remember getting more caught up with Peter, Paul, and Mary and the various folk singers who ultimately got swamped by the tsunami Bob Dylan.
Watching this TAMI with its 'go-go girls' doing the jerk or the frug up there on their plastic pedestals in their pedal-pushers and 'feel-up' blouses what washed over me wasn't a tsunami, it was more, it was more, the sense of distance.
It was . . . I was . . . more innocent then.
Yes, I understood the hormonal feelings all that projects. But not really.
The complications came later.
The scary part of this all is that I believe I recognize the voiceover announcer as Wink Martindale.
Trulyfool,
I hadn't noticed, but it does sound like Wink Martindale!
Did you also notice how much heavier the women are than they would be if the show was done with today's dancers?!?
Yes. Even the dancers had more 'meat' on them.
If you've ever seen Mad Men (now watching the 2nd Season on DVD, but a 3rd's out on DVD already, and a 4th being shown/filmed), the women there also are fuller.
One episode shows a charity auction with 'local models' in bathing suits.
Perfectly attractive, yet by today's anorexic standards what most young females would consider 'fat' -- believe me, nary more than a bit of softness!
And then there was Buddy Holly. I can still swoon and sing along (I remember every word of every song he ever sang!) while sweeping the floor. Nostalgia, yes. Old — not me.
anonymous,
Buddy Holly was wonderful.
Thank you for your comment.
Lesley Gore....I never knew who sang that song!! I'm psyched to find out.
Love seeing some of my faves. James Brown. The Stones.
And those dancers in the background of the Stones clip. Damn!
OTG,
Yup, the dancers are hot. Lesley Gore is dressed like an old lady though - never could figure that one out.
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