Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Smothers Brothers’

Pullin’ Back the Reins

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , on February 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

They held the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics last night in Vancouver.  As usual, it was a great bit of spectacle.  There was only one visible glitch although it occured at the most critically symbolic moment.  As the torchbearers, including Wayne Gretzky, waited nervously for the Olympic cauldron to rise from the arena floor one of the four large supports that were supposed to rise balked.  Nothing happened.  Finally, after an awkward pause, the ceremony went ahead with just the three remaining supports.

Hopefully, this small hiccup in an otherwise wonderful ceremony and the horrible death of a young Georgian luger yesterday will not taint the games.  The world could use a few moments of relative unity right now.

I’m showing a poster from the 1912 Stockholm Olympics just as an example of how beautiful some of the Olympic posters once were.  Over the years, the artwork for the games have become more and more logo-like, more commercial and less artful.  It’s more about creating a brand than expressing the spirit of the games.  But that is but a reflection of our times.

Also, last night saw Canadian chanteuse KD Lang perform Hallelujah.  Her’s is always a  great version of the song and the presentation last night was striking with all in the crowd holding lights and swaying to the rhytm of the song.  I first saw KD Lang in the early 80’s when she was still perfroming with the Reclines.  I think I saw her first on a Smother Brothers Show that ran for a short time in the summer one year.  She was wearing a big cowgirl outfit and flying around the stage, manically out of control.  She was like a dervish.  Like a force of nature.  With that huge voice.  It cought my attention.

Here’s a song from her from that time, one of my favorites, Pullin Back the Reins.  Enjoy your Saturday…

Read Full Post »

Just Dropped In

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Television, Video, tagged , , , , , on September 27, 2009| 2 Comments »

big lebowski multiI was looking for a video on YouTube and came across some old Smothers Brothers things from their 1960’s show.  Time has kind of faded the notoriety they had at that time in America.  Most people, especially those under 40, think of the Smothers Brothers and think of a couple of older, very straight looking guys in tuxes performing skits with the Boston Pops or Tommy Smothers doing his YoYo Man act.  Hardly anything controversial there.

But in the late 60’s their Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a huge hit on CBS, bringing political irreverence  and protest along with the best music of  that era’s youth to a wide audience.  They were cancelled at the peak of their popularity in 1969 in a dispute with CBS over censorship, an action that they later filed suit and won against CBS.

I loved the show when I was a kid.  It was funny and smart and said the things that the news coverage of the time refused to say, particularly about the war in Viet Nam.  You have to realize how much narrower the options were at that time for hearing something out of the mainstream.

I especially liked the music.  Pete Townsend of the Who claims to have lost his hearing in one ear when Keith Moon exploded his drum set  during a performance on the show.  Pete Seeger had a famous appearance singing Waist Deep In the Big Muddy as a protest against the war.  So much great stuff.

I happened across this segment featuring Kenny Rogers and the First Edition doing their hit Just Dropped In ( To See What Condition My Condition Was In), a song that most young people will no doubt associate with its part in The Big Lebowski‘s dream sequence with The Dude, as shown above.  This video with Kenny Rogers in his pre-Gambler days has pretty much the same feel, in that 1960’s goofy TV psychedelic effect way.  Take a look…

Read Full Post »