The Day After The Sabbath 163: The Midnight Special (heavy TV performances 1973 - 1975)

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Welcome to volume 163! I had been considering some kind of collection of live recordings for a long time for TDATS, and quite recently a youtube subscriber to my channel (link) pointed me to a great performance of a short-lived, hard rock-orientated lineup of the Spencer Davis Group, on 'The Midnight Special' TV show, which set me off wondering what other heavy performances may be buried away in the show.

It's true that some of the acts here would not normally be considered for TDATS, but live recordings can be a whole different thing if the band liked to play extra heavy live, and a fun part of hunting is finding heaviness in places and from acts where you would not expect to find it, which always takes me back to a thread on the old stonerrock.com forums titled "Unexpected sources of doom".

Wolfman Jack presenting The Midnight Special

The Midnight Special was an American late-night musical variety series that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1981, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It's home was the NBC Studios at Burbank, California. On a few occasions, shows were made elsewhere, including the UK, where Robin Trower and Manfred Mann's Earth Band were filmed on the open deck of a boat travelling down the River Thames in London.
  

As a Brit, I was not aware of the show until the internet age and youtube videos etc, but i'm sure it's fondly remembered in the USA. It hosted one of Kiss's early TV appearances (1975 - link), being many metal head's first exposure to the band, donning full battle dress.

One of the upshots of the variety on display in The Midnight Special is the amusing introductions of the bands, made by the artists that were acting show-host for that particular episode. I have gone to lengths to preserve the introduction of each band in this comp, so we get such fascinating one-time-ever events as Barry White introducing The Eric Burdon Band, Curtis Mayfield introducing Status Quo and Gladys Knight (and one Pip) introducing the French/Moroccan hard rockers Les Variations, who have appeared here in TDATS before (v45 & v07).

Sugarman pitched the show to capitalize on the large post-Tonight Show audience (following Johnny Carson), targeting the 18-33 age group who attended concerts but watched little TV. NBC initially rejected it, so Sugarman bought the airtime himself for the August 19, 1972 pilot (hosted by John Denver) with sponsor, Chevrolet. Strong ratings led NBC to pick it up as a weekly series starting February 2, 1973. 

DJ JJ Jackson interviews Robert Plant
and Phil May on The Midnight Special

The title and theme song came from the traditional American folk/blues standard "Midnight Special," recorded by Johnny Rivers. Wolfman Jack served as announcer and frequent on-camera presence. At the beginning, it featured all-live performances (rare for the era, unlike lip-synced shows), spanning rock, pop, soul, R&B, folk, disco, country, and oldies/nostalgia acts. Occasional comedy (e.g. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Andy Kaufman) and sketches appeared. Guest hosts rotated weekly (Helen Reddy was regular host 1975–1976). In later years, as disco peaked, the set shifted to a nightclub vibe, though it increasingly relied on lip-sync toward the end.

I noticed that during the life of the show, the emphasis on hard rock bands diminished (unfortunately for us), with a good proportion of heavy bands appearing in the early years, but not so many later on. This was partially due to the changing times of course, for example, Disco acts certainly became a significant part of the show in the later '70s.

Ratings declined after 1977. NBC canceled it in 1981 at the request of Dick Ebersol (to help revive Saturday Night Live), replacing it with the Canadian sketch series SCTV. The final episode aired May 1, 1981, after roughly 450 episodes. It remains a landmark in music television for bringing raw live acts into late-night homes. 

TRACKS

01. Gladys Knight & Bubba Knight introduce
                                Les Variations - 'I Don't Know Why' (1974)
02. Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) introduces
                                The Charlie Daniels Band - 'Way Down Yonder' (1975)
03. Charles Miller (War) introduces
                                Climax Blues Band - 'Shake Your Love' (1973)
04. Gordon Lightfoot introduces
                                James Gang - 'The Devil Is Singing Our Song' (1974)

05. Smokey Robinson introduces
                                Rare Earth - 'Hum Along And Dance' (1973)

06. Jim 'Dandy' Mangrum (Black Oak Arkansas) introduces
                                Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost - 'Old West Outlaws' (1975)
07. Curtis Mayfield introduces
                                Status Quo - 'Big Fat Mama' (1974)
08. Wolfman Jack introduces
                                Sugarloaf - 'Don't Call Us, We'll Call You' (1975)

09. Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) introduces
                                Spencer Davis Group - 'Don't Throw Your Change On Me' (1975)

10. The Bee Gees introduce
                                Lee Michaels - 'Barefootin' (1973)

11. Barry White introduces
                                The Eric Burdon Band - 'The Real Me' (1974)
12. Wolfman Jack introduces
                                Todd Rundgren's Utopia - 'The Seven Rays' (1975)

13. John Kay (Steppenwolf) introduces
                                Steppenwolf - 'Gang War Blues' (1975)

14. Wolfman Jack introduces

                                Montrose - 'I Got The Fire' (1975)

15. Jose Feliciano introduces
                                Johnny Winter - 'Rock and Roll' (1973)

16. Cub Koda (Brownsville Station) introduces
                                Brownsville Station - 'Kings of the Party' (1974)

Of the acts here, a surprising number have already appeared in TDATS; Les Variations, Climax Blues Band, James Gang, Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost, Sugarloaf, Montrose, Johnny Winter and Brownsville Station, plus some others that I have not included in this volume, Cozy Powell's Bedlam and Italy's P.F.M. among them.

The Spencer Davis Group song is something of interest and particularly rare, the lineup seems to have been a one-off, assembled by Spencer especially for this show, in a time just after his group had already undergone major makeovers for recent albums. Maybe he intended this show lineup to last longer, but the 'Spencer Davis Group' as an entity went on hiatus for a decade after this performance.
The band:

Buddy Sklar - lead vocals, formerly of The Hook, featured in vol48 

Spencer Davis - rhythm guitar

Chris Pinnick (one-time Chicago member wiki) - lead guitar

Lee Dorman (from Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond) - bass

Drums: on one youtube video, the channel says the drummer is Deane Hagen, but I have not been able to confirm this elsewhere.

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If you liked this please explore this site further, with 160+ similar collections, articles and interviews. My social links are below, I also have a youtube channel (link).

Thanks for reading, until next time, rock on!
Rich

Further listening:

The Day After The Sabbath 117: Boston Tea Party, 'Bosstown Sound' tribute

The Day After The Sabbath 128: Sweet Home Birmingham, Alabama

The Day After The Sabbath 112: UK Country Rock and Southern Rock Special

[Summary of all previous volumes]

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The Day After The Sabbath 71: Stormbird [female vocals 3]

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Volume 71 is a collection of tracks with female vox. It gets underway with two concise and heavy singles. There are now six volumes with this theme.

So far those six are: 17 (link), 49 (link), 71 (link), 97 (link), 129 (link) and 154 (link).

Track List

01. Parojoma - Crystallized Insanity (1971)
       single
02. Think - California (Is Getting So Heavy) (1969)
       single
03. C. K. Strong - Stormbird (1969)
       from album "c.k. strong"
04. Valeria Mongardini - Addio Città Vecchia [The Guess Who cover] (1970)
       single
05. Sun - Vendetta (1972)
       from album 'sun 1972'
06. 6 Feet Under - What Would You Do (1970)
       from retrospective "in retrospect 1969-'70"
07. Sharon Tandy - Hold On [with Les Fleur De Lys] (1967)
       single
08. John Bassman Group - His Name Was Tom (1970)
       from album 'filthy sky'
09. Earth & Fire - Lost Forever (1971)
       from repertoire re-issue of  'earth and fire'
10. Ruby Starr And Grey Ghost - Burnin' Whiskey (1975)
       from album 'ruby starr & grey ghost'
11. Pesky Gee - Where Is My Mind [Vanilla Fudge cover] (1969)
       from album 'exclamation mark'
12. Ivory - Silver Rains (1968)
       from album 'ivory'
13. She Trinity - Climb That Tree [with The Onyx] (1970)
       single
14. Sweet Pain - Sick And Tired (1969)
       from album 'sweet pain'
15. Smith - I Just Wanna Make Love To You (1969)
       from album 'a group called smith'

Parojoma's 'Crystallized Insanity' is a 1971 single a-side from Canada, and I thank my friend's excellent channel for bringing this catchy slice of groove to my attention just in time to give it pride of place. There is little information to go on, it was on the London label and writing credits go to M. & R. Bartolucci, with P. Cardone. Production is by Ben Kaye & Art Phillips. No mention of the players or songstress, though back in those days female session singers were often not credited.

Think's single is another for which I cannot find the singers name, but the music is some strong pop with a wicked, heavy low-ended chorus and brass embellishments. The main players here were Mike Ballew (gtr) and Danny Wilder (bs) who were previously in The Brothers and later in 'Red, Wilder, Blue'.

C.K. Strong

C. K. Strong's tag line goes :- "Only the strong survive. Out of the hundreds of west coast bands that were formed during the last few years, only a handful have gained national recognition. You can understand why. It takes a group that is both musically and personally strong to overcome the hustles and hassles involved. C. K. Strong has more than survived. Their début album exudes vibrant rock and blues. And a chick singer named Lynn Carey who effortlessly explores every note of her three-octave vocal range. C. K. Strong. Darwin scores again". The more observant of you will remember Lynn's vocal contributions on the Neil Meryweather Vol68, and I will be using another track from this album on the movie comp i'm doing, as one of the tracks was used on the classic Russ Meyer exploitation movie 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls'.

Valeria Mongardini was an Italian pop singer with a raw voice which she used to out-sleaze The Guess Who on this great cover of "American Woman". The backing arrangement is from Tony Mimms, a Glasgow-born producer and musician who emigrated to Italy with a band called The Primitives, which also included drummer Pick Withers, later of Dire Straits fame.

Sun is a special discovery to me, a guy called "Daru Blues" with a channel on youtube kindly sent me the album in mp3 after I spent an age searching for it, and I was not disappointed. They were originally from Wollongong, near Sydney, Australia. They made one enigmatic, ultra-collectable album; progressive blues and jazz wth great musicianship plus a secret weapon in the form of Renée Geyer with her unique vocal power and swagger, belying her tender age of 18. Renée (who was later replaced in Sun by Starlee Ford, a singer who appeared in the original Australian production of the rock musical Hair) went on to great solo acclaim but never bettered her performance here I think.

'6 Feet Under' started out as 'The Marc 5' in 1966 in Colonia, New Jersey. Later known as the Sonix, they never recorded an album proper and this track is taken from the 1998 Arf! Arf! Records retrospective. One-time drummer Hector "Tico" Torres was ejected in 1970 before the addition of the female singer on this track 'What Would You Do', though it may have been a good move for him financially as he went on to be a founding member of Bon Jovi. Growling fuzz, stabbing keys and wah grooves pervade through this awesome track.

Sharon Tandy was a sexy and soulful Johannesburg-born singer who teamed up with Brit freak-beaters Les Fleur de Lys (see their own original version of 'Hold On' in Vol70) on more than one occasion. Having had plenty of breaks, performing often on UK t.v. and even getting signed to Stax in 1966 to cut earthy Southern soul with Booker T & The MGs and Isaac Hayes, she never really made it and was back to a comparatively small career in South Africa by 1970. This version of Hold On features some totally scorching guitar and her trademark earthy vocals.

The John Bassman Group started life as a school band in Landgraaf, a municipality in south-eastern Limburg and also where one of Holland's biggest rock fests resides, Pinkpop. Their single album 'filthy sky' was a curious affair, a mix of country-tinged blues tracks, and west coast style psych tracks, these being the ones which frequently hit the mark with awesome fuzzy wah guitar and charismatic vox from Diana Leemhuis. John Theunissen and the 'bassman' Theo Wetzeis later joined Pussycat, who had a novelty hit with "Mississippi" in 1975. You've gotta love the fuzz-wah chops of "His Name Was Tom".

Earth & Fire (1970)

Earth & Fire were a Dutch progressive pop group, who made some interesting stuff in their early career which betrayed hard rock influences, unfortunately they became a more commercial pop/disco group of far less interest in the later 70's. Singer Jerney Kaagman later became president of the Dutch musician's union and was recently a judge on the Dutch "Idols" talent show. The track I've used here called Lost Forever was the 1971 'Storm and Thunder' single b-side and is definitely the most Sabbath-heavy thing they did. The best album to look for is the 1993 Repertoire re-issue of their 1971 eponymous debut, which includes the heavy b-sides like 'Memories' that I also used on the Roadburn comp Vol64.

Ruby Starr was discovered by Black Oak Arkansas frontman Jim Dandy, working in a bar in Evansville, Indiana. Over her career she performed with them, Blackfoot and Mountain, along with a number of backing bands and solo projects. One of them was called 'Ruby Starr And Grey Ghost' and included members of Target (see Vol65), the 'Grey Ghost' in question being a reference to confederate civil war hero General Mosby. "Burnin' Whiskey" is a good southern-rocker with a hint of Deep Purple grinding hammond. A youtube mini-documentary can be seen here (link).

Pesky Gee

Pesky Gee formed in Leicester, UK and the core of the band was basically Black Widow before they went occult. There's a great interview with Saxist/ Flautist Clive Jones here describing the transition. This heavy, grungy track 'Where Is My Mind?', a Vanilla Fudge cover, benefits greatly from Kay Garrett's husky tones. Californians Ivory made one album, and 'Silver Rains' is the excellent highlight, Christine Christman's voice swims in the lysergia of Mike McCauley's keys and Kenny Thomure's guitar. Unfortunately, McCauley's Vietnam draft cut their career prematurely short.

She Trinity

The She Trinity are something of a novelty, being one of the only all-girl bands I have ever used on any comp, they were started by a trio of Canadian musicians who found their way to England. There were brief name changes and shake-ups. The final combo was  Robyn Yorke (drums) ,  Eileen Woodman (keys),  Pauline Moran (bass), and Inger Jonnsson on guitar. Pauline Moran would go on to later acclaim as a stage/screen actress. They released a cover of 'Hair' in 1970, for which 'Climb That Tree' was the b-side, which itself was played by the UK band The Onyx, with vocals from She Trinity. Sweet Pain was an all-star blues session album. Singer Annette Brox recorded a 45 in 1965 and an album in 1974, Dick Heckstall-Smith had recorded a solo album. He also played with Graham Bond Organisation, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Colosseum. 'Sick and Tired' is a ripping slab of bluesrock!

And so this volume ends with L.A. pop-rockers 'Smith', who's strongest asset was their most frequent vocalist, Gayle McCormick, an accomplished female blue-eyed soul belter. Here is their version of old reliable 'I Just Wanna Make Love To You', a 1954 blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters. It appears for around the third time on this blog; maybe another theme idea is forming....

Thanks for listening! Rich

references:

Marmalade-Skies | Ready steady girls
Museum of Canadian Music | 70sheavyrockfan

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