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 to 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]

TDATS social links

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The Day After The Sabbath 45: La Folle Entreprise [France pt.1]

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Volume 45 is a collection of French bands. [2022 EDIT: There is now another French volume, #141 HERE] It has been quite a mission searching for music of this country that fits in to the feel of my comps, but the end results are very satisfying and here we have another inspirational and varied selection. For such a large and prominent European country, the 70's yielded very little heavy psych and hard rock/proto metal albums. Similarly to Italy and Spain, the nation's native rock tastes at the time veered very strongly towards pastoral/symphonic prog and other more 'intellectual' styles. As a result, the large majority of the tracks featured here are from very short-lived bands and obscure singles, often hidden away on B-sides.

TRACKS

01. Docdail - Aere Perennius (1969)

02. Art Zoyd - Something In Love / Sangria (1971)

03. Schizo - Schizo [and the little girl] (1972)

04. Alan Jack Civilization - Shame On You (1969)

05. Amphyrite - Symphonie Pour 3 Oeufs Brouillés (1975)

06. Blues Convention - Fais Ceci, Fais Cela (1973)

07. François Wertheimer - L'automne (1971)

08. Saint-Preux - Le Gouffre Amer (1972)

09. Alice - Il Viendra (1971)

10. Chico Magnetic Band - Phantasm (1971)

11. Cameleon - Le Chemin de la Descente (1971)

12. After Life - Exit (1975)

13. Dynastie Crisis - Schizomania (1973)

14. La Folle Entreprise - Soleil (1973)

15. Tac Poum Systeme - Asmodai (1971)

16. Les Variations - Come Along (1969)  

Most countries boast at least a few successful cornerstone hard-rock bands and it would appear that 'Les Variations' was France's chief flag bearer in this respect. Their 1969 debut 'Nador' is a very accomplished and solid effort in the vein of Led Zep et al and this is shown by the fact that tracks from it have appeared on this blog before, on mine and other's comps. The avant-garde 'Zeuhl' underground (what could be considered as France's equivalent of 'Krautrock') did however nurture some great heavy psych and one such band that features here is Art Zoyd. Similarly to Amon Duul, they are a continuing art collective with a revolving-door lineup and have traversed many styles to create countless works including movie and ballet accompaniments. Schizo are another example of french artists who began recording heavy psych before changing dramatically. One member, Richard Pinhas, went on to band and solo work which concentrated on prog electronica akin to Brian Eno and Jean Michel Jarre. There is a new interview with Art Zoyd member Thierry Zaboitzeff at psychedelicbabymag.com (link).

Carrying on through the comp we encounter blues rock (Alan Jack Civilization), Sabbathian doom (Chico Magnetic Band), hardened glam (Dynastie Crisis) and the heavy-riffing prog of Blues Convention, Cameleon, Alice and La Folle Entreprise. There are a couple of tracks here which sound timeless to me, Alice and Cameleon in particular. They could have been recorded recently by modern bands, they still sound fresh decades later. One final mention must go to the half-time breather track from 'Saint-Preux', a solo artist who generally made classical compositions but on one album in particular "Le piano sous la mer" introduced some electric psych guitar to great effect on a few tracks, for interesting results.

Further listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 61: In Your Room [first Belgium special]
The Day After The Sabbath 39: Bandera Inmortal [first Spanish collection]

The Day After The Sabbath 83: Midnight Garden [first Swiss special]

For a list of all regional comps see the "[Regional Volumes Round-Up]" link at the top of the blog.

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Cheers, Rich.

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The Day After The Sabbath 7: Rooms Behind Your Mind

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Here is my 7th compilation in the Day After The Sabbath series. I have recently revamped it; using some better sound quality files and adding a write-up, so here we go!

01. Bedlam - Putting On The Flesh (1973)
       from album 'bedlam'
02. Crank - Give You My Love (1970)
       from split ep 'a night in the cave'
03. Variations - Generations (1970)
       from album 'nador'
04. Geordie - So What (1974)
       from album 'don't be fooled by the name'
05. Killing Floor - Out Of Uranus (1970)
       from album 'out of uranus'
06. Thirsty Moon - Rooms Behind Your Mind (1972)
       from album 'thirsty moon'
07. September - One More Change [demo] (1970)
       from retrospective 'cargo'
08. Fire - Could You Understand Me (1973)
       from album 'could you understand me'
09. Iron Claw - Rock Band Blues (1970)
       from retrospective 'iron claw'
10. Pappo's Blues - Especies (1971)
       from album 'pappo's blues'
11. Shiver - Up My Sleeve (1972)
       from retrospective 'san francisco's shiver'
12. Thunder And Roses - Open Up Your Eyes (1969)
       from album 'king of the black sunrise'
13. Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Time To Live (1972)
       from album 'aztecs live! at sunbury'

Bedlam

Bedlam was a short-lived band that made one album in 1972. They included Cozy Powell and Dennis Ball, who both played together briefly in The Ace Kefford Stand and Big Bertha. Cozy was of course a well-known drummer, later to be  associated with acts like Black Sabbath, Rainbow, The Michael Schenker Group and Whitesnake. There is an interview with Bedlam's bass player here at Psychedelic Baby webzine.

Crank are an excellent obscurity that was unearthed by the wonderful Rockadelic records and if you like this (you will) then get the whole thing here (you should).

Variations were by far one of the most accomplished French bands I have discovered and also feature on the French Vol45. They pulled-off a great Led Zeppelin-inspired sound.

Geordie was a long-running Newcastle, UK band that was the springboard for AC/DC's Brian Johnson. They were more of a gritty boogie rock/blues band and 'So What' has killer slide guitar which I always have a soft spot for.

Killing Floor

Killing Floor made two albums in 69-70 and their lineup reads like a bit of a TDATS who's who; they included Mick Hawksworth (Andromeda), Michael "Mick" Clarke (Toe Fat) and Chris Sharley (Sassafras) amoungst other notable names.

Thirsty Moon were a Krautrock band formed in Bremen, northwest Germany and this comp's namesake 'Rooms Behind Your Mind' is slice of heavy prog in the best way possible; evil, jarring and in-human.

September started out as psych band from Amsterdam who made few a singles and later recorded an album called 'Cargo', with a harder rocking sound. They also have connections to Brainbox and the more successful symphonic/jazz proggers Ekseption. "After releasing some singles under the September name they decided they wanted to record an album. Their manager, John van Setten, thought it would be a good idea to not put a bandname on the cover to make the media curious who would be behind it and by this, hopefully sell more albums. Unfortunately it did not work. Nobody gave a damn apparently, and it sold very poorly, making it a very rare album nowadays." Also the band is now generally referred to as "Cargo" rather than September, because of this. Thanks to Mark for this info.

Fire are one of those blogger's faves that there seems to be little concrete info on, but they were eastern europen (maybe Croatian or Yugoslavian) and reputedly recorded and album in the Netherlands called 'Could You Understand Me'.  All you really need to know is it's a manic fuzz monster! [EDIT: recently there has been an interview with Fire guitarist Juraj Havidić here at the Psychedelic Baby webzine]

Iron Claw

Iron Claw don't need too much of an intro from me, suffice to say 'Rock Band Blues' rocks like hell and I have interviewed guitarist Jim Ronnie on this very blog here so take a gander.

Pappo's Blues was the love child of legendary Argentinian guitarist Norberto Napolitano (Pappo). If you haven't acquainted yourself with him yet you are seriously missing out, and taking a look at the south american Vol43 would be a great way to start...

Sunbury Festival 1972

San Francisco's Shiver and their sludgy fuzz-wah jams are TDATS / Blue Cheerful heaven and another great revelation from Rockadelic while Thunder And Roses were a similarly excellent obscurity re-issued by Lizzard records, these guys coming more from the Creamy heavy blues angle.

We end on another TDATS familiar, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs. 'Time To Live' is taken from their "Aztecs Live! at Sunbury" double-LP which documents their storming performance at the historic Australian outdoor festival in Victoria.




Thanks for listening! Rich.

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