Long before Letterman, during the Golden Age of Carson, there was Cavett. As in Dick.

Which he sometimes was. But the well-educated Nebraskan was also a pretty witty, entertaining guy (who later had some troubles). The times were ripe, for, well, everything. It being the late 60s and early 70s. In this heads-up article about a new DVD package featuring chat with, and performances by 60s and early 70s musical icons on ABC-TV's late night talk show hosted by Cavett, they don't mention Cavett's famous Jimi Hendrix interview, but it still sounds like a must-rent, and probably a should-buy.

"Sure, Cavett's snobbishness, sexism and rather desperate attempts at hipness can be annoying, and the sets and production values are archaic, but for music fans, this is adventurous late-night TV programming that is seldom, if ever, matched in today's prefab, PR-driven environment.

'Dick Cavett: Rock Icons' features nine episodes on three DVDs. The Jefferson Airplane, Stephen Stills and Joni Mitchell join Cavett in the round and seated on Naugahyde hassocks in a 1969 telecast taped one day after the end of the first Woodstock Festival. 'I still have the mud on my boots,' says Stills.

Despite Cavett's best attempt to belittle singer Grace Slick as a child of privilege, pointing out that her father was an investment banker, the Jefferson Airplane perform several anthemic songs designed to rally the era's emerging youth movement....At the time, even Tonight Show host Johnny Carson rarely invited rock acts on to his program, and he never engaged them in conversations about Vietnam and their drug-taking habits.

That willingness to play fast and loose allowed Sly Stone, obviously coked up but complaining of a cold, to take over the program and interview fellow guests Sen. and Mrs. Fred Harris about the nation's shoddy treatment of Native Americans (Mrs. Harris was a Cherokee and fledgling activist). On a separate segment, Janis Joplin, who appeared three times on Cavett's show, sips sloe gin from a Dixie cup and spars with '70s sex symbol Raquel Welch, who nervously tries to steer the conversation away from the fact that her new film Myra Breckenridge was bombing.

But it is the one-on-one interview that is really the heart and soul of these discs. In a 1971 program, George Harrison discusses the Beatles breakup, his benefit concert for Bangladesh and America's cultural handicaps. In a similar vein, David Bowie, on the verge of his Young American tour, sits down for a revealing hourlong chat that would send shivers down the spine of any PR flack. Other musical guests on Rock Icons include Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and David Crosby."

OK: Forty-something Geezer Alert. This sounds like the real deal. However, as much as I lurve primo 60s music - and I've got a whole bunch of it, on vinyl, tape and CD - some of it weathers the test of time well, and some doesn't.

F'rinstance, except for their first, absolutely fantastic LP on the obscure Mainstream label, Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company (thanks more to the band than her) sound, basically, like stoned, drunk incompetents trying to be a rock band, succeeding mainly just in playing very L-O-U-D. But whoa, that first Big Brother LP is classic - and to think I found my cherry copy for 25 cents in a Chicago thrift shop. The Jefferson Airplane, with the perspective of time, sad to say, mostly come across as a folk-rock relic; quaint, dated, very white and boring, on the order of early Bob Dylan even with the added instruments and amps. Notwithstanding the earthshaking relevance of Grace jokingly naming her child "god" (small "g" to be "humble") but then falling back on "China."

On the other hand, the recordings of Buffalo Springfield, which included Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and David Crosby, still sound fresh and wonderful - it's the music, or should I say, the musicality. Much like, tho not nearly the same as, earlier LPs by the Steve Miller Band, such as 1969's "Brave New World." Sly & The Family Stone, especially the early stuff, remains totally timeless even if Sly went off the deep end.

Still loving the best of 60s tunes - both better-known and lesser-known - and remembering well Cavett's entertaining, just slightly cerebral style, I can't help but want to see this DVD package. I can always play some of my own CDs afterward.

TECHNORATI TAGS: DICK CAVETT, DVD

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at September 20, 2005 09:36 PM