 
The Dick Cavett Show:
Although they had met and hung out together prior to their first appearance, John Lennon and Yoko Ono seemed a little tense at the beginning of their first sit-down with Cavett. By the end of the program, they were at completely at ease and recorded enough additional material to form the basis for a second show. It’s obvious that the couple were very much in love and supportive of each other’s artistic pursuits and Cavett was careful to approach potentially thorny subjects with sensitivity. For their “third” appearance, Lennon made good on an earlier promise to perform live and brought along Elephant’s Memory to back him up on “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World” and Yoko’s “We’re All Water.” It was also a difficult time for the two: Lennon was facing deportation charges and Ono was embroiled in a custody case over her daughter Kyoko, who had disappeared with Ono’s former husband. The couple seemed completely relaxed this time and used the show as a means of airing their grievances in public, making for another compelling program. Ray Charles appeared on the show in June of 1972 and performed his rendition of “America The Beautiful” in public for the first time, resulting in thousands of positive letters and subsequent offers to perform it at major events and ceremonies. Charles loved Cavett and their rapport was like that of two old friends. On the second disc of the set, Cavett gives the entire show over to the “genius of soul,” who performs eight numbers and takes part in some serious banter about his career, his childhood and his addiction to drugs. Their duet of “Am I Blue” became a running joke of Charles’ three appearances and helped to end the shows on a warm note. The Rock Icons set is remarkable for both the musicians and caliber of their performances, as well as their conversations with Cavett. The earliest show was recorded in August of 1969, the day after the Woodstock festival had ended and featured Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills and David Crosby, most of whom had come directly from the event (Stills still had mud on his jeans). The lone exception was Mitchell, whose management felt that TV was a better choice of career move than playing the concert. An interview with Sly Stone in 1970 was a challenge (to say the least), but Cavett managed to get a few coherent words out of him anyway and a notoriously shy David Bowie opened up to the host, before and after inspired renditions of “1984” and “Young Americans.” George Harrison discussed the breakup of the Beatles, ranted against Capitol Records for demanding a greater share of the profits from the Concert For Bangladesh album and brought along Gary Wright and Ravi Shankar to perform live. The rest of the three discs are filled out with music from and discussions with Janis Joplin (three shows), a 20-year-old Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, who brought along the Jessy Dixon Singers for gospel-infused versions of “Loves Me Like A Rock” and “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” These days, rock stars make talk shows a part of their promotional
circuit when it comes time to plug a new album, but rarely if ever,
do they sit down with Letterman, Leno, or anyone else for a full show
and discuss politics or other topics in depth. The Dick Cavett show
was a rare opportunity for artists to express themselves on more than
one level and these three collections allow us a glimpse of these musicians
who might not have had another forum in which to communicate so candidly.
The shows also act as a sort of time capsule, capturing snapshots of
American culture and both the musical and political revolutions taking
place at the time. Here’s hoping Shout Factory makes more of these
programs available in the months and years to come. --David Bassin
|
