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THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST
This may not pique the interest of most of you newbies to the planet, but my wife received this DVD as a Christmas present from her sister a couple of years ago. She unwrapped it and we couldn't wait to pop it into the slot and fire that mother up. Believe me, it was a sublime walk down memory lane.
For starters, The Old Gray Whistle Test was a live music TV show in Britain during the very early seventies. That right there explains the inability for most of you to relate to it since you were all no doubt still in your old man’s sack jumping from ball to ball. I wasn’t aware of this show because it never aired in the States; my wife, however, grew up in Scotland, so she was well acquainted with it. It ran for about fifteen years, and it had a rich history of having attracted to its stage early rock music legends like Bob Marley, Lou Reed, Curtis Mayfield, Rory Gallagher, Elton John, Alice Cooper, Bill Withers, The Damned, The Ramones, The Police, Emmy Lou Harris, and more – all included on this DVD. It was indeed a very special treat to again see these people perform live on-stage back in the day, and these were more like studio performances, not the over-produced horse shit that the pop-starz of today only seem to be able to lip-synch in their performances.
I'll refer you to one excellent example from the DVD: Edgar Winter, who begins his seminal number “Frankenstein” by playing the synthesizer hung from his neck, then switches to a saxophone, does double drum riffs with the band’s drummer, then switches back to the synthesizer to finish the song, all while his shoulder length gossamer white hair flowed like some albino ghost possessed with passion – quintessential seventies Rock and Roll.
In addition to the live music, the producers also included vintage interviews with Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Robert Plant, and more.
I highly recommend this, if for no other reason than the history lesson it teaches. These folks had talent that has stood the test of time. My old man was indeed wrong when he used to holler, “Turn of that goddamn rock and roll!”
PS: The name of the show was a throwback to an earlier era when records were first pressed (I know you youngsters have no clue what this means) and the janitors heard them (old men, hence old greys); if they could whistle them after the first or second playing, the song passed the old grey whistle test.
Rock on.
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