AWESOME THINGS OF WHOSE EXISTENCE I WAS PREVIOUSLY UNAWARE: From the third-ever episode of SNL, a performance by the dance troupe The Lockers, which included Toni Basil, Fred "Not Yet Rerun" Berry, and Shabba Doo. [As some of you will recall, The Lockers (sans Basil) would later appear on "What's Happenin'!!" with Berry in the episode titled "My Three Tons," because, yes, the show did have musical episodes which didn't include The Doobie Brothers.]
The other rather glorious piece of 1970s culture I caught this weekend was an airing of this Earth Wind and Fire concert from Oakland taped for HBO in 1981 -- but, trust me, it could not be more 70s. The laser intro alone ... and then ALOTT5MA fave Verdine "Sexual Chocolate!" White shows up. Fun.
If it's the "What's Happening?" episode I'm thinking of ("five Rockets and a moon!"), my cousin Danny Wells played the dance troupe's manager in it.
ReplyDeleteThe Toni Basil wikipedia page is a little bit mindblowing. The Monkees, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra, Devo, MC Hammer...
ReplyDeleteYes. Video is linked.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at the breadth of her career, is she a stealth Kennedy Center Honoree nominee?
ReplyDeletedance and interview on Soul Train. If you were watching in the '70s it seemed like were on almost every week.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought they were all Fred Berry.
ReplyDeleteHey, try to imagine explaining the Doobie Brothers episode to somebody born in the last 20 years.
So he went to a concert
-plausible enough
and was standing like 15 feet from the band
-you mean he was standing on the giant stage where the lasers and the backup dancers are
no, like right in front of the piano
-you mean the keyboard
well, sort of, and he was trying to record the concert
-on his phone
phones didn't have recording--they were just for talking
-people talked on phones
yeah, but actually, people didn't have phones, except ones that sat on a desk or screwed into a wall
-so you had to go to the wall or the desk to text
not relevant; anyway, he was recording it on a tape recorder
-a what
it's like a separate device for recording
-oh, old timey, like a Flip
well, more like the size of maybe a shoe box
-you're shitting me
no
-you had to upload things from a shoebox
no, there wasn't any uploading, you just recorded on a tape
-like scotch tape or the other kind of tape that you use for crafting
jesus christ, a tape, it looks like your iPhone cover
-oh, why didn't you just say
go to hell. anyway, he had it hidden in his sweater
-why in his sweater
because he wasn't supposed to be recording
-why wasn't he supposed to be recording
because you couldn't record concerts
-but what did everybody do with their phones during the concert
uhhhh