Ending up the week with a completely classic show for a lot of reasons, not the least being Jimi Hendrix and what was his second appearance on Top Of The Pops. The rest of the shows lineup is rather amazing too, and what is played, especially by The Move and their covers of Moby Grape’s Hey Grandma and Love’s Stephanie Knows Who, bears evidence that bands in the 60s were still covering other bands songs, and two of TOTP‘s stalwarts in that area were The Move and The Idle Race. They still manage to get in their very own Cherry Blossom Clinic, which makes this appearance complete. Alan Price does a live version of Shame, an overlooked classic which was a moderate hit here in the U.S. and The Kinks give one of the lesser-known classics Mr. Pleasant.
Hendrix does none of his “standards’ (i.e. Purple Haze, Manic Depression, etc. etc), but rather Miss Lover, Drivin’ South and his version of Hound Dog.
This is the sort of show that, if you’re not all that familiar with music of the 60s (aside from the dog-eared and well-worn top-10), gives you a great idea of what else was going on at the time. Most of these tracks may not have gone on to be hits here in the U.S., but they provided the backbone for what was going on at the time, and gives you an idea that not everybody was listening to the same 50 songs of the decade. And if anything, provides a better understanding of the wide range of music around at the time. The nice thing about Top Of The Pops was just how eclectic it was (by todays standards), and how the audience was given a wide range of music to sample and get into. Along with the unique feature that these were all studio recordings done expressly for the BBC and not commercially available.
It would be nice if that sort of eclectic and wide-ranging music programming happened now. It could certainly stimulate new influences and ideas and maybe lead to new things.
It’s a thought.
Crank it up and enjoy – and thanks again to Gray Newell for helping kick it into high gear.
