Old Grey Whistle Test
I had an idle moment or two this afternoon, so on a whim, I stuck "Old Grey Whistle Test" into the YouTube search engine. Out popped literally hundreds of choice clips from deep in the show's vaults. They've released some clips on a few DVDs lately but nothing like the wealth on offer on YouTube. You'll find everything from Bowie to Bob Marley to the Jam. Here's my pick - The Specials doing "Message to Rudy" back in the day. Start skanking!
posted by gatorbob @ 11:40 PM
6 Comments:
Melanie and Eric gave me a brilliant DVD of TOGWT a couple of years ago that has this footage.
They must have stacks of this footage laying about so I'd like them to release more of this.
Tell me why there isn't a show like the Whistle Test on MTV rather than that "Hills" rubbish. Surely Kurt Loder would be up for it?
That's a good point. I think that was the vibe they were trying to get on the Sundance "Live from Abbey Road" series that I've dipped into from time to time.
For consistently good performances however, you simply cannot beat Austin City Limits and you'd be surprise at who pops up there.
Surprised.
Also, what's really annoying personally is that I know that the Beeb is sitting on cans and cans of this stuff from the OGWT that will never see the light of day. My friend the Kaiser and I know for instance, that this Marley set included an inciendery take of "Get Up, Stand Up."
The story behind that set was that the Wailers were unknown in Britain, and had just cut music with Lee Perry at the knobs. They did this tour in the winter in Britain, and had no money and were playing pretty inappropriate venues where they weren't even guaranteed a receptive audience. Then word filtered through that Perry had screwed them by releasing the Soul Warrior sessions on his Black Ark label and without permission or a financial agreement with Marley, Tosh, or Livingston. They showed up for their OGWT gig in a very black mood, and you have to remember that these three guys were basically thugs who could play and were pretty scary.
I've seen "Get Up, Stand Up" and two other songs from this session and it's just tragic that no-one has rescued this session in full.
So who's the bloke in the Marley band to Bob's left with the rainbow bobble hat on doing the sumptuous harmonies?
Bunny Livingston.
At the time of this recording, the Wailers were a three piece, Marley, Tosh, and Livingston, with various people filling in the sound on bass, drums, etc.
I'd have to check again on this set, but they borrowed Sly and Robbie from Taxi on this tour. The sound is pretty spare so I think it was just the 3 for this set.
After they got back to Jamaica, they went down to Black Ark and kicked Perry's ass, literally. He then fled Jamaica fearing more beat-downs, possibly worse.
It was after that when they hooked up with Chris Blackwell at Island and re-recorded most of their songs for him that they started getting real attention.
The ensuing attention that Marley received as songwriter and charismatic spokesman of Rastafarianism exacerbated tensions amongst the three, especially with Tosh, and Tosh and Livingston left, and Ainsley Dunbar, Aston Barrett, arrived and soon after, the I-Threes, and re-banded as Bob Marley and the Wailers. That's the line-up that's on the "Live" record.
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