The new boom in TV shows on DVD has finally brought us rock and roll obsessives something of historical value and absolute rock kick-ass-ness: The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave collection! Eight episodes of rock performances, interviews, and exploding cars by such masters as Iggy Pop, Elvis Costello, The Jam, Public Image Limited, The Ramones, Patti Smith, Wendy O. Williams and The Plasmatics, and Joan Jett—what more could you want your ass to be kicked by? Oh, not punk enough for you? How ‘bout Iggy Pop giving a lecture on Apollonian art? How ‘bout John Lydon singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow?” How ‘bout The Ramones counting off a song in one tempo and blasting into it in a completely different tempo? Quit your crying and watch this amazing DVD set. That is, if you even have a DVD player, you gutter punk.
The Tomorrow Show
5 Stars
It’s about time that this trend in digging up the graves of rotting TV shows actually provides us with some corpses of historical and cultural value, right? Well, a little DVD release entitled The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave may just be the answer to all you historically-minded music fans out there.
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This set contains eight complete episodes of that late night talk show that ran on NBC after Johnny Carson from 1973 to 1982. These episodes span the years 1977 to 1981 and feature performances and/or interviews with Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Iggy Pop, Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics, Patti Smith, John Lydon & Keith Levine from Public Image Limited, The Jam, and the Ramones. Yup, this is some great shit.
The show, which was primarily of the two-people-sitting-in-chairs-and-talking- to-each-other variety, had musical guests from time to time and surprisingly featured some rather cutting edge performers. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view), the show’s host seemed to be of a 1940’s mindset and often came off as a grandpa telling people like Iggy Pop that folks might like his tunes better if he turned down the volume a bit. While some may be annoyed by Tom’s behavior during these interviews, I think that it gives them a bit of an edge that might not have been there had the host been a lot hipper.
Now for the shows themselves:
First of all, I want to tell you how much I appreciate the interview with John Lydon being released on DVD. I’ve been a fan of PIL’s early stuff for quite a while now, and if any of you even know who they were, you’ll also know that seeing any video footage of them is almost as rare as finding a good Sting album. The only time I ever saw clips of this interview was on an MSNBC show a few years ago called “Now and Again”. The short clips they showed contained enough uncomfortable and memorable moments to make me lust after the thought of seeing the entire interview uncut.
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Essentially, the interview goes like this: John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) and his smacked-out guitarist pal Keith Levine are pimping their band’s new album, Metal Box. I’m sure all interviewers at the time wanted to talk about was John’s old band, so he was ready for a fight. Tom Snyder, as always, proves to be a square from the get-go and becomes Johnny’s punching bag. Tom asks questions, John gives sarcastic and bullshitty answers. The tension mounts. Tom gets frustrated, John gets mean, and Keith looks like he’s about to nod off. John and Keith make it painfully apparent that they have no idea what they’re doing; they claim that they’re not a band but a company. But when Tom tries to find out just what their purpose is, the boys just get sarcastic and mean. No wonder nobody knows who PIL are these days. Whatever. The main thing is that this interview makes for some great, tense television.
The rest of the DVD set could have been Tom Snyder juggling potatoes and I would still have been satisfied by just owning the Lydon interview. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rest of the shows were actually watchable, and in most cases pretty fascinating.
Perhaps the best thing on the set (other than my beloved PIL, of course) is the very first episode on disc 1, a show from October 11, 1977 featuring a roundtable discussion on this new type of music called “punk rock or new wave.” Who’s in on the discussion? Concert promoter Bill Graham (most famous for nurturing musical hippies such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane at his Fillmore venues), L.A. music critic Robert Hilburn (who, in his unhip sweater and dorky glasses, isn’t the most convincing champion of youth culture), and then-Runaways manager Kim Fowley (who, in his mod suit covered in buttons and with six pounds of rouge on his cheeks, is a fairly convincing champion of youth culture even though he looks like a poor-man’s Tim Curry).
Tom, of course, is still Mr. Grandpa, seeming more comfortable with Graham’s skepticism about this new musical form, and less comfortable with Fowley’s playing with flowers and giggling like he’s very, very high. Hilburn has some interesting things to say about “the kids needing music that speaks to them”, but Fowley actually steals the show with some of the most intelligent, well thought out comments about the whole thing. Of course, he says just as much stuff that’s complete gibberish, but I suppose that’s just the rusty roulette wheel of drugs in his head stopping on the unlucky numbers.
Things get even better when a very young Paul Weller of The Jam and an equally young Joan Jett of The Runaways show up and give their take on the kind of music they’re producing. Weller is full of bile and is almost completely unintelligible with thick Cockney, while Jett seems pretty meek and even kinda embarrassed about having to talk about rocking out. I’m surprised that Mr. Snyder didn’t offer them some ice cream considering that he treats them like they’re ten years old. Maybe he did during the commercial break. Anyway, this show is not only great from a historical perspective, but very entertaining and even a little nerve-racking.
The Elvis Costello performances are top-notch (and also from the time of my absolute favorite of his albums, Trust) and his interview is killer. He reveals himself to be a man of wit and great charm, which is a tiny bit surprising since he admittedly was coked out of his gourd during that period. I guess he’s a good actor as well.
The Iggy Pop interview is also insanely good. Tom is condescending as ever and it’s flying squarely over Iggy’s head. Ig’s all pumped up from just playing a song (jumping around and almost swallowing the microphone) and is acting kinda goofy and out of it. Then Tom asks him if he still pukes and cuts himself on stage. Iggy gets quiet, then a remarkable transformation occurs: Iggy suddenly turns very literate and intelligent and starts to give Tom a lecture on art. Tom is surprised by this and the conversation soon ends, with Mr. Snyder looking like a douche and Iggy looking like what he is: the fuckin’ king of rock and roll.
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Then comes a show from later in the year with Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics, a group known for being so over the top that they were almost like cartoons. The band members are wearing prefab punk uniforms, they jump around and into the audience, and they blow shit up. Oh yeah, and their music really sucks. But the interview with Wendy is cool (she had a kinda bubbly and cute personality) and it is pretty amazing that they let them blow up a car in a TV studio. Oops, hope I didn’t give too much away.
Disc 2 has a pretty good interview with Patti Smith (but no performance), the aforementioned Lydon and Levine interview, a couple of performances by The Jam and a brief, but charming interview, and a performance and interview with The Ramones. The Ramones performances didn’t light my fire, but they are pretty decent. The interview is done by some chick who is filling in for Tom, and she proceeds to single-handedly widen the generation gap even further by constantly giving Joey a hard time for his haircut. COME ON. YOU DON’T FUCK WITH JOEY RAMONE. Anyway, it’s still amusing and entertaining.
Remember, these are the entire shows, so in addition to the musical content you get other stuff like interviews with Ricky Schroeder (very young and very annoying), Frank Capra (very old and very slow-talking), and a bunch of squares and weirdos whose names I can’t remember now. It does give context to the musical performances and is fascinating in its own right.
Overall, I would say that this DVD set is pretty kick ass. The packaging is alright, the menus are easy to operate, and there are no extras, but none are really needed. The content of the shows stands on its own.
Anybody with even a fleeting interest in late 70’s punky new wavey stuff should put off buying that new CD by whatever Joy Division ripoff band just peeked its head over the moldy indie shower curtain and spend the scratch on this DVD set. What these kids need today is a little education – and a little slap on the head when they reach for that She Wants Revenge CD.