The Museum of Proper Amazingness
Posted by David Hepworth on 25 February 2008 - 8:05am.
During last week's post-Brits discussions Andrew asked why the producers, rather than wasting their money on silly sets and hopeless celeb presenters, couldn't have settled for some "proper amazingness". What about this? It's just re-appeared on YouTube as it does from time to time before some killjoy takes it down again. This clip from Ready Steady Go in 1966 features the climax of Otis Redding's tearing performance and proves that you don't need much more than a genuinely great singer, a genuinely great band, some genuinely great dancers and the genuine desire to do something more than plug your bloody single.
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Great performance...
...I think that's on that VHS that came out in the 80s called 'Otis Redding Live' which had Chris Farlowe and Eric Burdon (two more brilliant singers) singing with him. Such a shame the RSG stuff isn't on DVD...
Drums
Don't the drums sound great in that clip?! They sound like drums - real drums that you whack with sticks to make rhythm. You don't hear that much nowdays.
You don't necessarily need the great singer
What I'd give to have been in the audience for this
More Proper Amazingness
Speaking as a man...
...whose limited expressions of emotion with his fellow human beings occurs primarily through the exchange of mixtapes, all I ask from those performers who are capable of expressing themselves emotionally is that they sing it like they mean it. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to come studded with rhinestones or bedecked with ostrich feathers. It just has to work. In fact I want to see a bit of sweat and human frailty. It's something I can relate to.
Did airdropping The Kaiser Chiefs into a Lilliputian cityscape jolt the band out of their workmanlike competence and send them soaring to Olympian heights? Sadly no. Instead they looked like they had been trapped by the scenery and were waiting for the biplanes to arrive and start machine-gunning the keyboard player.
And what real point did the gimmicky duets serve? I mean apart from the opening medley between Mika and Beth Ditto, whose obvious purpose was to resolve the age old philosophical question of what happens when an irresistible force meets with an immovable object.
Can't the mandate for Brit Awards performances be to just get out on stage and kick arse?
ready steady go
Are the rights to that *still* owned by Dave Clark (of Five and 'time" fame) ? Surely the 3rd richest drummer alive (after ringo and collins)
He only ever let them appear on Channel 4 once (in about late 80s) and never seen since.
Otis and Lance Percival (Extended version )
Perfect description David ,Couldn't agree more.
Is that really Chris Farlowe ? or is it Lance Percival ? Shake Calypso would have been great. Can't remember seeing a performance this great on TV for a long long time.
X Factor and the like can't make you do this. Why do we accept such Blandness?
For more of the same - fill your boots for a fiver
This DVD is available 'new or used' via Amazon for five earth pounds
If you don't buckle at the knee and bulge at the eye after seeing these two clips - you really should find the finest head specialist you can afford..
Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
Ray Charles and Billy Preston - Agent Double O Soul