Dick Cavett, I remember him well. Not that he's dead or anything, but his accomplishments seem squarely planted in the past. He would show up on the Tonight Show as a replacement for Johnny Carson from time to time, and then he got his own show which was a model of intelligent conversation and wit. This 3-disc collection of The Dick Cavett Show is sub-titled Rock Icons because Cavett's hipness quotient was greater than that of his talk show peers; and because he invited some of the Woodstock Nation's mightiest to share a stage with him, and the denizens of literature and show business who were his stock in trade.
Alongside Debbie Reynolds, Pancho Gonzales and Senator & Mrs. Fred Harris, Cavett welcomed Sly & the Family Stone. But the band didn't simply play their latest hit at the end of the show. No. Cavett engaged Sly Stone in dialogue. Weird dialogue, admittedly, but there he is with the rest of the guests! When David Bowie came to the show, he was the only guest. He and Cavett talked about songwriting, and about Bowie's plans for the future. Bowie's song "1984" was written for a Broadway adaptation of Orwell's novel. When the rights weren't forthcoming from the Orwell Estate . . . the song ended up on Diamond Dogs. The day after the Woodstock Festival ended, Cavett's guests were The Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills and David Crosby. Joni Mitchell hadn't played Woodstock because her manager felt the network coverage would be better for her career than an outdoor festival in upstate New York. She sings four songs on the programme including two which were not released at the time but came out a year later on Ladies of the Canyon.
This is historical footage. Although he was the hippest of the talk show hosts, he seems out of his element with the Jefferson Airplane. They look like they're laughing at him, and his uptown wit. After all . . . these are the Airplane. "Up against the wall, motherfucker . . ." they sing. How that escaped the censors I'll never know. His interview with Bowie goes better, since Bowie is nervous and Cavett's easy-going repartee puts him at ease.
On the third disc, when George Harrison sits down for conversation, the ex-Beatle proves himself to be Cavett's equal in wit and displays his own "British" sense of humour. This show also features a live performance by Gary Wright and his Band (with Beatle-George joining on slide guitar!) and video clips from both the Concert for Bangla Desh film and Raga. Ravi Shankar introduces the second clip. Paul Simon discusses his approach to songwriting and plays a new song, unfinished at the time, which would become "Still Crazy After All These Years." It's a fascinating glimpse into Simon's work habits. Other guests that night were writers Anthony Burgess, Barbara Howar and Jerzy Kosinski who formed a panel to interview Cavett about his just published auto-biography. Burgess takes the lead. Stevie Wonder appears on a show which featured Tex Ritter, Elsa Lanchester and Alain Delon. This one is a hoot, with a feisty Lanchester giving insight into her late husband Charles Laughton, and Ritter singing "High Noon."
There is a separate disc devoted to the three programmes on which Janis Joplin made an appearance. Good old Janis has been getting a lot of attention lately, with her classic Pearl album having recently been re-issued as a Legacy edition, and maybe her time has come. In a recent book the author talked about how he chose the music downloads for his new iPod, and he made a point of attacking Ms. Joplin as untalented. I used to think the same thing. I simply didn't get it, when it came to Janis. Seeing her in Festival Express and listening to the new re-mastered Pearl and now watching her on this DVD has forced me to reconsider.
There's just something about the girl. She performs two songs per programme, the first right after Cavett's monologue (which can be trying, remember they are topical jokes from the 70s!) and then she sits down with Cavett to chat, and stays throughout the show, entering into the conversations with his other guests. This is where the Cavett show was so successful. Cavett talked to his guests, and they talked back. It wasn't simply a matter of ten minutes of promoting your new project, move down the couch and make room for the next guy. People talked. They discussed politics, books, ideas, history. And Janis jumped right in. She is thoughtful, well spoken, well read, and to the point. Her verbal fencing with Raquel Welch, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Chet Huntley makes for fantastic TV in any time.
There are glitches in the video quality, breakup and noticeable changes between camera shots. The quality of the transfers probably speaks to the quality of the master-tapes of these 30 year old shows, but the content is everything. Seeing the mud on Stephen Stills' boots as he arrives fresh from Yasgur's Farm sends shivers down my back. Watching Sly Stone in the midst of some druggy haze trying to make conversation speaks to the era. The DVD set provides hours of entertainment, and serves as a virtual history lesson of the late 60s, early 70s. Cavett's shows with Jimi Hendrix have been released separately, and November will see the release of the John Lennon-Yoko One broadcasts. I, for one, can't wait!
