A Night From The Sixties

Eric Burdon was next… Hold on… That can’t be Eric Burdon. It looks like someone from my folks condo… and not one of the younger residents.

It’s nearly 1:00 AM. While gorging myself on fruit, I sat down to watch a little TV.

Click. Click. Click. What’s the average length of time a man spends on any – click – channel?

CPTV, Connecticut’s public television network is running a special with music of the sixties. Hey, that’s my era. I put down the remote.

I’d like to tell you what it is I’m watching, but CPTV is officially listed as “Off the air.” Go figure?

As a vintage clip of the Loving Spoonful ended, the very laid back female announcer read some over-written overly dramatic copy. I think it’s Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas,

The Zombies came on, performing “Tell Her No.” Nice job. One of the guys looks a little old, but they sound good.

Eric Burdon was next… Hold on… That can’t be Eric Burdon. It looks like someone from my folks’ condo… and not one of the younger residents.

He doesn’t look burned out (and you could almost understand that). He just looks old!

Quick, to Wikipedia. You’re kidding? That’s what I’ll look like in nine years? Shoot me now!

The next act, The We Five (interestingly enough, with at least seven on stage), old too! Is there an epidemic?

The lead singer, a very middle aged woman whose name I never knew, had a hair color never seen in nature and certainly not available north of Orlando.

A vintage clip of Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction was next, and then Jackie DeShannon.

Hallelujah. She looks great! She’s not a twenty year old, but she’s trim and pretty with great legs and that amazing voice.

Jackie – you’re still a babe.

As it turns out, this is a pledge break special, used by local PBS stations to raise money. Regular PBS programming… Nova, Frontline, Bill Moyers, The News Hour and Nightly Business Report, no longer pay the freight. That’s a shame.

When the commercial networks do this, run unusual programming just for ratings purposes, it’s called stunting. The sad truth is, there’s little difference between this and a late night infomercial, except the CDs being shilled here are priced much higher.

I don’t know where PBS’ place is in today’s channel lineup. I don’t think they know either.

Begging for cash is demeaning.

5 thoughts on “A Night From The Sixties”

  1. “Click. Click. Click. What’s the average length of time a man spends on any – click – channel?”

    Women watch TV to see what’s on. Men watch to see what ELSE is on.

  2. Eric Burdon may look old, but he doesn’t act it. The musician I work with opened for him on two tours of Germany 5 years ago, and she’s got great stories about his 20-year-old girlfriend who was always on the bus. 🙂 This was before my time so I missed out on the fun myself, but from what I hear he’s a really great guy, if still a bit of a party animal (no pun intended) even now.

  3. I caught that special a week ago. It left me feeling very nostalgic. Some of the groups remained close to their true sounds (The Association for example) and others (Blood Sweat & Tears without DCT) just didn’t cut it. I understand he left them 4 years ago. NYC PBS also aired it with Cousin Brucie and John Sebastian doing the shilling. That made it a little more palatable. Sebastian sang a few lines and it was obvious he no longer had a voice.

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