Author Topic: PBS Oldies Shows (Read 224 times)

Trauma-san · « **on:** December 05, 2004, 10:17:19 PM »

Do any of yall watch those oldies concerts that come on PBS? I tape those fuckin' things and watch them OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, awesome fuckin' concerts. This white guy named T.J. Lebinksi out of Philladelphia puts them all on, he had Doo Wop 50, Doo Wop 51, Rhythm & Soul, a disco one, and a couple more... what he does is he goes and gets all these old groups that made songs years ago, and tells them 'hey, if I give you 10 grand, will you fly to philly, and reunite, and sing 2 or 3 songs, one night only, with a top-notch band backing you up and a sold out theatre?" and MOST of the people agree. I dunno what kind of money he offers them, but he pulls off some INCREDIBLE shit.

Jerry Butler hosts most of them; Jerry was a founding member of the Impressions, with Curtis Mayfield, and sang the legendary "Your Precious Love" in the late 50's... Jerry still sounds as good as he ever did, it's incredible... the sound system they get for these concerts is top notch, high quality shit, sounds incredible.

They've had Frankie Valli, Jay Black from Jay & The Americans (sounded great), Gloria Gaynor, Peaches & Herb (sounded incredible), Aretha Franklin, Little Anthony & The Imperials (stunning), The Drifters, etc.

One of the CRAZIEST things I saw him pull off was, he got the original lead singer of the Fleetwoods to perform "Mr. Blue" and "Come Softly"... it was a little old man, looked exactly like the album cover from the mid 50's, except 50 years older, and his voice was wavering and he looked scared shitless, but he just nailed it, dead on. It was like listening to a ghost.

He got Ed Townsend to perform "For Your Love" the year before he passed away; this is the guy who wrote Marvin Gaye's Lets Get It On.

These shows are awesome, you'll see people on there you've never heard of, that have just incredible voices and songs. Many, Many, Many times the live version from the 21st century sounds better than the original recordings. Awesome shows, I was just watching one.