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"The TAMI Show, 1964: Bigger than the Beatles on ‘Ed Sullivan’?": This week's newspaper column


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The TAMI Show, 1964: Bigger than the Beatles on ‘Ed Sullivan’?

Another progenitor of rock and roll, Chuck Berry, recently passed away at age 90. The guitarist/singer/songwriter may have been a major influence in the evolution of popular music, but given all of his legal and financial problems over the decades, to say that he had a controversial lifestyle is an understatement.

Many early rock and roll fans knew of Berry from his primeval hits and appearances in late Fifties concerts and movies.

But for me, the ultimate Chuck Berry performance was his lead-off gig in The T.A.M.I. Show, a black-and-white concert movie filmed in 1964. (The initials stood for “Teenage Awards Music International,” whatever that was supposed to mean).

Moreover, the hundreds of shrieking girls seen in the now-also-iconic movie, filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, underlined the “I-wanna-play-guitar-and-be-a-rock-star” mentality of an untold number of teenage boys who had experienced a hormonal epiphany when the Beatles had appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show” earlier the same year.

Hosts Jan and Dean introduced Berry as the very first act, citing the guitarist as “the guy who started it all, back in 1958.”

 Apparently, the producers were trying for a “fathers-and-sons” vibe, as Berry and early British Invasion band Gerry & the Pacemakers traded off songs at the outset of the show. To what extent it worked was debatable, but the image of Berry’s lanky frame bending and contorting with the music while evoking those bright, chugging riffs from his guitar was branded into my mind, permanently (especially on “Nadine”).

 I had previously been unfamiliar with Berry’s “duck walk” and other performance schtick. After The T.A.M.I. Show, I paid close attention if I ever saw him performing on TV.

And The T.A.M.I. Show was arguably a more important event in the history of popular music than the Beatles on ‘Ed Sullivan’, because the film documented the two Santa Monica shows as a dynamic convergence of all sorts of popular music styles under one roof, although “diversity” as a (sometimes-sanctimonious) concept hadn’t been invented yet.

Several genres were represented in the film.

The first shot of the aforementioned British Invasion had indeed been fired by the Beatles on the Sullivan show the previous February, and the Rolling Stones, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and Gerry & the Pacemakers had made the journey across the Big Pond to participate at Santa Monica.

The smooth, sophisticated soul music of Motown was proffered by the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and Marvin Gaye.

The California surfing phenomenon featured its two most popular combos, the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. Although instrumental surf music by bands like Dick Dale & the Del-Tones had been popular, it had started to decline by late ’64.

Token acts included helmet-haired Lesley Gore and American longhairs the Barbarians.

Then there was James Brown. Many music historians, writers and just plain fans considered his devastating workout to have been the greatest eighteen minutes of live music ever seen and heard.

It was all there—the “goodfoot” slides, the splits, the seemingly-exhausted singer lurching slowly towards the side of the stage like the show was about finish then racing back to the microphone for another round of screeching. Brown absolutely lived up to the title of “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” one of his many sobriquets.

The Rolling Stones were the final act of the show, but had to immediately follow Brown’s explosive show, which had left the crowd in a frenzy. While Mick Jagger and associates tried to put on an exuberant performance themselves, they didn’t even come close—no one could have topped what the Godfather of Soul had just done, and the Stones vowed they’d never follow Brown in concert again.

Ancillary anecdotes include the fact that two of the background/go-go dancers were future actress Terri Garr, and Toni Basil, who had a hit single called “Mickey” 18 years later.

Overall, The T.A.M.I. Show seems somewhat crudely-filmed by today’s cinematic standards, but it was quite impressive over half a century ago.

And the (black-and-white) video for John Mellencamp’s mid-Eighties hit ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” referenced The T.A.M.I. Show big time. The lyrics named a lot of performers such as Jackie Wilson and Bobby Fuller, but the only individual noted who was actually in the legendary 1964 movie was James Brown.

Maybe there was a reason for that citation.

LO-00tamishow2os.jpg

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Willie G. Moseley said:

Then there was James Brown. Many music historians, writers and just plain fans considered his devastating workout to have been the greatest eighteen minutes of live music ever seen and heard.

This is my opinion as well. A masterful performance from a giant at the height of his powers.
Honestly couldn't care less about any of the other artists' performances mentioned. Including the Beatles on Sullivan, and yes, I am aware of the impact it had.

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...what I didn't have room to note in the original op-ed piece due to word count limitations is the juxtaposition of the Stones and Mr. Brown on the poster---the apparently-oblivious Englishsters have their backs turned to the big giant head of Mr. Brown that is staring them down. Call it assertive/malevolent karma...

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I love stories of artists who were motivated by their position on the lineup, usually because they were not headlining, and how it affected their performance.
JB wanted to headline, but that was the Stones' spot, so he tore it the f**k up.
Chuck Berry insisted on going on after Jerry Lee Lewis. MISTAKE! "Follow that, killer..."
In a twist on this theme, Jimi didn't want to follow The Who at Monterey, and Townshend insisted on not following Jimi. And you know what Jimi did after that.

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What a great show! I need to watch it.

But to WGM's point, I dunno.....I have never read or herd of anyone who got into music or picked up a guitar due to the TAMI show (other than WGM, perhaps), but you can't swing a dead cat amongst older musicians without someone saying it was the Beatles on Sullivan that did it.

I may be completely mistaken.

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3 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

What a great show! I need to watch it.

But to WGM's point, I dunno.....I have never read or herd of anyone who got into music or picked up a guitar due to the TAMI show (other than WGM, perhaps), but you can't swing a dead cat amongst older musicians without someone saying it was the Beatles on Sullivan that did it.

I may be completely mistaken.

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in February 1964 was broadcast on Sunday evening US national TV (the CBS network)...for THREE CONSECUTIVE Sundays.  Anybody who had a TV was probably watching them; and if you didn't have a TV, then you probably went to somebody's house who did.  The T.A.M.I. Show was a theatrical release, which means that you had to go to a theater to watch it, kinda like going to see A Hard Day's Night, or the filmed Beatles Washington Coliseum concert, which was shown in theaters...so it's kinda like apples and oranges, in that there were two different kinds of media/entertainment outlets involved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ed_Sullivan_Show

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.A.M.I._Show

 

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