Wednesday, August 13, 2008

BB TV

I once wanted to have my own cable TV station. This was in '94 or so. I figured there was a whole world of live music clips sitting in vaults that would make mighty fine programming for some really cool cable channel.

But I got a job at a TV station paying $10.86 an hour, and sort of lost sight of my little idea.

In a way, Youtube is using my idea. Whatever clip we want to see, chances are it's available now.

So I thought I'd just post a few clips for fun.

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The first one's not music. No, I'm watching men's gymnastics right now, and it reminded me of the movie Gymkata, starring Kurt Thomas.

Handy that when the angry mob cornered him, there happened to be one of those gizmos in the alley. What's it called? A pummel horse or something?

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I've been listening to a lot of Lyle Lovett lately. He's done a lot of terrific songs.

"If I Had a Boat" is the first song of his that I fell in love with.

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And check this out. Here's Chester Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf, doing "Evil," one of the greatest blues songs ever.

The man just mesmerizes me. And he was big! Look how tiny the harmonica looks in his hand.

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More blues. This is Jimi Hendrix in a rare acoustic performance, doing "Hear My Train a-Comin'"


What I don't get is this: He plays for a moment, then stops and says he's nervous, and then does the song in a style quite different from how he started. Why the difference? Did he just improvise the song each time?

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I'm running out of time. More soon, I hope.

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