It’s hot out there for sure. I had a little car trouble this afternoon and my neighbor, John, came and bailed me out; thanks, John.
Tom Snyder passed away from complications associated with leukemia at 71. I was a fan of the Tomorrow Show. I started watching because of the musical guests. He had acts that you would not see anywhere else. I saw The Grateful Dead (with Ken Kesey by the way), the Allman Brothers, Elvis Costello, U2, the Dixie Dregs, you get the picture it was a wide variety. At first, I didn’t like Snyder because I got the impression that he didn’t know anything about the music. He would always ask things like, “Why do you play so gosh darn loud?”, and he would be talking to some band like Kiss. He had kind of an attitude about it. It sometimes seemed that he didn’t really want some rock band on his show but he had to do it because some record company was pushing it.
It was a long show, originally 60 minutes, if I remember right, and then later expanded to 90 minutes. It seems like a lot of the musical guests I remember were on the longer format. It seemed like they were looking for stuff to fill up the show. It was nice because, he would have the bands play several songs in their entirety and interview them as well. Snyder always had a heater lit up and smoke curling through the air. Sometimes, due to the late hour I’m sure, the guest was half in the bag.
After I watched the show a few times, I really started to enjoy Snyder. He wasn’t at all pretentious. He was quick witted. He even seemed to start warming up to the rock and roll a little, except for the loudness. I do remember him complimenting the Dead repeatedly because they played acoustic instruments. Anyway, I got to the point where I was watching the show even if he didn’t have a musical guest. I liked the interviews. I guess you could say he won me over.
I watched the show he did in the ’90s and it was good too. It seems like it wasn’t quite the same vibe. You never knew what was going to happen on the Tomorrow Show. There really isn’t anything like it anymore.
Berlin has named a street after Frank Zappa in an industrial area that was formerly part of East Germany. Frank-Zappa-Strasse has a nice ring to it. Who would you like to see have a street named after them?
We Have A Winner!
Watermang, who comments here from time to time, came up with the correct answer, the Atlanta Rhythm Section was the band who released the album Dog Days. I saw the ARS live one time and they were a steamroller. I remember they opened with the song “Large Time” and they came out of the chute playing hard. I liked their records a lot but live, at least when I saw them, they took it to another level.
Watermang, a copy of “Trouble Ain’t Over” is on it’s way.
I liked doing the contest so look forward to more in the future. I was asked why the contestants were asked to email rather than just comment. I want to avoid any disputes about who got the correct answer first. Some comments need to be moderated, especially first-timers it seems, and some don’t. I wouldn’t want someone with the correct answer waiting to be moderated while somebody else beats them to it. I will look into other possibilities.
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