I don’t see TV much anymore. Is there anything like Night Music on the tube now? David Sanborn’s hair helmet was great. I used to be up late in the eighties and early nineties a lot for work, and I used to see this show all the time. I got the impression the performers outnumbered the viewers sometimes, at least when the Sun Ra Orchestra was on.
That’s Dan Hicks. Dan Hicks was always just the right mix of sophisticated and crazy, wasn’t he? The intellectual’s Screamin’Jay Hawkins. The song’s not about me. I scare other people. Wait, what?
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Sip: I worked for the company that produced Night Music, and you’re right– the ratings were never that good in the US. (It did great in the UK and Japan).
The closest equivalent today, is Jools Holland’s “Later” on BBC America. A bit poppier, but still with the same intimate vibe.
And Thomas Dolby’s cover of Dan Hicks’ “I Scare Myself” from 1985 is fantastic.
Your blog is magnificent. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Hi adbomaha-
That show was fantastic. You’re now my hero.
I remember Jools Hooland. He was always smoking a big stogie and playing keyboard in Squeeze, back when they were “UK Squeeze.” Another favorite.
I’m immune to criticism. I am not, however, immune to encouragement. So, thanks. I assure you I will keep on doing what I’m doing, mostly because I don’t know how to do anything else.
Dan Hicks?
You amaze me, Sippy. You have superb taste in music that closely coincides with my own. I revere Dan. I have most all of his vinyl and saw him live in Boston in the early 70s.
As for Sun Ra, you realize that our present Governor’s late father was a sax player with Sun Ra, so count Deval as having at least one mark in his favor.
Harry!
Dan Hicks had just the correct sort of self-deprecating stardom I admire. I remember him playing some song and stopping dead in the middle of it, looking blankly at the audience and mordantly intoning:
“You think this is easy? This is hard.” Then they start playing again.
I had no idea about the Sun-Ra/Patrick connection. That’s hilarious. I’m totally going to mine that for humor ore someday.