Eggs and Sausage...and a Side of Toast

It was 1976 and I was living with my brother Keith in Denver (my one exposure to real winter) and Keith put an LP on the stereo and said, "Listen to this brother; you've never heard anything like this before." It was Tom Waits and had I not been working during the days I could have seen him on the Mike Douglas Show that year. Not only is the song great, but stay for the discussion afterword, it is priceless.



My favorite part is when Douglas asks Waits, "How would you describe what you do?" and he responds, "I don't know. Perhaps a little bit of a curator. Yeah, a little bit of a curator...I'm an unemployed service station attendant most of the time. I'm a living, breathing example of success without college is what it all boils down to..."

It Isn't Hard To Do

Looking at the last entry on the wonderful music performed on The Mike Douglas Show, here is a song by the "friends" who helped Chuck Berry out with Memphis. Imagine a day-time variety show with John Lennon and Yoko One as the special co-hosts for an entire week; it's really not so hard to do.

Tying It Together

As I mentioned earlier, I recently found a copy of Sunrise Magazine, a freebie published in San Bernardino when I was a teenager. The whole issue is about the coming concert at the Swind Auditorium featuring Lee Michaels, Chuck Berry, Long John Baldry and Jo Jo Gunne. Now I have shown you Lee Michaels and I have shown you the Jo Jo Gunne/Forest Gump video and, seemingly unrelated, I told you about The Mike Douglas Show and what great stars he had on and how they always sang live.

So, tying the Mike Douglas Show and this concert from my youth together in one neat package, I give you Chuck Berry (and friends) from The Mike Douglas Show.

Forced Lip-Syncing

The Internet is a strange place, where people do strange things. Check out this video of Eric Carmen and the Raspberries from The Mike Douglas Show.



A couple of things here. First, I loved the Raspberries. I remember when this song came out and for the first day or so everyone was convinced it was some new Paul McCartney band.

Second, I used to run home from school every day to watch The Mike Douglas Show, because he was the only guy who would put actual rock stars (Jethro Tull, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The Rolling Stones, The Bee Gees, The Turtles, Frank Zappa, KISS, etc.) on TV and let them do their stuff, I mean really do their stuff.

Which brings me to my third point: nobody lip-synced on The Mike Douglas Show; everyone sang live. So, what the fuck is this video?

It's a live Raspberries performance, which someone dubbed the record over the top of, turning it into a lip-sync performance. Don't believe me? Look at this and know the truth!

People do do strange things on the Internet, but I can't imagine what would motivate someone to do fake a lip-syncing.