Awesome Show

Yesterday I watched PBSs Great Performances - John Lennon's Jukebox - It was awesome, Kudos PBS!!

The show took a look at Lennon's musical inspirations through his jukebox. The jukebox was not one of those huge, corner of the bar, ones, but a little portable one, pretty cool. The jukebox was hauled around as the bands and singers whose 45s were inside the jukebox were interviewed. As the singers were talking their much younger pictures were shown as well as old footage, and videos.

The documentary portrayed such singers as Fontella Bass, Otis Redding (One of my favorite singers), Donovan, The Lovin' Spoonful, and many others. The only aspect of the show I did not like was that someone, somewhere, saw fit to involve Sting in critiquing the singers. What the hell was he doing there?! Just because he is British does not give him any insight into Lennon's tastes.

In a personal note, I have always wondered about the lives of black singers/musicians during that period (50s, 60s, and for that matter 70s). I know that their music was extremely popular and that whites as well as blacks bought their albums, but how does one cope with being a popular musician and at the same time not being able to drink from the same water fountain, or use the same bathroom as whites do?

As I was discussing this with J.R. his initial response was "Discrimination only existed in the south", a myth that a lot of people believe, until I told him that Boston was one of the last cities to desegregate its schools. The show Welcome Back Kotter was not even shown in Mass. because the did not want to show a black man in a desegregated school. The show first aired in 1975!!!

Ok, yes, I am going in a tangent here, but I just think it would be interesting to know how awesome black singers coped with their greatness when faced with such adversities.