Thursday, August 23, 2012

Today Is The Late Keith Moon's Birthday (How Will You Be Celebrating?)

"My friends call me Keith, but you can call me John."—Keith Moon

5 comments:

Maggie said...

I knew there was a reason I had a craving for a moon pie. Call me, Sally.

Uncle Tom said...

Keith Moon - along with Ringo (yes Ringo!) - the drummer who completely changed the face, the style - and certainly the visibility - of rock-n-roll drummers. Moon was amazing until his demons overwhelmed his talents and ultimately - him - completely. I highly recommend watching "30 Years of Maximum R&B", "The Kids Are Alright", "Live at the Isle of Wight" or the latest "Amazing Journey" to see just how great he was in his prime.

Many interesting notes about the Smothers Brothers appearance you've posted -
1) The Who resort to their 'auto-destructive' finale - smashing their instruments, etc. They had stopped this, for the most part, by 1967 in England and Europe.
This was their first - and for the longest time - their ONLY live US television appearance.

2) Moon loaded his bass drum (obviously) with much more flash powder than normal (according to legend - he bribed a stagehand with copious amounts of brandy to do so) and when it ignited - it literally exploded like a bomb.

3) it temporarily deafened Townshend who was standing right in front of it as it went off. Notice his hair - it's singed and in the pattern of the blast. It also sent a piece of cymbal 'shrapnel' into Moon's arm (notice him coming back onto the stage, holding his arm, screaming and falling on the floor)

4) the explosion destroyed one TV camera and blew out the monitors in the studio.

5) Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney were backstage as they were guests for the show that night. Bette Davis fainted into Rooney's arms as result of the explosion.

Leave it to Keith Moon to make this kind of impact on the Who's first live US TV appearance. What's amazing is how forgotten it was until Jeff Stein discovered the clips when piecing together "The Kids Are Alright" - according to Stein, when he showed the Who a short preview of the film - with this clip as the centerpiece - they, along with their wives, were literally falling over each other in laughter. Townshend was on top of Moon yelling "that's where you blew out my hearing". Stein knew he was doing a good job after that reaction.

Mythical Monkey said...

Keith Moon - along with Ringo (yes Ringo!) - the drummer who completely changed the face, the style - and certainly the visibility - of rock-n-roll drummers.

Yes, absolutely. All Ringo bashers are banned from the Monkey.

Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney were backstage as they were guests for the show that night. Bette Davis fainted into Rooney's arms as result of the explosion.

I did not know this. See, I have learned something movie related today.

You know, given Mickey Rooney's propensities, Bette Davis is lucky he didn't marry her on the spot.

Of course, they would have been divorced by the next commercial break ...

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Love the cheesy "special effects" zoom lensing all those middle-aged TV camera guys got into in the late 60s -- "trust me, the kids love this kinda shit; it's whaddaya callit, psychedelic, see?

Tommy comes off smarmy. No wonder John put a tampex on his forehead and & joined Harry in heckling him in L.A.

Despite our praises, Ringo remains one of the most underrated musicians ever.

So, OK, remember what The High Numbers said: You got to dance to keep from crying.

VKMfanHuey said...

...I usually get laughed at, but...my favorite vocalist of The Beatles is.....Ringo. Seriously. One of the first LPs I ever owned, when I was 6 or 7, was his 'big' album - with 'You're Sixteen', 'Photograph', and 'Oh My My'...most of the tunes were written (and performed) by all of the members of The Beatles, but with Ringo at vocals throughout, of course... guess I 'grew up' with it, so those tunes are...comforting, ya know?

anyway - here's to Moonie the Loonie (isn't that what somebody somewhere called him?) Anyone who gave Led Zep it's name HAS to be top shelf, right? And could you imagine Moon and John Bonham in the same bar? talk about cleaning house!!!