Hankerin' for Kirshner

I don't know about you, but I was a big fan of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert back in the good old pre-MTV days. I used to stay up and wait for it to come on after Saturday Night Live and even though it was really cool sometimes it kinda sucked. You'd wait up all night and when the show finally came on you'd hear the opening announcer say "In the past you've seen these acts on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert!!" and they'd show fast cutting clips of Kiss, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, etc. and you think 'cool!!! I hope Alice Cooper is on tonight'. Then the announcer would come back on and say 'and tonight on Rock Concert; Weather Report, Spyro Gyra....' Bo-ring! So yeah...sometimes it was lame. But I did see some cool stuff on there like some real weird guy named Prince when he was a no-name new-name probably back around '79. I also saw for the first time The Doors in some black and white concert footage shot of them in Europe in '67 or '68. Real spooky stuff. I think that concert is packaged on DVD as something called 'The Doors Are Open'.

My point being, now that we have this great DVD technology the time is right for a 'Don Kirshner's Rock Concert' DVD box set. That would be so awesome. In my search on the web I found that a licensing company called Historic Films Stock Footage Library purchased the rights to the show, so hopefully they'll do something with that.

I also found some great postings on JumpTheShark.com. Some people had some great things to say. like this:

"Back in the days of Don Kirschner, rock concerts were in their heydey. Attending rock concerts back then was almost a religion. Those that weren't going to that night's show were left behind, only to go to school the next day and be the only one not wearing the latest, greatest black concert t-shirt. This is part of the reason that Don Kirschner's Rock Concert didn't jump. It was all part of the "Long Live Rock","You Can't Kill Rock and Roll","It's Only Rock and Roll, But I Like It" mentality that prevailed in the '70's and early '80's. As soon as rap and dance pop started ruling the airwaves, rock concerts and Don Kirschner alike took a backseat. Very sad the way things turned out. The only thing cooler than watching Don Kirschner was being able to say you stayed up that late. I'm still in mourning."

Amen Brother!

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-03-28 20:36 ]

I remember staying up for his show a few times, always waiting for some really great band to appear. Inevitably it would be some C-list has-been like Grand Funk Railroad. Or at least that's what I remember. I imagine it must have been the job from Hell to be the booker on a show where you tried to recruit 70s rock bands to do a tv show. I bet the main problem was having bands bail at the last minute and having to book Leo Sayer for the 12th time.

Here's a great article.

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert's was some really good footage. You're right Donhonyc;
Kirshner was to MTV, what Laugh-In was to Saturday Night Live.

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert's!

Wow, those were cool.
I wonder if they were on now about modern popular performers if they would have the same allure.

Keith Moon throwing furniture out a hotel window was so much more charming to me than Gangsta shootouts now. (sigh) I'm old.

I'd watch the archive stuff tho.

For all you New York Dolls fans, there are some Don Kirschner videos of them to watch on their website:

New York Dolls videos

These videos are awesome!! Thanks for posting that Stuff-o-rama. I didn't know they had a website.

I saw the current incarnation of the Dolls (David & Sylvain the only ones left) last summer and it was fuckin amazing. Hearing those guys do 'Trash' live was very cool. I'm going to see them again at Irving Plaza at the end of April. Rock out!!

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-03-30 14:24 ]