The Midnight Special

Hosts: Lauren "Ren" Harris & David "daGeneral" Mills

Announcers: Zeb McClusky & Wink Dinkerson

Executive Producer: InterWest Concepts - interwestconcepts.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:00

And now for something completely different. The wake-up call on KSJ.

SPEAKER_12 0:16

Summers in full swing. WC is making it even hotter with some great tonnage. Uh uh, I mean tunage. Sorry, Dave, didn't mean to bring you into this. Sit back, grab a cup of something, and crank it up. WC is on the air exclusively on KSJE. Ladies and gentlemen, John Dumper.

SPEAKER_05 1:30

Oh my together. I'm playing water. Paint it on the sky. It's the taste of moon. I hear the voice in the morning out. She calls me. The radio reminds me of my own far away. Driving down the road, I get a feed and I go today. Yes, today I have a bite. Country road.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Welcome to uh the Midnight Special. We think we have uh a really great show for you tonight. I know we have some incredible entertainers for you. And I suppose it I hope you folks know, and for some of you in the audience out there, that we have some ulterior motives in what we're doing this evening. Uh we're here to try to stress the importance of everybody getting out to register to vote.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Now an important cause, an important cause.

SPEAKER_10 4:02

Oh man, I'll tell you, I love Mr. John Denver for sure. Let's get this out of the way. It's K-S-J-E with my let's see, hold on, I want to say something. Uh what are we what's the show called now? What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

The show is The Midnight Special.

SPEAKER_10 4:15

With my midnight friend Ren.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

And my special buddy, Ren. Bingo! And we're we're celebrating the uh old classic show, the Midnight Special.

SPEAKER_10 4:26

Yeah, and I'm and I'm excited about this. I I remember it. Uh Wolfman Jack was on there as well, and I think we got a quote from him. Um it's gonna be very music heavy or entertainment heavy, because I think we got a bit from George Carlin, we got some great stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

No, we do, we definitely do, because at the end of the day. Thank you. No, it was your idea. And then I took it was your idea, Dave. But if you appreciate what you hear, it's all because of me. Because I was compiling some fun clips, some fun songs. Um I did not know much about the Midnight Special, admittedly, before you told me about it. Um The Midnight Special was a very special late night TV show. Kurt Sugarman pitched NBC a Friday night music show to follow Johnny Carson. They passed. So he bought the airtime himself and convinced Chevrolet to sponsor the 1972 pilot.

SPEAKER_10 5:24

Chevrolet.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yes. He had this idea that you know, the Johnny Carson show was one of the most popular shows on television at the time. Do you really think that everybody who's watching that show immediately went to bed as soon as that show ended?

SPEAKER_10 5:37

We need we need to verify this because radio was the same way everybody quit at midnight.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_10 5:42

Everything went dead at midnight, came back on five or six o'clock in the morning. So there was no television after midnight. And I don't think people really, really understand that.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

How big of a deal it was to have a show on at 1 a.m. past midnight.

SPEAKER_10 5:57

This revolutionized 24-hour television.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

It really did. It was the first step into it.

SPEAKER_10 6:03

Exactly. And so we're celebrating some of the better words than revolutionized. No, I love revolutionized because it's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

If if everything from my research is correct, this was the first show that was like, let's go on past midnight.

SPEAKER_10 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

And uh I'm really excited to play.

SPEAKER_10 6:23

I can't believe John Denver was the very first guest.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

That's right. We should have said that. That was the very first performance on the Midnight Special with John Denver on the pilot in 1972. The show went on till 1981. Honestly, um, if I'm not mistaken, a couple of months before MTV went on the air. So it was kind of like MTV before MTV. Live music at 1 a.m. for all the young people. Free of the parental eyes, free of society's grasp. You know how the nighttime is, it's free of of all the norms.

SPEAKER_10 6:58

And um you can smoke a doobie and peace.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

You can smoke a doobie and peace. And if I'm not mistaken, at the time too, it was the norm for bands and performers to basically live sync to a pre-recorded version of their own.

SPEAKER_10 7:14

It was all about timing. They had a certain amount of timing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

And so if it was pre-recorded, they could just have the performers on. But um this was live. This was done 100%. And that first one John Denver we played in Take Me Home Country Roads was the Midnight Special version. Which John Denver was such a professional that you couldn't even tell that that was not pre-recorded. And that's how I find it is defined with most of these performers, but we are gonna play a couple of pre-recorded versions. Sorry, Midnight Special. Sorry, Wolfman Jack, who was the host. Um I got one for us. It is a very iconic performance on the Midnight Special. This is Fleetwood Mac with Rihanna and Stevie Nix and all of her witchy glory.

SPEAKER_10 7:58

I'm just gonna sit here with my eyes closed and do the old home thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Let it take you back.

SPEAKER_10 8:05

Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Embrace it.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

What a leg you never see woman came back win. What a day she promised you ever We ever win. She's like a kid. She is dirty. She was a lever and skylight when sky started. I like never see the wheel. What do you think she promised you everyone win? Will you ever win? She raised that when she loves love her. She was a letter. Well you love you, never see more. Take it back with. Would you say she promised you ever? Will you ever win? Will you ever win?

SPEAKER_12 12:02

Whoever said you can't have your cake and eat it too has never listened to WUC exclusively on KSJE!

SPEAKER_14 12:22

Small Gnock off from the city, strong out on lasers, slash back lasers, ate off your razors while pulling away, talking about Monroe, walking on snow eyes, New York to go, go and everything takes night for little green days. She loves him, she loves him, but just watch your while. Scratch on the stand, let go his hand. Make it up on the wealth for the green.

SPEAKER_06 14:25

Love to do all the dogs.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

David Bowie with The Gene Genie, one of the most famous episodes of the Midnight special. Uh David Bowie's 1980 floor show, broadcast November 16th, 1978. Or no, 1980. Sorry. Probably the single most legendary episode. It was Bowie's first appearance since his infamous sudden retirement of the Ziggy Stardust on the 3rd of July 1973 at the Hammersmith Odin. It was also his final appearance in Ziggy, filmed over three days at the Marquis Club in London, Bowie was given complete creative control of the entire episode, and used it as a theatrical cabaret with the Trocks and the Proud flamenco man Carmen as supporting.

SPEAKER_10 17:00

That made me go hmm.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

That made me go hmm too.

SPEAKER_12 17:12

Things that make you go. Here's David with things that make you go. All your money back.

SPEAKER_10 17:21

Go for it, David. Alright, well listen, people uh will not know this except that they're from Sweden, because in Sweden, cool ranch Doritos are called cool Americans.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yes, I've heard this.

SPEAKER_10 17:34

Have you uh truth? They uh the Swedish people don't know how much or how what the much about the ranch flavor. Yeah. So instead they just call it uh Cool American.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

No, that's so fun because I've heard the same thing that ranch is an incredibly American flavor.

SPEAKER_10 17:53

I did not know that, honestly, until now.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, if you go to any European country and you go to their you know how here in America we have like the Asian food section, the Hispanic food section section. If you go to a European food store and you go to the American section, there will be ranch there. And Doritos. That's funny. Except they'll be called Cool Americans.

SPEAKER_10 18:17

We are cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

We are so cool if you're if you're president.

SPEAKER_10 18:22

Oh man, it is the midnight special happening on KSJE as I.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yes, and we are doing this is this might be a continuing series, TV on the radio, where we're kind of discussing famous TV series and their um impactful musical acts. We we've done the SNL, you know, or Saturday night in the 70s, Saturday Night Live in the 2000s. And uh now we're doing the midnight special, which I am really pleased to learn about.

SPEAKER_10 18:52

And I just can't say enough about keep in mind that this was before TV was even on after midnight. No, one o'clock, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yes, this was before cable. This was just regular satellite bunny ears TV.

SPEAKER_10 19:08

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

And um before this, there there wasn't shows on at one time. It was towers. Oh incredible. Yeah, to a degree, you would get a different reception in different parts of the country.

SPEAKER_10 19:23

Different parts of the town, too.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

In different parts of the town, if I'm not mistaken. No, you would just have to rely on your local NBC affiliate to bring it in from New York or LA or wherever it was coming from. And uh yeah, but Bert Sugarman had the idea to do it at 1 a.m. And uh we also mentioned how it was on at night, so you could get away with a little bit more risque stuff.

SPEAKER_10 19:51

Especially in those days. Nowadays it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

No, no, you can just post it online and people can watch it whenever they want. But you know, we talk about how big of a deal MTV was at the time to have um musical acts on 24. Well maybe not 24-7. But was it 24-7 when it came on?

SPEAKER_10 20:10

I think I think so, yeah. Yeah. I don't remember it was a TV.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

But we talk about um you know, MTV was musical acts all day.

SPEAKER_10 20:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

But before that, you couldn't even hope to see a musical act, you know, even on the the tonight show.

SPEAKER_10 20:32

Right. So very seldom.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, very seldom or what at least what you had. Yeah, they had comedians. But uh the midnight special was dedicated to at least like five, six, seven acts a night. You know, maybe not a night, but on Friday. Um we have another iconic uh revolutionary red body.

SPEAKER_10 21:03

Absolutely, that is Native American. Beautiful stuff. We've we've featured them before.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

We've featured them before, but we never We've never actually played their most iconic song on our show. We didn't play Come and Get Your Love. We've played We Were All Wounded, It Wounded Me. We played The Witch Queen of New Orleans, but we've never actually played Come and Get Your Love, which is easily their most iconic song, which admittedly I had no idea about the history of this song, about who wrote it, until I did research on it. So I'm super excited to play it for you. Here we go.

SPEAKER_06 22:05

Nothing the matter with your head, baby. Find it. Come on, find it. Weave it, baby, cause you're fine, and you're mine, and you look so divine.

unknown 22:21

Come and get the love. Come and get the look. Come and get the look. Come and get the love.

SPEAKER_06 22:43

What the matter with your feel right? Baby. Oh yeah. Get it from the main line. Alright. I say to find it, find it. You like it. Yeah. It's your business if you want some take from a baby. Come and get your love.

unknown 23:21

Come and get the love. Come and get the love.

SPEAKER_06 23:30

Come and get the love.

unknown 23:36

When we get to love, when we get to love, when we get to love now.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

Oh, yeah. Get it from the main mind. All right. There's no three sick there.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Have you seen uh Hitchhiker? No. I almost said Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. No, the The Guardians of the Galaxy. Legitimately. You can only imagine how in 1975 when they tuned into this at one a.m. They probably had to sneak away from their parents just to do it. This is juice. Juice! Juice! Give me what some juice.

unknown 26:50

You know you're mad as working hard! No, you're not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_07 28:57

What's man jack? My friend, you I have saved you, saved you a box seat right here. How are you? Well, I I certainly feel it good. I I if you got about a half an hour, I'll tell you exactly how good I'm feeling. No, no, I know it's not on this show. You can't. You know, I have watched you on uh the midnight special since I was a little boy. Come on now. Wait a minute. Are you a natural-born ham or what? No, it's just always silly, Dick. You know that. I remember, you know, it's been it's been ten years. I've known this gentleman for ten years, and I finally got on the Dick Clark show. I just I'm just so excited to be here, friends. You just can't understand how excited I am to be here. Well, let me hear a little howl. A little wolf.

SPEAKER_08 29:39

Have mercy, baby.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

I ain't got no money. I ain't got those all the cash hanging round. But they always seem the legit. And I miss the scare Cause I never see you anymore.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

And I need your love That's all I'm living for Yeah, the pressure of pain But all I ever wanted to do I wanna be a lovely I wanna be the eyeliner I wanna be a mother I wanna tell you I tell you shut up I wanna be the eyelin and you cover I wanna be a papa I wanna be your mother and your sister too awesome I can do the things that I'll do to you And I can just say treat me just like a child And they sound so shy Yeah But if you I'll just go out I just wanna pressure your face I wanna do I won't be a bad I won't be the only one let you come I won't be a bad shot you come to the bigger I just gonna say this really quick I love the easy I love the eight I love the night it was just a season talked about the major events of that season with talking you know the comedians and musicians who live through it and then we just talk about it. That was my favorite show when I was a kid. Never once did they talk about the midnight special as long as far as I remember.

SPEAKER_10 36:13

I don't know, even though we got kind of a smoky sphere going on here. We do. We're really the music makes the whole thing work. Oh yeah, let's do it, dude.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

We're feeling we're feeling very midnight special. Speaking of, this is Rick James with a Mary Jane. He's in love with Mary Jane.

SPEAKER_10 36:28

Oh yes, me too, Rick.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Me too.

SPEAKER_10 36:30

We all know her. Come in.

SPEAKER_06 36:45

Do it, baby. Mary J H I'm in love with Mary Jane. She's my main friend, she makes me feel alright, she makes my heart sang, and when I'm feeling alone, she becomes no surprise, turn me on mental love, takes me to everything that reaches the same I the devil given baby just the same I'm in love with marriage. I'm the only one that married my fair She's not the kind of girl that you can just have She makes the spread of the Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

So that was Rick James with uh Mary Jane. And did you hear that Rick James recently moved into like a nice front property? Now we're gonna do something a little different because the midnight special was a variety show. They had lots of iconic comedians on there. We're gonna play one of the ones that you do it the best, George Carlin.

SPEAKER_10 42:09

This is a pretty good bit.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

You and I both enjoy it.

SPEAKER_09 42:11

Oh, I love George Carlin. Yeah, he's a he's a pretty good if we're gonna have groups that we're gonna hate or feel better than, just to look down on. It'd be nice if everybody could live on a higher floor so we'd all have someone to look down on, but it's not simple. I suggest let's pick a group. Now, other comedians in the past have come up with certain groups that would be easy to kind of get all our hate out on, because the way we have it now, we even hate within our own groups. It's it's strange, but you can talk to a Jew or a German or a Frenchman or an Italian or a black or an Irishman, and within his own group, there's some lower group he hates. The Irish, the Glace Curtin Irish, like to talk about the shanty Irish. And all the groups have their own versions of it. If we can't get along within them, no wonder the imaginary line between France and Germany. Did you ever think of that? As an example of borders, I love language, and it's amazing to me that an imaginary line somewhere changes how you talk. Because on this side of the line, you should all come to le conceive to the mission. Right at the place. So they had to really feel it for a long time for that to happen. Um, you don't have to do dialects to evoke the feeling of ethnic groups. I grew up in New York with a lot of those good flows around me, and a lot of the sounds of the world there, and uh, I found out that you don't have to do words, you can do ethnic sounds. Each group has been assigned a sound. This is the English sound. My group, the Irish sound. The Italian sound. Jewish sound, The Scandinavian sound. The French sound? Yeah, that's probably a myth. And the black American sound. I grew up in an Irish neighborhood right next to a black neighborhood and found out very soon that black guys were cool. And all we ever wanted to be as kids was cool guys. That's all you ever asked God for at the end of your prayers. Please, God, let me be a cool guy. And blacks, because they were the least free, were the freest with whatever was left. That's the way that is on that lower rung. Your body, your dress, your style, your talk, the way you work it, your song, it's all free. And we were kind of like Irish guys who uh we were into gangbusting and a little uptight. In fact, I found out that by hanging out with black guys, we started talking and walking and acting like they did. In fact, almost any of those guys in that era, if you took five Anglos and let them hang out with five blacks for about a month or less, at the end of that time, the whites would be walking, standing, and talking like the black guys. You'll never hear the black guys saying, Well, golly, we won the game today.

SPEAKER_08 45:33

But you see white guys with red hair and freckles named Duffy say, hey, let's do it.

SPEAKER_13 45:44

My name is Edna, and I was born in Akron, Ohio.

SPEAKER_15 45:51

I'm Charlotte, and I was born in Houston, Texas. I'm Linda and I was born in California and Watts.

SPEAKER_03 46:03

Maybe I should say fly me. Well I'm Tina. And I was born in Nutbush, set a limits.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

She's the most iconic. Ike who? It's all about Tina.

SPEAKER_10 49:15

Yeah. No, Ike uh Ike blue is shot for sure.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

We're getting to the end of the show. You know what that means. Oh, I do. It's time for a little bit of wisdom.

SPEAKER_10 49:25

I'm kind of in my own zin right now. So next year we'll figure it out. We'll get it. Interesting concepts. Uh all one word all over the case. Interworth concepts.com. I know we gotta go. Ren, have a great day. This was so much fun. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_13 51:34

Oh, could you help me place this card? See the number on the matchbook is old and faded. Living in LA with my best old ex-friend Ray. Guys, you're such a new L and sometimes hated. But isn't that the way these say it goes? So let's go get all out and give me the number. But if you can find it, so I can call. Just to tell him I'm fine and to show. I overcome the blow. I've learned to take it well. I only wish my words could just convince myself that it just wasn't real. But that's not the way it feels. But could you help me place this card? Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me. There's something in my eyes. You know it happens every time. But think about the law that I thought would save me. But isn't that the way they say it goes? But let's forget all that and give me the number if you can find it. So I can call, just to tell them I'm finding the show. I've overcome the blow, I've learned to take it well. Only wish my words could just convince myself that it just wasn't real. But that's not the way it feels. No, no, no, no. That's not the way it feels. I'm a real let's forget about this car. No one there I really wanna talk to. Thank you for your time. Oh, you've been so much more than kind. You can keep the time. But isn't that the way they say it goes? Well, let's walk it all up and give me the number if you can find it. So I can't be called just to tell them I'm fine to show. Overcome the blow, I'm learning to take it well now. Only wish my word could just convince myself that it just wasn't real. But that's not the way it feels like beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

A very important song to me. I know we said goodbye, but guys, we have to give a shout out to Helen Reddy, who was inarguably the host, apart from Wolfman Jack, the host of the Midnight Special during its most iconic years in the semi-faceted. So this is her song You're My World.

SPEAKER_10 55:19

Jack was the announcer, she was the host. That's how I was.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

There you go. Take it away, Helen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_15 55:43

Other eyes see the stars up in the sky. But for me they shine where they are as the trees reach for the sun above. So my arms reach out to you for love with your hand resting in mine. I feel a sun.

unknown 56:31

You're the one every bread.

SPEAKER_15 57:04

Resting in mind. I feel a stun.

unknown 57:21

You'll know every friend.

SPEAKER_12 58:07

No need to panic, Ren, and David will be back next week. Same WUC time, same WUC station. All right, I gotta say, all rights reserved. For KSJE and WC, I'm Zeb McCluskey. And until next time. Excellent to each other.

SPEAKER_06 58:27

Always wear your cleaner and the wheel.