Written by Linda
March 08, 2009
If anyone deserved to be punched in the teeth on live, late-night TV, it was John Lydon.
From October 1973 to January 1982, Tom Snyder was a late-night icon, coming on after Johnny Carson with his talk show The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Since I was a kid at the time, I honestly don't remember this show, but apparently the amiable host with the booming laugh was famous enough to be spoofed by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live. The Tomorrow Show, being on in the wee hours, dared to schedule more edgy guests than the mainstream, and featured early TV appearances by many folks who became icons of the punk and new wave scenes. This Shout! Factory DVD collection assembles 5 hours of such footage from the show, and it is a virtual time capsule of not only the music, but of the cusp of the 80s as well.
Tom Snyder has an easy-going charm, and heck, is kinda sexy in a manly 70s comb-over way, but he is clearly a square... an earnest square, but a square indeed. Part of the fun is to see him interview people like a very young Joan Jett (still in the Runaways in 1977) asking about this "punk" that the kids are listening to these days. Surly Joan, and her aloof co-panelist 19-year-old Paul Weller of The Jam mutter through the interview, talking about how the term "punk" is a media invention, and everyone gets it all wrong anyways. This whole segment made me chuckle, as you could just insert "grunge" into the questions and answers, and right away you have my generation's "scene" in 1991. But I digress.
Snyder readily admits he is out of his element when he interviews these punks and wavers, but is clearly game to give it a try, as evidenced by his chat with Iggy Pop (who Snyder abruptly asks, "Are you bleeding?" in the middle of the interview... Iggy bonked his nose on the microphone during his set apparently). Snyder is obviously delighted with Elvis Costello being the smart and witty young man that he is, and tells him at the end that he had been basically afraid to talk with him. Patti Smith is cute and a bit nervous talking to him, and gets all poetic, talking about orgasms and such. But the weirdest interview, hands-down, goes to John Lydon of PiL (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols). Lydon is a sneering brat, mugging at the camera, rolling his eyes, twisting the questions and still refusing to answer them. Clearly Tom Snyder wants to reach across from his chair and smack him. I don't think I've ever seen two people glare at each so much in a talk show interview. In the meantime, Lydon's band-mate Keith Levene looks like he wants to crawl under a chair in embarrassment.
But it is not all about interviews, of course. There are performances from The Jam, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, and Elvis Costello & The Attractions. The best one is the bizarre set by Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. Snyder giggles and talks about how on their previous appearance on the show the band blew up a TV and startled the national newscasters down the hall. But this time they blow up a freakin' muscle car on stage with what looks like a stick of dynamite! Awesome!
The five hours of footage on this 2-disc collection includes not only interviews and performances by the featured punk and new wave artists, but the editors of the DVDs cleverly chose to include many of the other guests on those particular shows. See a 10-year-old Ricky Schroeder promoting his movie The Earthling! Listen to an uptight conservative activist protesting smut on TV! Heck, when Snyder said, "Now we'll break for a word from our sponsors..." I almost thought they's show the commercials as well. Alas, no. Those were edited out (too bad!). But these discs nonetheless have the goods. This collection is a true time-capsule treat for fans of the music and the era.
