Classic Pop Icons

When I bought Shout Factory’s first ever issue of the legendary lost concert film The TAMI Show, my night was shot. I spent two hours watching the movie. Then there were another two plus hours soaking up the special features and replaying favorite moments. Then there was the trip to my CD collection to revisit the original recordings of all the great hits I had heard in the show. That’s how caught up I was in the excitement generated by this magnificent film and its magnificent presentation on DVD.

As hard as it may be to believe, I approached the DVD with some hesitancy. I had seen the TAMI Show on late night local TV 15-20 years ago. I was impressed by it and I have seen bits and pieces of the show on anthologies since then. Memory is a funny thing though. Nearly two decades down the line I imagined that part of my initial thrill was just the novelty of seeing video footage of the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Miracles, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Lesley Gore and Chuck Berry all on the same bill. I also looked askance at some of the acts on the program like Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas whom I didn’t expect much from in a live concert. Even favorites like Gore, whose hits were sub-Spector studio concoctions with much of their distinct flavor coming from the double tracking of her voice, seemed bound to disappoint. Plus, when a show gets a rep like The TAMI Show’s, it is very easy to fall short of the hype. Anything short of a miracle is a disappointment. Well, The TAMI Show is a miracle, a perfect crystallization of everything that rock ‘n’ roll was about at this crucial point in its development.

The lineup of talent compiled by Producer Bill Sargent and arranger/conductor Jack Nitzsche, with the help of Director Steve Binder’s management team – Chuck Berry, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, the Supremes, the Barbarians, James Brown and the Famous Flames, and the Rolling Stones – was on the absolute edge of what was happening in that moment. It also captured in Berry – where the music came from – in artists as diverse as the Beach Boys, the Supremes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers – where the music was at – and, in acts like the Supremes, the Barbarians, James Brown and the Rolling Stones – where it was going. It’s really an amazing achievement, particularly when you consider that acts like the Stones were really just in the birth pains of their U.S. careers.

The lineup of songs is nearly perfect. Of the 46 titles performed, 37 made the Billboard Top 40 with 21 of those reaching the Top Ten, and four making it all the way to the Top spot. It really was all killer, no filler. This doesn’t seem very surprising until you realize how hard it really is to capture a moment like this, particularly on film. Watch any of the early rock ‘n’ roll movies and you’ll hear many songs you don’t know. Here those songs are few and far between, and even some of the smaller hits like Jan and Dean’s great title theme “Here They Come (from All Over the World),” are now cult classics. What’s more, most of these were then current hits. The Supremes’ “Baby Love” would make #1 two days after they sang it on the October 29, 1964 show. This means you not only get to see the in-their-prime artists sing their songs in their moment, but also see how those songs played, and what they meant to their original audience.

Picking highlights of the T.A.M.I. show is extremely difficult. The show’s legend, of course, is James Brown and he does not disappoint. Much has been made of his dramatic mock stage faints and revivals on “Please, Please, Please.” It truly is a show stopping performance, but his work is equally impressive on a stunning “Prisoner of Love.” The song hits a dramatic crescendo on an extended bridge where the Flames repeat the title phrase over and over again, while Brown answers them back. Binder keeps his camera on a medium shot of Brown. Standing there with his head rolled back and his eyes closed, he gets us caught up in his personal agonized trance. When he explodes with a scream and a drop to his knees, it’s our escape as well as is.

Amazingly, a few minutes later when Brown is shimmying across the stage on one leg during “Night Train” we forget even that miracle. We’re completely caught up in the moment. The entire show is like that. Every thrill seems to top the last; there is hardly any looking back.

There’s Chuck Berry appearing looser than he ever was in any of the old rock ‘n’ roll movies. There’s no duck walk, but he slips his hips with fluidity. His facial expressions are a scream. Lesley Gore, even without a double track, delivers a mesmerizing version of her early feminist anthem “You Don’t Own Me,” filled with personal passion even if she isn’t as gifted a visual performer as Brown or Berry. The Beach Boys have a beautiful set highlighted by a sublime reading of “Surfer Girl.” The nattily dressed Miracles maybe top them all. Their recreation of “the monkey” dance craze (also performed by the Beach Boys and a handful of other acts on the bill), seems a little silly to modern eyes, but when they start undulating in the middle of “Mickey Monkey” you can understand the sexual excitement at the heart of a lot of dance classics. When Binder cuts away from Smokey thrusting his pelvis towards the rear curtain (and away from the crowd) we think he’s going to go safe, but he cuts to a dancer writhing on the floor and we see he really gets it.

Even the lesser performers come through. Buoyed by the crowd, Gerry and the Pacemakers deliver the performance of their lives. On record, their “Maybellene” is rather fey. Buoyed though by the rabid live audience and appearing on the same stage as Chuck Berry himself, their performance of the song is muscular and energetic here. Gerry Marsden doesn’t shout like Little Richard, but he shows some growling conviction on the up-tempo material. This goes for even the Pacemakers’ other lightweight up-tempo singles. When the group slides into its forte on the haunting “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” the results are spellbinding.

The legendary flop Rolling Stones’ performance is anything but. The up and coming Stones are upstaged by Brown, but they drive the audience crazy and deliver a great set. Its only flaw is Jagger’s overt mimicking of Brown’s moves. The Stones were great, but they weren’t an original yet.

James Brown & Mick Jagger backstage

The crowd is absolutely electric throughout the event. Operating at a constant roar, their energy never lags and the performers respond. It’s very difficult not to get caught up in it. When the rest of the cast comes out behind Lesley Gore on “It’s My Party” the crowd’s appreciation is so overwhelming you get really excited as if it were a joint performance by all these great stars, rather than a solo with the rest of the group cheering the singer on. It’s almost overflowing with momentum. This is kind of surprising because we learn in the audio commentary that the show would often be stopped in between the performers to reset the cameras and the stage.

We never see that on film. On camera, the flow is continuous. Binder’s pace is breathless moving from one performer to the next. It’s like being on a musical roller coaster, an impression increased by the fact that so many of the numbers are up tempo and because they’re all so well known. That sense of speed is abetted by the fact that many of the numbers are presented in abbreviated versions. It’s as if you’re in the next one before you realize you’re out of the last.

Visually, as the book accompanying the set points out, the show is short on spectacle. The set is basically a scaffold, occasionally complemented by a paper mache curtain. The star power energy and visual presentation of the performers are what knock us out. It’s amazing how much some of the classic rockers got out of so little. Jan and Dean, for instance, give us a charge by pulling a skateboard out of a guitar case and riding it down the stage, almost into the audience. It’s a low tech trick, but it’s so sudden, relatively unexpected and Dean is so cool and athletic in the few seconds he rides the board, it’s absolutely musical.

Binder, who later went on to work on Elvis’ ’68 comeback special, perfectly understands the music and never misses a performer’s tricks. He has many of his own. His opening of the show, a hand-held shot following reckless Jan and Dean swaying through busy L.A. Streets on their skateboards, is a classic. Then Binder gives us some great shots of the stars going through their paces getting ready for the show. On stage, Binder amplifies the action with multiple exposures and inventive camera angles that make full use of the widescreen. (This is a film not a TV show.) Perhaps his most inspired innovation was rubbing Vaseline on the cameras during the ballads, giving these performances a dreamlike vibe. He’s not flawless though. The go go dancers that surround every number uncomfortably date the show. But, overall, if this had been the only thing that Binder did, his reputation as a behind the scenes rock legend would be secure.

Marvin Gaye and Tami Show director Steve Binder

The DVD presentation of the film lives up to the content of the show. While the audio is sometimes a little shrill, it’s never less than listenable. This is not a 2010 concert here. The video quality is not as good as studio movies of the era, but far better than classic kinescopes we’ve seen from TV shows. There is some grain in the film, but the images are sharp. You can even see the stains on James Brown’s pants after his knee drops.

The DVD extras are very fine, led by a nicely designed 20-page booklet. The booklet’s photos aren’t especially rare, but there are some cool little novelties like photos of show tickets and a reproduction of parts of a vintage 16 magazine spread on the show. Pop Historian Don Waller’s notes offer a good appraisal of the era and provide the skinny on how the show all came together. There’s also a list of all the songs that are performed in the concert.

Additionally, you get a small smattering of radio advertisements for the show and the obligatory trailer. This has an optional audio commentary from movie director John Landis who actually attended the concert. Landis’ commentary is funny and the trailer actually has some inadvertent insights about the show and the early ’60s pop music scene. For instance, James Brown scholars will get a kick out of Brown’s billing as “the newest show biz sensation.” Brown’s recording and R&B hit-making career was almost a decade old by that time. As Landis points out, though, to the mainstream audience he really was a newbie.

As there should be on a set like this, there are chapter breaks and selections for every musical number. The greatest bonus is the feature length audio commentary by Binder and Waller. Binder has great stories to tell about the making of the show including one about Chuck Berry almost putting the kibosh on the whole shebang by demanding payment in cash before going on stage. He also explains the mystery of the Beach Boys’ disappearance from the show after its initial run.

T.A.M.I. Show DVD trailer

The director also has some swell stories about his five decades in directing shows like this. Some of the funniest anecdotes are about his attempts to deal with tone deaf network suits. For instance, when Binder directed the Elvis comeback show, NBC executives wanted him to use the Bob Hope orchestra on the show. An even more outrageous clash occurred when he was filming a Diana Ross musical spectacle for CBS in the early 1980s and executives insisted on the participation of Larry Hagman!

Waller’s work is also meritorious; he provides some great additional facts and context. However, he should have left his sexist “compliment” that Lesley Gore was “not just a pop tart” at home.

Overall, this is a great tribute to a great show. It’s a shame that it has taken this long to find a release in the home video medium, or a complete release in any medium. Too many people have not seen this film. So many of the performers- Brown, Beach Boys’ Carl and Dennis Wilson, Jan Berry, Miracle Ronnie White among others- passed away before this video memorializing this glorious moment in their glorious careers was available for mass consumption. For too long, this show was a dusty memory, a legend more heard of then actually seen, a desecrated bootleg that only hinted at the show’s glory. Now it is here and pop music fans who have’n’t seen this show yet owe it to themselves to at least rent this DVD. If you love pop music you don’t want your life to have gone by without at least witnessing this crown jewel of the art form at least once.

Here’s the full list of performances:

Jan & Dean
SHOW OPEN: (Here They Come) From All Over The World
Chuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
Maybellene
Gerry And The Pacemakers
Maybellene
Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying
It’s Gonna Be Alright
Chuck Berry
Sweet Little Sixteen
Gerry And The Pacemakers
How Do You Do It?
Chuck Berry
Nadine (Is It You?)
Gerry And The Pacemakers
I Like It
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
That’s What Love Is Made Of
You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me
Mickey’s Monkey
Marvin Gaye
Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
Pride And Joy
Can I Get A Witness
Hitch Hike
Lesley Gore
Maybe I Know
You Don’t Own Me
You Didn’t Look Around
Hey Now
It’s My Party
Judy’s Turn To Cry
Jan & Dean
The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)
Sidewalk Surfi’n’
The Beach Boys
Surfi’n’ U.S.A.
I Get Around
Surfer Girl
Dance, Dance, Dance
Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas
Little Children
Bad To Me
I’ll Keep You Satisfied
From A Window
The Supremes
When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
Run, Run, Run
Baby Love
Where Did Our Love Go
The Barbarians
Hey Little Bird
James Brown & The Flames
Out Of Sight
Prisoner Of Love
Please, Please, Please
Night Train
The Rolling Stones
Around And Around
Off The Hook
Time Is On My Side
It’s All Over Now
I’m All Right
All Performers
Show Close: Let’s Get Together

Bonus Features
Commentary by Director Steve Binder
Original Trailer with Commentary by John Landis
Original T.A.M.I. Show Radio Spots
Commemorative Booklet

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