northern comfort

Wow. Hindsight is a powerful thing. But I doubt very much people watching this live broadcast had no idea how ace this was or that in 20 years time a slacker at work would be eating crisps nodding his head.

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In the 1960’s, WLAC DJ, ‘Hoss’ Allen hosted a television show called The !!!! Beat shot in Dallas, Texas. He featured all the top RnB and Soul artists of the day, including Otis Redding; Little Milton, Esther Phillips, Joe Tex, Etta James, Lattimore Brown, Rosco Shelton, Carla Thomas, Freddie King, Barbara Lynn, Johnny Taylor, Maurice & The Radiants, Louis Jordan, Mighty Hannibal, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, Robert Parker, Joe Simon, Mitty Collier, Jamo Thomas, ZZ Hill, Lou Rawls, Bobby Hebb, Willie Mitchell, Don Bryant, Ovations, Bar-Kays, Percy Sledge, Garnett Mimms and Sam and Dave. There were 26 THE !!!! BEAT shows, and many of the performances were live in the studio with a backup band led by Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. The good folks at Bear Family Records released every episode in the original master quality DVD format in 2005. Legend has it that Hoss was too drunk to host one night, so Otis Redding stepped up to the plate. Here is show # 26 from 1966.

Word.