Life was different in the 1970s. There was no TikTok, not even MTV. But, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t see music acts perform. You just had to stay up late to watch Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
Kirshner himself was a very well known music producer at the time, having worked with acts from Carole King to The Monkees. In fact, he took credit for assembling the Monkees, though the band’s struggles with him were legendary.
In the early 1970s, Kirshner produced a program called Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Airing in late night, often on Saturdays, it presented an alternative to the budding Saturday Night Live. That ended up being a good thing, since having two programs on at the same time meant that regular folks learned how to set their VCRs. As a result, a lot of this content is now available on YouTube.
Man they had everyone
Search on YouTube for the show and you’ll find lots of performances from bands you’ve heard of. Like Midnight Special, Soul Train, and American Bandstand, an appearance on the show was a must for new bands, and everyone from Foghat to The Police showed up. Unlike some of those other shows, every band was required to perform live, with no lip syncing going on. As a result you get some great performances.
The one thing that wasn’t such a great performance was the opening. As you can see from this montage:
The opening credits weren’t much to write home about. They were done individually for each show, often with Kirshner himself giving a quick monologue about the artist performing that night. It’s fair to say that Kirshner may have been a musical genius, but he wasn’t a showman. His flat delivery and already-tired look was lampooned constantly. It didn’t matter. The show delivered knockout performances every week.
The end of an era
The show was hosted by Kirshner up until its last season. His son and daughter took hosting duties to try to add interest for the 1980-1981 season. The show didn’t really last into the 1980s, and there’s one reason. MTV knocked out pretty much all other music programming almost instantly. Its stock and trade was, of course pre-produced, slick videos. These were bookended with live chat similar to how radio DJs worked in those days. In its early days, MTV was unstoppable. It was the herald of a new age of music. MTV represented a sharp break between decades. Don Kirshner unquestionably belonged to the 1970s. MTV made that clear.
I remember enjoying this show when I could watch it. It was on late, and I personally didn’t have a VCR. I had to choose between Rock Concert and SNL. I’m glad to see some of this concert footage now, even if the quality is poor. It makes me wonder what people will treasure 40 years from now.
I can’t imagine it… but maybe they’ll look back on a little tech blog like this one. I guess I can only hope.
