brothers
here, in this screenshot of a DVD of a movie of a film of a TV monitor of 
the dick cavett show, are two remarkably similar people. they are also two of my favorites.
of course, it's jimi hendrix (on the left, haha) and dick cavett, not long before hendrix died.
when cavett is discussed, there's often a buzz of deprecation, and it irks. he simply ran into the curse of the world, and that's all there is to it:
Cavett was intelligent and witty, perhaps too much so for television.
~ ed stephan
a commenter on a site i won't mention (simply because i hate the title) picked up a great comparison to dick cavett's show: bob costas. he's not nearly as funny, and his noodge compensating phony personality is annoying, but after loathing him at first, i became a grudging fan of his later show for its smart variety, laid back atmosphere, and obviously deep research for each guest. that rings of cavett, and many comment longingly on the relaxed and knowledgeable conversations cavett had with his varied guests.
how could you not admire a man who said the following (about lenny bruce)?
I liked him and wish I had known him better...but most of what has been written about him is a waste of good ink, and his most zealous adherents and hardest-core devotees are to be avoided, even if it means working your way around the world in the hold of a goat transport.
jimi hendrix is a power i feel so close to that i don't even feel like talking about it. my life changed drastically because of hendrix and his music.
...the most poignant moment is when Cavett refers to Jimi as: "the worlds greatest guitarist". Modest to a fault Hendrix shifts uncomfortably in his seat insisting Cavett amend the phrase to "the greatest guitarist in this chair".
And that's why people who knew Jimi still remember him as the charmingly unassuming genius whose only desire was to explore life through his music's development. The restless creativity that led to such frustration in the face of his 'wild man of pop' persona would eventually see him grow tired of rock's straightjacket. Thereby hangs the huge question mark. What kind of cosmic funk-jazz would he be making today? We can only be grateful that footage like this exists to remind us that, for a short while, we shared the planet with a such a remarkably gentle man.
~ chris jones
Labels: TV
posted by saltypig @ 15:49
I know nothing of Dick Cavett, but that was some good stuff about Hendrix. I agree that he would have continued to push boundaries and would have moved beyond the world of rock. He was already beginning to experiment with jazzers like John McLaughlin and Larry Young before he died.
he was a great guy. too smart for this world, like cavett.
speaking of which, here's a snippet from a good cavett interview, in case anybody's interested:
"How do you think your standup material would work in today's comedy climate? Have you been in a comedy club in the 'modern era' (Post Comedy Boom, 1981 or thereabouts)?"
"I recently found a notebook I thought was lost and there was my old act, not written out but with abbreviations ('Chinese-German food,' 'Wedding gifts,' etc.) and in one margin I had noted: 'Woody said, "Great joke, Cavett" ' It reminded me of the sweat and labor of getting a second show, something I'd not foreseen. I used to stretch my Richard Loo impression nearly fifteen minutes to have something new for the bastards who stayed to see me twice. What struck me was that virtually all of it would work today. I'm trying manfully not to say, 'Funny is funny,' but I'm afraid it's true. I might update the act some by uttering 'motherfucker' every few minutes. Years have passed since I have set foot in a comedy club. If the comic is doing badly it's painful, and if the comic is doing brilliantly, it's extremely painful.
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