Don Kirshner helped make me the man I am today.Strange, but true.
Long ago, before the days of 500 channels and instant access to whatever you want via the Internet, the only way you could see your favorite bands in small town Pennsylvania (or any bands for that matter) was through late night television: “The Midnight Special,”” In Concert” and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.”
Kirshner’s show featured the legendary mogul himself, woodenly introducing each act with a thick Bronx accent in a (usually) three-piece leisure suit. It was on this show that I first saw Todd Rundgren, Kansas, ELO, Blue Oyster Cult, and so many others. Where else would I have ever heard of John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra?
I still remember this appearance by the Doobie Brothers, which promptly had me heading out in my ’62 Tempest to the Big N for a copy of “The Captain and Me.”
It was the 70s, so there was a lot of bad with the good. But that didn’t matter. It was music, and for a rock and roll-starved teenager, it was like a tonic to see this every Saturday night.
But what a weird juxtaposition to see this most unhip of characters introducing the likes of Alice Cooper and David Bowie. I think it made adolescence even more confusing for me.
But Kirshner know exactly what he was doing, and he had his finger on the pulse of popular music for more than two decades; he had a large part in the Brill Building, the Monkees and "Sugar Sugar."
Don Kirshner died Monday, and with him goes an era that included a strange and wonderful show that was the stuff that dreams were made of...
Well, at least for one pimply-faced teenager a long, long time ago.
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