Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Simon & ...Oak Ridge Boys?

I'm sitting here on my sofa, surfing the web, trying to find some interesting content to write a blog post about Paul Simon and the Oak Ridge Boys.   While that might sound like an odd combination and a quite difficult task, the reason for it, is in 1977, Paul Simon hand picked the gospel-country Boys to back him up on one of the two new tracks that would be featured on his first greatest hits collection as a solo artist.  The album, eventually titled 'Greatest Hits, Etc' after the original title 'Blatant Greatest Hits' was scrapped, was pulled together so that Simon could fulfill his contract with Columbia Records before leaving them for his eventual home at Warner Brothers.

Instead of my focusing on the task at hand though, I can't take my eyes off the TV where I've turned on Piers Morgan's interview of Howard Stern on his second episode after taking over for Larry King on CNN.  Stern is a great get for Morgan's first week (he had Oprah on last night).  I don't think I've ever seen him properly interviewed on TV before.  Howard always tells it like it is, and with him in the hot seat for once, this is no different.  He's coming across as a very humble, intelligent, witty, self-deprecating, and keenly observant dude; which are all of the reasons that, despite confessing that he came up with the moniker as a goof, he truly is the King of All Media.

....Anyway, back to the task at hand.  Please enjoy this 1987 live performance, that took place during a concert curated by Paul Simon, later released on a DVD titled 'Paul Simon and Friends: A Night of Gospel Glory', featuring himself and the Oak Ridge Boys reuniting ten years later to perform 'Slip Slidin' Away':

1 comment:

WeightStaff said...

I know this post wasn't exactly about Howard Stern but he is my hero these days. No one is more entertaining in any tv show, magazine, blog, media outlet...He truly is the greatest interviewer I've ever seen and brings a humanity to the table that is so sorely lacking in almost all entertainment these days. His reputation for T&A is a shame but I guess that helped him build his career (not that I mind T&A!)

Looking forward to watching the Piers Morgan interview with him on Tivo tonight. I'm sure it will be anything but boring...

Lefsetz (as usual) said it best about the typical boring celebrity interviews:

You know how these interviews usually go. You’ve got a sycophantic celebrity or a good-looking talking head who wants to be a celebrity serving up softballs to a legend who doesn’t want to be there, who doesn’t reveal anything truly private, truly inside.

Back to my comments...Howard gets celebrities to "go there". Show their true colors. I hope he gave Piers the same type of interview.

RL