Music Scene: The Best of 1969-1970, Volume 7

The more that things change, the more they stay the same. Take the '60s for instance. They're back (as if once wasn't enough) and with the purple haze completely cleared, whole segments of the counterculture milieu look a little silly today. Take Music Scene (please!), for instance: why would anyone exhume a show that wasn't just in the vault, but buried under it? In this episode from the Best of series (um...the entire run of the show was less than four months, from September 22, 1969 to January 12, 1970), cool funny host David Steinberg teams up with Davy Jones (a.k.a. a Monkee) making hardy-har-har jokes while they introduce young entertainers such as a teary eyed Frankie Laine (belting out "Lord You Gave Me a Mountain"), Gordon Lightfoot and Chuck Berry (who hasn't changed a bit.) As if the lip-synching wasn't bad enough, watching the flat-haired, bell-bottomed, self-conscious teens, nervously looking around and bobbing their heads literally made me cringe. The bonus tracks had some real gems though: Stevie Wonder (when he was still 'Little') singing "Yester-me, Yester-you," Three Dog Night crooning "Easy To Be Hard," and, my favorite, Moms Mabley rappin' out "It's Your Thing." Nostalgia buffs will probably want to take a peek, but let's not forget that the show went the way of all canceled series for a reason. Optional. (N. Plympton)