The Midnight Special

‘Eclectic’ hardly covers the line-up presented in this six-DVD set; after all, it’s hard to think now that people who tuned in to The Midnight Special to see Aerosmith or Alice Cooper were happy to find Harry Chapin or John Denver on their television sets. But that was sort of the beauty of this long running show: You never knew what you were going to get beyond a live performance by some of the biggest and best musicians in the business. Since it made its debut in 1973 (at one o’clock in the morning) and lasted throughout the 70s and well into the 80s, you know that hairstyles and fashion trends are going to be just as interesting as the music being played, and if you wonder what some of the musicians were thinking when they put those clothes on, there are plenty of extras included in the package with the musicians themselves explaining it all. The quality of the shows is surprisingly good, as are the majority of the performances, whether you think you like the band playing or not. It’s all a bit of a time trip, to be sure, but one worth taking, even if you weren’t there when the shows first aired.