The Dick Cavett Show - John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1975)

Cavett Show with John and Yoko

What can I say about this video?
It brought back many a memory. I remember I skipped classes during the airing of this Cavett Show.
I can't recall exactly but it seems as if John appeared with Chuck Berry on a later episode, perhaps the appearance was on another show during the early seventies. I recall Chuck saying Johnny with Lennon repling Yes? Then Chuck says be good! as they break into Johnny B Goode! Fantastic! May 4, 2008

I LOVE JOHN LENNON

This DVD is perfect for any John Lennon fan. It doesn't have much music, but it does give great insight into his personality, his wit and his intelligence. Other than Yoko's singing, she isn't that hard to watch either. February 8, 2008

Blast from the past

With his plaid jackets, striped shirts, and longish hair that sort of curled at the collar, Dick Cavett was the epitome of an early 1970's man: influenced somewhat by the hippie culture of the previous decade, but still buttoned-down, respectable enough to be welcomed into five million homes each night. Back then, that was a wimpy figure for a late night talk show in a three network universe, and Cavett's show was always on the verge of cancellation. His guests were certainly more diverse than the showbiz figures who occupied the couch on the more successful competition, NBC's "The Tonight Show," but Cavett was less personable, less warm, and not as sharp as Johnny Carson, despite his reputation as the most intellectual of the talk show hosts. That reputation is apparently what attracted John Lennon and Yoko Ono who first appeared as the sole guests on an episode that aired September 11, 1971.

Known as a wit himself, Lennon might just as well have been a bubble-brained starlet promoting her big dramatic breakthrough in an upcoming episode of "Adam 12." Neither he nor Ono have a hell of a lot to say that's bright or interesting, and they came unprepared to perform a song from either the "Imagine" or "Fly" albums, both of which had just been released. But they were clearly pioneers since they did perform via film clips. Neither called Lennon's performance of "Imagine" or Ono's warbling of "Mrs. Lennon" a "music video," but that's what they would be called in less than a decade when similar clips began to turn up on "The Midnight Special" even before the debut of MTV.

In an interview taped for inclusion in the DVD package, Cavett claims they were on a roll that night, so ABC kept its cameras running after the 90 minute show was supposed to end, and this additional footage was televised on September 24. Again, neither Lennon nor Ono had a lot to say and the questions from the audience weren't terribly insightful either.

"How do you write your songs?"

"What music do you listen to?"

It is Stan Freberg, the legendary satirist who appeared live in the studio that night, who steals the show with an amusing anecdote of how he also appeared with the Lennons on "The David Frost Show." The producers insisted that Freberg sit in the audience once John and Yoko appeared because they believed the Lennons might fear becoming a target of his humor. Instead, Lennon inquired what had happened to Freberg. "I'm in the audience," Freberg said, then repeated the explanation that the producers gave him as to why he shouldn't take offense. "In England, it's a tremendous honor to sit in the audience."

Lennon's excuse for not performing was that he had no band to perform with, but he promised to return at a later date. He kept the promise on May 3, 1972, but by then a live performance by John and Yoko was hardly a coup. Several months earlier, they had spent a full week as co-hosts on "The Mike Douglas Show" where they performed several numbers and Lennon even dueted with Chuck Berry. Nonetheless, the May 11 show found Lennon impassionately pleading with Yoko's former husband to let her see her daughter, Kyoko. He also discussed the government's efforts to deport him in relation to a 1968 marijuana bust in England. But Lennon believed he was actually being targeted for promoting peace. It was then that a previously silent Shirley Maclaine piped up to praise Lennon for doing more to promote "peace and love" than anyone else in the arts. Lennon muttered a brusque "That's very nice. Thank you," while barely looking at the actress, then hurriedly returned to the subject at hand. It was a rather awkward moment. I suspect Maclaine was attempting to ingratiate herself with Lennon, perhaps hoping his "hipness" would rub off on her.

As for the live performances, Lennon's "Woman is the Nigger of the World" was preceded by his rambling defense of the use of such an inflammatory word, and by an "insert," taped later, in which Cavett also defended the song which had almost been deleted entirely until Cavett agreed to the disclaimer which inspired the very kind of complaints that ABC feared the song would when making the decision. Yoko sang, too, introducing "We're All Water" with a plug for "our new album, "Some Time In New York City," which bombed that summer.

These shows are interesting mainly because they show John and Yoko in a more accurate light. Yeah, they promoted peace, but more than that they promoted themselves. Their plugs were so shameless that when George Harrison appeared with Cavett a few weeks later, he couldn't resist starting off his chat with a plug for John and Yoko's upcoming Christmas record since it was recorded after their appearance, and, therefore, they couldn't promote it at that time.

What must Dick Cavett think of these shows being released on DVD? Most of the episodes of "The Dick Cavett Show" being released on DVD are shows that feature, as the title of another disc bears out, "Rock Icons." It's as though he's Dick Clark or Wolfman Jack, and Cavett admits that he doesn't even like rock and roll. In the interview included as a bonus feature, Cavett remembers when he first heard of the Beatles and thinking they were just the latest fad, sure to disappear in a year or two. Only later, after reading a lengthy article by classical composer Leonard Bernstein in which he praised the Beatles did Cavett "not just think of them as something like Elvis who would probably just last a year or two, too." Of course, Bernstein had praised Elvis, too, and in the `80s would embarrass himself when receiving a Grammy lifetime achievement award and kept referring to Tina Turner, then at the peak of her career, in his acceptance speech. He was determined, it seems, to be hip.

Cavett doesn't seem to share Bernstein's insecurities, and might even be a bit embarrassed that he has somehow become associated with rock and roll because he happened to feature several big names from that world on his show at a time when most television talk shows, and most television period, shunned the genuine article, preferring "pop" artists like Helen Reddy or, if they were really hip, the Bee Gees. Cavett's show acknowledged the so-called "youth culture" of the late `60s and early `70s at a time when it was otherwise represented only by "The Mod Squad" and "The Partridge Family."

Brian W. Fairbanks
August 13, 2007

Dissappointing

Even though I'm a big Beatles and Lennon fan I found this to be a letdown. Especially after all the 5 stars it got from people here. I found myself squirming at times as John is so wound up. He is very anxious and the constant lighting up of ciggies puts me off. He looks to be wired and coked up to me. Cavett at times, even though he tries to look calm and in control, is clearly uncomfortable. Yoko Ono is always asking questions through John like a little girl. On the second appearance The Elephants Memory Band play the tepid "Woman is the nigger" and a Yoko song which is a complete waste of time. Ringo on the Donahue show (1995) is a way better interview. Only when Cavet allows the audience to throw questions at John does it liven up. Clearly the best part. Unfortunately its not long enough. April 12, 2007

no closed captioned

Either someone is lying or Amazon is blowing it and not reading correctly. There is NOT closed Caption avail on this DVD set. Yes I know how to use it. It doesn't even show up in the menu when the DVD first starts up, nor the remote will bring it up, and I tried it on 3 dif DVD players also. All the same result.

We have hearing impaired peeps in our family, as well as millions of others in the world. It's the 21st century, stop with the discrimination.

I normally flunk a DVD because of this, yes they deserve to be, and no more excuses stop the discrimination. However, based on this is 1971, and a 31 year old white man, who had all the money and women he could ever want, to "even" write and PLAY the song "woman is the N of the world", was flat stunning. What white male at 31 with millions has ever shown that he gives a flip about what ONE woman thinks let alone all of them in the world, and then sings on national TV about it? We had to get the lyrics off the net, but man what a song. And the band jammed, sorta like a Van Morrison sound.

And what's really a shame, is that, especially after you watch how John talks about the N word and what it really means just before he plays the song, its a shame that as time went forward what he says it really means didn't stick to our thought process. N today does NOT mean what John said it does, and what John said it means, is what it means.

Why didn't it "stick" from the 1970's on out?

What a dif world we would all be in today

What's really stunning is long before I even got this DVD and seen him say it "I read about him playing it in this DVD so this is the main reason I bought the DVD", I have been saying the same thing, as a white male in my 40's. But everyone tells me no way, and here is JOHN saying it! So now I have passed this DVD around and go SEE! HA! na na na naaaaaaaaaahhhh nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahaha



March 31, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...