n/a Whereas Music Scene, Vol. 1 preserved a
daring TV show's moment in the low-rated limelight, Vol. 2 shows the series in
a fascinating tailspin, in the ratings cellar before cancellation in January
of 1970. A bold attempt to combine liberal political comedy, harmless pop, and
Woodstock-era rock & roll, Music Scene drew its guests from current Billboard
pop charts, supplementing those acts with host David Steinberg's intellectual
sarcasm and shrewd assaults on the Nixon administration. In these four
complete episodes, however, the show is clearly dying, and while the collected
performances still qualify as outstanding relics from the volatile
Woodstock/Altamont time frame, it's amazing to watch Steinberg--now stripped
of his merry band of cohosts--exchanging genial wisecracks for a darker, more
cynical acceptance that Music Scene was doomed from the start. The music is an
eclectic, full-course buffet, from lip-synced performances by Creedence
Clearwater Revival to the chart-topping ballads of Neil Diamond and Gordon
Lightfoot to the defiantly leftist folk of Pete Seeger and Buffy Sainte-
Marie. Unexpected highlights include Joe Cocker's sublime rendition of the
Beatles' "Something" and Frankie Laine's emotional delivery of "Lord, You Gave
Me a Mountain." Throughout, Steinberg is like a protestor with a lost cause,
and by the time he's joined by cohost Groucho Marx for the mesmerizing final
show, he's lost all pretense of mainstream propriety, and it's TV history like
nothing before or since. A full menu of 21 bonus songs is icing on a
bittersweet cake, from one-hit-wonders Zager & Evans ("In the Year 2525") to
an impassioned "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" by Janis Joplin, whose own
fate would soon echo that of this remarkable, short-lived TV show. --Jeff
Shannon