Bruce Johnston on the BBC circa 1971

[Mooger Fooger]

Does anyone have any info on this appearance? On the clip he performs solo, playing Disney Girls and is wearing a yellow shirt. He is sitting at a grand piano and to the best of my knowledge does just the one song. See below:



and no, the guy in the background is not sleeping, he's listening as close-ups show.

[adamghost]

I thought this was '75?  A pretty over-the-top, schmaltzy performance from Bruce as I recall, interspersing the word "those" before every other direct object in the lyrics...

I remember that BJ was pretty steamd this wound up on youtube, which is where I saw it.  Has it been taken down?

[Dave Modny]

It's Bruce's '75 appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. That's host, "Whispering" Bob Harris, in the background.

[Aegir]

The original user that posted this clip took it down, but since then it's been reuploaded numerous times.

During that whole Bruce fiasco, I had a Beach Boys promotional video that I downloaded from Napster or Limewire (something from 20/20, can't even remember now) on my youtube channel and because of how pissed Bruce was about the Disney Girls video I decided to take it down.

[Dave Modny]

Just curious as to why he might be steamed? Copyright? The performance itself? Both? That is, the performance was commercially released on a "Whistle" DVD comp about 7-8 years ago.

FWIW, the original airdate of the episode was Jan. 24th, 1975. Taped on 12-27-74.

[seltaeb1012002]

Just curious as to why he might be steamed? Copyright? The performance itself? Both? That is, the performance was commercially released on a "Whistle" DVD comp about 7-8 years ago.

FWIW, the original airdate of the episode was Jan. 24th, 1975. Taped on 12-27-74.

If I recall, the performance was super long & dragged out. Bruce tried to do a lot of R&B riffing throughout and it didn't come off too well. Not TERRIBLE, but if I was him, I can see why he might be a little bit embarrassed by it. Still a pretty cool watch / listen.

[Dave Modny]

Just curious as to why he might be steamed? Copyright? The performance itself? Both? That is, the performance was commercially released on a "Whistle" DVD comp about 7-8 years ago.

FWIW, the original airdate of the episode was Jan. 24th, 1975. Taped on 12-27-74.

If I recall, the performance was super long & dragged out. Bruce tried to do a lot of R&B riffing throughout and it didn't come off too well. Not TERRIBLE, but if I was him, I can see why he might be a little bit embarrassed by it. Still a pretty cool watch / listen.

Yeah, I'm just saying it's odd that he would allow it to be included on the Whistle DVD comp -- assuming he had some say-so in the matter -- and yet would then be "steamed" about it being on YouTube. Hence, my query as to whether the latter was a copyright concern or a performance one. Or, perhaps a combo of both.

[seltaeb1012002]

Just curious as to why he might be steamed? Copyright? The performance itself? Both? That is, the performance was commercially released on a "Whistle" DVD comp about 7-8 years ago.

FWIW, the original airdate of the episode was Jan. 24th, 1975. Taped on 12-27-74.

If I recall, the performance was super long & dragged out. Bruce tried to do a lot of R&B riffing throughout and it didn't come off too well. Not TERRIBLE, but if I was him, I can see why he might be a little bit embarrassed by it. Still a pretty cool watch / listen.

Yeah, I'm just saying it's odd that he would allow it to be included on the Whistle DVD comp -- assuming he had some say-so in the matter -- and yet would then be "steamed" about it being on YouTube. Hence, my query as to whether the latter was a copyright concern or a performance one. Or, perhaps a combo of both.

Ahh, my bad, just re-read your original post. Still early over here in NY! Good question though.

[Mooger Fooger]

Thanks for the replies. I thought the performance was a nice window into an era of the bbs that doesn't have a lot of tv footage of such songs.

[HeyJude]

I recall the reason for being poopy about the clip showing up on Youtube had more to do with the general sort of "permission of the artist/copyrights/royalties" sort of arguments. I remember thinking at the time that they were probably all valid gripes, but it seemed even that many years ago that complaining about something you sang being on Youtube without your permission was kind of almost funny considering how much stuff was already up on there.

[Aegir]

Certainly doesn't seem like Bruce is embarrassed of the performance. Just taking away a lot of potential customers for the DVD.

I know if youtube wasn't around I almost certainly would've bought the DVD just to see a few minutes of music. and I wouldn't have been too happy about paying like $20 to see just one performance on the DVD, but I'm sure I would've considered this an essential purchase. Probably some of the only footage of Bruce during the period that he wasn't in the band. Maybe hundreds of other people would have thought the same way.