Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1976 & 1977
Two DVDs (sold separately)
Shout Factory

Johnny Cash was one of those rare figures in American music that was loved by most everyone. Country music fans, counterculturalists, the establishment, and lovers of traditional gospel music all found plenty of reasons to like the Man In Black.

After his television show went off the air, he still was in high demand, so CBS contracted with him for two hour-long Christmas variety specials in 1976 and 1977. And now, they are available on DVD.

The 1976 show is more “down-home” featuring sing alongs with the friends and family in the Cash home. It also features Roy Clark, Merle Travis, The Carter Family, Barbara Mandrell, Billy Graham, and “¦Tony Orlando!

Yes, that’s right, Mr. Orlando is a guest on this TV special, and he sings “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” along with Cash and June Carter Cash. Yes, he calls it his “prison song,” and actually, back in the day, that was probably the only way that song could be interpreted, as schmaltzy as it was.

The 1976 show was decent, even though Orlando stuck out like a sore thumb (but he was hot back then). However, the 1977 show was a classic.

Ironside
Season 2
Starring Raymond Burr, Barbara Anderson
Shout! Factory
Available Now; $44.99

When Perry Mason ended, Raymond Burr was amongst the most popular television actors. It wasn’t long until they found another vehicle for Burr, and Ironside was that vehicle. On the surface, the premise was pretty implausible. Ironside, the Chief of Detectives in San Francisco, was paralyzed by an assassin’s bullet and was confined to a wheelchair. Did that stop him from fighting crime? Heck, no. He assembled a crack team, featuring a beautiful policewoman, an ex-con who was studying law, and a straight-laced detective sergeant. He also rode around in a modified paddy wagon so he could travel to the crime scenes and question the bad guys. Like Perry Mason, he knew the answers even before he asked the questions. And he ate — he ate a lot! (No kidding, in every episode Burr chowed down once or twice).

The show touched on all of the hot topics of the late 1960s: drugs, racism, youth, abortion, civil rights, and so on. It was quite popular, as much of a cultural touchstone as Adam-12 and Dragnet. However, because of its hour-long length, it hasn’t lasted in syndication, so it’s not as well known as those other shows. Recently, reruns have shown up on TV Land.

However, if you need an Ironside fix, Shout! Factory has released the complete Season 2 on DVD. There are 26 hour-long episodes in the seven discs and they are filled with guest stars that are familiar to us all, but yet typical of late 1960’s TV fare. Ed Asner, Ricardo Montelban, Bill Bixby, Burgess Meredith, and Gary Collins all take turns as guests.

Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who
Universal Studios
Release Date: November 6, 2007

Sometimes, when thinking about the giants of rock and roll, one band gets short shrift at times when others discuss the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, or Led Zeppelin.

Believe it or not, that band is The Who.

The music of The Who is timeless, and they revolutionized rock and roll with rock operas, power chords, and mass chaos and destruction on stage. Yet, at times they’re regarded as a step below those other bands.

Thankfully, The Who have left behind a large legacy in music and on videotape and film, and they come together in the DVD Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who.

It is what it is, the story of The Who. It’s two hours of a total in-depth look at each of the members of The Who, featuring interviews with their parents, their friends, the two surviving members of The Who (Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend), and plenty of archival footage of the band as they move from a blues band (The Detours) to a mod band (The High Numbers — a name change forced by a manager) to The Who as we know them now. It also examines why The Who smashed their instruments (and it wasn’t just teenagers on a rampage)!

This DVD is a must-have for even diehard Who fans, as the interviews and photos add a great depth to the well-known story of the band. Did you realize that Roger Daltrey was the original lead guitar player for his band “The Detours” which had Pete Townshend on rhythm guitar and future Who bassist John Entwistle on bass (along with another singer and a drummer)? That’s just one of the nuggets found in this DVD set.

San Francisco Nuggets: Love Is The Song We Sing 1965-1970
Compilation box set
Rhino Records

Remember those Fabulous ’60s? The marches, the protests, the be-ins?

Um, if you’re reading this, odds are against it. I mean, I was BORN in the ’60s, but as for remembering the Summer of Love, I don’t think that’s possible.

Yet, I, like many other music geeks, love the music of the ’60s. The wide variety of sounds that became touchstones for a generation is incredible. And of course there are the famous “˜scenes’ — the most famous in the U.S. was based in San Francisco starting about 1965.

Most everyone knows the major songs and groups from that era. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and others revered to this day as musical pioneers, even demi-gods. But there were a lot of other bands that contributed to the sound of San Francisco, even if many of them left the scene as quickly as they started.

Rhino Records rounded up some of those songs and groups as part of their first 4-CD set of Nuggets: Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era. Now, Rhino returns to the ’60s, and specifically concentrates on the San Francisco scene, with Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970.”

This is a 4-CD collection containing 77 songs ranging from the predictable (“Get Together” by the Youngbloods, “Evil Ways” by Santana, “Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin), to the “Oh, they were from Frisco?” (“Psychotic Reaction” by the Count Five), to some rarities by known artists (“Roll With It” by The Steve Miller Band, “Mexico” by Jefferson Airplane, and the 45 version of “Dark Star” by the Grateful Dead) to the totally unknown or forgotten (cuts by bands like Teddy And His Patches, Kak, and Salvation).

Into The Wild
Directed by Sean Penn
Starring Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Hal Holbrook, Catherine Keener
Rated R

One thing about writing movie reviews is that you don’t want to give away “spoilers.”

Also, I really don’t want to resort to “reviewer clichés,” you know, the ones that are always found in the blurbs in the newspapers.

Well, I think both of these rules may have to be ditched for my review of Into The Wild.

Going into the film, most all of the audience knows the story, especially since it’s being promoted as “the life and death” of the young Christopher Johnson McCandless, who graduates from college, gives away his savings for law school, turns his back on his parents, assumes a new name, and goes on a journey for the truth.

For those of you who don’t know the story and haven’t figured it out by now, here comes the spoiler.