RIP Don Kirshner

From the Brill Buiilding to the Monkees to Rock Concert ... One of the most influential men in rock music dead at age 76 in Boca Raton, Fla.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/don-kirshner-bubblegum-music-promoter-dies-at-77/?src=mv

 

In the pre-YouTube, pre-internet, pre-DVD and VCRs, pre MTV days, Kirshner provided one of the only real means for seeing the rock music acts of the 70s perform, short of attending a concert itself. RIP

 

This death announcement brought to you by King Biscuit Flour

 

don was immensely spoofable for skit-comedy folks but his show filled a real void in the '70s. r.i.p., mr. kirschner.

 

Indeed. Saturdays in the Huggy household in the late 70s-early 80s consisted of The New Music, a show based in Toronto and hosted by J.D. - later - John Roberts that featured interviews, concert clips and videos, Saturday Night Live, the Midnight Special and Kirshner's Rock Concert.

 

For some reason I always thought Paul Shaffer's character in Spinal Tap was based on Kirshner.

 

Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records. "I got no timing."

Could be wrong here, but wasn't it Shaffer who did the Kirshner impression on either SCTV or SNL?

 

Hopefully not on his way to the Early Bird special at the Boca Dinner.

 

I was never allowed to stay up to watch Kirschner's Rock Concert so it always had a forbidden fruit kind of appeal for me. RIP.

 

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert was a must watch on a late Saturday night after the Midnight Special. RIP

 

"Kick this ass for a man. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you! Kick my ass."

 

Don Kirshner gave Kansas (bubble-gum prog rock to the max) their big break nationally. He offered a broad target to the artistes of rock, but he had good instincts on what would sell to the wider public.