Music Scene - Best of 1969-1970 (Vol. 2)
WhereasMusic Scene, Vol. 1preserved a daring TV show's moment  in the low-rated limelight,Vol. 2shows 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 Scenedrew its guests from currentBillboardpop 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 thatMusic Scenewas 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