The Ed Sullivan Show Pt 1

The Ed Sullivan Show aired from 1948 until 1971 and changed the landscape of American television. Sullivan’s stage was home to iconic performances by groundbreaking artists from rock ‘n’ roll, comedy, novelty, pop music, politics, sports, opera and more.

From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. E.T., and is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades. (During its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. E.T.) Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; opera singers, popular artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologs from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show.

Originally co-created and produced by Marlo Lewis, the show was first titled Toast of the Town, but was widely referred to as The Ed Sullivan Show for years before September 25, 1955, when that became its official name. In the show’s June 20, 1948 debut, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed along with singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show South Pacific, which opened on Broadway in 1949.

From 1948 through 1962, the program’s primary sponsor was the Lincoln-Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company; Sullivan read many commercials for Mercury vehicles live on the air during this period.

The Ed Sullivan Show was originally broadcast via live television from CBS-TV studio 51, the Maxine Elliott Theatre, at Broadway and 39th St. before moving to its permanent home at CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City (1697 Broadway, at 53rd Street), which was renamed The Ed Sullivan Theater on the occasion of the program’s 20th anniversary in June 1968. The last original Sullivan show telecast (#1068) was on March 28, 1971, with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, and Sandler and Young. Repeats were scheduled through June 6, 1971

The Ed Sullivan Show is especially known to the World War II and baby boomer generations for introducing acts and airing breakthrough performances by popular 1950s and 1960s musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Dave Clark Five, The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas & the Papas, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Herman’s Hermits, The Doors, and The Band. The Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster appeared on the program 58 times, a record for any performer.

On September 9, 1956, Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (after earlier appearances on shows hosted by the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, and Steve Allen), even though Sullivan had previously vowed never to allow Presley on the show. According to biographer Michael David Harris, “Sullivan signed Presley when the host was having an intense Sunday-night rivalry with Steve Allen. Allen had the singer on July 1 and trounced Sullivan in the ratings. When asked to comment, the CBS star said that he wouldn’t consider presenting Presley before a family audience. Less than two weeks later he changed his mind and signed a contract. The newspapers asked him to explain his reversal. ‘What I said then was off the reports I’d heard. I hadn’t even seen the guy. Seeing the kinescopes, I don’t know what the fuss was all about. For instance, the business about rubbing the thighs. He rubbed one hand on his hip to dry off the perspiration from playing his guitar.’ ”
Sullivan’s reaction to Presley’s performance on The Milton Berle Show was, “I don’t know why everybody picked on Presley, I thought the whole show was dirty and vulgar.”

Elvis mythology states that Sullivan censored Presley by only shooting him from the waist up. Sullivan may have helped create the myth when he told TV Guide, “as for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots.” In truth, Presley’s whole body was shown in the first and second shows.

At the time, Presley was filming Love Me Tender, so Sullivan’s producer, Marlo Lewis, flew to Los Angeles to supervise the two segments telecast that night from CBS Television City in Hollywood. Sullivan, however, was not able to host his show in New York City because he was recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. Charles Laughton guest-hosted in Sullivan’s place. Laughton appeared in front of plaques with gold records and stated, “These gold records, four of them… are a tribute to the fact that four of his recordings have sold, each sold, more than a million copies. And this, by the way, is the first time in record-making history that a singer has hit such a mark in such a short time. … And now, away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley.”

However, according to Greil Marcus, Laughton was the main act of Sullivan’s show. “Presley was the headliner, and a Sullivan headliner normally opened the show, but Sullivan was burying him. Laughton had to make the moment invisible: to act as if nobody was actually waiting for anything. He did it instantly, with complete command, with the sort of television presence that some have and some—Steve Allen, or Ed Sullivan himself—don’t.”

Host Laughton introduced the singer from New York. Once on camera, Elvis cleared his throat and said, “Thank you, Mr. Laughton, ladies and gentlemen. Wow”, and wiped his brow. “This is probably the greatest honor I’ve ever had in my life. Ah. There’s not much I can say except, it really makes you feel good. We want to thank you from the bottom of our heart. And now …” “Don’t Be Cruel”, which was, after a short introduction by Elvis, followed by “Love Me Tender”. According to Elaine Dundy, Presley sang “Love Me Tender” “straight, subdued and tender … —a very different Elvis from the one on The Steve Allen Show three months before”.

When the camera returned to Laughton, he stated, “Well, well, well well well. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley. And Mr. Presley, if you are watching this in Hollywood, and I may address myself to you. It has been many a year since any young performer has captured such a wide, and, as we heard tonight, devoted audience.”

Elvis’s second set in the show consisted of “Ready Teddy” and a short on-air comment to Sullivan, “Ah, Mr. Sullivan. We know that somewhere out there you are looking in, and, ah, all the boys and myself, and everybody out here, are looking forward to seeing you back on television.” Next, Elvis declared, “Friends, as a great philosopher once said, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog …,’ ” as he launched into a short (1:07) version of the song.

According to Marcus, “For the first of his two appearances that night, as a performer, Elvis had come on dressed in grandma’s nightgown and nightcap.” Concerning the singer’s second set in the show, the author adds that there were “Elvis, Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on stand-up bass, D. J. Fontana on drums, three Jordanaires on their feet, one at a piano. They were shown from behind; the camera pulled all the way back. They went into ‘Ready Teddy.’ It was Little Richard’s most thrilling record”, however, “there was no way Elvis was going to catch him, but he didn’t have to—the song is a wave and he rode it. Compared to moments on the Dorsey shows, on the Berle show, it was ice cream—Elvis’s face unthreatening, his legs as if in casts …” When “he sang Little Richard’s ‘Reddy Teddy’ and began to move and dance, the camera pulled in, so that the television audience saw him from the waist up only.”

Although Laughton was the main star and there were seven other acts on the show, Elvis was on camera for more than a quarter of the time allotted to all acts.[25] The show was viewed by a record 60 million people which at the time was 82.6 percent of the television audience, and the largest single audience in television history. “In the New York Times”, however, “Jack Gould began his review indignantly: Elvis Presley had ‘injected movements of his tongue and indulged in wordless singing that were singularly distasteful.’ Overstimulating the physical impulses of the teenagers was ‘a gross national disservice.'”

Second and third appearances

Sullivan hosted a second appearance by Presley on October 28, 1956. Elvis performed “Don’t Be Cruel”, then “Love Me Tender”. Sullivan then addressed the audience as he stood beside Elvis, who began shaking his legs, eliciting screams from the audience. By the time Sullivan turned his head, Elvis was standing motionless. After Presley left the stage, Sullivan stated, “I can’t figure this darn thing out. You know. He just does this [Ed shakes his legs] and everybody yells.” Elvis appeared a second time in the show and sang “Love Me”. Later on, he sang a nearly four-minute-long version of “Hound Dog” and was shown in full the entire song.

For the third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed a medley of “Hound Dog”, “Love Me Tender”, and “Heartbreak Hotel”, followed by a full version of “Don’t Be Cruel”. For a second set later in the show he did “Too Much” and “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again”. For his last set he sang “Peace in the Valley”. According to Sullivan’s co-producer Marlo Lewis, the rumor had it that “Elvis has been hanging a small soft-drink bottle from his groin underneath his pants, and when he wiggles his leg it looks as though his pecker reaches down to his knee!”

It was decided to shoot the singer only from the waist while he performed. Although much has been made of the fact that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, except for the short section of “Hound Dog”, all of the songs on this show were ballads. “Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows”, Greil Marcus says, Elvis “stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out. That he did so in front of the Jordanaires, who this night appeared as the four squarest-looking men on the planet, made the performance even more potent.”

Sullivan praised Elvis at the end of the show, saying “This is a real decent, fine boy. We’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you…. You’re thoroughly all right” —a remark that could either be interpreted as a “ringing endorsement” that “legitimized the singer with an adult audience” or as “a somewhat hypocritical statement considering what the CBS censors had just done to his performance on that show.” Eyewitness Jerry Schilling writes, “The way Elvis looked out at us at that moment, I thought I could see a mix of hurt over the attacks he’d been subjected to in the press, and a deep pride in who he was and what he was doing.” (According to historian Tim Parrish, Presley’s manager, Colonel Parker, “had threatened to remove Elvis from the show if Sullivan did not apologize for telling the press that Elvis’s ‘gyrations’ were immoral.”)

Reflecting on the event in 1969, Presley claimed that Sullivan had expressed a very different opinion off-camera: “So they arranged to put me on television. At that particular time there was a lot of controversy—you didn’t see people moving—out in public. They were gettin’ it on in the back rooms, but you didn’t see it out in public too much. So there was a lot of controversy … and I went to the Ed Sullivan Show. They photographed me from the waist up. And Sullivan’s standing over there saying, ‘Sumbitch.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Ed, thank you.’ I didn’t know what he was calling me, at the time.”[34]
Years later, Sullivan “tried to sign the singer up again… He phoned Presley’s manager, Col. Tom Parker, and asked about a price. Parker came up with a list of instructions and conditions and after hearing the demands Sullivan said, ‘Give Elvis my best—and my sympathy,’ and he hung up.”[19] The singer never again appeared in Sullivan’s show, although in February 1964 at the start of the first of three broadcasts featuring the Beatles (see below), Sullivan announced that a telegram had been received from Presley and Parker wishing the British group luck.

The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964 to great anticipation and fanfare as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had swiftly risen to No. 1 in the charts. Their first appearance on February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture and the beginning of the British Invasion in music. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a record for US television. The Beatles followed Ed’s show opening intro, performing “All My Loving”; “Till There Was You”, which featured the names of the group members superimposed on closeup shots, including the famous “SORRY GIRLS, HE’S MARRIED” caption on John Lennon; and “She Loves You”. The act that followed Beatles in the broadcast was pre-recorded, rather than having someone perform live on stage amidst the pandemonium that occurred in the studio after the Beatles performed their first songs. The group returned later in the program to perform “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

The following week’s show was broadcast from Miami Beach where Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) was in training for his first title bout with Sonny Liston. The occasion was used by both camps for publicity. On the evening of the television show (February 16) a crush of people nearly prevented the band from making it onstage. A wedge of policemen were needed and the band began playing “She Loves You” only seconds after reaching their instruments. They continued with “This Boy”, and “All My Loving” and returned later to close the show with “I Saw Her Standing There”, “From Me to You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

They were shown on tape February 23 (this appearance had been taped earlier in the day on February 9 before their first live appearance). They followed Ed’s intro with “Twist and Shout” and “Please Please Me” and closed the show once again with “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

The Beatles appeared live for the final time on August 14, 1965. The show was broadcast September 12, 1965, and earned Sullivan a 60-percent share of the nighttime audience for one of the appearances. This time they followed three acts before coming out to perform “I Feel Fine”, “I’m Down”, and “Act Naturally” and then closed the show with “Ticket to Ride”, “Yesterday”, and “Help!” Although this was their final live appearance on the show, the group would, for several years, provide filmed promotional clips of songs to air exclusively on Sullivan’s program such as the 1966 and 1967 clips of “Paperback Writer”, “Rain”, “Penny Lane”, and “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

The Supremes were a special act for The Ed Sullivan Show.

In addition to 14 appearances, they were a personal favorite of Sullivan, whom he affectionately called “The Girls”. Over the five years they performed on the program, the Supremes performed 15 of their hit singles, and numerous Broadway showtunes and other non-Motown songs. The group featuring the most popular lineup of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard appeared 15 times from December 1964 through May 1967.

The group reappeared on the series in October 1967 as the newly rebilled “Diana Ross & the Supremes”, with Ballard replacement Cindy Birdsong and Ross more prominently featured. The Supremes’ final appearance on the show, shortly before it ended, served as the platform to introduce America to Ross’s replacement, Jean Terrell, in March 1970.

On October 25, 1964, just over eight months after The Beatles historic performance, The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The bad boys of rock n roll were fresh of the release of their third album “12 X 5” and they knew there was no better way to promote it to an American audience.

As Ed introduced the band to screaming fans the curtain rose to reveal The Rolling Stones taking their place on stage. The band kicked the night off with the Chuck Berry classic, “Around & Around,” and a young, shaggy-haired Mick Jagger danced across the stage to the girls’ delight.

The screams lasted throughout the entire song, continuing even after it finished and the curtain had dropped. Ed attempted to introduce the next act, but the sustained shrieks muffled his attempts. He slowly grew impatient and had to tell the audience to be “Quiet!” multiple times.

The Rolling Stones came back to close that evening’s show with their hit, “Time Is on My Side.” Once again, Mick Jagger had to sing over the shrieks of the raucous and unruly crowd. The performance put Jagger’s charisma on full display.

Although The Rolling Stone’s first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was great for the band’s popularity as well as for CBS’s ratings, Sullivan was reticent to book them again. Following The Stones’ first performance, Ed supposedly declared, “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show. It took me 17 years to build this show and I’m not going to have it destroyed in a matter of weeks.” He had had enough of how worked up the crowds had become, and he thought the band was unkempt. When the Stones’ manager tried to change Sullivan’s mind he was sent a response from Ed reading, “We were deluged with mail protesting the untidy appearance—clothes and hair of your Rolling Stones. Before even discussing the possibility of a contract, I would like to learn from you, whether your young men have reformed in the matter of dress and shampoo.” Whatever was said in response to that note worked as The Rolling Stones were back on The Ed Sullivan Show stage several months later. All in all, The Rolling Stones went on to make 6 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Buddy Holly and The Crickets first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1st, 1957, fresh off the release of their debut album. The band consisted of Niki Sullivan (rhythm guitar), Joe Mauldin (stand-up bass), Jerry Allison (drums), and Buddy (lead guitar and vocals). They all wore bow-ties and sport coats, and Buddy wore his trademark horn-rimmed glasses. The foursome played “That’ll be the Day,” the first single off their album. Buddy was hard not to like, with his goofy charisma, innovative vocal style, and a very catchy tune. The result was pure gold: the track would reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 soon after their performance on the show.

That night they also played “Peggy Sue”, a song named for Jerry Allison’s girlfriend and future wife. That song shot up the charts to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Holly’s tireless dedication in the studio led to the Crickets returning to Sullivan less than two months later, on January 26, 1958. A relaxed Holly let fly with “Oh, Boy!”, another single off The Chirpin’ Crickets, a catchy tune that subsequently reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On February 3, 1959, almost exactly a year after his last appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Buddy Holly’s plane crashed over Iowa. Only 22 years old, he was killed along with Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper.” Don McLean called it “The Day the Music Died” in his song “American Pie,” showing just how much Buddy meant to music.

The quintet from Manchester, England was made up of Peter Noone, Derek Leckenby, Keith Hopwood, Karl Green and Barry Whitwam. The group’s sound was styled similarly to the America surf rock they enjoyed listening to. Lead vocalist Peter Noone, who was only 15 years old when the group got together, took the nickname “Herman” after the character Sherman in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. Following their first hugely successful 1964 release in the UK “I’m Into Something Good,” the young, clean-cut group went on to play a pivotal role in British Invasion.

After their song “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” reached number one on the U.S. Billboard charts in the summer of 1965, Herman’s Hermits was set to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Noone recalls “They played us because we were British. But Ed Sullivan liked Herman’s Hermits which was very good for us. And he gave us great introductions, but he always got everybody’s name in the band wrong.”

On June 6th 1965, Hermania, a younger rival to Beatlemania, infected The Ed Sullivan Show. It was evident in the screams of the studio audience as Ed Sullivan introduced the group. Herman’s Hermits opened with their hit, “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” on a set that resembled an English street. Throughout the song a young, innocent looking Peter Noone made coy facial expressions and shot playful glances to the crowd. It was clear he knew what he was doing as he later stated, “On stage I make myself look as young as possible and then all the girls in the audience go ‘aahh, isn’t he nice’.” Noone got the desired effect as teenage girls screamed throughout the whole performance.

The band followed with the British music hall song “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am,” and Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” During the performance of “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am,” Peter really exaggerated his Manchester accent for the American audience. Following that evening’s performance, the song really took off and by August it was number one.

Herman’s Hermits returned to The Ed Sullivan Show on June 19, 1966. During the commercial break before they took the stage, the teenage girls in the audience were screaming and getting all worked up. Ed jokingly remarked, “Oh to be young.” After the break, the boys, with matching suits and shaggy hairdos, performed “Isn’t That Just a Little Bit Better” and “Jezebel.” Peter Noone picked up right where he left off with his charming smirks and waves to the crowd. At the end of the second song, the lights cut out and there was a collective groan from the audience who had hoped the band would do one more song.

Herman’s Hermits returned to The Ed Sullivan Show one last time on September 18, 1966. They took the stage with each member dressed in different colored pinstripe suit. The suits worked perfectly with the bright and colorful set, which looked like something straight out of Swinging London. The band opened with their newest hit “Dandy,” with an upbeat Peter walking around the stage singing a few lines with each band mate. Then the lights faded out for “L’Autre Jour”, which Noone sang in French and English. Herman’s Hermits closed out their final Sullivan show with “My Reservation’s Been Confirmed” before taking a bow to the screams of their adoring fans.

The Doors were notorious for their appearance on the show. CBS network censors demanded that lead singer Jim Morrison change the lyrics to their hit single “Light My Fire” by altering the line, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, before the band performed the song live on September 17, 1967. However, Morrison sang the original line, and on live television with no delay, CBS was powerless to stop it.

They were never invited back to the show. According to Ray Manzarek, the band was told, “Mr. Sullivan liked you boys. He wanted you on six more times. … You’ll never do the Sullivan show again.” Morrison replied with glee, “Hey man, we just did the Sullivan show.” —at the time, an appearance was a hallmark of success. Manzarek has given differing accounts of what happened. He has said that the band only pretended to agree to change the line but also that Morrison was nervous and simply forgot to change the line. The performance and incident was re-enacted in the 1991 biographical film, The Doors.

The group, made up of Frankie Valli (vocals), Bob Gaudio (keyboard/vocals), Tommy DeVito (lead guitar/vocals), and Nick Massi (bass guitar/vocals), is the most successful white doo-wop group of all time. Selling over 175 million records worldwide, they recorded 5 Number Ones, 10 Top Ten and 15 Top 40 pop hits.

Originally known as The Four Lovers, the group landed their first major record deal with Vee Jay Records, a predominantly black record label. They had a minor hit with Otis Blackwell’s “Apple of my Eye”, which they performed on one of their two appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.

In 1959, the group changed their name to The 4 Seasons, after a New Jersey bowling alley where they had failed an audition. Their luck began to change when they met lyricist and producer Bob Crewe. He and Gaudio started writing songs together, and they never looked back. In 1962, The 4 Seasons released their first album “Sherry & 11 Others”.

With their first number one “Sherry,” The 4 Seasons proved they were not just a one-hit wonder by turning out “Big Girls Don’t Cry”— the song they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 9th, 1962. America instantly fell for Frankie Valli’s falsetto voice and the loveable boys from New Jersey. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” skyrocketed to Number One and remained there for fourteen weeks. Following that success, they released “Walk Like a Man” just three months later. This song was Number One for twelve weeks. The 4 Seasons, along with The Beach Boys, were one of the few American acts to withstand the British invasion that occurred in the 1960s when The Beatles crossed the pond. They even managed to make the UK Top 40 charts nine times. As an established group, The 4 Seasons returned to The Ed Sullivan Show two additional times in 1966, performing “Let’s Hang On”, “Don’t Think Twice” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”.

John Fogerty (guitar), Doug Clifford (drums) and Stu Cook (bass) all grew up together in El Cerrito, California and began playing music together while in junior high school. The three boys started out as an instrumental cover band and later, in the early 1960’s, joined up with John’s brother Tom (rhythm guitar, vocals) to play live shows around town. Signed to Fantasy Records, they released seven unsuccessful singles under the name of The Golliwogs. In 1967, they released their first single as Creedence Clearwater Revival, and things began to happen.

According to the band, the name Creedence Clearwater Revival was derived from Tom’s friend Creedence, a commercial for Olympia beer evoking the word “clear water” and the group’s revival after a two year layoff when John and Doug were called to military duty by the draft board in 1966. With this renewed commitment to making music, Creedence Clearwater Revival released their self-titled debut album in 1968. By this time, John was guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. Inspired by artists such as Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, the album’s sound spoke to the group’s working class origins. The LP with was well received and the single, a remake of Dale Hawkins 1956 song, “Suzie Q” reached #11 on the Top 40 charts nationally.

With the group’s early success, Creedence Clearwater Revival hit the road to perform live shows throughout the country while also working on a follow-up album. These shows included music festivals, most famously Woodstock where they appeared with artists Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Santana Santana and The Who. Along with all these shows and as with any artist looking for national exposure, the band made sure to book themselves on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The group‘s first appearance was on March 9, 1969. While introducing Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ed Sullivan spoke to the group’s early success stating, “All the youngsters…have been asking for this group.” Having released their second album, Bayou Country, earlier that year the group opened with their hit single “Proud Mary,” a song about a Mississippi steamboat. John Fogerty actually started writing the song the morning he was discharged from the U.S Army. The hit was #2 on the Billboard charts and would later be covered by Ike and Tina Turner, as well as Elvis Presley.

The band followed that song up with a rousing version of Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” full of blistering guitar solos and Fogerty’s howling of the title line. With Fogerty’s twang, drummer Doug Clifford’s pink cowboy shirt and the band’s swamp rock sound, it felt like the group was straight out of Louisiana as opposed to Northern California. Following the two songs the group went up to shake Ed Sullivan’s hand and wave to the crowd. Always known for mispronouncing or forgetting names, Sullivan stuttered on John Fogerty’s name as the band walked offstage.

Sullivan wouldn’t have any problems pronouncing the band’s name when Creedence Clearwater Revival returned to The Ed Sullivan Show on November 16, 1969. That evening, the band performed two songs, “Fortunate Son” and “Down on the Corner,” off their newest album Willy and the Poor Boys. The performance of “Fortunate Son,” a song inspired by the draft for the Vietnam War and the providential lives of privileged children like David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon, was a sharp and poignant statement about the social and political climate of the past decade. The set, a rickety red wooden stage that looked like it had been pulled out of the Louisiana Bayou, was perfectly fitting for the band from working class origins. Following “Fortunate Son,” there was a paradoxical shift in mood as the band transitioned right into the rollicking good-time song “Down on the Corner.” While evoking strikingly different feelings, both songs had a great look and sound that night.