September 17, 1967: Television Goes Psychedelic

The Doors on The Ed Sullivan Show, September 17, 1967.

Front: Jim Morrison. Behind him, left to right:

John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek

Note the actual doors suspended from the ceiling.

September 17, 1967: Television goes psychedelic, as CBS caps "the Summer of Love" with 2 explosive variety shows -- one figurative, one literal.

From 1948 to 1971, "The Tiffany Network" aired The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights at 8:00 Eastern Time. Ed was progressive in some ways, willing to air rock and roll acts, and black performers of all kinds, when most variety-show hosts wouldn't.

But there were, occasionally, issues. In 1956, he said he wouldn't have the hot newcomer of the moment, Elvis Presley, on his show, until rival Steve Allen brought him to his show on NBC. Ed saw Allen's ratings, too the hint, and had Elvis on his show 3 times, the last time showing him only from the waist up, to hide his gyrations.

In 1963, Bob Dylan was scheduled for the show. He wanted to sing his song "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues." The censors, afraid that he would look like a Communist, told him after the 1st rehearsal to drop it. He refused. Ed backed him up. And Ed usually got what he wanted. This time, they overruled him. Dylan never appeared on the show, but he kept Ed's respect.

In 1964, Ed booked The Beatles, and 73 million people watched. At the time, it was the biggest audience in U.S. TV history. That led to several other British bands being booked, one of them The Rolling Stones.

But on January 15, 1967, mere hours after Super Bowl I, the Stones wanted to sing their song "Let's Spend the Night Together." Trying to avoid a conflict with the censors, Ed's producer, and also his son-in-law, Bob Precht, suggested a slight change: "Let's Spend Some Time Together." The Stones did it that way, but their anger is obvious on the tape.

At that point, The Doors had just released their self-titled debut album, a groundbreaking opus that helped bring "psychedelic rock" into the mainstream, including the song "Light My Fire," which had hit Number 1. Ed booked them, but their biggest song contained the line, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher." You couldn't say the words "get high," or any variant, on prime-time U.S. TV in 1967, because it would be taken as a drug reference.

Ray Manzarek, the organist and spokesman for the group, told Precht, "We'll think of something." So they discussed it.

John Densmore, drummer: "What are we gonna do?"

Robbie Krieger, guitarist, who had written the lyrics: "It's my lyric, I don't care. Whatever you guys want to do, I'll do it."

Jim Morrison, lead singer, who usually wrote the lyrics, and sang them: "I'm not gonna change the lyric."

Manzarek: "Then let's not change the lyric." And, presuming they would get caught breaking the rules, they settled on their story.

Also on this show that day were comedians Jack Benny, Rodney Dangerfield and Flip Wilson; married singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme; the singing Kessler Sisters, Alice and Ellen; and actor Yul Brynner, who did a classical guitar routine. All of it live, coast-to-coast, from CBS Studio 50 at 1697 Broadway, between 53rd and 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The building had recently been renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The Doors opened the show with a song from their 2nd album, "People Are Strange." When it was over, there was a pause, as Ed's usually straitlaced audience wasn't sure what to make of them. Even the teenagers, usually put in the balcony of the theater to scream at the rock bands, didn't applaud at first. The applause that followed was tepid.

At the end of the show, The Doors played "Light My Fire." Jim didn't change the lyric. (Unlike in the 1991 film The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone and starring Val Kilmer, Jim did not stick his face in the camera and make a point of it. He just sang it as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.) They played a short version, similar (but not identical) to the single version, rather than the album version, which has gone down in music history as "The Long Version."

As the song ends, the camera shifts to Ed, who looks mad. To hide this, the director quickly fades to black and goes to commercial.

Afterward, Precht walked up to the band, and rips them for saying, "higher."

Manzarek presented the story the band agreed on: "Sir, it's The Ed Sullivan Show, we were nervous, and we just did the song the way we've done it a thousand times, we didn't think about it, and we're sorry!"

Precht told them, "We were gonna book you for 6 more shows. But now, you'll never do The Ed Sullivan Show again!"

The members thought they'd blown it. But Morrison said, "Hey, man, we just did The Ed Sullivan Show."

True to his word, Precht made sure The Doors were never on the show again. The show last aired on June 6, 1971. Within a month, Jim Morrison was dead. Three years later, so was Ed Sullivan.

However, Precht inherited control of the Ed Sullivan Show recordings, and had no qualms about lending the performance of "Light My Fire" back to CBS for TV specials commemorating the show. The nostalgia network Decades now airs the show, and the September 17, 1967 episode is in regular rotation. (UPDATE: In 2024, Decades was "rebranded" as Catchy Comedy.)

One more note: On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1967, a little more than 3 months later, George Carlin was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. He did his Al Sleet, the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman routine. Referring to a symbol on his weather map, he said, "This is a Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high." It was his 4th appearance on the show. Since it was played for laughs, and Al Sleet was clearly not someone the average viewer would want to emulate, Carlin got away with it, eventually making 11 appearances.

*

The night was still young. On February 5, 1967, CBS debuted The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Tom and Dick Smothers had been a big comedy act for a while, and had been a hit on Ed Sullivan. They went for a hipper-than-thou vibe. And, apparently, it was Ed who had a problem with The Doors, not CBS: They appeared on "the Smos Bros" on December 15, 1968, singing "Wild Child" and "Touch Me." (Come to think of it, George Carlin was on that episode.)

On September 17, 1967, at 9:00 Eastern Time, while Ed Sullivan and Bob Precht were still steaming over "Girl, we couldn't get much higher," the Smothers Brothers went on the air, albeit on tape rather than live. In addition to show regulars, comedian Pat Paulsen and singer Jennifer Warnes, the show featured acting legends Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney.

And British rock band The Who.

Ed Sullivan was just short of his 66th birthday, making him old enough to be the grandfather of the eldest Door, Manzarek, 28. In contrast, Tommy Smothers was 30 years old, Dick was 27. So they were only a few years older than The Who: lead singer Roger Daltrey was 23, bass guitarist John Entwistle was about to turn 23, guitarist and main songwriter Pete Townshend was 22, and drummer Keith Moon was 21. The Brothers could relate to their guests a lot more easily than Sullivan could, and while the bandmembers were a bit more far-out than the Brothers were, the Brothers did handle things better.

The Who were already known for destroying their instruments onstage, having done so 3 months earlier at the Monterey Pop Festival in California. They were also known for destroying other things, like hotel rooms, and even cars: Moon had drunkenly driven one into a hotel pool.

The Who played their signature song, "My Generation," with Daltrey stuttering the lyrics because, as Townshend explained, the character is so hopped up on amphetamines (the drug of choice for British "Mods," as The Who's members had been). The key lyric seemed to be, "Things, they do look awful c-c-cold, I hope I die before I get old."

At the end of the performance, the members did wreck their instruments. This included Moon setting off an explosion in his bass drum. Unfortunately, Townshend got too close to it, and it wrecked his hearing. Now, like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, he was practically deaf in one ear.

Died before they got old: Jim Morrison, 1971, from a drug-induced heart attack, age 27; Keith Moon, 1978, from a drug-and-booze combination, 32; and John Entwistle, 2002, from a drug-induced heart attack, 57.

Lived to be old: Ed Sullivan, 1974, from cancer, 73; Ray Manzarek, 2013, from cancer, 74; and the following, all still alive at this writing: Tom Smothers, 85; Dick Smothers, 83; Roger Daltrey, 78; Pete Townshend, 77; John Densmore, 77; and Robbie Krieger, 76. (UPDATE: Tom Smothers died on December 26, 2023, at 86.)

*

September 17, 1967 was a Sunday. This was also the day of the Kayseri Atatürk Stadium Disaster in Turkey. I have a separate entry for that event.

A full slate of Major League Baseball games was played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at the old Yankee Stadium. Luis Tiant outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. This was a bit of a blow in the Sox' 4-way dogfight for the American League Pennant with Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota. The Birds got home runs from Boog Powell (not surprising), Paul Blair (a little surprising) and Andy Etchebarren (very surprising).

Both pitchers of record would pitch for the Seattle Pilots in 1969, and feature in fellow pitcher Jim Bouton's published diary Ball Four: The winning pitcher for the O's was Gene Brabender, and the losing pitcher for the Sox was Gary Bell.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Forbes Field, in Pittsburgh. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5 with a solo home run. For the Giants, Jim Ray Hart hit a home run, but Willie Mays only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and didn't get a hit.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Gary Peters pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 at Atlanta Stadium. (It would be renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1974.) For the Cubs, Billy Williams hit a home run, and Ernie Banks went 2-for-4. For the Braves, the only home run was hit by Charlie Lau, the light-hitting catcher who would go on to become one of the sport's most admired hitting instructors; Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 with a double; and Joe Torre went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 4-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Athletics, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California. (The ballpark is now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim.) This would be the last month for the A's as a Kansas City team: They moved to Oakland the next season.

And, being a Sunday, there was pro football, both the NFL and the AFL. For the senior league, it was the opening game of the season:

* The New York Giants beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 37-20 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 35-24 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Atlanta Falcons, 38-31 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Chicago Bears, 41-13 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Cleveland Browns, 21-14 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions played to a tie, 17-17 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 27-21 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the New Orleans Saints, 27-13 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. The Saints were an expansion team, and this was the 1st regular-season game they ever played. They lost their 1st 7 games before finally beating the Eagles on November 5 at Tulane.

And in the AFL:

* The Houston Oilers beat the Buffalo Bills, 20-3 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Denver Broncos, 35-21 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Boston Patriots, 35-7 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the New York Jets, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers all had a bye week. In 1966, the Dolphins were an AFL expansion team. Another, the Cincinnati Bengals, was added in 1968. So in 1966 and 1967, the AFL had 9 teams, and there was a bye every week to at least one team. 

February 25, 1968: Waist Deep In Two Big Muddies

February 25, 1968: Pete Seeger appears on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour -- Take 2.

Born on May 3, 1919 in New York City, Seeger became one of the top folksingers in America in the late 1930s, working with Woody Guthrie. In the early 1950s, he was the leader of The Weavers, the country's top folksinging group, also including Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and a female member, Ronnie Gilbert.

In 1953, the group was blacklisted for their Communist leanings. Despite a successful concert at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve 1955 and a subsequent tour, The Weavers were persona non grata. Seeger and Hays had written "If I Had a Hammer" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine"; The Weavers had popularized Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons," before Tennessee Ernie Ford; and Seeger had introduced mainstream white America to such songs as "On Top of Old Smoky," "Down by the Riverside," "Goodnight, Irene," "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," "Kumbaya" and "Wimoweh," which became "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." In spite of this, Seeger found it incredibly difficult to get gigs.

In 1962, The Kingston Trio recorded Seeger's antiwar song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" That became a Top 10 hit. In 1963, his adaptation of the African-American hymn "We Shall Overcome" became the theme song of the Civil Rights Movement, and he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival with his successors as the biggest folksingers in America, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

In 1965, The Byrds recorded his song "Turn! Turn! Turn!," adapted from the Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 8. That hit Number 1. The same year, he hosted Rainbow Quest, a music show broadcast on Newark-based, New York-aimed, TV station WNJU-Channel 47. In 1967, that show's 38 episodes were broadcast on New York's WNDT-Channel 13 (soon to become WNEW-Channel 13, the flagship station of PBS.)

By that point, he had been rehabilitated enough that, when CBS told Tom and Dick Smothers, folksingers and comedians, and hosts of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, that they were willing to do them a favor, they said, "Let us have Seeger."

For the opening show of their 2nd season, September 10, 1967, CBS let "the Smos Bros" have Seeger. He sang some songs, and explained how songs can have special meaning to people. Then he was shown singing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" But there was an obvious edit in between.

And it got out that the reason this previously-recorded program was edited is that he had sung "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," an anti-war song that seemed to criticize not only people who supported the Vietnam War, but the man leading the American effort in it, President Lyndon B. Johnson, suggesting that he was "the big fool." CBS did not want to anger LBJ and his supporters.

Well, they angered Seeger's supporters, and the Smothers Brothers' supporters, and people who opposed the war, and even people who supported the war but stood up for freedom of speech. A backlash developed.

And other things happened. On October 21, there was the biggest antiwar demonstration in Washington to that point. On November 30, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin announced he was opposing LBJ in the Democratic Presidential Primaries, on an antiwar platform. On January 30, 1968, the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive. Although it was a strategic disaster for them, it was a public-relations disaster for America: It showed that, no matter what LBJ said about how "we" were "winning," we weren't.

What's more, CBS owned Columbia Records -- at the time, Seeger's record label. They began to fear of a boycott of their records. And so, the network gave him another chance: On February 25, he appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour again. And he sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," and CBS showed it.

Though a pacifist, during World War II, Seeger served in the U.S. Army, in the Pacific Theater. He was trained as an airplane mechanic (the Air Force wasn't separated from the Army until 1947), but was reassigned to entertain the American troops with music. Later, when people asked him what he did in The War, he always answered: "I strummed my banjo."

So the story of "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" is not strictly true: He did not experience it. However, there was a similar story, "The Ribbon Creek Incident": In 1956, at the U.S. Marine base at Parris Island, South Carolina, a Staff Sergeant conducted an exercise that led to the drowning deaths of 6 Marines. He was acquitted of manslaughter and oppression of his troops, but was found guilty of negligent homicide and drinking on duty. He was sentenced to 3 months' confinement and was demoted to Private, and later rose back to Corporal and received an honorable discharge.

Seeger no doubt learned of the incident, and, once the situation in Vietnam began getting worse, wrote the song based on it, making it an allegory for World War II veterans not understanding that this was a different war. He included the words "Nervous Nellie," a term Johnson had used for antiwar activists.

Johnson had run for a full term in 1964 in part on being "the peace candidate," with the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, being an aggressive anti-Communist. Johnson won in a landslide, but couldn't win the war.

Once, asked if he was still a Communist, Seeger said, "I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other."

The song has 6 verses. I was tempted to post all the lyrics here. Instead, I'm posting a link to the performance. The studio audience gave rather nervous applause, wanting to salute the performance, but not really wanting to support the stand.

Two days later, on February 27, CBS broadcast an even more influential program: Walter Cronkite, anchor of The CBS Evening News, aired film of his report from Vietnam, and recommended that America should get out.

Two days after that, on February 29, Robert McNamara resigned as U.S. Secretary of Defense. On March 12, Gene McCarthy came close to beating LBJ in the New Hampshire Primary. On March 16, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York entered the race. On March 31, LBJ dropped out, saying he needed to concentrate on ending the war, not on his personal political vindication.

On June 4, Kennedy beat McCarthy in the California Primary, essentially knocking him out of the race. The next day, Kennedy was shot, and died the day after that. On August 28, Vice President Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination for President, while Chicago police beat antiwar activists, just 4 miles from the Convention site. On November 5, Richard Nixon -- the man that Johnson, Humphrey, Kennedy, McCarthy, and certainly Seeger and either Smothers Brother did not want to see win -- won the Presidential election. The war went on another 4 years.

Pete Seeger remained America's grand old man of song, through the rest of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Reagan Years, two wars with Iraq, the end of the Cold War, 9/11, and all kinds of governmental abuses, singing his last on January 27, 2014, at the age of 94.

As for the other Weavers: Lee Hays died in 1981, not long after the Weavers' final concert together, at Carnegie Hall; Ronnie Gilbert in 2015; and Fred Hellerman in 2016.

*

February 25, 1968 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 124-115 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Cazzie Russell scored 38 points for the Knicks.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the St. Louis Hawks, 126-119 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Rockets, 127-112 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Elgin Baylor scored 41 points and had 22 rebounds.

The American Basketball Association was in its 1st season, and these 4 games were played in it on this day:

* The New Jersey Americans lost to the Minnesota Muskies, 92-83 at at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Both teams moved before the next season: The Americans, playing their home games at the Teaneck Armory, moved to Long Island, becoming the New York Nets; and the Muskies became the Miami Floridians.

* The Indiana Pacers beat their arch-rivals, the Kentucky Colonels, 100-93 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

* The Anaheim Amigos beat the Houston Mavericks, 114-109 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

* And the Oakland Oaks beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 115-105 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Jim Hadnot scored 41 points for the Oaks.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL: 

* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1. It was only the 3rd game the Rangers had played in the new Madison Square Garden.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Oakland Seals and the Minnesota North Stars played to a tie, 3-3 at the Met Center in Bloomington. Yes, it hosted an NHL game and an ABA game on the same day.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins, the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.