Dick Cavett Music Greats

First up is Rock Icons which together some of the biggest names in late sixties west coast rock, disc one is the pick of the bunch and features both Stephen Stills and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as the fantastic Joni Mitchell and Jefferson Airplane, all perform some great music, including an awesome solo 4 + 20 by Stills, this show was actually filmed the day after the legendary Woodstock. Also on the first disc is a spaced out David Bowie from 1974 when he was at the height of his powers and in full Thin White Duke mode, could a man ever be skinnier, there's also a a typically off the wall appearance by Sly Stone.

Disc two is devoted to Janis Joplin and as good as the performances are it's very fascinating to actually watch the interviews with her, such a powerful voice yet a surprisingly delicate woman, because the 3 disc box set includes the full episodes and not just the music performances the June 1970 edition also features a fantastic interview with Raquel Welch, very funny to watch as Cavett is practically salivating over Welch.

The third disc features three giants of the music scene in Stevie Wonder, George Harrison and Paul Simon, it's fantastic to see the Harrison interview in pristine quality, it's long been a sought after Beatles bootleg, Harrison had been very busy organising The Concert For Bangladesh and here proves to be a great interviewee with his candour and honesty, he also performs a brilliant song with Gary Wright and his band Wonderwheel. The Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon shows are also excellent especially Simon's casual sitting in his chair and running through a work in progress.

Next is the John and Yoko collection and the first show is from 11 September 1971 and marked Lennon's first TV appearance since the announcement of the break up of the Beatles. His Imagine album was fresh out and Yoko had her legendary book Grapefruit to push too, it takes a little while for Lennon to warm up but he is soon visibly relaxed and covers a huge array of topics with plenty of time spent on the Beatles. The interview over-ran wildly and this first episode ran for 90 minutes but gained enough material for a second show some two weeks later.

The following year on 11 May, the Lennons returned as they said they would, the duo, along with their backing band Elephant's Memory sang a song each - John sang the controversial Woman is the Nigger of the World and Yoko performed We're All Water. Shirley MacLaine is also a guest on this show.

It's brilliant stuff, of interest not just to the Beatles fans or the TV fans but as a great social document of the time too.

Finally there is two discs worth of Ray Charles featuring three complete episodes with Ray performing a mammoth 14 songs, Charles and Cavett got on and Charles is very relaxed here which makes for great interviews.