When Space Ghost Coast To Coast started airing in the mid-90's, it's brand of off-kilter absurdity went way over my 10-year-old head, but I'm sure if the adult-me had been around at its inception, I would've embraced its genius without haste and in addition, freaked out over their choice of free jazz legend Sonny Sharrock to provide the score. Sadly, Sharrock passed away as the first season was airing, and during the third season in 1996, the show's creators produced an incredibly poignant tribute episode for Sharrock which still kept firmly in-line with the show's gleefully nonsensical universe. A showcase for a few of Sharrock's improvisations set against a phoney emergency and a non sequitur Thurston Moore guest spot, the episode is pretty much 12 minutes of Sharrock at his most fierce.
Space Ghost C2C - 26 - Sharrock by SpaceGhostC2Cfan0224
Space Ghost C2C - 26 - Sharrock by SpaceGhostC2Cfan0224
The Volume Two DVD of the series also includes a bonus unaired tribute performance to Sharrock from Thurston Moore joined by who I'm pretty positive is White Out drummer Tom Surgal. The only rip of this online is this sadly atrocious YouTube upload of the video literally played on somebody's desktop; definitely not the best viewing for a clip very worth seeking out. If you so wish, you can view that here.
I was old enough to love this show then, though I couldn't afford cable at the time, and still pine for those days of irony-free glee in televised animation. By the way, one of the show's creators, the talented Dave Willis, was music director and station manager at my college's radio station in the early 90s. I wouldn't be surprised if Sharrock was his idea.
Posted by: Kevin | December 02, 2011 at 09:57 AM
Own this DVD set and treasure it!
Posted by: xangoir | December 02, 2011 at 10:03 AM
Gawd! You can't beat that with a stick! Why can't all TV be that good?
Posted by: Psychatrone Rhonedakk | December 05, 2011 at 01:46 PM