#4: “The blues is number one!” – Jon Spencer destroys the Recovery set

The much-missed tonic for Saturday morning hangovers, Recovery added an extra element of risk in that musical performances were genuinely live, rather than mimed. Like Countdown, though, it was recorded early in the morning – a challenging time slot for any band, let alone a high-energy act like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, who – in September 1997 – were themselves recovering from a show the night before, at the end of a long tour.

From the depths of exhaustion, Spencer went berserk: mics were thrown, props torn down, cameramen shoved aside, and host Dylan Lewis sat upon, before the singer waded into the audience as bandmates Judah Bauer and Russell Simins maintained maximum rock’n’roll behind him.

If excitement was the sole criteria, the JSBX’s performance would top this list, as Spencer channelled the spirit of Little Richard and the young Elvis.

The Guardian have mentioned The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion‘s performance on Recovery, ABC Studios, Melbourne, Australia (6 September 1997) in their feature “From Madison Avenue to Iggy Pop: five unforgettable moments of Australian music TV“.

Read Here: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/19/from-madison-avenue-to-iggy-pop-five-unforgettable-moments-of-australian-music-tv

“We couldn’t do anything about it, it was live,” Dylan Lewis laughs, describing the moment when he and the rest of the Recovery crew watched in horror (and delight) as The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion began to physically tear down the set in 1997.

“You can’t just stop recording. And that’s what defined Recovery — the moments when it all went wrong. That’s everyone’s favourite, Jon Spencer, and it’s up there with my favourites too. It was the moment that music television made sense to me and Recovery was defined. Like ‘this is what we can do, these are the moments we can get.’ It’s beautiful to watch, isn’t it? I loved it. I loved seeing that again.” – junkee.com

“‘Oh my god, this is the greatest moment that’s ever happened on television and I’m standing here watching it live. How wonderful and magical.’ At the end of it, I think I said something like, ‘Yep, my life is complete. This is what we came here to do, this is what rock’n’roll is.’ It was such an amazing, transformative moment and it really did make me realise how powerful [Recovery] could be.” – themusic.com.au

Trailer for the documentary “Recovery: The Music and The Mayhem” featuring The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and quotes from interviews with Dylan Lewis about the show.

“There’s a [Jon Spencer] Blues Explosion album I did in ’95 where I cut about 10 songs with them in New York City that’s never been released. But I don’t know [whether it’s gone], nobody’s telling us anything. We didn’t hear about it until the last year.”

Beck discussing his recordings with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in an interview published by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Link: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/beck-fears-most-of-his-music-has-been-destroyed-20191125-p53dwv.html