David Letterman seldom interviews musicians when they perform on his show, and that might have something to do with the legacy of Tom Snyder, whose The Tomorrow Show aired on NBC from 1973 to 1982 before being replaced by Letterman’s own program. During his run, Snyder hosted a notorious slew of punk rockers, most of whom were studiously unprepared for their time on the talk show hot seat. Johnny Rotten was as easy to interview as a junkyard dog; the Ramones stared shyly at their feet, slouching and shuffling and buried in hair; and, perhaps most memorably, Wendy O. Williams blew up a vehicle onstage in an inspired performance Snyder was clearly not expecting. This DVD set uniquely documents the Tomorrow Show’s punk years with interviews and performances by PIL, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, the Jam, the Plasmatics, and others. Raw, unrehearsed, and occasionally repellant, these stripped-down appearances captured punk rock as it was meant to be–loud, rude, and fun. Even after two decades of marketing-created musical “outlaws,” they still feel like a revelation.
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