The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave

Before David Letterman there was Tom Snyder. Following suave Johnny Carson, Snyder was the epitome of awkwardness. From 1973 until ’82 this middle-aged man with the used-car salesman laugh came across like the family’s weird bachelor uncle, and booked the biggest acts in punk.

Six complete shows are a who’s who of 70s underground music. Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, John Lydon and Patti Smith make appearances. The absolute mismatch of demeanours between Snyder and his guests is brought into even starker relief, when he’s intent on engaging them in extended banter. Like a well-meaning but clueless high school math teacher, Snyder furrows his pipe-cleaner eyebrows with earnestness and tries desperately to make sense of the younger generation’s penchant for safety pins, self-inflicted pain and loud asynchronous power chords. Highlights include interviews with a charmingly unaffected Elvis Costello (sample Snyder question regarding his father “do ya love him?”) a roundtable discussion with an 18-year-old Paul Weller and adorably young Joan Jett. Weirder, still the other guests are often laughably uncool activists raising the alarm over various societal calamities. Inevitably, as Snyder’s belly laughs subside, he leans into his sneering guests and asks some variation of the following: “You seem like such a nice young lady, why do you do it?”

Bewildering, but this guest list is pure gold.

The L Magazine