this performance of friendship train is fantastic GLADYS in superb voice and PIPS backing and choreography are something else......THIS AUDIENCE WOULD OF SAT STONY FACE TO JAMES BROWN ..SEX MACHINE ..im with you BETH And MARTIN id be dancing with you..
True some people were brought up to act just like that conservative and cold but people from Chocolate nation or any Latin area know about the rocking and the swaying showing some sign that you feel what they are singing about,l feel it 🥰❤️🖤💚
Man I didn't understand Your Comment.I guess You would have to see Her in Person.MISS KNIGHT is Very Down to Earth in A Motherly Unconditional Loving way even back in the 70s And She's just as Beautiful Today if not more than She was in these 70s Performances.I Love to See Her Smile.Naturally Beautiful and Sincere.Love& Peace 😁😎 luv ya byo eJ DADDY COULD SWEAR...I DECLARE
I love this performance! The song is a killer! Gladys is absolutely gorgeus! It was almost insulting to perform for such dead audience, but she handled it with such power and grace and topped it off with the hand shakes. Such an amazing performer!
Faultless perfection by Gladys and the guys. They were part of my youth and formed my growing up. Wonderful, wonderful days. Thankyou Gladys. Thankyou Pips.
Just saw this on BBC4's Classic Soul programme. Always adored Gladys Knight but was only 12 when this was out so missed out on this number. What a great tune and a precurser for the O'Jays "Lovetrain" in the message. This is Soul & so glad I have it in my veins not like that awful audience. Makes you ashamed to be white! I know times were different back then but thank heavens times have changed in 40 years. You wouldn't see a still person nowadays. Thank you Gladys...and the Pips too of course!!
What a great groove this song has and of course with Gladys out front belting it out WINNER. Love Gladys Knight Sexy and Talented What a voice Love it Glenn Augustyn
I was reading the remarks about the upload here and when I watched this video, it does show her going into the audience and shaking a few hands. The way these people were sitting, the audience does seem a bit dead, but at the end, the applause was enthusiastic, in fact, I heard some Woooooo's, yea's and yeahs at the end.
I get the impression this might have been the first time some of the audience have been in the same room as a black woman. Stupendous performance by Gladys and the Pips.
Saw this on the BBC's classic soul programme last night - astonishing chasm between what is happening on stage and what is happening in the audience as is much commented here. Love the way the band starts up in pretty good gear and then perhaps looking at the dead-eyed response from the audience think "well what the hey, let's have fun anyway", with the rhythm section and drummer in particular really motoring and stretching out. What music should be all about - and the pips are fantastic!
Amazing song, amazing artist, fantastic backing singers/dancers... I'm just old enough to have witnessed this and you have to remember that most of the audience were born before world war II... they are mostly in awe for sure. Please don't judge them by todays standards, rather relish in the fact that her courage is phenomenal. Love it.
+Cocodan 2000 When a band is playing as tight and loud, live, you don't need to get a message, the music alone should get the body moving. Oh this was the musical segment in an Art's review discussion show of the time, theatre, exhibitions, etc. Might explain the stiffness??
it's not that, the audience were probably told not to make much noise, and the good old British reserve is so noticeable, they do warm up towards the end. I must say they look as they have all come to the wrong show!
I've just seen this on BBC4. The audience did seem hostile, especially a couple at the front. They did have genuine smiles though when Gladys shook their hands.
Now that is one of my favorite "SOUL" classics...and the dance choreography is excellent by those Pips back there. Glady's you know you got some SOUL!!! Thanks for posting this clip FuriousWank.
So much soul! Gladys is a one of a kind beauty and it's great to see The Pips at their liveliest. If a few of those folks in the crowd didn't actually move their hands to shake with Gladys, I'd swear that they were performing for the world's largest wax museum audience! Cheers!
What superb on-stage presence by The Pips The footwork and hand gesture segments in the intro ... at about :38 are an excellent demonstration of how their moves compliment the music and set the tone for what will follow during the song.
1968, Fall ------Denver Coliseum, Gladys & her Brothers opened for Smokey & The Miracles. it was sold out , 13,000, & " Friendship Train " was their final song. We were all standing, clapping, moving our hips, & loving it ! --------------MJL< 75 y/o
On this day in 1969 {December 7th} "Friendship Train" by Gladys Knight and the Pips peaked at #2 {for 1 week} on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart, the one week it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "Someday We'll Be Together" by Diana Ross and the Supremes "Friend Train" reached #17 on Billboard's Top 100 chart... Between 1961 and 1988 the Atlanta, Georgia group had fifty-five records on the Hot R&B Singles chart, thirty-one made the Top 10 with ten reaching #1... Gladys Maria Knight, aka The Empress of Soul, will celebrate her 77th birthday in five months on May 28th, 2021... Sadly, two of the Pips have passed away, Edward Roy Patten at the age of 65 on February 25th, 2005 and William Guest on December 24th, 2015 at age 74... May both Mr. Patten and Mr. Guest R.I.P. * "Friendship Train" was the group's second of five of their records to peak at #2, their other four #2 records were "The Nitty Gritty" {1969}, "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" {1971}, "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" {1973}, and "On and On" {1974}... And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the remainder of the Hot R&B Singles' Top 10 on December 7th, 1969: At #3. "These Eyes" by Jr. Walker & the All-Stars #4. "Baby, I'm For Real" by The Originals #5. "Eleanor Rigby" by Aretha Franklin #6. "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" by Stevie Wonder #7. "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 #8. "Backfield In Motion" by Mel & Tim #9. "Ain't It Funky Now" by James Brown #10. "Take A Letter Maria" by R. B. Greaves
NB I am aware that such perfection is anything but effortless, but arises only from relentless hard work driven by genius and ambition. Lord, I wish I possessed even any one of those.
I was gonna be the fourth Pip for this BBC production but they built the stage too small and my career ended before it started. I can still do the moves though. True story.
@@coraggio93 Don't think this can be attributed solely to cultural differences. I've seen European audiences give it up for soulful performers many times, even prior to 1972. Check out Otis Redding, for instance, in London. Perhaps it was the age of the audience - or they were being held hostage.
This was recorded in 72 and the world was a very different place back then... that audience was quite possibly told to sit still and be quite or where just being themselves and doing so anyway.... Full credit to Gladys for just doing her thing... we all know that 40 years on if Gladys was to come back and grace our BBC studios or the royal Albert Hall the whole of the audience would be rocking on their feet... I have no doubt about that.... ! Trouble is these days I paid £75 x 4 so we could go watch Stevie Wonder at the O2 and had to tolerate 2x drunks beside us both holding and spilling 3x pints of larger each and a large bucket of chips (not to mention they just discarded all their trash on the floor) Frankly them twats where considered a disgrace and so was O2 for allowing the food and larger in the Audience... , hmmm maybe that makes me stuffy ??? I hope not ? I just regard it as BAD MANNERS...
Rick Harm Are you sure this is from BBC and recorded at Albert Hall? I don't remember the Whites in Europe being that unresponsive because when you watch the Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway from 1967, they were 100% into the show!
...picking up a dead salmon! I screamed out loud with laughter! I, too, would have been the fourth Pip on the stage. Do you ever wonder what gives with people? I can't even sit still listening to this!
