2016.07.18 Liberty Ellman on John McLaughlin

Rebroadcast April 26, 2021.

Just a suggestion: if you’re going to name your band (in Hindi), “Absolute protector of the universe beyond human comprehension and all attributes,” you’d better have the nuts to back it up. I mean, your stuff had better be incontrovertibly immaculate. You had better be doing something no one else has ever done and that no one else will do for at least another 50 years. You would look like a complete ass if you delivered anything less than that nearly impossible achievement.
In this edition of Mitch Goldman’s Deep Focus from 2016 with guest Liberty Ellman, find out if John McLaughlin is revered to this day by every knowledgeable plectrist or is a total laughing stock (hint: no one’s laughing and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s reign is unending).
And do the WKCR archives deliver unassailable evidence that even the band’s greatest fans have never heard? What kind of a question is that?!
Photo credit: JohnMcLaughlin – Zirkus Krone, Munich, West Germany – 1973 June 9 Public Domain File