Clint’s Classic Clips: Joe Ely “Musta Notta Gotta Lotta” The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1981

An early clip of Joe Ely catches him in fine form with this energetic performance for the BBC’s iconic weekly musical showcase.

For this week’s clip we return to the archives of the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test programme. Repeats of highlights from the programme are frequently shown in various compilation shows. We’ve all seen famous clips of David Bowie, Elton John, The Police etc. that are shown endlessly and continue to rack up huge numbers of views on Youtube. However, the OGWT archive also contains a large number of performances by lesser known artists that rarely seem to make their way on to the various repeat formats. That is certainly the case with this week’s clip. To be honest I didn’t even know that Joe Ely had been on the Old Grey Whistle Test until I recently stumbled across this wonderful footage. ‘Musta Notta Gotta Lotta’ was the first Joe Ely album that I ever bought and was quite influential in taking my musical tastes down some new paths that eventually led me to this americana thing. This clip reminds me of why Joe Ely reached out to me at that time. Enjoy!