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I CAME TO GW through my Guitar Player subscription – and I just renewed my GW subscription.

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Shining a light on The Midnight Special

I'm a 72-year-old retired Manhattan package design creative director and – since the Sixties – a guitarist and songwriter. GW content is diverse and informative. I enjoyed the recent article on 50 years of guitar-focused music on NBC's Saturday Night Live [December 2025]. Here's a suggestion for a similar feature: NBC's The Midnight Special featured an eclectic range of guitar-focused bands during its 1972-to-1981 run. It's terrific that Midnight Special broadcasts are now on YouTube, thanks to executive producer Burt Sugarman; the shows have been digitally remastered from the original 2-inch quad videotapes. So many notable bands and artists appeared on The Midnight Special, spanning numerous genres. GW readers would no doubt be intrigued by an incisive feature probing the many guitar-focused live performances on this well-produced show. I bet their podcast team – and Mr. Sugarman himself – would cooperate with GW in terms of photos and information.

Best regards...

JOHN DIGIANNI

How could you leave out Neil Young?

I cannot believe you left Neil Young's 1989 performance of “Rockin' in the Free World” off your list of 50 greatest SNL guitar moments. Not only was it one of the best guitar moments in SNL history, but it was one of the greatest live musical moments in TV history, period. Just like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan a generation earlier, many of my generation saw Neil Young on SNL that night and went out and started a band the next day. And not for nothing, the lyrics to that song are more timely now than ever (God help us!).

BILL L., LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA

Ode to Guitar World in the Nineties