Like fine wine...a music thread and confessional

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

I've been playing with the new digital cable box (note to the rest of you: I'm late to the party.  This is Mayberry, so we're ROCKETING into the '90's about now), and listening to the Classic Rock channel (as well as the Reggae, Smooth Jazz, and World Music channels).

It's bringing up all manner of memories for me...
The '78 Boston Concert at the (now defunct) Capital Center in Largo (warm-up band: pre-VH Sammy Hagar during his solo period-- I think the album was 3 Lock Box.)  Me and Cindy Beasley, high on life, taking the long way home after the concert...
Which brings up the Supertramp concert (Breakfast in America) and their (then) cutting-edge light/video show.
The Allman Bros. Concert at the Merriwether-Post Pavillion
Charlie Daniels Band at the same place, later that summer.

James Taylor (right between Dad Loves His Work & Flag) at Wolftrap (hey, Cindy wanted to go, and believe me, Cindy GOT what she wanted) .
Jethro Tull (Songs From the Wood) at Balt. Civic Center
Aerosmith (right between Toys in the Attic & Rocks) at RFK, where I almost had my right index finger cut completely off by a ('nuther) drunk 17 year old with a broken vodka bottle. Alcohol and testosterone...
Rush (2112) at Capital Center.
Marshall Tucker, Jimmy Buffet, Molly Hatchet, Little River Band, and Kenny Loggins (all separately) at JMU.

...and probably 3 dozen or more shows I don't remember attending, for one reason or another.  Let's leave it at that.  It WAS the '70's, after all.
Oh yeah, the Dixie Dregs at a little student center gig (about 250 in the audience) at JMU


Note re: Jethro Tull shows-- I saw four in all, from mid '70's to late '80's.
I've been to a concert or two.  There were alot of illicit substances at some of those shows.
No audience...and I mean NONE (not the Dead, not Robin Trower, not Kansas)
...No audience was EVER as consistently zone-stoned brain-dead bolloxed soaring Deep Space 9 as the Tull show audiences were.  Not sure why.


Anywho, that's 'How I Spent MY Summer Vacation' for a few years during H.S. and early University days.
Glad to have survived.  
G-d is merciful to the young and stupid.
Confession, they say, is good for the soul.


P.S. I know mtnbkr and Mike Irwin will know most of these venues, since I grew up where they now live.

[Modifiedbrowning]

I used to live in Mclean, Va, but never saw any shows at those venues. I did see some good shows at the 9:30 Club in the early to mid 90's.

[280plus]

I saw a lot of those shows too. Some of the most memorable being: Queen, KISS (once in the 70's and again just a couple years ago, they STILL got it) ZZ Top a few times, Tull a few times (Songs from the Wood was a GREAT album. Skynyrd the first concert of the tour on which they crashed. THAT was a good show, an unknown group called "Journey" warmed up for them. The Eagles with "special guest Joe Walsh" another classic done months before "Hotel California" was released. The Dead a few times, the Band a few times. I saw Bob Weir with Rob Wasserman and a great band at UHART right after Jerry Gratefully died. Took my 17 YO, all the ex's family thought I was taking him there to feed him alcohol and drugs. They're all such @$$holes. By the end of the concert it was like being at any other DEAD concert IMHO only maybe better without Jerry. My kid asked me to buy him a beer. I said no. Took him to see Van Halen too. Then there was Jeff beck with Terry Bozzio on drums. Un - frickin - believable. Bozzio had at LEAST 30 drums and as many cymbals around him and I'll bet he hit every one at least once. Then I saw Glenn frye and Joe Walsh teamed up about a year before the "Hell Freezes Over" tour. THAT was a good show. I could go on. Oh there WAS one more I should mention. Now a lot of these were seen in San Diego. There was always a certain "aroma" in the air at these things. As a matter of fact the San Diego Chicken was seen on several occasions to take a funny looking cigarette from concert patrons which disappeared inside his beak followed by copious amounts of smoke bellowing back out from his whole head pretty much. Well one time I went ot see (don't laugh) Olivia Newton John. They had USHERS there and there was NO SMOKING of ANY kind AND everybody there was like old and in suits and dresses. It was VERY surrealistic...



Lately I've stopped going because it's just too damn expensive these days IMHO. Not only that but when did it become vogue to STAND through an entire concert. If I'm paying $50 plus for a concert ticket I damn well want to be able to SIT and RELAX for it. Maybe I'm just getting old...

Speaking of surreal I saw KISS the second time just a couple of years ago and the following night I went to the same venue and saw Steely Dan. Now you want to talk about a bit of a difference in the crowds? WOW, is all I can say about it.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

280, yeah I caught that lil' ole band from Texas about 3 times over the years.  I've stopped going, too.
Spiritual epiphany and the need to be a Mentor and Elder to the subsequent generation of the Fignozzle family.

Never saw the Eagles.  I was a HUGE Joe Walsh fan during his James Gang and solo days.
Marriage made in heaven, for him to join the Eagles.

I was HOLDING tickets for an RFK stadium show when the Free Bird went down.  Still have 'em someplace. Broke my pea-pickin' heart.

I was filling up the car the other day, and the country station in Birmingham played the latest by VanZant.
My 14 year old son was with me.
I proceeded to tell him the story of the First Family of Southern Boogie, how Ronnie, Donnie, and Johnny were all brothers and responsible between the 3 of them for about 40% of all the high-octane Southern Rock in existence today.  I told him they were Royalty.  He looked at me a little funny.

[280plus]

I was HOLDING tickets for an RFK stadium show when the Free Bird went down.  Still have 'em someplace. Broke my pea-pickin' heart.

I was overseas when they went down I STILL say nobody comes close to what them guys had. I can STILL remember the roar of the crowd when Ronnie strutted himself onstage during the intro to MCA.

Yea Joe Walsh was a big surprise that night. There had been rumors but when they announced him the crowd went beserk. Awesome show as there was no "Hotel California" so it was all old Eagles and old Joe Walsh and they played pretty much everything, I've always been a big JW fan myself.

Ever see Charlie Daniels? Big strapping guy with long skinny legs. You ain't seen nothing till you've watched him do his little jig whilst playing.

Me and my brother was watching him at an old racetrack infield, pretty much right at the front. Well some crap started in the crowd right in front of him (right next to us, I'd already had trouble with them myself) and he stops the music and says, "HEY, YOU PEOPLE CUT THAT JUNK OUT!!" THE REST OF YOU JUST IGNORE THEM!! Then security came and escorted the idiots away and on went the show.

Then there was th first KISS concert. Well, some foolhardy soul a few rows behind me started blowing big balls of fire out of his mouth. I could feel the heat on the back of my neck. He was soon escorted away as well. The one thing I noticed is KISS was very nervous on stage. Every time someone lit a big firecracker off them guys were looking like they wanted to hit the deck. I mean REAL FEAR in their eyes. Apparently they'd had problems with fireworks from the crowd before.

Great concert though and I was real surprised to see how good they still were this last time. I mean Gene Simmons is in his 60s IIRC. He ain't blowing fire no more. I think he finally singed himself and gave that up. He was still spitting out "blood" during his bass solo though.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Ever see Charlie Daniels? Big strapping guy with long skinny legs. You ain't seen nothing till you've watched him do his little jig whilst playing.

Me and my brother was watching him at an old racetrack infield, pretty much right at the front. Well some crap started in the crowd right in front of him (right next to us, I'd already had trouble with them myself) and he stops the music and says, "HEY, YOU PEOPLE CUT THAT JUNK OUT!!" THE REST OF YOU JUST IGNORE THEM!! Then security came and escorted the idiots away and on went the show.

Then there was th first KISS concert. Well, some foolhardy soul a few rows behind me started blowing big balls of fire out of his mouth. I could feel the heat on the back of my neck. He was soon escorted away as well. The one thing I noticed is KISS was very nervous on stage. Every time someone lit a big firecracker off them guys were looking like they wanted to hit the deck. I mean REAL FEAR in their eyes. Apparently they'd had problems with fireworks from the crowd before.

Great concert though and I was real surprised to see how good they still were this last time. I mean Gene Simmons is in his 60s IIRC. He ain't blowing fire no more. I think he finally singed himself and gave that up. He was still spitting out "blood" during his bass solo though.

I saw CDB probably 4 times overall; he's a shooter and a big supporter of our military.  Never afraid to speak his mind, onstage or off!

Strangely, I was never much into Kiss.  About that same time, I had discovered Kansas and Rush, and between them and Southern Rock, they were my staples.
...although I was one of the few white guys that REALLY REALLY got into funk; the music of Parliament aka Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, Rick James, the Gap Band, War, Morris Day & The Time, and others.

I still argue with the whippersnappers that rap is not unique to the last 15 years or so; it has its roots DIRECTLY in funk, and many of the samples rappers use (that ARE actually music and not just rhythmic chant) are the creative property of the Funk masters, and many were used WITHOUT their permission.  Rick James and George Clinton, in particular, have been ripped off repeatedly by the rappers.

Re: Journey...I thought nothing of them early on, when Ross Valory was the lead singer, and with so many other great things (Rush and Kansas) happening at the time, I had already blown Journey off as "lightweight, Top-40 stuff" before Steve Perry ever came on board.  About 10-12 years later, I "rediscovered" them as I found how much I loved Don't Stop Believin', Lights, Stone in Love, and most of the Escape and Departure albums.  Later, Raised On Radio was a great disc.

But, I digress.
Anyone else have fond memories of the Classic Rock age as it was actually happening?  
Anyone develop an appreciation later in life?

[Larry Ashcraft]

Haven't been to many concerts in my life, but the few I saw were good ones.

Strawberry Alarm Clock, free at college, 1967
Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, $1.50 at City Hall, 1968 (I think)
Dire Straits at Red Rocks, the Brothers in Arms Tour.  Easily the best concert I've ever been to.
The Who, at Folsom Field in Boulder.  It was one of their "Farewell, No Really, We Mean it This Time" Concerts.  I would have liked to have seen them in their younger days.

Now I feel old.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Me, too Larry.

That Who show and Dire Straits both make me jealous.
Mark Knopfler is a genius.

A little off-topic, but my kids' favorite movie is called "The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns", and Roger Daltrey plays a Fairy King in the show.  Quite a departure from being a rock god.

[grampster]

In 1982 or '83 (can't exactly, cough, ahem, remember)  Fleetwood Mac was at Joe Louis Arena.  Dire Straits was the lead in band.  I remember thinking "these guys are good".  Their intro song, I forget the name, (Sultan of Swing??) was their first mega hit but it was not until a coupla  years later.
Fleetwood came out and reeled off a dozen gold record tunes, back to back.  Best concert I ever went too.

  Saw Bob Dylan in Kalamazoo back in late '70's.  We were behind the stage.  Crap seats.  The tunnel was right next us though.  While set up was going on, I noticed someone standing next my seat.  It was Bob.  We actually chatted for about 10 minutes.  I asked him if he remembered being at a free concert in Daytona Beach in the spring of '62  (Weekend of the Palm Sunday Riot; there's another one I'll tell ya about someday when the statute of limitations runs out)
Peter Paul and Mary, the Highwaymen, Kingston Trio etc were all there.  He said he remembered the time and we had a chuckle over that.  Halfway through the concert he stopped everything and moved all the instruments around behind the speakers, saluted us in the cheap seats, and gave us 3 song treat.  When done he pointed at us and grinned, then went back around and finished the show.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

See, grampster, I *KNEW* there was more to your story than a 'kindly old pistol-packin' grampaw'!!!

I'm not one to go wishing my life away, but I ALWAYS felt as if I'd been born about 10 years too late; which means I missed Woodstock and the Summer of Love and Haight-Ashbury and all that mierda.

Still, G-d has pulled me from the muck and mire, and His ways are higher than mine.
May ALL of you live in 'interesting times'.
Fig

[grampster]

HAH!  Fig, you didn't miss anything.  Besides if youda' been here then you'd not remember it anyway.  Hah.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Knopfler IS an absolute genius.  He wrote Sultans of Swing as a demo.  When the Dire Straits show was announced at Red Rocks, it sold out in SIX minutes.  They agreed to a second show and I had to enlist the help of a customer/friend who was a partner with Barry Fey, of Feyline Productions, to get four seats.  We were in row 13, center.

The Who show was somewhat of a disappointment, mainly because Folsom Field is so BIG.  Also, by that time, Daltrey had lost his ability to hit the real highs, so he had two female backup singers.  Still, it was a great concert.

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre is an awesome place to see a concert.

[Larry Ashcraft]

I'm not one to go wishing my life away, but I ALWAYS felt as if I'd been born about 10 years too late; which means I missed Woodstock and the Summer of Love and Haight-Ashbury and all that mierda.

Well, I was old enough, but Woodstock was over before us kids out here in the west even knew it was happening.

Sure would've liked to see Hendrix.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Sure would've liked to see Hendrix.

So there's a raucus 'virtual' cocktail party going on down at APS, all of us talking about these AMAZING things in the '60's and '70's we experienced onstage as well as what happened surrounding the experiences...

Then, someone says...The Name.

A hush comes over the group, people become very sober and stop and think about what they may say next...
A wierd kind of almost...religious, quiet, introspection...

Hendrix...

There, you said it.

He took us places.  He opened doors.  Sure, there was a foundation of blues.  And, when he was nervous, he would often return to that foundation, and start a concert with Red House, just to muster up his courage.

But, then...

Then, the Magic happened.  Fox Theater.  Montreux.  Isle of Wight.  Woodstock.

IMO, after listening to the oral traditions and the recordings, the only thing even close that ever happened before or since, was Peter Frampton when he recorded Frampton Comes Alive.
I feel almost wrong mentioning that, though, because Jimi blazed places none of us had been before.

Many came afterwards, trying to be like him.
Robin Trower.
Frank Marino.
Eddie VH.
Joe Satriani.
Richie Sambora.

As amazing as these players were/are, they are also-rans.

I play guitar. Among guitar players, nobody walks where Hendrix lives.
Jimi, we hardly knew ye.

He was the best.

[Brad Johnson]

This is Mayberry, so we're ROCKETING into the '90's about now),

Wow. Next thing you know you'll be buying a cassette player to replace that 8-track...

Brad

[HForrest]

I seriously wish I would have been born 40 years earlier than I was, so I could appreciate the music and culture of the 60's and 70's firsthand. I hate my generation.

[charby]

Combat-wombat

I imagine that their generation experienced the saem crap that we do to, timeless tunes will come out of our time in 30 years and some of the kiddos will be saying the same song and dance as you have.

Charby

[Larry Ashcraft]

Combat-wombat

I imagine that their generation experienced the saem crap that we do to, timeless tunes will come out of our time in 30 years and some of the kiddos will be saying the same song and dance as you have.

Charby

Actually, if I remember right, most of the music before 1964 was forgettable.  When the "British Invasion" started, things got interesting.  If you think about it, music trends are influenced by marketers and record companies for the most part, then and now.

There were two times in history when the ARTISTS took over and influenced music, the 1940s and the 1960s.  I think that's why the music of the 1960s is still popular today.

[grampster]

Well, I was there for all of it... the end of the Big Band sound on 78's and the seminal 45's of rockers coming out of the 50's.  Black R & B sung by white boys who gave the music "credibility".  Pfagh, what a bad taste in my mouth that still is..the notion that white kids needed to embrace the music to make it worthy...but sadly it was true in that time and place...and some truly soulful white boys that manipulated the blues into something else...rock and roll.  THey learned at the knees of some great musical genious that had no platform because of the color of their skin.  But the white kids brought black music into their homes and that truly was the door opener for the magnificent talents that only were heard in the black back road beer gardens and roadhouses of the south, or in the churches.  But the black dudes were doing it all for many years before.  
At the same time black and white tv had the big hits of the day sung by no names, some of whom went on to pretty good careers as club singers and tv variety shows.  My mother would pop for the cheap 78's sung by the imposters, but if I wanted the real McCoy, I would need to get a job and pay the long cent myself for the 45's.

My brother was at Woodstock.  I was a leo at the time and though I loved music I was conflicted by the lifestyle change that was occuring as a result of the freedom the music engendered.

Ironically, my youngest son was at Woodstock II.

I my late teens, we used to go to the dancehalls and listen to the sons of the big bands that played around the metro areas as they struggled to keep up with the music of swing and at the same time evolve into "rock orchestras"  Many of the dances I attended, we listened to the 50's and 60's rock played by 8 to 10 man bands. (Probably why I still love ELO) Then they started to disappear and poof, came the lead guitar, the base (then base guitar) and a drummer.  What a time that was.  It was also a time of folk singers, a couple of guys a guitar, bongos and the songs of Woody Guthrie et al as well as the new kids on the block; Kingston Trio, Highwaymen, PP and M etc.  Shoot we had it all, the beat the rythym and you could actually understand the words.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Felonious Fig,

Thank you for your post about Jimi Hendrix.  That was awesome.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Note re: Jethro Tull shows-- I saw four in all, from mid '70's to late '80's.
I've been to a concert or two.  There were alot of illicit substances at some of those shows.
No audience...and I mean NONE (not the Dead, not Robin Trower, not Kansas)
...No audience was EVER as consistently zone-stoned brain-dead bolloxed soaring Deep Space 9 as the Tull show audiences were.  Not sure why.

Ha!  I went to a Tull concert last year.  The audience hasn't changed any in the last few decades.  

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Larry, you're welcome.  I just get a little full of my Journalism degree when talking about Jimi.

Headless, did you see that really tall, skinny guy in the knee-high moccasins, jeans and the peasant shirt, brown hair down to the middle of his back?  
I think he's some kind of apparition that's been at every Tull show I ever saw.

Or, maybe it was just an outgrowth of those pre-concert festivities.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Oh, and one funny anecdote about Hendrix:

'bout 99 or 2k when I went to work at EDS, I worked an evening shift taking tech support calls for the Toshiba account.
WIDE spectrum of people working there with me; my cube-mate was about 30, a fellow from Nigeria who had lived 4 years in Madrid, Spain;  across the way was a 20-something from Korea, bunch of good-ol' Tennessee redneck white boys, couple of older farts re-defining their career paths, several Univ of TN students from every conceivable walk of life.

After 5pm when the "ties" left for the day, we would turn on some music.  Usually kept quiet enough to only hear across a cubicle or two.

This one night, the Korean guy brought a copy of Hendrix' BBC Sessions in.
When the first few notes of Voodoo Chile sounded, it was like the old E.F. Hutton commercials.
Everybody came running, yelling Turn it UP!!!, and we all had this 5 minute communal head-bobbing session; the old farts, the guy from Nigeria, everyone.

It was soooo cool.

[natedog]

I hate all of you .

Sure, I've been to a few punk shows and some indie concerts and the like (and had a great time at it as well), but nothing that could measure up to the greats of the 60s and 70s.

[280plus]

Ironically, my youngest son was at Woodstock II.

Was he one of the naked babies dancing on the album cover?

I can't believe Tull is still touring. Last time I saw them the was Songs From the Wood tour and they looked pretty old then.

Speaking of Tull. Did anyone else catch that tour where he and the band wore jumpsuits and one of the guys in a PURPLE jumpsuit played a clear violin. Just for the record, that concert sucked! I think he knew it too cause he went back to the old Tull and never looked back.

I sw the "newcomers" The Kingston Trio a few years back. One of them came out on crutches having just had a hip replaced. The lead guy (sorry I don't know their names) comes out, looks at the crowd and says, "Gee, you're all so old!" They were a riot and put on an excellent show. Great harmonies. He told a few stories about how they didn't really understand how they got grouped into the "folk" genre, he said, "We were a CALYPSO BAND MAN!" And then how there was no "folk" category at the Grammy's yet so they won the very first Grammy ever presented in the new "Country Western" category that year. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing them if you ever get a chance. The added bonus was feeling like a young pup sitting in that crowd of old farts...  

Jimi took a guitar and turned it into something else. All those other guys play it like a guitar. Jimi didn't.

Now I have to add my favorites "The Doors" as a whole. Not just Morrison. I was too younr to have ever seen them or Jimi. That is my regret...

Remember, "If you drive your '67 Impala out to the desert and set it on fire just to watch it burn, you might be a Doors fan!"

LOL...