Friday, September 22, 2006

Long Live Rock! - be it dead or alive

I was making an attempt to clean my garage out when I opened the first box to see what was inside. I found a few ticket stubs from my concert going days in Atlanta and immediately got sidetracked from cleaning the garage.

For a while, I dated a girl that worked at a local concert promoter and she liked for me to hang with her while she was doing the backstage logistics. One year, I saw over 372 different concerts. In Atlanta it was easy to do so back in the early seventies... I could see Fleetwood Mac (pre Buckingham/Nicks) at the Fox Theatre, go across the street to Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom to see a set by guitarist Robin Trower and later catch the final 1 am set by new artist Robert Palmer (Sneakin' Sally Though the Alley) at the Great Southeast Music Hall which was on the way home.

I've seen some great bands over the years - my favorites concerts always have been the bands that had a lot of street buzz and radio airplay (back when radio was progressive). I had the good fortune to catch new bands touring to support their first album such as Alice Cooper, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (opening for the J. Geils Band), Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Allman Brothers Band, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson or Linda Ronstadt's band that went on to become the Eagles.

Still I regretted never getting to see the Moody Blues, The Band, Led Zeppelin or any of the Beatles just to name a few.

C. Kula on the Office Pirates blog understands exactly my musical regrets...

You have a problem: You want to see your favorite classic rock band this summer but don't feel like paying Ticketmaster fees, fighting a crowd, or buying $8 beers. Oh, also: Your favorite classic rock band broke up years ago.

Watch these 20 classic rock TRIBUTE BANDS we found on You Tube - from Hell's Belles, the all-female AC/DC tribute, to the Doors band that performs in school cafeterias, to "0vueen," Korea's answer to Queen.

Long Live (mock) Rock!

5 comments:

Sharon Cobb said...

By any chance, did you see Steel Eye Span with Jethro Tull circa 1973? If so, it's possible we may have met way back then backstage!

I *did* meet a Beatle, (Ringo) and was about 5 feet away from George Harrison for quite a while until I ran outside and had a massive panic attack.(Carl Perkins funeral...I didn't know he was going to be there...and who expects to run into George Harrison in Jackson,TN?!?!?) I was determined to meet Paul...had an interview set up him in 97, but he had to cancel because Linda wasn't well. But before that, in 93 when Paul was in Memphis, my ex and I took a suite on every floor of the Peabody the night he performed. My thinking was he and Linda would stay at the Peabody, and if I had a suite on every floor, I'd get through any security on each floor.
Paul and Linda flew out after the show and my husband left me shortly after that. :)
I'm sort of like the chubby chick in the movie "I Want To Hold Your Hand," who did everything she could to meet them, then finally gets to them and passes out.
BTW, did you see that movie?

ceeelcee said...

"Sneaking Sally Through the Alley/Hey Julia/Sailin's Shoes" with Little feat as the backing band! One of my top ten favorite cuts ever.

Thanks for the flashback.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sharon, I remember Jethro Tull, just not sure as they were reocurring stop in Richmond, Va. Maybe it was at the Munipal Auditorium that you are referring to. Oh well -

I related more to the movie "Almost Famous" as it reminded me of the regular groupies in Atlanta.

Smiley: Little Feat - that frentic hyper band that Atlanta loved dearly. The LP covers by Neon Parks were always unique, especially "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" - the one with Marilyn Monroe and George Washington.

Sharon Cobb said...

LOL I came []<--that close to signing my post, "The real Penny Lane."
Almost Famous is almost perfect. I can watch that movie over and over...and have.

Kerry Woo said...

Sharon, you wrote about Bruce Springsteen on your blog -

Bruce was a local regular that played a lot in Richmond, VA before his first record deal - local progressive radio really helped back in the early seventies - I think WRLT (Lighting 100) is a throwback to those days of exposing good new music nationally and locally. Where else can I hear Shawn Colvin, Mindy Smith, Madeleine Peyroux and for that matter NEW songs from Bob Dylan?