Saturday, April 29, 2017

TALES FROM THE EDGE OF THE EARTH: STORIES FROM THE CONCERT LIST



by Grant McGee

It's one of those things that showed up on The Facebook that, at first, I didn't want to do.
It was one of those "participate in this" thingys:  "Listed below are 10 acts.  9 I've seen, one I haven't.  Guess which one."
Finally when a couple of pals posted their "9 I seen, 1 I ain't" list I decided to post mine.
But once I got started the memories just started rushing back.  One memory would trigger another reminiscence.
I posted a list of 19 acts I'd seen, 1 I hadn't.
The Canadian accused me of being a showoff.
The Car Salesman guessed the band I hadn't seen on the list of 20.  I had listed The Rolling Stones.  I never saw them, they were always playing stadiums and stadium concerts weren't my cup of tea.  He said he figured it out through "hillbilly logic."
But the memories kept flooding out of the recesses of my mushy hard drive (my brain).
I jotted down act names I remembered on scraps of paper while I was in traffic, a song would suddenly pop a concert back in my head.
Then I posted a new list on to The Facebook:

Listed below are FORTY-FIVE acts I've seen live, EXCEPT one which I didn't. Can you guess which one?
1) Stephen Stills
2) Leon Russell
3) Yes
4) The Allman Brothers Band
5) Dire Straits
6) Little Feat
7) Pure Prairie League
8) The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
9) Willie Nelson
10) Heart
11) Eddie Money
12) The Doobie Brothers
13) Jimmy Buffett
14) Chicago
15) Jim Croce
16) Seals & Crofts
17) Loggins & Messina
18) The Eagles
19) England Dan & John Ford Coley
20) The Marshall Tucker Band
21) Conway Twitty
22) Randy Travis
23) Wet Willie
24) John Martyn
25) Gordon Lightfoot
26) Boston
27) The Band
28) Dwight Yoakam
29) Heartsfield
30) The Bellamy Brothers
31) Waylon Jennings
32) Merle Haggard
33) Michael Martin Murphey
34) Los Lobos
35) Marty Stuart
36) The Edgar Winter Group
37) Rick Derringer
38) Lester Flatt
39) Bill Monroe
40) John Hartford
41) Iris Dement
42) Peter Rowan
43) Mark Chesnutt
44) Chris Hillman
45) Grand Funk Railroad
46) Steve Young

And the memories with those concerts came back.

1) Stephen Stills
This was the first concert I ever went to.  Early 1973.  Tickets were 3 bucks.  Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fame had put together a band Manassas that had some good tunes.  Funny, one of the things I remember is they had rolled out a big rug on the stage that the band was playing on.  Maybe it was a lucky rug or something.  Come to think of it I saw Stills again in 1976 when I tried to get an interview with him for the college paper.  I was having dinner with my date, I spied Stills, went over, asked him for an interview later and he gave me this look that would kill.  His manager stepped in and said come see him backstage after the concert.  It turned out that I had not only blown that because they took off right after the concert but I blew it for my newspaper editor too.  He actually had an interview set up with Stills and me interrupting Stills' dinner had blown the whole deal.
I guess I had karmic payback though.  His warm-up act was Flo & Eddie, two dudes who had spearheaded the pop group The Turtles back in the 60's.  But these two took to the stage acting like two fourth-graders who had just discovered bad words.  They were rude, obscene and they seemed to be totally out of place at a Stephen Stills concert.
Halfway through their act my date excused herself to go to the restroom.
She never returned.
I didn't understand.
I wondered why she could'nt've just told me she was offended or whatever.
2) Leon Russell
Leon kicked ass in "The Concert for Bangladesh" playing "Jumping Jack Flash."  He came to my home town of Roanoke, Virginia in support of a triple live album he released in 1973.  It was like a road revue like he did with Mad Dogs and Englishmen with Joe Cocker.  Even had a little gospel concert going on.  One feature was while he was doing one of his songs a member of the band came out on stage dressed in an Uncle Sam outfit, twirling a cane and tap dancing.  Come to think of it that was the first time I saw the band "New Grass Revival," they were the opening act.
3) Yes
This was early 1974 and the band had just released "Tales from Topographic Oceans."  What I remember about this concert was somehow it seemed like the sound ricocheted all around the colesium.  That's about all I remember because I had taken Dead Lisa as my date, except she wasn't dead then.  I spent a lot of time at the concert wondering if I was going to get to "make out" with her afterwards.
4) The Allman Brothers Band
Sorry guys, but I have to say this was the second worst concert I ever went to.  I hung around until they played "Jessica" and I got to hear the Dickey Betts guitar solo then I took off.  The concert was like "Hey we're stoned and we're gonna just jam up here.  You audience people do your own thing."
5) Dire Straits
Never seen Dire Straits.  Would've liked to.  Mark Knopfler kicks ass.
6) Little Feat
One of my fave bands.  Saw them twice:  Once in 1988 at Virginia Tech and a second time at the Santa Fe Raceway in 1991 where they were the opening act for the Allman Brothers.  Little Feat finished their set, the Allman Brothers took to the stage, I left as a giant cloud of cannabis smoke suddenly lifted above the audience.
7) Pure Prairie League
The band of the moment.  Their album they recorded in 1972 suddenly exploded in the spring of 1975 with the re-release of the single "Amie."
8) The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Saw these guys twice.  Or was it three times.  Always remember how banjo virtuoso John McEuen handled a heckler, having great fun at the heckler's expense.  Quite difference as to how Stephen Stills handled a heckler yelling back at the dude, "If you're so f*cking smart why don't YOU come down here and do the f*ckin' concert."
9) Willie Nelson
Maricopa County Fairgrounds 1993.  I was on the second row.  The lady in front of me looked familiar, couldn't place her.  Then during the concert Willie says, "I'd like to say hello to my good friend, former governor Rose Mofford."  Ah!  That's who that was.
10) Heart
Saw them twice.  Just loved to watch Ann Wilson sing and sister Nancy kick ass on guitar.
11) Eddie Money
It was Eddie Money.  Yup.
12) The Doobie Brothers
These guys were my favorite live act.  How many times did I see them in concert, four?  Five?  Once they blew it when lead singer Tom Johnston left the band for a bit and was replaced by Michael McDonald and he took the lead on Doobs hits that Johnston sang, it just wasn't the same.  At the end of the concert it seems we were all looking at each other going, who the hell was that and didn't he suck.
13) Jimmy Buffett
Warm up act for an Eagles concert.  It was Jimmy Buffett.  The best part was his harmonica player Fingers Taylor doing a jammin' little tune "Dixie Diner."
14) Chicago
Worst concert I ever went to.  It was like, "Glad you all paid cash money to come to our jam session but we don't give a shit you're here."  No hits, all band jam stuff.  Me and Dead Lisa (except she wasn't dead then...I wonder what she would've said if I'd said, "Sorry to tell you but you're going to pass away in 36 years.")  
Anyway, we drove up to the lake outside Roanoke and pulled up off the road where we sat in the dark talking.  That's it, no hanky-panky, just talking.
I was hoping I'd get to "make-out" with her.
Then I heard footsteps in the woods, Dead Lisa did too.  
She said, "What's that?"  
"Those aren't deer," I said.
And just as I started the car...
BLINK
Flashlights on either side of us.
"Roanoke police," said a voice.  "What are y'all doing up here?"
"Talking," I said.
"Talking?" said the voice.
"Talking," I said.
Long pause.
"The lake is closed after sunset," said the voice.  "Y'all get on out of here."
I think they were disappointed.
But Dead Lisa and I weren't the only ones who left the concert.  My buddy Dax and Sailor Boy (we called him that because he had signed up for the Navy) were on a double date with The Cheerleader and her sister.
Along with a bottle of grain alcohol and some Strawberry Hill wine I had purchased for them with my fake ID.
The girls ended up getting sick.
Sick to the extreme.
So Dax and Sailor Boy rushed them over to the home of Mr. B our high school English teacher.
He got them back to normalcy.
I think about that now and realize if such a thing had happened today that it would've been trouble for Mr. B, Dax, Sailor Boy and me.  It would've been something that would've had the whole town abuzz and everyone up on charges of being a threat to national security or some overdramatic shit like that.
15) Jim Croce
Hampton, Virginia, August 1973.  On a double date with my pal Chuck Biscuits and his girlfriend.  They set me up with a girl who started kissing on me as we drove away after the concert.  
I didn't understand. 
Then a month later Jim Croce was dead in a plane crash.
16) Seals & Crofts
It was Seals & Crofts.
17) Loggins & Messina
Saw them twice.
Dug them each time.
Full of energy and fun.
18) The Eagles
Saw them twice in the same year:  1977.
The first time in Richmond, Virginia.  The second time in Roanoke, Virginia.
The second time I started a standing ovation after my anthem-of-the-day "Take it to the Limit."
I was drunk.
I wished I had taken my groovy cassette recorder into that concert.  Midway through it the guys started jamming on a tune, I mean it was Joe Walsh, Don Felder and Glenn Frey tradin' licks on a powerful jam that SUDDENLY broke into "Witchy Woman."  It kicked ass.
Now two years earlier when I took Dead Nancy to the prom (she wasn't dead then) the prom was held in a function room at the Roanoke Civic Center while in the colesium upstairs The Eagles were in concert.
Someone had started rumor that the guys were going to come down and replace the band that was playing once their concert was over.
Yeah...
THAT didn't happen.
19) England Dan & John Ford Coley
It was England Dan & John Ford Coley.
20) The Marshall Tucker Band
One of my favorite bands to pay cash money to go see.
For their January 1977 concert I snuck a cassette recorder into the colesium and caught them on tape.  I never wanted to make any money off of it or anything, just wanted it for my own collection.  Caught a jam on there of them doing "Will The Circle Be Unbroken."  Mighty fine.
21) Conway Twitty
Like the country music people say, "The best friend a song ever had."
He opened his show with his deep, resonant "Hello darlin'...."
22) Randy Travis
It was Randy Travis. 
23) Wet Willie
Funky, Southern, full of energy and fun.  Opened for Grand Funk.  Opened for Marshall Tucker.
One of those times I was right up front.
24) John Martyn
Guitar virtuoso, good stuff.
25) Gordon Lightfoot
It's good to see a legend.
26) Boston
February 1977, College of William and Mary.  They were just as tight and good live as they were on their big selling LP of the day.
27) The Band
I drove all the way to Charlottesville, Virginia spring 1976 for this concert, not for them, but to see their opening act, Chris Hillman.
28) Dwight Yoakam
Amarillo, Texas...spring 1993.  I got to go backstage and shoot the breeze with him before his concert.
It was a great moment in time and bummerly all I could think to say was how cool it was that he put The Indigo Girls on his newest CD.
29) Heartsfield
Opening act for the one Doobie Brothers concert that sucked.  These dudes were from the Midwest.  Best described as a "merrie" band of melodic hippies full of kick ass energy.
I went out the next day and bought all three of their albums.
30) The Bellamy Brothers
This was the in-between time for them...from when they had the big hit with "Let Your Love Flow" on the Top 40 pop charts and were morphing into a mainstream country act.  They came to hillbilly-land to play a local gym. 
The receptionist at the radio station where I worked was quite smitten by the boys.
31) Waylon Jennings
Salem, Virginia 1977...Amarillo, Texas 2000.  It was Waylon.  Waylon kicked ass.
32) Merle Haggard
Roswell, New Mexico 2003.  I was glad to go.
33) Michael Martin Murphey
Roswell, New Mexico 1991.  I fell asleep.  Though I have to say when I interviewed him the year before when he was going to be at the New Mexico State Fair it was a fun interview, like talking to an old party pal from college.
34) Los Lobos
Phoenix, Arizona 1993.  Good stuff.  I dug it when they broke into one of my all-time favorite songs "One Time One Night."
35) Marty Stuart
Salem, Virginia 1974...Amarillo, Texas June 2000.  Marty knows his shit.
36) The Edgar Winter Group
This was the last concert I took Dead Lisa to.  I think she thought I had a one-track mind.  What can I say.  I was 16 and a boy.  I had hormones, you know.
37) Rick Derringer
Opening act for The Edgar Winter Group.
38) Lester Flatt
Bluegrass legend appearing on a double bill with...
39) Bill Monroe
...THE Bluegrass legend.
40) John Hartford
One of my fave country-folk acts.
I even got to introduce him on stage one time.
I saw him 2 or 3 times in my time.
41) Iris Dement
The folksy country singer from the Heartland.
She took to the stage in Scottsdale, Arizona 1994.
Have you been to Scottsdale?
It's expensive to live there.
She looks out at the audience.
"I went window shopping around here before the concert tonight," she said.  She paused.  "Bet y'all don't have a Wal-Mart around here."
42) Peter Rowan
Legendary Bluegrass musician and all-around performer.
43) Mark Chesnutt
Mainstream Country singer who gave a great, tight concert in a high school auditorium in Sierra Vista, Arizona 1995.
44) Chris Hillman
Original member of the Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Stephen Stills Manassas and years after this 1976 concert I went to... The Desert Rose Band.
45) Grand Funk Railroad
After The Doobs, The Eagles, Little Feat, Marshall Tucker Band my 5th fave band to see in concert.
46) Steve Young
My all-time favorite musician.  Southern singer songwriter.  The man who gave the world "Seven Bridges Road."
I couldn't believe my good fortune when he came to Amarillo for a small coffehouse concert in 1993.
I was really amazed when he showed up in Tucson in 1994 with Katy Moffatt.
Oh, hey.  I forgot to put Katy Moffatt on the list.

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