Four people sent me this with a Geezer warning. Make of that what you will.
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I think it means that everyone here has the potential to become an “‘eezer“.
‘-)!!
Does it count as synchronicity if I mention that I almost asked a co-worker today “What’s shakin’ ” ?
It’s the dawning of the age of Geezerius… You Baby Boomers just overwhelm whatever niche your huge cohort happens to inhabit… ;-)
larK, you almost had it. This strip is the drawing of the age of Geezerius.
And as for Boomers overwhelming things, there’s an XKCD for that:
And the hovertext is:
An ‘American tradition’ is anything that happened to a baby boomer twice.
There’s nothing “geezer” about classic rock. Young people like it too.
Using those expressions might be geezerish, but I don’t think it takes a geezer to understand them.
And, Lord F, some of us geezers don’t. That said, I saw and enjoyed the movie “Yesterday” yesterday.
I’m such a geezer that I’m upset the strip doesn’t mention the Butterfield Blues Band.
“There’s nothing “geezer” about classic rock. Young people like it too.”
The fact that music moves from “contemporary rock” to “classic rock”, though…
Classic rock is just top40 with Sturgeon’s Law applied.
Just for fun . . . and to keep this thread going:
Will anyone/someone/everyone list the musicians s/he has seen in concert, starting way back (Guy Lombardo? Glenn Miller?? Cab Calloway???). I would find it interesting to see the diversity in musical tastes among CIDUers.
I won’t be first – I’ll wait for someone else to start . . . or no one to do so, if that’s the case.
Well, concert acts I’ve seen more than once — as far as I can recall, that list consists of:
PETER, PAUL AND MARY (twice)
ERIC BOGLE (three times)
GORDON BOK (twice)
Probably a number of “one time” tickets I no longer remember, but of those I do remember, GORDON LIGHTFOOT for sure, and TWO NICE GIRLS. Less happily, JAY AND THE AMERICANS and SI ZENTNER (back in college; I think I snuck in to one or both of them).
Mrs. Shrug, who was living in England at the time (as an Air Force brat), saw THE BEATLES before they were famous.
I saw all of the following in the 80s:
Tom Petty (with Stevie Nicks and The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened before they became known)
America (got dragged to that one)
The Animals (original lineup)
Jimmy Buffet (with Little Feat — but without Lowell George, meh)
Berlin
Sparks
The BusBoys (several times)
The Beat Farmers (several times)
Those last two are probably pretty obscure, but they put on great shows.
Excluding orchestras and other minor local acts, I’ve seen:
Jeff Tyzik
Moxy Fruvous (twice)
They Might Be Giants
Spyro Gyra
Canadian Brass
Gap Mangione (many times)
Yellowjackets
Mannheim Steamroller
Dave Brubeck
Bob James & David Sanborn ft. Steve Gadd
Dr. John (partial)
“Weird Al” Yankovic
Steep Canyon Rangers (only as part of the Martin Short / Steve Martin comedy tour, though)
There may be more I’m forgetting. I don’t keep careful track.
Gosh, it would be a crazy long list. And I’ve forgotten a lot of them, but here is a partial listing:
Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, Honeytree, Phil Keaggy, the Talbot Brothers, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, Mylon & Broken Heart, Skillet, Newsboys, DC Talk, Jacob’s Trouble, Paul Clark, Love Song, Petra, Sidewalk Prophets, Matt Maher, Todd Agnew, Unspoken, POD, For King & Country, Larry Norman, Darrell Mansfield, Glenn Kaiser, Don Francisco, Randy Stonehill, Carman, Mercy Me, Big Daddy Weave, Bill & Gloria Gaither, B.B King, Joe Bonamassa, Koko Taylor, Keb’ Mo’, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Etta James, Wardlaw Brothers, Take 6, Z.Z.Top, Charlie Daniels, John Fogerty, Marshall Tucker Band, Santana, Heart, Doobie Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Blondie, Melissa Etheridge, Chicago, Aretha Franklin, ELO, Ted Nugent, Molly Hatchet, Rick Derringer, Poco, the Outlaws, Dave Mason, Styx, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Tesla, Kool & the Gang, KC & the Sunshine Band, Bonnie Raitt, John Hartford, Little Feat. Jason Mraz, Blues Traveler. And so many more I just can’t remember. But it was fun thinking about it!
Since I have no idea when I saw most of these, I’ve put this (probably incomplete) list in alphabetical order:
Peter Gabriel (twice, both times in Germany, the first was in 1987),
Jean-Michel Jarre (a major disappointment), Heinz Rudolf Kunze (German),
The Moody Blues (marvellous, even that late in their touring career),
Renaissance (OK, but not as good as their albums),
Rush (second only to Gabriel in overall concert quality),
The Who (1982: the very first of their ten “farewell” tours),
Three Dog Night (possibly the first concert I ever went to),
Yes (like some of the other groups, their albums were better).
P.S. @ DemetriosX – I would have been happy to see Little Feat live (they were inordinately popular in Washington), but Lowell George did me (and everyone else) the disservice of dying before I had the chance.
@Kilby: Now that you mention it, I think I might have seen Three Dog Night at Magic Mountain ca. 1974.
And yeah, Little Feat without Lowell George just wasn’t all that great. I mean Craig Fuller, who was one of the founders of Pure Prairie League, was no slouch, but it just wasn’t right. Like Queen trying to replace Freddie with Paul Rodgers.
I would have loved to see Rush, too. It just never worked out.
Interesting thread here, so only for CIDU’ers: TheTokens, 1964, The Action House line ups 65-68, including Sam & Dave, Gladys Knight, Vanilla Fudge, etc etc. E B & the Animals Fillmore East, later in SanFran. Sly & the Family coupla times (always a scene, better than the concert itself,) Grate Full Dead, and a few a don’t remember because 60’s…I saw Altamont coming and it stunk to high heaven before it ever got there. Didn’t go, and haven’t been to a venue like that since. Interesting time line definitions. Regards y’all.
My first rock concert was Petra, at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, in 1986.
I do have a dim childhood memory of seeing Victor Borge at a dinner theater sometime in the ’80s. I think I also saw some theater pipe organ concerts in the 80s as well.
From there I moved on to Jethro Tull (supported by Fairport Convention), Yes, Moody Blues (backed by orchestra) and other classic rock bands through the ’90s.
Sometime in the ’90s and ’00s I found the coffee-house concert circuit and saw a whole bunch of singer-songwriters and folk bands. My last big-time rock concert was Jethro Tull about a decade ago. Tickets for such venues are getting a bit pricey for me. I like the smaller shows at the two arts centers I frequent. No shortage of tallent.
Mention of Victor Borge (whom I didn’t see live) reminded that I did see “P.D.Q. Bach” (Peter Schickle) ive, though I’d consider that a music-themed comedy act rather than a concert per se.
I’ve also just remembered seeing Ritchie Havens and Leo Kottke in ’93. They… weren’t very good. That was disappointing.
“Grate Full Dead”
Was that a parody act?
I like both these ‘acts’ and watch them of YouTube.
ON YouTube
I was just thinking of the t-shirt that states: I MAY BE OLD, BUT I SAW THE BEST BANDS
I’m a terrible baby boomer. I think I’ve only been to two concerts in my life: Springsteen early on, and Jackson Browne (and only because my cousin, who’s his #1 fan, invited us when both he and Browne were visiting New Jersey).
Oh, and I guess we have to count Southside Johnny, but we only went because my son’s high school orchestra instructor knew him and Mr. Johnny agreed to let the string section accompany him on stage for a song — despite the fact that not a single one of the kids had ever heard of him)
Yes, younger people still like “classic rock” but only because they have been exposed to it absolutely everywhere. I find it so weird that shops in college towns still play that stuff all the time — it’s as if you couldn’t have gone three steps in public without hearing Rudy Vallee or Paul Whteman when I was in college in the 80s.
Victor Borge once and PDQ Bach twice. Ella Fitzgerald once in her later years. A re-formed Kingston Trio, Gary Burton, Ramsey Lewis, Dave Becker, Van Morrison (several times with my wife, who is a serious VM fan), and more that I can’t think of just now.
I saw (I think it was) the Irish Rovers and decided to never again see a live concert. I couldn’t hear them over the crowd singing along.
I’m with you, Arthur: it’s all just so much noise.
I guess that’s an ambiance some people like. My wife does. I just feel the urge to get away.
Give me a CD, seriously.
I never have attended a rock or pop concert. Lately, now that I’m no longer a productive member of society, I have considered seeing some live performances. My tastes recently have been towards female-fronted indie groups.
There have been a couple that were coming to town that I was interested in, but I nixed because of the venues. Both were at small places with general admission and very little seating. So the likelihood is standing all night, or at best perched on a bar stool. My back won’t take that these days.
On the other hand, I’ve been going to more baseball games. I’ve found the best deal is with expensive seats on a week night against a “lesser” opponent. You can get loge behind the plate, with access to a special club area with its own concessions and rest rooms, for < $30 + StubHub fees.
@ Arthur & Bill (re: “volume”) – All of the concerts that I have attended have been heavily over-amplified, so that it is difficult to hear anything but the feed from the stage. Decades ago, I came upon the trick of wearing foam earplugs for the entire show. Not only does this mask out any remaining distractions from the audience, it vastly reduces the tinnitus-like reverberations that used to persist for some hours after a concert.
P.S. @ Grawlix – Thanks for reminding me about Jethro Tull. I saw them in high school or college (thus long enough ago that it was the original lineup). I remember one gag: Anderson was otherwise engaged, so the drummer stood up to do a “substitute” flute riff, which was a hilarious surprise.
P.P.S. @ DemetriosX (re: Three Dog Night) – I have no idea how difficult it was to smuggle contraband into Magic Mountain, but when I saw them at the Cap Center outside Washington (with my dad & siblings, as it happens), no one had to light up anything to get a contact high, because everyone else in the audience already had. I was clueless, but even my sister recognized the scent.
Never been to a live concert, unless you count a few Saturday nights at the Rathskeller at school.
In no particular order: Sinatra, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, The Who (also the ’82 tour), The Kinks, Beach Boys, Buffett (multiple times), Huey Lewis, Prince (what a show!), Stanley Clarke, Virgil Fox, Barenaked Ladies, Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills, UB40, Def Leppard, Billy Squier (Terrible!), Rod Stewart, the Police. I would have gone to hear Itzhak Perlman, but he was unable to perform that night.
In no particular order: Sinatra, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, BB King, The Who (also the ’82 tour), The Kinks, Beach Boys, Buffett (multiple times), Huey Lewis, Prince (what a show!), Stanley Clarke, Virgil Fox, Barenaked Ladies, Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills, UB40, Def Leppard, Billy Squier (Terrible!), Rod Stewart, the Police. I would have gone to hear Itzhak Perlman, but he was unable to perform that night.
@ Chak – Did they actually spell it that way (with the “h”) back then? That spelling was normalized (from “Rath…” to “Rat…”) in the previous “Reform” (early 20th century), but archaic typography has a very long half-life.
@Kilby, yeah, there was an ‘h’ in it. I has no idea what it was, and was told, it’s a pretentious word for ‘basement’.
The “Albuquerque” thread reminded me that the last time I went to Wolf Trap (west of D.C.), it was to see the Warner Bros. Symphony Orchestra, which played live music to accompany cartoons shown on a screen behind the stage.
P.S. I know I’ve been to Wolf Trap on at least three other occasions, but I can’t remember who I saw there, other than “The Flying Karamazov Brothers“, which doesn’t count as a concert, even if they were more enjoyable to watch than (for instance) “The Who”.
Been to a LOT of concerts, but not that many with big name headliners. Some I remember off the top of my head: ZZ Top (more than once), Carlos Santana, Big Bad Voodoo Daddies (more than once), Carole King, Pink Martini (more than once), Dizzy Gillespie (although the headliner, he came out, played three numbers and walked off the stage, much to the chagrin of the promoter), and Arturo Sandoval. Also Woody Herman and his jazz band, as well as a plethora of ghost bands. Oh, and Peter Schickele a couple of times. My freshman year at the Dallas State Fair, on a side stage (I.e. free concerts – performers cycling through hourly) saw a group called the Jacksons, or maybe Jackson Brothers. They brought out their little 7 or 8 year old brother Michael for a couple of songs – he stole the show.
@ Chak – The word “Keller” means “basement” (it’s a cognate for “cellar”). The prefix “Rat…” actually means “advice”, so in “Rathaus” = “city hall”, it refers to the “advisors” inside. The city halls of many medium to large-sized German towns contain a restaurant in the basement, which is then called the “Ratskeller“.
@Kilby: I’ve seen The Flying Karamazov Brothers four (I think) times, but that’s nothing compared to Mrs. Shrug, who used to work at The Magic Cellar in San Francisco, where they had a semi-regular gig before they got famous, and who saw them many many times. (Fyodor/Tim Furst later crashed at our house after a show in Minneapolis some years ago, and the Flying K’s supplied us with our first computer — a Kaypro — which was surplus to their requirements when they heard Mrs. Shrug was thinking of getting one, even more many years ago.)
I have the habit of marrying people more interesting than myself (well, only two so far, but given how boring I am, that’s a lot — the person I mentioned knowing with small parts on two episodes of HAPPY DAYS was the first Mrs. Shrug, who was one of Pinky Tuscadero’s (sp?) Pinkette sidekicks in a two-parter.
In another thread, I’ve thought of one and a half more concerts I’ve seen: The Vienna Choir Boys (hey, I was young and it was cheap) and a live performance of the half-musical PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION.
” . . . saw a group called the Jacksons, or maybe Jackson Brothers. They brought out their little 7 or 8 year old brother Michael for a couple of songs – he stole the show.”
It’s little memories like this that I find so interesting.
My exposure was pretty limited: James Brown and the Famous Flames; Dave Brubeck; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Tom Rush; Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band; Joan Baez; Judy Collins; and a very few others that escape me now. You can probably deduce my undergraduate decade.
Can’t remember the first, but it was small local groups in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I started seeing better-known names in the 1970’s and continuing: Frank Zappa, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Isaac Stern, Vladimir Horowitz, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Arlo Guthrie, P.D.Q. Bach, Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Phish, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the First Moog Quartet, Rudolf Serkin, Peter Serkin, William Bolcom and Joan Morris, William Albright, Terry Waldo, Bernard Haitink, Luciano Pavarotti, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin together, Ravi Shankar, and hundreds of others.
I love how Frank Zappa kind of ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’ in there . . .
Were you able to see all these classical artists because you lived in Boston?
I’d’ve loved to’ve seen Joan Baez and Tom Rush.
@ Shrug – Not everyone can claim to own a computer that was “dropped” by The Flying Karamazov Brothers. ;-)
Kilby, EVERYTHING is over-amplified these days: the only two times we’ve ever walked out if a musical were tiny theatres-in-the-round, no more than two or three rows of seats, and both the music and actors were so heavily amplified, you couldn’t make out individual words. It was painful, and certainly not the least bit entertaining.
Seriously, if one of the actors had… had an incidence of flatulence, everybody in the theatre could have heard it without the use of any microphones.
A friend of mine was hit in the head by a Karamazov bowling pin.
This was in the late 70s, before the go-to reaction was to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
@Kilby: I imagine it would have been pretty easy to sneak contraband into Magic Mountain, since it’s an amusement park, but I couldn’t say what the atmosphere was like. I was only around 11 or 12. We went, because my mother wanted to see Three Dog Night. I don’t recall any of the concerts I’ve been to being heavily “perfumed”. Most of the people at the Buffet show were pretty buzzed on pre-show cocktails, but pleasantly so. It was amazing. People tailgating for a couple of hours and then half an hour before the gates open they just politely lined up and stood around chatting. And that with festival seating.
And harvling reminded me that I’ve seen the Beach Boys several times.They used to do a thing with the San Diego Padres where they would do a show after a game while cheerleaders from all the area high schools cavorted on the field.
Hubby and his ‘movie buddy’ used to go to a movie at least once/week; on Fridays, he and the staff of the school in which he was currently working would go to ‘their’ bar for a few hours. Hubby is now hard of hearing. Coincidence? I don’t THINK so.
Fun thread.
I have seen Peter Shickele, at Sanders Theater in Cambridge, MA many years ago with my parents. One gag I remember was a large standing electric fan had been placed behind musicians on stage, eventually blowing sheet music off the musicians’ stands.
Also in Cambridge, at the venerable Club Passim among other shows, I saw a solo performance by frontman of the legendary French band Malicorne, Gabriel Yacoub.
I first saw ‘Tull in 1987 when they were supporting Crest Of A Knave. The opening act was Fairport convention, of whom I was not yet aware. They blew me away. My friends and I then saw ‘Tull the next year for their 20th Anniversary tour. Opening once again was Fairport Convention, re-named Fairport Friends for the tour. Then in 1989 we saw ‘Tull again on their Rock Island tour. As I recall, the opening act then was It Bites, whom the audience did not appreciate.
I then went by myself to see Ian Anderson at the Orpheum Theater in Boston for his Divinites: Twelve Dances With God tour in 1995. I loved hearing the old songs such as Heavy Horses rearranged with the tuned percussion utilized for the new material. As I recall, Ian admonished the audience for being a little too boisterous for his delicate new songs. Right about that time I saw Fairport Convention at a small venue in Rhode Island.
And FWIW, I am not a Boomer, but an X-er, the generation that tends to get lost between the two larger ones. :-)
“This was in the late 70s, before the go-to reaction was to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit.”
Which is why everything, including concert tickets, has a mandatory binding arbitration clause.
From the ‘It’s a Small World’ file: A friend of mine was married to Trevor Lucas and is executor of his and Sandy Dennis’ estates.
For me, this is nostalgia time, and when ticket prices were reasonable. Even tho we now live close to several lovely venues, I refuse to pay their prices.
• Edd ‘Kookie’ Byrnes – yes, he is a singer, technically
He was eating in a Chicago restaurant where we had just finished lunch; my dad ran out to a newsstand (they still existed) for a magazine with Kookie on the cover (NOT hard to find at that time), then ran back so I could get Kookie’s autograph. (I’ve no idea 1) how I knew who he was, as we didn’t have TV ‘til was 17; and 2) where that magazine is now).
• Johnny Mathis – McCormick Place in Chicago, which burned down several years later.
• Eric Burden & the Animals – Minneapolis venue, complete with bomb threat, which were quite prevalent that summer; everyone refused to leave and the concert went on as scheduled.
• The Doors – Either the penultimate or the last concert before Jim Morrison went on his ill-fated trip to Paris. (My parents visited his grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery sometime in the Late Aughts [2000’s]).
• Frank Zappa, almost – First Hubby and I had tickets to see him, but [his] family matters suddenly took precedence (to them) and we couldn’t go. Then Zappa died.
• Judy Collins or Carole King – don’t remember which, ‘cause I really don’t care for either, but a friend had an extra ticket and didn’t want to go alone. It rained so hard (outdoor venue) that the concert was stopped halfway . . . didn’t bother me in the least. I think we swam back to the car.
• Tom Waits – in a Chicago nightclub venue, front table. What a show!
• Paul Winter Consort – in a Milwakee Cathedral; still gives me chills to think on it.
• Philip Glass – directing the orchestra for his movie, ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ [Life Out of Balance]. The entire movie, in nine parts, can be seen here –
• Rocky Horror Show – London (NOT with Tim Curry, unfortunately)
• John Hartford (twice)
• John Prine – when he was still in good voice, before his cancer
• Simon & Garfunkel, almost – When I realized the venue (Wrigley Field) was in a terrible neighborhood, I made Hubby turn right around and go home.
• Virgil Fox
• Mannheim Steamroller (Christmas in the Aire) – Prices for their concerts have gone thru the roof; they’re in St. Pete in November.
• Andreas Vollenweider – Great show;
(The friends with whom we went to the MS and AV concerts were involved in a murder/suicide a few years later; I still find it difficult to listen to MS and AV’s music.)
• Brooks & Dunn – Milwaukee SummerFest, after which concert I swore I’d never go to another just to listen to the audience sing (drunkenly) and having to watch B & D on screens ‘cause everyone was standing through the entire concert.
• Jimmy Buffett – Well, I couldn’t resist . . . we had had a ‘Two ParrotHeads in Paradise’ wedding, so when I inherited some money, I splurged and spent a small fortune on VIP seats, with buffet dinner, valet parking, etc. Once was enough.
(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison. Try saying JIMMY Morrison or JIM Buffett . . . just doesn’t work, does it?)
Someone at Ravinia, but neither the person I went with nor I can remember who . . . probably something Baroque, he says.
Many other local concerts at Carthage College and University of Wisconsin-Parkside. My memory fails . . .
I just realized that despite my early bad experience, I have seen some filk (and related) concerts including the Chromatics, Tom Smith, and Tricky Pixie.
I don’t like crowds and loud noise. When I lived near Paris (early 2000’s) I would go there on weekends for harpsichord or organ concerts. An uncle took me to the Hollywood bowl in ’94 (some symphony I can’t remember) and I’ve seen Davitt Moroney in Berkeley.
Funny… crowds and loud noises make me uncomfortable in enclosed places such as stadiums… but I love the sensory overload of Times Square.
Andréa Stirred some memories for me. First, I think it was Judy Collins, and not Carole King that I saw, (it was also an outdoor venue, but it didn’t rain.) I saw Bette Midler at her Vegas show, and I saw, heard, felt Bono and U2 at Angel Stadium from his last (I think) tour. I had sort of a Kevin Bacon moment last year – doing some volunteer work building a playground, and talking to one of the paid professionals on the project. Turned out he was In charge of the crew that put up the staging and scaffolding for the Anaheim/Angel Stadium U2 concert. Apparently he had made a career out of being the go to guy for supervising construction of staging at large concert venues.
“Andréa Stirred some memories for me. ”
Glad to help . . . that’s why I ‘pushed’ this thread . . .
I think the seemingly out of control crowds was another issue that has made me quit going to concerts.
re “(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison.”
I’m enough of a geezer that I recall some people being horrified (or pretending to be so) that the POTUS was constantly referred to as “Jimmy Carter” rather than a more dignified “James Carter.”
(If only that sort of political controversy was the worst we had to deal with nowadays . . . ah, nostalgia.)
Ah, nostalgia…I saw a street sign in South Portland, Maine that read Memory Lane.
It happens to be a dead end road. :-)
I remember the form of Carter’s first name coming up in connection with the Dedication printed in a new edition of Encyclopedia Britannica to something like “The leaders of the English-speaking nations”. The White House confirmed that he wanted it to say “Jimmy”. (For the UK it was the Queen, not the PM.)
I once studied with Prof. Bill J. Darden. He said he was named Bill, not William (nor Billy, which might seem to go with the Joe middle.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica#Dedications gives the general formulation, as it has changed over time, but does not mention Carter. The formula in 1954 was “Dedicated by Permission to the Heads of the Two English-Speaking Peoples, Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.”
“(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison. Try saying JIMMY Morrison or JIM Buffett . . . just doesn’t work, does it?)”
Because when you ask Mr. Buffett what his name is, he says “Jimmy”, but if you held a seance and got Mr. Morrison on the line, and asked him, he’d say “Jim”.
OK, here’s one for you: how about:
Orson Welles
At Symphony Hall in Boston
During a snowstorm
For a performance that he did not know until he stepped out on stage would be a one-man show.
Were any of you there for that? Opinions of those who were there differ, but he kept my attention for two hours, answering written questions and talking extemporaneously.
And here is the most famous Orson Welles recording of all. He is recording a TV commercial for frozen peas.
I heard that Brain from “Pinky and the” was based on this performance.
“And here is the most famous Orson Welles recording of all.”
Who the hell does he think he is, Bill O’Reilly?
Shrug – same reason husband is Robert and not Bob, Rob, Bobby or Robby – one prefers to be Jim and one prefers to be Jimmy.
Not many concerts over the decades.
Met William Shatner at our college and he stayed around a long time after his performance (though I forget what same was) talking with those of us who stayed.
Met Leonard Nimoy when we when with a group to see Zero Mostel in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and both Nimoy had been visiting him – obviously met Zero also.
Arlo Gutherie did a concert in a club venue, we were sitting at a table near the front and he sat and talked with us with for a considerable time – in the 1970s.
Dad’s cousin – also an accountant – was doing the accounting for a rather off-Broadway show and went on an vacation so dad filed in for him. The fellow who wrote music for the show and played the piano was Barry Manilow and my family spent time with him before and after the show.
When Broadway show tickets sold for $3- $8 we would buy tickets half price at the TKTS booth (and be upset that the $3 were never there) and see shows. We would wait after the shows for autographs. In the order they come into my mind and missing many, we met – Generally there was not a big crowd waiting except last listed.
Debbie Reynolds (very nice, sat inside the doorway and had each person/group come in to see her),
Marlo Thomas, Prof. Irwin Corey, and Richard Mulligan
Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin (the two of them very nice – sat in car and kept signing autographs), Ken Howard, Barry Nelson, Estelle Parsons, Carole Shelley
Dudley Moore, Peter Cook
Robert Klein, Lucie Arnez,
George C. Scott, Bob Dishy, Hector Elizondo,Jack Gilford
Frank Langella
Raul Julia (twice), Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner (subways were not running, theatre fairly empty – all 3 stood outside and talked with us a long time)
Danny Aeillo (met him twice at shows which were not his – very nice).
Shelley Winters, Carol Kane (meeting Carol Kane, a favorite of Robert’s was a let down – she was very “Dodi Dramarama”
Saw Richard Burton – he came out into the crowd, kissed a woman and in the excitement, jumped into his car.
Numerous others.
.
Meryl, it sounds as we saw many of the same shows.
Bill – What are you doing awake at 3 am?
Robert came down and I told him about the post – he added
John Cullum – many times
Angela Lansbury
Carol Channing
Len Cariou
Doug Henning, David Ogden Stiers
Lillian Gish, Dick Shawn
Barry Bostwick
We met Telly Savalas at the Concord Hotel
and now I will feed him snack to stop him from coming up with more
Kids may or may not be familiar with rotary phones, but radio stations still impact their lives. Especially the ones who drive.
My six-year-old niece is struggling with the notion of live TV, however. Like when they advertise programs that are going to air in the future… you can’t just switch to them and start watching, much to her repeated frustration. You have to actually wait until they’re on before you can start watching them.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think it means that everyone here has the potential to become an “‘eezer“.
‘-)!!
Does it count as synchronicity if I mention that I almost asked a co-worker today “What’s shakin’ ” ?
It’s the dawning of the age of Geezerius… You Baby Boomers just overwhelm whatever niche your huge cohort happens to inhabit… ;-)
larK, you almost had it. This strip is the drawing of the age of Geezerius.
And as for Boomers overwhelming things, there’s an XKCD for that:
And the hovertext is:
An ‘American tradition’ is anything that happened to a baby boomer twice.
There’s nothing “geezer” about classic rock. Young people like it too.
Using those expressions might be geezerish, but I don’t think it takes a geezer to understand them.
And, Lord F, some of us geezers don’t. That said, I saw and enjoyed the movie “Yesterday” yesterday.
I’m such a geezer that I’m upset the strip doesn’t mention the Butterfield Blues Band.
“There’s nothing “geezer” about classic rock. Young people like it too.”
The fact that music moves from “contemporary rock” to “classic rock”, though…
Classic rock is just top40 with Sturgeon’s Law applied.
Just for fun . . . and to keep this thread going:
Will anyone/someone/everyone list the musicians s/he has seen in concert, starting way back (Guy Lombardo? Glenn Miller?? Cab Calloway???). I would find it interesting to see the diversity in musical tastes among CIDUers.
I won’t be first – I’ll wait for someone else to start . . . or no one to do so, if that’s the case.
Well, concert acts I’ve seen more than once — as far as I can recall, that list consists of:
PETER, PAUL AND MARY (twice)
ERIC BOGLE (three times)
GORDON BOK (twice)
Probably a number of “one time” tickets I no longer remember, but of those I do remember, GORDON LIGHTFOOT for sure, and TWO NICE GIRLS. Less happily, JAY AND THE AMERICANS and SI ZENTNER (back in college; I think I snuck in to one or both of them).
Mrs. Shrug, who was living in England at the time (as an Air Force brat), saw THE BEATLES before they were famous.
I saw all of the following in the 80s:
Tom Petty (with Stevie Nicks and The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened before they became known)
America (got dragged to that one)
The Animals (original lineup)
Jimmy Buffet (with Little Feat — but without Lowell George, meh)
Berlin
Sparks
The BusBoys (several times)
The Beat Farmers (several times)
Those last two are probably pretty obscure, but they put on great shows.
Excluding orchestras and other minor local acts, I’ve seen:
Jeff Tyzik
Moxy Fruvous (twice)
They Might Be Giants
Spyro Gyra
Canadian Brass
Gap Mangione (many times)
Yellowjackets
Mannheim Steamroller
Dave Brubeck
Bob James & David Sanborn ft. Steve Gadd
Dr. John (partial)
“Weird Al” Yankovic
Steep Canyon Rangers (only as part of the Martin Short / Steve Martin comedy tour, though)
There may be more I’m forgetting. I don’t keep careful track.
Gosh, it would be a crazy long list. And I’ve forgotten a lot of them, but here is a partial listing:
Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, Honeytree, Phil Keaggy, the Talbot Brothers, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, Mylon & Broken Heart, Skillet, Newsboys, DC Talk, Jacob’s Trouble, Paul Clark, Love Song, Petra, Sidewalk Prophets, Matt Maher, Todd Agnew, Unspoken, POD, For King & Country, Larry Norman, Darrell Mansfield, Glenn Kaiser, Don Francisco, Randy Stonehill, Carman, Mercy Me, Big Daddy Weave, Bill & Gloria Gaither, B.B King, Joe Bonamassa, Koko Taylor, Keb’ Mo’, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Etta James, Wardlaw Brothers, Take 6, Z.Z.Top, Charlie Daniels, John Fogerty, Marshall Tucker Band, Santana, Heart, Doobie Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Blondie, Melissa Etheridge, Chicago, Aretha Franklin, ELO, Ted Nugent, Molly Hatchet, Rick Derringer, Poco, the Outlaws, Dave Mason, Styx, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Tesla, Kool & the Gang, KC & the Sunshine Band, Bonnie Raitt, John Hartford, Little Feat. Jason Mraz, Blues Traveler. And so many more I just can’t remember. But it was fun thinking about it!
Since I have no idea when I saw most of these, I’ve put this (probably incomplete) list in alphabetical order:
Peter Gabriel (twice, both times in Germany, the first was in 1987),
Jean-Michel Jarre (a major disappointment),
Heinz Rudolf Kunze (German),
The Moody Blues (marvellous, even that late in their touring career),
Renaissance (OK, but not as good as their albums),
Rush (second only to Gabriel in overall concert quality),
The Who (1982: the very first of their ten “farewell” tours),
Three Dog Night (possibly the first concert I ever went to),
Yes (like some of the other groups, their albums were better).
P.S. @ DemetriosX – I would have been happy to see Little Feat live (they were inordinately popular in Washington), but Lowell George did me (and everyone else) the disservice of dying before I had the chance.
@Kilby: Now that you mention it, I think I might have seen Three Dog Night at Magic Mountain ca. 1974.
And yeah, Little Feat without Lowell George just wasn’t all that great. I mean Craig Fuller, who was one of the founders of Pure Prairie League, was no slouch, but it just wasn’t right. Like Queen trying to replace Freddie with Paul Rodgers.
I would have loved to see Rush, too. It just never worked out.
Interesting thread here, so only for CIDU’ers: TheTokens, 1964, The Action House line ups 65-68, including Sam & Dave, Gladys Knight, Vanilla Fudge, etc etc. E B & the Animals Fillmore East, later in SanFran. Sly & the Family coupla times (always a scene, better than the concert itself,) Grate Full Dead, and a few a don’t remember because 60’s…I saw Altamont coming and it stunk to high heaven before it ever got there. Didn’t go, and haven’t been to a venue like that since. Interesting time line definitions. Regards y’all.
My first rock concert was Petra, at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, in 1986.
I do have a dim childhood memory of seeing Victor Borge at a dinner theater sometime in the ’80s. I think I also saw some theater pipe organ concerts in the 80s as well.
From there I moved on to Jethro Tull (supported by Fairport Convention), Yes, Moody Blues (backed by orchestra) and other classic rock bands through the ’90s.
Sometime in the ’90s and ’00s I found the coffee-house concert circuit and saw a whole bunch of singer-songwriters and folk bands. My last big-time rock concert was Jethro Tull about a decade ago. Tickets for such venues are getting a bit pricey for me. I like the smaller shows at the two arts centers I frequent. No shortage of tallent.
Mention of Victor Borge (whom I didn’t see live) reminded that I did see “P.D.Q. Bach” (Peter Schickle) ive, though I’d consider that a music-themed comedy act rather than a concert per se.
I’ve also just remembered seeing Ritchie Havens and Leo Kottke in ’93. They… weren’t very good. That was disappointing.
“Grate Full Dead”
Was that a parody act?
I like both these ‘acts’ and watch them of YouTube.
ON YouTube
I was just thinking of the t-shirt that states: I MAY BE OLD, BUT I SAW THE BEST BANDS
I’m a terrible baby boomer. I think I’ve only been to two concerts in my life: Springsteen early on, and Jackson Browne (and only because my cousin, who’s his #1 fan, invited us when both he and Browne were visiting New Jersey).
Oh, and I guess we have to count Southside Johnny, but we only went because my son’s high school orchestra instructor knew him and Mr. Johnny agreed to let the string section accompany him on stage for a song — despite the fact that not a single one of the kids had ever heard of him)
Yes, younger people still like “classic rock” but only because they have been exposed to it absolutely everywhere. I find it so weird that shops in college towns still play that stuff all the time — it’s as if you couldn’t have gone three steps in public without hearing Rudy Vallee or Paul Whteman when I was in college in the 80s.
Victor Borge once and PDQ Bach twice. Ella Fitzgerald once in her later years. A re-formed Kingston Trio, Gary Burton, Ramsey Lewis, Dave Becker, Van Morrison (several times with my wife, who is a serious VM fan), and more that I can’t think of just now.
I saw (I think it was) the Irish Rovers and decided to never again see a live concert. I couldn’t hear them over the crowd singing along.
I’m with you, Arthur: it’s all just so much noise.
I guess that’s an ambiance some people like. My wife does. I just feel the urge to get away.
Give me a CD, seriously.
I never have attended a rock or pop concert. Lately, now that I’m no longer a productive member of society, I have considered seeing some live performances. My tastes recently have been towards female-fronted indie groups.
There have been a couple that were coming to town that I was interested in, but I nixed because of the venues. Both were at small places with general admission and very little seating. So the likelihood is standing all night, or at best perched on a bar stool. My back won’t take that these days.
On the other hand, I’ve been going to more baseball games. I’ve found the best deal is with expensive seats on a week night against a “lesser” opponent. You can get loge behind the plate, with access to a special club area with its own concessions and rest rooms, for < $30 + StubHub fees.
@ Arthur & Bill (re: “volume”) – All of the concerts that I have attended have been heavily over-amplified, so that it is difficult to hear anything but the feed from the stage. Decades ago, I came upon the trick of wearing foam earplugs for the entire show. Not only does this mask out any remaining distractions from the audience, it vastly reduces the tinnitus-like reverberations that used to persist for some hours after a concert.
P.S. @ Grawlix – Thanks for reminding me about Jethro Tull. I saw them in high school or college (thus long enough ago that it was the original lineup). I remember one gag: Anderson was otherwise engaged, so the drummer stood up to do a “substitute” flute riff, which was a hilarious surprise.
P.P.S. @ DemetriosX (re: Three Dog Night) – I have no idea how difficult it was to smuggle contraband into Magic Mountain, but when I saw them at the Cap Center outside Washington (with my dad & siblings, as it happens), no one had to light up anything to get a contact high, because everyone else in the audience already had. I was clueless, but even my sister recognized the scent.
Never been to a live concert, unless you count a few Saturday nights at the Rathskeller at school.
In no particular order: Sinatra, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, The Who (also the ’82 tour), The Kinks, Beach Boys, Buffett (multiple times), Huey Lewis, Prince (what a show!), Stanley Clarke, Virgil Fox, Barenaked Ladies, Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills, UB40, Def Leppard, Billy Squier (Terrible!), Rod Stewart, the Police. I would have gone to hear Itzhak Perlman, but he was unable to perform that night.
In no particular order: Sinatra, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, BB King, The Who (also the ’82 tour), The Kinks, Beach Boys, Buffett (multiple times), Huey Lewis, Prince (what a show!), Stanley Clarke, Virgil Fox, Barenaked Ladies, Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills, UB40, Def Leppard, Billy Squier (Terrible!), Rod Stewart, the Police. I would have gone to hear Itzhak Perlman, but he was unable to perform that night.
@ Chak – Did they actually spell it that way (with the “h”) back then? That spelling was normalized (from “Rath…” to “Rat…”) in the previous “Reform” (early 20th century), but archaic typography has a very long half-life.
@Kilby, yeah, there was an ‘h’ in it. I has no idea what it was, and was told, it’s a pretentious word for ‘basement’.
The “Albuquerque” thread reminded me that the last time I went to Wolf Trap (west of D.C.), it was to see the Warner Bros. Symphony Orchestra, which played live music to accompany cartoons shown on a screen behind the stage.
P.S. I know I’ve been to Wolf Trap on at least three other occasions, but I can’t remember who I saw there, other than “The Flying Karamazov Brothers“, which doesn’t count as a concert, even if they were more enjoyable to watch than (for instance) “The Who”.
Been to a LOT of concerts, but not that many with big name headliners. Some I remember off the top of my head: ZZ Top (more than once), Carlos Santana, Big Bad Voodoo Daddies (more than once), Carole King, Pink Martini (more than once), Dizzy Gillespie (although the headliner, he came out, played three numbers and walked off the stage, much to the chagrin of the promoter), and Arturo Sandoval. Also Woody Herman and his jazz band, as well as a plethora of ghost bands. Oh, and Peter Schickele a couple of times. My freshman year at the Dallas State Fair, on a side stage (I.e. free concerts – performers cycling through hourly) saw a group called the Jacksons, or maybe Jackson Brothers. They brought out their little 7 or 8 year old brother Michael for a couple of songs – he stole the show.
@ Chak – The word “Keller” means “basement” (it’s a cognate for “cellar”). The prefix “Rat…” actually means “advice”, so in “Rathaus” = “city hall”, it refers to the “advisors” inside. The city halls of many medium to large-sized German towns contain a restaurant in the basement, which is then called the “Ratskeller“.
@Kilby: I’ve seen The Flying Karamazov Brothers four (I think) times, but that’s nothing compared to Mrs. Shrug, who used to work at The Magic Cellar in San Francisco, where they had a semi-regular gig before they got famous, and who saw them many many times. (Fyodor/Tim Furst later crashed at our house after a show in Minneapolis some years ago, and the Flying K’s supplied us with our first computer — a Kaypro — which was surplus to their requirements when they heard Mrs. Shrug was thinking of getting one, even more many years ago.)
I have the habit of marrying people more interesting than myself (well, only two so far, but given how boring I am, that’s a lot — the person I mentioned knowing with small parts on two episodes of HAPPY DAYS was the first Mrs. Shrug, who was one of Pinky Tuscadero’s (sp?) Pinkette sidekicks in a two-parter.
In another thread, I’ve thought of one and a half more concerts I’ve seen: The Vienna Choir Boys (hey, I was young and it was cheap) and a live performance of the half-musical PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION.
” . . . saw a group called the Jacksons, or maybe Jackson Brothers. They brought out their little 7 or 8 year old brother Michael for a couple of songs – he stole the show.”
It’s little memories like this that I find so interesting.
My exposure was pretty limited: James Brown and the Famous Flames; Dave Brubeck; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Tom Rush; Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band; Joan Baez; Judy Collins; and a very few others that escape me now. You can probably deduce my undergraduate decade.
Can’t remember the first, but it was small local groups in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I started seeing better-known names in the 1970’s and continuing: Frank Zappa, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Isaac Stern, Vladimir Horowitz, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Arlo Guthrie, P.D.Q. Bach, Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Phish, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the First Moog Quartet, Rudolf Serkin, Peter Serkin, William Bolcom and Joan Morris, William Albright, Terry Waldo, Bernard Haitink, Luciano Pavarotti, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin together, Ravi Shankar, and hundreds of others.
I love how Frank Zappa kind of ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’ in there . . .
Were you able to see all these classical artists because you lived in Boston?
I’d’ve loved to’ve seen Joan Baez and Tom Rush.
@ Shrug – Not everyone can claim to own a computer that was “dropped” by The Flying Karamazov Brothers. ;-)
Kilby, EVERYTHING is over-amplified these days: the only two times we’ve ever walked out if a musical were tiny theatres-in-the-round, no more than two or three rows of seats, and both the music and actors were so heavily amplified, you couldn’t make out individual words. It was painful, and certainly not the least bit entertaining.
Seriously, if one of the actors had… had an incidence of flatulence, everybody in the theatre could have heard it without the use of any microphones.
A friend of mine was hit in the head by a Karamazov bowling pin.
This was in the late 70s, before the go-to reaction was to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
@Kilby: I imagine it would have been pretty easy to sneak contraband into Magic Mountain, since it’s an amusement park, but I couldn’t say what the atmosphere was like. I was only around 11 or 12. We went, because my mother wanted to see Three Dog Night. I don’t recall any of the concerts I’ve been to being heavily “perfumed”. Most of the people at the Buffet show were pretty buzzed on pre-show cocktails, but pleasantly so. It was amazing. People tailgating for a couple of hours and then half an hour before the gates open they just politely lined up and stood around chatting. And that with festival seating.
And harvling reminded me that I’ve seen the Beach Boys several times.They used to do a thing with the San Diego Padres where they would do a show after a game while cheerleaders from all the area high schools cavorted on the field.
Hubby and his ‘movie buddy’ used to go to a movie at least once/week; on Fridays, he and the staff of the school in which he was currently working would go to ‘their’ bar for a few hours. Hubby is now hard of hearing. Coincidence? I don’t THINK so.
Fun thread.
I have seen Peter Shickele, at Sanders Theater in Cambridge, MA many years ago with my parents. One gag I remember was a large standing electric fan had been placed behind musicians on stage, eventually blowing sheet music off the musicians’ stands.
Also in Cambridge, at the venerable Club Passim among other shows, I saw a solo performance by frontman of the legendary French band Malicorne, Gabriel Yacoub.
I first saw ‘Tull in 1987 when they were supporting Crest Of A Knave. The opening act was Fairport convention, of whom I was not yet aware. They blew me away. My friends and I then saw ‘Tull the next year for their 20th Anniversary tour. Opening once again was Fairport Convention, re-named Fairport Friends for the tour. Then in 1989 we saw ‘Tull again on their Rock Island tour. As I recall, the opening act then was It Bites, whom the audience did not appreciate.
I then went by myself to see Ian Anderson at the Orpheum Theater in Boston for his Divinites: Twelve Dances With God tour in 1995. I loved hearing the old songs such as Heavy Horses rearranged with the tuned percussion utilized for the new material. As I recall, Ian admonished the audience for being a little too boisterous for his delicate new songs. Right about that time I saw Fairport Convention at a small venue in Rhode Island.
And FWIW, I am not a Boomer, but an X-er, the generation that tends to get lost between the two larger ones. :-)
“This was in the late 70s, before the go-to reaction was to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit.”
Which is why everything, including concert tickets, has a mandatory binding arbitration clause.
From the ‘It’s a Small World’ file: A friend of mine was married to Trevor Lucas and is executor of his and Sandy Dennis’ estates.
(Previous members of Fairport Convention)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairport_Convention
For me, this is nostalgia time, and when ticket prices were reasonable. Even tho we now live close to several lovely venues, I refuse to pay their prices.
• Edd ‘Kookie’ Byrnes – yes, he is a singer, technically
He was eating in a Chicago restaurant where we had just finished lunch; my dad ran out to a newsstand (they still existed) for a magazine with Kookie on the cover (NOT hard to find at that time), then ran back so I could get Kookie’s autograph. (I’ve no idea 1) how I knew who he was, as we didn’t have TV ‘til was 17; and 2) where that magazine is now).
• Johnny Mathis – McCormick Place in Chicago, which burned down several years later.
• Eric Burden & the Animals – Minneapolis venue, complete with bomb threat, which were quite prevalent that summer; everyone refused to leave and the concert went on as scheduled.
• The Doors – Either the penultimate or the last concert before Jim Morrison went on his ill-fated trip to Paris. (My parents visited his grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery sometime in the Late Aughts [2000’s]).
• Frank Zappa, almost – First Hubby and I had tickets to see him, but [his] family matters suddenly took precedence (to them) and we couldn’t go. Then Zappa died.
• Judy Collins or Carole King – don’t remember which, ‘cause I really don’t care for either, but a friend had an extra ticket and didn’t want to go alone. It rained so hard (outdoor venue) that the concert was stopped halfway . . . didn’t bother me in the least. I think we swam back to the car.
• Tom Waits – in a Chicago nightclub venue, front table. What a show!
• Paul Winter Consort – in a Milwakee Cathedral; still gives me chills to think on it.
• Philip Glass – directing the orchestra for his movie, ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ [Life Out of Balance]. The entire movie, in nine parts, can be seen here –
• Rocky Horror Show – London (NOT with Tim Curry, unfortunately)
• John Hartford (twice)
• John Prine – when he was still in good voice, before his cancer
• Simon & Garfunkel, almost – When I realized the venue (Wrigley Field) was in a terrible neighborhood, I made Hubby turn right around and go home.
• Virgil Fox
• Mannheim Steamroller (Christmas in the Aire) – Prices for their concerts have gone thru the roof; they’re in St. Pete in November.
• Andreas Vollenweider – Great show;
(The friends with whom we went to the MS and AV concerts were involved in a murder/suicide a few years later; I still find it difficult to listen to MS and AV’s music.)
• Brooks & Dunn – Milwaukee SummerFest, after which concert I swore I’d never go to another just to listen to the audience sing (drunkenly) and having to watch B & D on screens ‘cause everyone was standing through the entire concert.
• Jimmy Buffett – Well, I couldn’t resist . . . we had had a ‘Two ParrotHeads in Paradise’ wedding, so when I inherited some money, I splurged and spent a small fortune on VIP seats, with buffet dinner, valet parking, etc. Once was enough.
(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison. Try saying JIMMY Morrison or JIM Buffett . . . just doesn’t work, does it?)
Someone at Ravinia, but neither the person I went with nor I can remember who . . . probably something Baroque, he says.
Many other local concerts at Carthage College and University of Wisconsin-Parkside. My memory fails . . .
I just realized that despite my early bad experience, I have seen some filk (and related) concerts including the Chromatics, Tom Smith, and Tricky Pixie.
I don’t like crowds and loud noise. When I lived near Paris (early 2000’s) I would go there on weekends for harpsichord or organ concerts. An uncle took me to the Hollywood bowl in ’94 (some symphony I can’t remember) and I’ve seen Davitt Moroney in Berkeley.
Funny… crowds and loud noises make me uncomfortable in enclosed places such as stadiums… but I love the sensory overload of Times Square.
Andréa Stirred some memories for me. First, I think it was Judy Collins, and not Carole King that I saw, (it was also an outdoor venue, but it didn’t rain.) I saw Bette Midler at her Vegas show, and I saw, heard, felt Bono and U2 at Angel Stadium from his last (I think) tour. I had sort of a Kevin Bacon moment last year – doing some volunteer work building a playground, and talking to one of the paid professionals on the project. Turned out he was In charge of the crew that put up the staging and scaffolding for the Anaheim/Angel Stadium U2 concert. Apparently he had made a career out of being the go to guy for supervising construction of staging at large concert venues.
“Andréa Stirred some memories for me. ”
Glad to help . . . that’s why I ‘pushed’ this thread . . .
I think the seemingly out of control crowds was another issue that has made me quit going to concerts.
re “(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison.”
I’m enough of a geezer that I recall some people being horrified (or pretending to be so) that the POTUS was constantly referred to as “Jimmy Carter” rather than a more dignified “James Carter.”
(If only that sort of political controversy was the worst we had to deal with nowadays . . . ah, nostalgia.)
Ah, nostalgia…I saw a street sign in South Portland, Maine that read Memory Lane.
It happens to be a dead end road. :-)
I remember the form of Carter’s first name coming up in connection with the Dedication printed in a new edition of Encyclopedia Britannica to something like “The leaders of the English-speaking nations”. The White House confirmed that he wanted it to say “Jimmy”. (For the UK it was the Queen, not the PM.)
I once studied with Prof. Bill J. Darden. He said he was named Bill, not William (nor Billy, which might seem to go with the Joe middle.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica#Dedications gives the general formulation, as it has changed over time, but does not mention Carter. The formula in 1954 was “Dedicated by Permission to the Heads of the Two English-Speaking Peoples, Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.”
“(Side question . . . why do we say JIMMY Buffett, but JIM Morrison. Try saying JIMMY Morrison or JIM Buffett . . . just doesn’t work, does it?)”
Because when you ask Mr. Buffett what his name is, he says “Jimmy”, but if you held a seance and got Mr. Morrison on the line, and asked him, he’d say “Jim”.
OK, here’s one for you: how about:
Orson Welles
At Symphony Hall in Boston
During a snowstorm
For a performance that he did not know until he stepped out on stage would be a one-man show.
Were any of you there for that? Opinions of those who were there differ, but he kept my attention for two hours, answering written questions and talking extemporaneously.
Probably the most remarkable show I ever saw.
FWIW, I lived down the street from the house where he was born . . .
http://thisamericanhouse.com/this-american-house-orson-welles-birthplace/
With that wonderful voice, he could read the phone book for two hours and I’d be entranced.
“With that wonderful voice, he could read the phone book for two hours and I’d be entranced.”
To me, he’s the “we will sell no wine before its time” guy. Meh.
https://people.com/archive/like-coals-to-newcastle-orson-welles-hits-boston-as-full-of-beans-as-ever-vol-7-no-3/
And here is the most famous Orson Welles recording of all. He is recording a TV commercial for frozen peas.
I heard that Brain from “Pinky and the” was based on this performance.
“And here is the most famous Orson Welles recording of all.”
Who the hell does he think he is, Bill O’Reilly?
Shrug – same reason husband is Robert and not Bob, Rob, Bobby or Robby – one prefers to be Jim and one prefers to be Jimmy.
Not many concerts over the decades.
Met William Shatner at our college and he stayed around a long time after his performance (though I forget what same was) talking with those of us who stayed.
Met Leonard Nimoy when we when with a group to see Zero Mostel in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and both Nimoy had been visiting him – obviously met Zero also.
Arlo Gutherie did a concert in a club venue, we were sitting at a table near the front and he sat and talked with us with for a considerable time – in the 1970s.
Dad’s cousin – also an accountant – was doing the accounting for a rather off-Broadway show and went on an vacation so dad filed in for him. The fellow who wrote music for the show and played the piano was Barry Manilow and my family spent time with him before and after the show.
When Broadway show tickets sold for $3- $8 we would buy tickets half price at the TKTS booth (and be upset that the $3 were never there) and see shows. We would wait after the shows for autographs. In the order they come into my mind and missing many, we met – Generally there was not a big crowd waiting except last listed.
Debbie Reynolds (very nice, sat inside the doorway and had each person/group come in to see her),
Marlo Thomas, Prof. Irwin Corey, and Richard Mulligan
Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin (the two of them very nice – sat in car and kept signing autographs), Ken Howard, Barry Nelson, Estelle Parsons, Carole Shelley
Dudley Moore, Peter Cook
Robert Klein, Lucie Arnez,
George C. Scott, Bob Dishy, Hector Elizondo,Jack Gilford
Frank Langella
Raul Julia (twice), Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner (subways were not running, theatre fairly empty – all 3 stood outside and talked with us a long time)
Danny Aeillo (met him twice at shows which were not his – very nice).
Shelley Winters, Carol Kane (meeting Carol Kane, a favorite of Robert’s was a let down – she was very “Dodi Dramarama”
Saw Richard Burton – he came out into the crowd, kissed a woman and in the excitement, jumped into his car.
Numerous others.
.
Meryl, it sounds as we saw many of the same shows.
Bill – What are you doing awake at 3 am?
Robert came down and I told him about the post – he added
John Cullum – many times
Angela Lansbury
Carol Channing
Len Cariou
Doug Henning, David Ogden Stiers
Lillian Gish, Dick Shawn
Barry Bostwick
We met Telly Savalas at the Concord Hotel
and now I will feed him snack to stop him from coming up with more
Kids may or may not be familiar with rotary phones, but radio stations still impact their lives. Especially the ones who drive.
My six-year-old niece is struggling with the notion of live TV, however. Like when they advertise programs that are going to air in the future… you can’t just switch to them and start watching, much to her repeated frustration. You have to actually wait until they’re on before you can start watching them.