Three nights at Madison Square Garden to see the Grateful Dead perform was the closest I had come to joining the circus. The Grateful Dead and their fans were legend; while I enjoyed the music on vinyl, part of me was hoping to perhaps become a “Deadhead” but it really did not take. The audience was as advertised with an ocean of people in various states of intoxication and the hallways were full of twirling and dancing to the hypnotic sound of the Dead. While my rock and roll proclivities leaned more to harder rock at the time, I am glad I was able to see the band with Jerry Garcia. I was actually thinking about seeing the band again at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands after a long break, for me, but unfortunately Mr. Garcia passed and the tour was canceled. Since then I have attended Phil Lesh shows, Dead and Company and Bob Weir who keep the music alive in their various configurations.

St. Stephen

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GQ

The Cars were a New Wave hit single machine in constant rotation on the FM radio in 1979. It was another night beyond the fencing in Central Park as the lure of free live music had us take the 7 Train into Manhattan once again. Years later I would catch Blondie open up for The Cars at the Jones Beach Theatre with Todd Rundgren replacing Ric Ocasek as frontman for that particular tour. Since I am a huge Todd Rundgren fan to begin with, I was perfectly fine with this Cars line up.

Just What I Needed

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GQ

Another August night in Central Park, this time with the radio friendly Greg Kihn Band at the Dr. Pepper Concert Series.

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GQ

I am pretty sure we did not enter the venue for the Dr. Hook concert in Central Park but the Dr. Pepper Concert series at Central Park was just a phenomenal location to spend the evening listening to great music, familiar or not, as we pursued good times wherever that might lead us.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

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GQ

Talking Heads performed at the Dr. Pepper Concert series in Central Park in August, 1979 but what is, for me, even more memorable than the concert, which I believe we listened to from beyond the fencing in the park, was the fact that it was the same night we went to see the Rust Never Sleeps movie at the Palladium. Each of us received the Rust Never Sleeps concert poster (for free) and a pair of Rust-O-Vision 3D glasses so we could watch Neil Young and Crazy Horse melt onstage (at least in theory). The movie was so great that I also went to see it at the Palladium on August 18 and August 19, 1979. I still have my cardboard Rust-O-Vision glasses and the movie poster is framed and hanging on my basement wall.

Sedan Delivery

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GQ

Another night, another show in Central Park summer of ‘79. The Dr. Pepper Concert Series was the gift that kept giving. Former Byrds members, McGuinn, Clark and Hillman performed with opener Henry Paul, then formerly of the Outlaws, at the midtown Manhattan outdoor venue.

Backstage Pass

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GQ

Fresh on the heals of a really annoying Super Bowl Jeep commercial, news broke that apparently Bruce Springsteen was arrested for DWI in his home state of NewJersey sometime in November.

Reckless driving?
Was he doing 360s on the grass with a bottle of tequila hanging out the window?
Rock and roll!!!!!!

He wants America to meet in the middle……………..of the road

He was blinded by the police light

Did he have 41 shots?

Thank god no wreck on the highway

At least he wasn’t driving a stolen car in the tunnel of love

Did the highway patrolman ask him if he knew where he was and did he reply “Atlantic City?

It’s hard to be a saint in the city

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GQ

The Calderone Concert Hall, which was located on Franklin Avenue, Hempstead, was an unusual venue for us to travel to from Queens but we made the trek for the Patti Smith Group in August, 1979. The Calderone Concert Hall was a theatre in Nassau County that was later converted to a church and, at the time, the neighborhood had a reputation as being rather tough with streetwalkers and drug dealers. Somewhere on the way to the show, we passed by a florist and, for some unknown reason, I spontaneously bought a white carnation with a long stem just in case we were close enough to hand it off to Patti Smith. Patti Smith rocked; she was like a female version of Keith Richards and Lou Reed combined and not much thought went into how she might react to such a gesture but off to Hempstead we went. We were sitting facing left side of orchestra and I was either on the aisle or pretty close. Patti Smith came walking down the aisle from behind us. As she passed, while singing, I held out the carnation and she dramatically forcibly grabbed it mid stride as she walked onto the stage using it as a prop for the rest of the song. As I recall, there was at least one video screen next to the stage and I remember thinking it was pretty cool that she was clutching the carnation next to her microphone as she sang. The next night we headed into Central Park to catch the band again but whether we actually went in or hung out on the boulders is anyone’s guess at this point.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees were announced yesterday. How is it that Tina Turner is not already in it? And I liked Devo enough but, c’mon, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Dancing Barefoot

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GQ

I wish I could say I that I witnessed the Ramones play in a downtown club in their heyday, but my first Ramones concert was at the Wollman Rink at Central Park during the Dr. Pepper Concert series. At the time I was more inclined toward Neil Young, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin so when one of my classmates at Queens College, who was dressed in the punk rock style at the time in leather jacket, tried to convince me that the Ramones were the greatest band of all time I thought he was nuts. As it turns out, he was not far off as the Ramones turned out to be an iconic group of trailblazers who were trying to figure out how to expand its following heading into the 1980’s. I did meet Joey Ramine at Bonds NYC at a Plasmatics concert once. If I remember right, the Ramones had performed a show on Long Island that night and as I was hanging out in the bar area at Bonds, here comes Joey Ramine walking right towards me. I quickly determined that I would chat him up as if we already knew each other. My strategy worked until the young lady he was with realized that Joey had no idea who I was and she grabbed him by the wrist leading him away into the crowd. A quick encounter reminiscent of an even more brief encounter with John Belushi at a Madison Square Garden after party celebrating “For Those About to Rock” album sales. Belushi zoomed in on me, shook my hand and said “you don’t even want to know who I am” then he just as quickly disappeared back into the party.

Too Tough to Die

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GQ

It may be hard to believe now, but in 1979 AC/DC opened up for the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent. Mr. Nugent had been co-headlining arena dates with Lynyrd Skynyrd before the horrific plane crash that has been well chronicled abruptly changed the formula and Ted was elevated to arena headliner. Nugent had great albums like “ Free for All”, stellar shows starring one of the greatest rock and roll guitarists of all time, and a rabid fan base. I had seen AC/DC open for Rainbow at the Palladium and the band was continuing its upward trajectory from theatre to arena act. Both bands still tour to this day; Ted Nugent mostly playing club dates like at the Paramount in Huntington (with the talented Greg Smith on bass) and AC/DC playing sold out arena and stadium dates.

It’s a Long Way to the Top if You Want to Rock and Roll

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GQ