My future bride and I went to the Nassau Coliseum in July, 1980 to see the mighty Van Halen at the height of their superpowers. Before the internet, we would read music magazines and newspapers and find out that lead singer David Lee Roth was on all sorts of fantastic adventures during the band’s breaks. We were led to believe that David Lee Roth did live life like there was no tomorrow and stories of him rock climbing in far off lands or doing some sort of exotic martial arts stuff with samurai swords were numerous and just created an extraordinary legend and myth about the larger than life band. I am not exactly sure how I pulled it off, but we had great seats for this concert, on the side of the stage on Eddie Van Halen’s side just a couple of rows off of the floor. The band was explosive and David Lee Roth was every bit the rock star, to the point where my then girlfriend was standing on top of her chair screaming at Mr. Roth’s every gyration making me to be almost invisible. It was so much fun, and Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony provided rock and roll joy to all in attendance. Eddie VH passed recently after a number of long illnesses but the band’s music and the memories of these mammoth tours live on.

Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love

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Devo is an interesting act to ponder as they exploded on the New Wave scene with a unique style that even manage to turn The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” into their own. Neil Young credits the band on improving the iconic “Hey Hey My My” by coming up with “ Rust Never Sleeps” and Mark Mothersbaugh even went on to create the music for the children’s cartoon “Rugrats”. I do not really recall this particular Central Park concert so I am guessing we may have hung out on the boulders beyond the fencing for this one. Devo is nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year (but still no Jethro Tull or Ian Hunter?). I just read an article about 35 rock stars over 75 years old; when live music returns, catch your favorites while you still can as we are all on the clock.

Whip It

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If you have not figured out by now, I like all types of music, to include the heavy metal thunder of one Judas Priest. I am not sure if this is the right Judas Priest concert for this story but the time frame is in the right ballpark. While I was dating my now wife of 34 years, and we were both attending Queens College, we went to the Judas Priest show at The Palladium together. Granted, heavy metal really was not her thing (although she did like Van Halen as you will see later) but off to Manhattan we went. On the way to the concert, we stopped at a real dive bar where the safest drink to order would undoubtedly be a bottled beer. For some unknown reason, despite my objections, my future bride gets it in her head to order a Sloe Gin Fizz. Now having never have seen or drank one of those concoctions, I am not sure what it was supposed to look like but, as I recall, the cocktail was almost blood red in color. From the looks of it, my guess is this particular bartender had never created such an alcoholic beverage before but my then girlfriend had decided that this was the drink for her. She polished it off like a pro and to the show we went. I have no idea what the ingredients are or were supposed to be, but this drink got her pretty intoxicated, pretty fast and, as she was not a big drinker to begin with, on the verge of being sick. We made it through the evening somehow and I returned to her Elmhurst apartment building where fortunately her parents were not up; I left her in the hands of baby sister and made my way back to Oakland Gardens.
You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’

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Two days after seeing the great Peter Gabriel, we returned to Central Park to catch Grace Slick and Marty Balin in Jefferson Starship with Orleans opening. I’m thinking we may have stayed outside on the boulders beyond the fencing for this one but I cannot recall. The remnants of Jefferson Airplane became Starship with a more pop sound but they were still a great band as they continued to make relevant albums in the 1970’s s and 1980’s. Grace Slick fell off the radar screen at some point and is an artist somewhere in California. Mr. Balin passed in 2018 but his music and incredible vocals on such songs as “Miracles” live on.

Fast Buck Freddie

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When Peter Gabriel hit the stage at the Dr. Pepper Concert Series in Central Park in July, 1980 we were seriously pumped up. Peter Gabriel had left Genesis but, for me, his self titled solo albums took him to a whole new level. The packed house in Central Park began to roar as Gabriel made his way through the audience from back to front. Peter Gabriel wore a black jumpsuit and sported a shaved head which was rubbed by some in the crowd as he bounded down the aisle toward the stage. I was standing on the folding chair during one number singing along to I think “I Don’t Remember” just having a good time and someone behind me gave me a shove because I guess I was blocking his view. John the Cook quickly pounced on him alleviating any potential conflict brewing. Now midtown Manhattan used to be a bustling crowded place pre-pandemic and one of our friends, who will remain nameless, decided to do two hits of blotter acid for the occasion, when one probably would have done the trick, and we spent the walk back to the train after the concert navigating the crowded streets with him staring at the sky and periodically pulling on his shirt to keep him from walking into traffic. Yet another concert adventure; no one was hurt, everyone survived and no animals were harmed in the production.

Games Without Frontiers

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I love Genesis and I wish I could say I recall anything from this particular concert but I would be lying. A little more memorable was the Genesis show at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens and the Peter Gabriel concert at the Dr. Pepper Concert series in Central Park which is next up on our travelogue.

Eleventh Earl of Mar

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Blue Oyster Cult was widely considered a “Long Island” band, so much so that they would sometimes work out new material in the area under their pseudonym Soft White Underbelly. This particular show at My Father’s Place in Roslyn is not ringing a bell but the hard rock outfit, with many really well written and catchy songs like the incredible “Burning For You”, did co-headline a tour called “ Black and Blue” with the Ronnie James Dio version of Black Sabbath that was a bit more memorable.When the two bands stopped at the Nassau Coliseum I assumed that Black Sabbath would headline as they were by far the bigger, more popular act, but since Long Island was Blue Oyster Cult’s home turf, Black Sabbath opened the concert. While I appreciate the respect that Black Sabbath gave BOC on that night, clearly Black Sabbath should have closed the show as Sabbath was a tough act for anyone to follow. Blue Oyster Cult has some really great songs, well crafted and rocking, so seeing them live was always entertaining whenever, wherever and by whatever name they chose to play as on any particular night.

Godzilla

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My first stadium concert took place at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands with the Eagles, Heart and Little River Band opening; a pretty damn good line up. We sat on the side of the football stadium about midway back facing the left side of the stage and I recall that the weather was pretty good that day for this large scale event. My biggest recollections from this show are not music related however. As far as I recall, this Eagles tour came with the first hundred dollar ticket price. The second, and what really annoyed the hell out of me at the time, was that the Eagles added a surcharge to the parking fee to go towards a donation to one of their charities. They had already charged the highest face value ticket price that I was aware of at the time, but then the Eagles had the gall to take the opportunity to separate their fans out of an additional one or two dollars on top of the parking fee you could not avoid, to extort money for a donation to a charity of their choosing (which I can only assume had favorable tax consequences for the band). The Eagles, and particularly Don Henley’s, greed knows no bounds, then or now; but the music is legendary. Before the pandemic shut everything down, my wife and I had really good seats at Madison Square Garden in the orchestra dead center for the “Hotel California” tour, without Don Felder and of course the late Glenn Frey, and we had a really fun night out. The band was tight, the sound at the Garden was great, and the Eagles played the “Hotel California” album in its entirety followed by a set of “greatest hits”. I would say that on this particular tour the band gave its audience their money’s worth, playing for about three hours. For those of us that lived through the release of their iconic albums in the 1970’s and beyond and with the constant radio airplay that came with it, the band’s music was a big part of the soundtrack of our lives bringing with it lots of good memories to this day. Even with the revamped lineup, The Eagles are still a great band (who were well ahead of the rest of the music industry when it comes to exorbitant ticket prices).

Victim of Love

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Nazareth’s “ Hair of the Dog” album contained the huge radio hit “Love Hurts” and we caught them at New York City’s Palladium with opener Marseille. I vaguely recall sitting in the loge and thinking that Nazareth’s frontman definitely had the rock star look. The band had its one great album but kind of stalled after that as far as we were concerned but “Love Hurts” still sounds good today and that is not a bad.

Beggars Day

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If you have not figured it out by now, I love rock and roll, so next up after three nights of the Grateful Dead at the Nassau Coliseum was a special night in New York City to see Lou Reed at the intimate cabaret club the Bottom Line in downtown Manhattan. The Bottom Line had table seating that was sold out but we managed to somehow get general admission standing room for the show which entitled you to squeeze in at the bar located to the left of the stage. Lou Reed was at the height of his powers and his band was tight. The Bottom Line was a very cool venue with a lot of history and was one of my favorite places to go to see a show at the time; seeing the great Lou Reed on that tiny stage is an image emblazoned in my memory.

Coney Island Baby

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