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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This three night stint with the Grateful Dead in May, 1980 is a blur, as it should be I suppose.

Franklin’s Tower

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I would go see Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at any venue and in any configuration so this Graham Nash solo concert was interesting and unusual at the time. I sat in the loge section to the right of the stage and my thoughts at the time were that this was Nash doing his “ Neil Young” thing. I can recall Graham Nash sitting solo at the piano with harmonica and I know that I enjoyed the show at the time. Years later I attended Town Hall in Manhattan to see Graham Nash with band perform two albums in their entirety. I do not always agree with Graham’s politics but I am one of those guys that believes everyone is entitled to their opinion (even if it is wrong). At one point fairly early on in the concert during his between song chatter, Nash said “The NYPD murdered Eric Garner” which took me aback and instantly put me in a foul mood. I think everyone would agree Eric Garner’s death was a tragedy but it was not murder; and to say that the “New York City Police Department” murdered Mr. Garner is just wrong and inflammatory. The Town Hall was pretty quiet after he made his remark and my wife and I were just a few rows back from the left side of the stage so if I had shouted something Nash most certainly would have heard me. My wife would have walked out when Graham went out of his way to demonize the great men and women of the NYPD but when you attend a Graham Nash concert you go expecting some political commentary so I grimaced and watched the rest of the show a little pissed off. While I do love the man and his music, I will always regret not having yelled “it was a tragedy but not murder” to Graham Nash that night.

Songs for Beginners

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I never really listened to any Pat Travers Band music but I had one of his albums which were almost more known for the inventive album covers which were always interesting. I really have no recollection of this Palladium concert but I did see the Pat Travers Band many years later at The Space in Westbury, a fairly odd venue which is a former movie theatre converted for multiple purposes to include live music events. The Westbury show was a Groupon grab and it was not well attended allowing me to enter late and walk right to the front of the stage dead center. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show and Pat Travers can wail on guitar.
The Good Rats were a pretty successful band working the Long Island club scene in the late 1970’s along with Zebra and, of course, Twisted Sister. The Good Rats were never really my bag but they had a couple of songs that you heard on the radio and they drew large crowds so it was always a good night out.

Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)

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