One of the great New York musical experiences you could ever have was the Dr. Pepper Concert series at Wollman Rink in Central Park. The Dr. Pepper Concert series was a great outdoor venue during the summer where you could see many of the greatest acts to come out of the 1970’s with tickets going for $4.50 and $2.50. If you did not care to spend the money or could not get a ticket, you could hang out on the rocks just beyond the exterior fence and listen to the music and party with your friends for free. If I remember correctly I believe we spent the Heart concert that night in 1977 on the rocks and they played Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” as an encore which was obviously a crowd pleaser.

Heart’s “Dreamboat Annie” album received plenty of radio airplay, particularly once “Magic Man” broke big,  making the Wilson sisters  rock and roll stars seemingly overnight.

Kick It Out

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GQ

The iconic Yes line up of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White and the returning Rick Wakeman toured behind the “Going for the One” album with Donovan opening and the fans could not be more pumped up to see the progressive rock kings in their prime. This was my first of what would be many Yes concerts seeing my favorite band at the time and the stage’s “Going for the One” cover backdrop added to the anticipition as the album was an instant all time classic. The return of legendary Rick Wakeman to the fold also added to the buzz in the Madison Square Garden crowd. Yes, this would be the first of many Yes concerts I would attend but the only show where we would see the band in a classic concert end stage setting as Yes would tour “in the round” for several years to come. 

The members of Yes are some of the greatest pure musicians on the planet and with the ethereal Jon Anderson providing the lead spiritually and lyrically, Yes was the greatest progressive rock band, for my money, in the history of rock and roll.

This April, Yes will finally join Donovan in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- a long overdue honor primarily because the HOF committee would seem to have a bias against progressive rock music. Unfortunately co-founder Chris Squier did not live long enough to to be acknowledged in this forum; Greg Lake and Keith Emerson will also be honored posthumously some day. It appears that this committee goes out of its way to create a mix of styles so as to draw the biggest television audience for the HBO production sometimes overlooking “worthy” candidates for potential ratings and media chatter. 

I recently saw Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman at the Paramount in Huntington. They are currently on a lengthy tour and are in top form. 

I struggle with the current Yes lineup that includes Alan White and Steve Howe and have not gone out of my way to see them the past few times they have passed through town.

Jon Anderson has said he could see the band reunite at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Hall of Fame ceremony which would be nice to see after the apparent ongoing bad blood between various members through the years.

Close to the Edge

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The first Bad Company album in 1974 was also the first album released on Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label and it was a big hit.

The single “Can’t Get Enough” was all over the radio and the band had a soulful hard rock groove led by the incredible vocals of Paul Rodgers and the riffs of Mick Ralphs. The four piece band was rounded out with Boz Burrell on bass and Simon Kirke on drums. They followed the initial  “Bad Co.” effort with the “Straight Shooter”, “Run With the Pack”and “Burnin’ Sky” albums and they were immensely popular.

We sat straight back a little to the right of the Madison Square Garden stage for opener Climax Blues Band who, like headliner Bad Co., also got their share of radio airplay. At some point during the festivities we noticed that up to the left of us a seat was on fire and there were flames visible from a distance. No one was particularly disturbed at the sight of the small inferno inside the famed arena and as I recall the show went on uninterrupted.

No Smoke Without Fire

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GQ

Cosby , Stills and Nash have been one of my favorite acts for as long as I can remember. The threesome’s story is timeless and legendary. They have created and played music together, and with Neil Young, in a variety of incarnations for decades. The band with a social conscience can play acoustically harkening back to their folk roots or play electric with the great Stephen Stills formerly of the Buffalo Springfield and Manassas on the lead guitar. Each band member is prolific in his own right but this is a true case of the sum bring greater than the parts. 

I have no specific recollection of this particular CSN concert but there was one show at Madison Square Garden when we were heading in to see the band on the 7 subway line when the train stopped moving for an extended period of time putting our arrival for start of the show in jeapordy. As it turned out someone had leapt in front of a train ahead of us causing the delay. Eventually we started moving again and made it to the show but even the best laid plans in New York City can be sidetracked by unforeseen circumstances. 

David Ctosby played Town Hall this past December promoting a new “album” and Graham Nash will play City Winery with Shawn Colvin during her winter stint where she will also play with Richard Thompson and Patty Griffin.

Stephen Stills had been working his blues project with The Rides but has not been heard of other than a charity gig he played with a Neil Young appearance. Of the three, Strphen appears not to be as fit as Nash or even Crosby with his numerous documented health scares. 

As with many of the rock legends of the 1960’s and 1970’s our heroes are now in their 70’s and their music can now be heard on the FM oldies station replacing our parents’ Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme music. 

Just a Song Before I Go

Teach Your Children

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GQ

At first blush, Lynyrd Skynyrd co-headlining with Ted Nugent would seem to be an odd match but the two acts together could do what neither could do alone at the time- sell out arenas, and both artists were breaking big in 1977.

Ted Nugent first achieved success with the Amboy Dukes with “Journey to the Center of the Mind” but with “Stranglehold” and the great “Free for All” album he was now wildly popular with our hard rock neighborhood community. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd was more successfully the time  but broke out big nationwide with the double live album “One More From the Road”. 

“Sweet Home Alabama”, the band’s response to Neil Young’s “Alabama” on his mega-hit “Harvest” album, was a huge radio hit and”Freebird” was one of the great dual guitar rock anthems of all time.

Although Nassau County was right next door to Queens, it may have been a thousand miles away. Once you crossed the county line for us it seemed that you had entered a different world but irregardless we endeavored to travel to Nassau Coliseum to see the solid double bill.

We sat up to the left of the stage and a large white piano dominated the scene during Lynyrd Skynyrd’s set.

It would be the only time I would see the original line up with the great Ronnie Van Zant leading the southern rock legends.

Sometime later on, Lynyrd Skynyrd was supposed to headline Madison Square Garden with Ted Nugent but tragically Skynyrd’s plane crashed killing members of the band, including Ronnie, and Ted Nugent played the MSG show himself headlining The World’s Most Famous Arena” and propelling his career to greater heights.

On a side note, during a separate expedition driving through the side streets of Nassau County one night coming from who knows where, long before GPS was even dreamed of, we found ourselves lost somewhere in Valley Stream. While trying to get our bearings and figure out how to get back home to Queens, I looked up to see white sign with black lettering on a silver pole. Nugent Street! We stopped the car, I stood on the hood and unscrewed the top of the sign just as a resident began yelling at us from up the block. We scrambled back into the car with street sign in tow and raced away with our prize. I still have the Nugent St. sigb in my attic to this day- a testament to and reminder of our Long Island adventure.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

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The legendary Led Zeppelin played six nights at Madison Square Garden in 1977 and it was covered in all the local newspapers as the big event that it was. Rock and Roll royalty had taken over New York City and it was the hottest ticket in town. I’m not sure exactly how but we managed to buy tickets to the Friday night show. We eagerly anticipated our night to see the mighty Led Zep as one of the older kids on the next block was seen night after night leaving toward the 7 Line subway in Flushing with his expensive camera in hand as he somehow had good seats for each show and apparently the vantage point for great photos. 

Scott W. was a couple of years older than the rest of us, was done with school and always seemed to have money and the best audio equipment. He was an “entrepreanor” who would be in his room smoking cigarettes and curling dumbells anytime we went up to see his brother. Scott was cool and it did not surprise anyone that he would attend all the Led Zeppelin shows at Madison Square Garden as they were his favorite band. A few years later when Led Zeppelin released the mysterious  “In Through the Out Door” in its brown paper wrapping, the crew on the next block were the first ones at Jimmy’s Music World on Roosevelt Avenue to buy it and by the end of the day they pronounced that Zeppelin was finished. That day Van Hslen took the mantle as the greatest hard rock band as “In Through the Oot Foor” was deemed a disappointment by many in the neighborhood.

Our seats at the Garden on this night in 1977 were midway up to the left of the stage and amongst many highlights for me was Jimmy Page working with a then state of the art laser show during “Dazed and Confused” and the encore “Tock and Roll” which blew the roof off the joint as everyone was jumping and dancing to an all time rock anthem.

It was only my second concert and, although I have seen Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in a variety of incarnations throughout the years, I could not know at the time that it would be the one time I would witness the great Led Zeppelin in concert as the band broke up after the untimely death of John Bonham. The great Scott Muni broke the news on WNEW-FM during his regular afternoon shift while I was listening in a stock room at Gertz Department Store and it was over.

What Is and What Should Never Be

Happy New Year

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GQ

in about five weeks it will be the 30th anniversary of the first rock concert that I attended at 17 years of age. By way of a New Year’s resolution I will attempt to reboot my concert going chronology and start again at the beginning.

While the first band I ever saw was Thin Lizzy opening with “Jailbreak” and low tech, by today’s standards, revolving red lights on either side of the stage, had I not skipped school and got caught my first concert would have been Lynyrd Skynyrd with opener Bebop Deluxe at the Paladium.

Thin Lizzy owned the radio airwaves the summer of 1976, along with Frampton Comes Alive, so the band was a great opening act for the immensely popular Queen at the iconic arena.

We were midway up directly opposite the Madison Square Garden stage. While the renovated MSG is still a great venue it is now upscale with long aisles protected by ushers and security to keep patrons from wandering. The 1977 Garden had walkways that encircled the arena enabling its young rockers to walk completely around, mingle, get as close to the stage and get varying vantage points as the more laid back 1970’s security would tolerate.

The band Queen was a big act and tailor made for the big venues. Freddie Mercury was the ultimate showman and the ringleader to a kick ass rock band led by Brian May’s electric guitar. “Now I’m Here” was particularly mesmerizing as the spotlights would make it seem as though Mercury was being teleported to different spots of the stage as though by otherworldly magic.

There has never been another act quite like Queen as evidenced by their continued popularity on classic rock radio. They were true originals with great songs and a big sound.

Since it is New Year’s Eve, a quick story about when I realized it was probably a good idea to stay off the roads on the annual celebration. On December 31, 1981 I attended the Allman Brothers Band with Molly Hatchet show at Nassau Coliseum. After the concert traveling westbound back to Queens on the Northern State Parkway a young reveller wearing a cardboard Happy New Year hat was seen walking on the white line in the middle of the roadway with cars whizzing by him in both lanes.

Keep Yourself Alive

Happy New Year, stay safe, and Rock On!

GQ

Richard Thompson pulled strips of paper containing audience requests last night at City Winery in New York.

It was a mostly entertaining night of solo acoustic music as Thompson played tunes on the fly with the help of computer generated lyric sheets at times. Richard Thompson classics were sprinkled between  the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”, a couple from his Fairport Convention days and Beatles songs that he muddled through (Richard appeared to be not a huge fan of the Fab Four which is hard to believe but true)  The between song banter was refreshing and the guitar playing was exquisite. He did not play the song I am currently fixated on “The Way Thst It Shows” off of the Mirror Blue collection but he did play the Gull’s  selection “Razor” as the finale.

I first saw Mr. Thompson play at City Winery with his Family band which was entertaining but light on Richard Thompson compositions. 

Richard Thompson performs again Friday night at a sold out City Winery and is well worth seeing if you can get in to catch a legend in an intimate setting.

Shoot Out the Lights

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GQ

Leon Russell was one of the great under appreciated rock and roll artists of our time. I have always been a fan of his solo work and I first saw him live in concert at BB King’s Blues Club in Times Sqaure. He was no longer the rock and roll wild man who played with George Harrison and the Rolling Stones. Slightly resembling Colonial Sanders, Leon Russell sauntered carefully on stage with the help of a walking stick but when he sat down behind his piano he was clearly at home. 

The times I was able to attend his shows Leon played for about an hour and a quarter and left you wanting more. The word was he was down on his luck, appearing to be not in the greatest health, and touring because he needed the money. 

Elton John rejuvenated Russell’s  career with The Union project and tour while also being the impetus for Leon’s well deserved Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction. 

I last saw Mr. Russell open for Hot Tuna at the NYCB at Westbury theatre with a band of twenty something year old players who hopefully appreciated the legend they shared the stage with. Unfortunately I had decided that night  not to see Leon Russell again as his portion of the bill was heavy on his playing piano at breakneck speed with less emphasis on his extraordinarily deep song catalog. 

Leon Russell will be missed but remembered for all time as one of the great rock and roll side men and for beautiful soulful musical compositions that will stand the test of time.

A Song for You

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GQ

WTF? The king of rock and roll is going to Madison Square Garden to see the country queen of American Idol fame, Carrie Underwood?

Yes kids it is true! My bride got us some free ducats to the Underwood show tonight, and I do like to be entertained, so we will trek into New York City to enjoy what modern country music has to offer.

I do enjoy all types of music but on the country side it is more Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to my liking so this will be a new arena experience for me. 

I did see Kenny Chesney at the Highline Ballroom a couple of years ago at a Sirius event and I honestly did not realize what a big deal it was as he played MetLife Stadium the following summer.

When it comes to music I’m up for most anything. I’ve seen Josh Groban, Frank Sinatra, N’Sync, Ozzy Osborne and the Grateful Dead (not together of course although it would be quite an event to be sure).

Saturday night I had the pleasure to attend the Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman concert at The Paramount in Huntigton and it was a phenomenal night of Yes music played by the truest Yes formation currently touring with or without the Yes brand name (sorry Steve Howe).

Last Tuesday 10/18/16 I went to Town Hall in midtown Manhattan to attend the Lampedusa Concert for Refugees with Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, The Milk Carton Kids, and special guest Robert Plant. All the players remained seated on stage and traded off songs playing together with a communal vibe. I missed the early part of the show due to ridiculous traffic but what I did catch was quite impressive on many levels and inspirational as to the cause being promoted.

Let the Music Do the Talking

Rock On

GQ