10/23/76 Lynyrd Skynyrd/Bebop Deluxe at the Paladium, New York City

This show would have been the beginning of our story had yours truly not cut high school just prior to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. “One More From the Road” is one if the greatest live double albums ever produced in an era of incredible double live releases and Skynyrd was about to break as an arena act.

Unfortunately, the one and only time I skipped out from school, for really no other reason but 16 year old angst, was not a well thought out plan as I immediately got nailed for no one calling in my absence. Having absolutely nothing planned for the day, I wandered the streets of Queens until I went to the Quartet movie theater on Northern Boulevard and sat through the awful R rated “Debbie Does Dallas 2” to kill time until I could go home. Despite the fact that I was an ordinarily pretty good kid who regularly got good grades, needless to say, my day trip got me grounded and caused me to miss the Skynyrd show.

Now the Queen show at Madison Square Garden was a completely different animal. I’m going to write this blog as I remember the events primarily  because I ‘m too lazy to Google and why let the truth get in the way of a good memory. Our seats were mid way up opposite the stage. The lights went down and on  either side of the stage were two revolving red lights and a siren wailed. Thin Lizzy opened with Jailbreak. In the summer of 1976 The Boys Are Back in Town was all over the radio and was an anthem for all the rockers in the neighborhood. This is a song that holds up to this day and brings back great memories of hanging out and having a blast- the future uncertain and wide open.

Queen was one of the great arena acts of all time. On this night Queen opened with a kick ass version of “Tie Your Mother Down” and from our vantage point the lighting effects during “Now I’m Here” were mesmerizing. Queen’s early albums were hard rock at its best and Brian May has never really gotten his due as it relates to the Queen catalog and being an arena rock guitar GOD in the big picture of rock history. Much later on Fredde Mercury’s personal troubles would become well known to the public. The name of the band was ” Queen” and Freddie would later die from AIDS, but Mercury was not a gay performer of popular songs but a hard rocking flamboyant ROCK STAR!

Freddie Mercury was no Liberace being asked on the Mike Douglas talk show why a good looking guy like him was still single. Rock and Roll was dangerous and mysterious; the album covers and a few magazines were your only window into the band’s world.  Before Alice Cooper occupied a seat on the Hollywood Squares game show and jumped the shark and then jumped back and became cool again, rock stars did not show up on television and the real private lives were not well known to the fans.

Queen had it all; their production and sound are unique to them until this day.

Forget the numerous greatest hits compilations, one of my early album purchases, Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack is still my favorite, still holds up, and is unbelievably the only Queen vinyl album in my collection.

Rock On

GQ