I remember my biggest concert disappoint. I was always a huge fan of Eric Clapton's work with Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos. After he kicked his heroin habit he released the 461 Ocean Boulevard album and did a tour to support it. I saw him on that tour in the summer of 1974 at the Cow Palace. He was not the Clapton of the 60's and first couple of years of the 70's. I came to the depressing conclusion that I liked his work better when he was on drugs.*

*But I thought he was good at The Last Waltz in '76 and The Concert for George in 2002 is worth buying for Clapton's work on it alone.

It was only the one time I saw Neil Young in 2010 at the Fox Oakland when Neil was do damned gruff and grumpy and mailing it in that the concert was just bad. While he always had a certain touch of gruffness and grumpiness, I never saw it make him unpleasant any of the other times I saw him.

I do understand, however, that he was that way at times, even in his prime.

I saw Dan Fogelberg at the Fox in Redwood City in 2003, his last Bay Area appearance before the prostate cancer that eventually killed him caused him to stop touring. I had a nice seat in the second row. Dan could be gruff and grumpy at times, but he was in a good mood that night, even when he had to pause to fix a fingernail that was causing problems. for him. He bantered with the audience while fixing a nail. When one woman shouted out she was a nurse, he said, "I need a manicurist." He generally never took requests, but he asked the audience if there was anything they wanted to hear. One woman shouted, "Part of the Plan!" Well, Dan had opened with Part of the Plan, so he teased her in a good natured way about not having been there when the concert started.

This led Dan (while still fixing his nail) to tell a story that his old manager Irving Azoff had told about Neil Young in 1973, still in his late 20's. Azoff wasn't normally dealing with Neil Young, but David Geffen sent him to go to a Neil Young and Crazy Horse Concert at Queen's College in New York. They started the concert with "Tonight's the Night," and pretty much played everything off the (recorded but yet unreleased) "Tonight's the Night" album, and ended (pre-encore) with "Tonight's the Night." The crowd was somewhat hostile, having only heard the songs off that one unreleased album and not the stuff they knew, and backstage, Neil asked Irving what he thought he should do. Irving said, "Go back out and play something they know." So he went out and played "Tonight's the Night" for a third time. "True story" says Dan. I don't know if this story is true, but I later found on the internet that Azoff indeed has told this story.

SO, Dan plays a pretty long rocking "Power of Gold" to end his main set. Then he comes back out for an encore. He and the band launch into "Part of the Plan." As the intro is happening, Dan said, "You asked for it." He then looked over to the woman who had, in spite of it opening the concert, requested it, and winked at her with a sly grin on his face. It was the only time I ever saw Dan actually play a request. Of course, it was a song that was on his set list, after all, he opened with it, but still, it is fair to say, he played a request (unlike Neil, who played "Tonight's the Night" for a third time when no one had requested it even once).

That was quite and album Dan put out. Joe Walsh produced it an played on it with lots of other A list players. Neil and Stephen Stills were always major pr@icks. Each of them started every concert with a list of rules that, if violated, they would walk out (no photos, total silence during acoustic sets...). On more than one occasion I was tempted to stand up and yell "F@UCK YOU! Go ahead and walk out!. I loved their music. I saw them as solos and together several times in early 70's.

Late 80's, U2 at Oakland Coliseum. They were playing Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door". Bono was playing acoustic guitar and asked if there were any guitarists in the audience. Several hands went up from in front of the stage. Bono picked one guy out and motioned him to get on stage. He then spoke to the guy a bit, handed him the guitar and our mystery guitarist picked up the riff perfectly. I bet he was also thinking, "Please, let there be somebody I know with a camera or no one's going to believe this."

Scot Halpin - Wikipedia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scot_Halpin
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scot_Halpin

UrsusTexicanus said:

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Late 80's, U2 at Oakland Coliseum. They were playing Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door". Bono was playing acoustic guitar and asked if there were any guitarists in the audience. Several hands went up from in front of the stage. Bono picked one guy out and motioned him to get on stage. He then spoke to the guy a bit, handed him the guitar and our mystery guitarist picked up the riff perfectly. I bet he was also thinking, "Please, let there be somebody I know with a camera or no one's going to believe this."

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Are you sure it wasn't at their performance at the Amnesty International concert at the Cow Palace? Or maybe he did that every concert. He's that kind of spontaneous artist.

thread tl;dr, sorrry. but the next one, surre, that'll be it.

last time was ~1969, back in-country / san diego for nearly two weeks, trying to book whatever concert was going on. long story short-er, ended up paying a week's salary for a festival already known to be cancelled, just for a ticket keepsake.

also fun was hitting every record shop in town, desperate for the 2nd csny album. later found out none such existed, whee.
# internet still decades away
# memories are made of this.

bearister said:

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Calbach said:

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These bands played on the same bill in February 1970. Then together for a Super Jam.

Venue was a ballroom by Playland in San Francisco, called Family Dog on the Great Highway.

I was a senior in high school about a mile away (Washington).

Best shows while at Cal, both at the Greek, Joan Baez in 1971 and the Jazz Festival in 1974, with a smoking Les Mccan.

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Joan Baez at the Greek in 1971 was my first concert. Her radio hit at the time was her cover of The Band's The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. I was a senior in high school. I was a life long fan after that. She is a lovely looking older woman now. I have a lasting memory of that 1971 concert: the sound system couldn't handle her high notes on Swing Low Sweet Chariot.

Baez in 2018 (then 77):



For the last few years of my practice I worked at 1300 Clay Street (at the corner of 14th). This is a picture of Joan during the Oakland Induction Center Riots in 1967. The Induction Center was on Clay Street. I registered for the Draft there. I think this shows Joan standing on the corner of Clay and 14th:

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I remember that Induction Center. In 1964 or thereabouts, I was ordered to report there for my Draft physical exam. As all young red-blooded men in Berkeley, well indoctrinated in the horror of the Vietnam War, I was scared stiff I'd pass the physical, and get called up immediately to go to my doom, even though I had a letter from my doctor which stated that I had asthma, which was a no-no for the army. I was standing in line to have a blood sample drawn. The freckle-faced red-headed kid standing in front of me was about 6'-3" tall, skinny as a rail, and weighed about 110 lbs. He had been talking a lot, about how even if he passed the physical, he was going to join the Navy. He wanted badly to go to Vietnam and see some combat. The nurse poked him with the needle, and began to draw his blood sample. In about 20 seconds, he passed out cold turkey, and fell to the floor. The nurse had to run for the smelling salts to revive him. I turned to the guy behind me, and said, "The country is in trouble if this is is what the men in our fighting force look like."

If you've never heard this bit by Jerry Clower, give it a listen: "Marcel Joins the Navy". A little humor from the deep South:

bearister said:

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That was quite and album Dan put out. Joe Walsh produced it an played on it with lots of other A list players. Neil and Stephen Stills were always major pr@icks. Each of them started every concert with a list of rules that, if violated, they would walk out (no photos, total silence during acoustic sets...). On more than one occasion I was tempted to stand up and yell "F@UCK YOU! Go ahead and walk out!. I loved their music. I saw them as solos and together several times in early 70's.

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This reminds me of one of the best concerts I ever attended. I was visiting grandparents in Kansas City in July 1978, and wanted to see an old friend. While I was in town, he was out of town except the last night I was there, but he already had plans that night to see a concert at Arrowhead with some friends, Dan Fogelberg, Linda Ronstadt, and the Eagles.

He said I could come along if I bought a ticket, it was general admission stampede seating anyway. I loved the Eagles and LInda Ronstadt, Fogelberg I didn't know. I had to walk a couple of miles to a record store where Nicolette Larson once worked to buy what seemed like a reasonably priced ticket, maybe $15?

Early in the car ride heading to Arrowhead, I asked, "Who's Dan Fogelberg?" and the only woman in the car gave me a look that could kill. A lot more of his stuff got airplay in the midwest than in the Bay, so who can blame me, but she thought my question was sacrilegious.

Fogelberg opened solo acoustic, not easy in a big stadium, but he pulled it off in that crowd of 56,000 (although there were probably only 30,000 there during his set), I loved the music, went to Leopold's when I got home and bought that Souvenirs album. I became a big Fogelberg fan (most of his best stuff was album cuts). I didn't see that woman again until two years ago, when we had a good laugh about dirty look she gave me and how the guy who said, "Who's Dan Fogelberg" became a big fan.

Linda Ronstadt was great, but what I remember most from that pre-video screen concert was looking through the binoculars at Linda in her hot pink hot pants.

The Eagles also put on a great show. Joe Walsh did a solo set during the show, and surprise guest Jackson Browne came out to join the Eagles on the song he co-wrote, "Take it Easy," which was quite a treat.

I've seen a lot of really good concerts, but that was certainly one.

Cal8285 said:

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Professor Henry Higgins said:

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bearister said:

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I saw Steve Miller at Winterland during the peak of the Zebra slayings. I was seeing black El Dorado caddies in every shadow.

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Steve Miller bored me to tears in 1988. I could have just listened to his Greatest Hits CD for the same thrill. And I actively like his music very much. But in order for a concert to be good, there has to be something extra above just sounding exactly like the record to make it worth going.

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Interesting.

I've never seen Steve Miller, but I had a friend who turned 50 in 2007 and decided to go to at least 50 concerts in the year while he was age 50. When he was done, he ranked all the 50+ concerts he went to. The biggest positive surprise for him was Steve Miller. My friend liked Steve Miller's music, but he liked everybody he went to see, and if he'd ranked them all before he went to the concerts that year, Miller would have been in the middle of the pack, around 25-30. But he said Steve Miller gave a surprisingly great show, so much more than just playing the songs, including great performances of music that wasn't his own. The concert ended up ranked around 5th on his list.

Maybe Steve Miller learned his lesson in the 20 years after your concert.

Sadly, the last concert I ever went to with that friend before he passed away was Neil Young at the Fox in 2010, which ranks among the worst concerts I ever saw. Now THAT bored me to tears. Neil truly mailed it in, had no interaction with the audience (except to scold a 10 year old boy for making too much noise), and was just dull. I've seen Neil other times when he didn't suck, but man, was he boring that night.

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Ah, now we need to go with worst concerts. For me, it was Bob Dylan at the Concord Pavilion a few years back. Couldn't make out a single song.

Nearly as bad was catching Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Dave Mathews at the Bridge School Benefit near the turn of the century. The music wasn't bad (great actually), but the problem was having to suffer through long-winded political rants between every song.

1984 REO Speedwagon with Cheap Trick opening for them in the Mini Dome in Pocatello Idaho on the ISU campus. Cost me 20.00 for 2 tickets, took my future wife. 33 years later, 6 kids, 4 grand kids I would say that was the best 20.00 I ever spent!

Another unbelievable double bill. Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco; renamed Fillmore West by Bill Graham.

I didn't attend that show in 1970, but wish I did.

What a great era for live music. Probably cost less than $5 for a ticket.

BTW, the building still stands, but not for long with a high-rise planned for the site at the corner of Market and South Van Ness.

Calbach said:

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Another unbelievable double bill. Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco; renamed Fillmore West by Bill Graham.

I didn't attend that show in 1970, but wish I did.

What a great era for live music. Probably cost less than $5 for a ticket.

BTW, the building still stands, but not for long with a high-rise planned for the site at the corner of Market and South Van Ness.

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The Dead and Miles on the same bill? Boy, there's two different kinds of music. I would have liked to attend.

Miles' music got too crazy for me towards the end. I preferred this era:



Miles with The Trane:

bearister said:

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Miles' music got too crazy for me towards the end. I preferred this era:



Miles with The Trane:

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I really enjoyed these recent documentaries on Miles and Trane.

Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool

Chasing Trane

Elton John in SF, The xx in Berkeley, The Killers in San Diego.

MSaviolives said:

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bearister said:

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Miles' music got too crazy for me towards the end. I preferred this era:



Miles with The Trane:

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I really enjoyed these recent documentaries on Miles and Trane.

Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool

Chasing Trane

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Two strange Jazz bios:


Miles (Don Cheadle):



Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke):

thanks bearister. on the topic of Brothers..

once upon a time the media guide bio of a women's bb player (name lost to the ravages of time) included mention of 4 or 6 or 8 "bothers". i'm still left hanging whether she meant Brothers.

IdahoBear said:

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1984 REO Speedwagon with Cheap Trick opening for them in the Mini Dome in Pocatello Idaho on the ISU campus. Cost me 20.00 for 2 tickets, took my future wife. 33 years later, 6 kids, 4 grand kids I would say that was the best 20.00 I ever spent!

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Take It On the Run is one of the greatest sing-along with passion songs of all time.

best concert film, least known, most unavailable - first half even more classic english characters

https://romascanu.net/the-last-great-festival-film-message-to-love-murray-lerner-1996/

https://www.moviesteve.com/film-of-the-day-17-august-message-to-love-the-isle-of-wight-festival/

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43hwfk

smh said:

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thanks bearister. on the topic of Brothers..

once upon a time the media guide bio of a women's bb player (name lost to the ravages of time) included mention of 4 or 6 or 8 "bothers". i'm still left hanging whether she meant Brothers.

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MODERATORS: PLEASE TRANSFER THIS COMMENT TO THE WOMEN's BASKETBALL BOARD

bearister said:

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smh said:

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thanks bearister. on the topic of Brothers..

once upon a time the media guide bio of a women's bb player (name lost to the ravages of time) included mention of 4 or 6 or 8 "bothers". i'm still left hanging whether she meant Brothers.

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MODERATORS: PLEASE TRANSFER THIS COMMENT TO THE WOMEN's BASKETBALL BOARD

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ur kidding, of course, but don't PO a Like-r bud.

prospeCt said:

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best concert film, least known, most unavailable - first half even more classic english characters

https://romascanu.net/the-last-great-festival-film-message-to-love-murray-lerner-1996/

https://www.moviesteve.com/film-of-the-day-17-august-message-to-love-the-isle-of-wight-festival/

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43hwfk

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With all due respect, young fella, try this one on for size, with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Chubby Checker, and many, many more. They performed this in 4 cities, I believe. Best Rock and Roll movie I ever saw, with no offense to the kids in the peanut gallery of this forum.

SFCityBear said:

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prospeCt said:

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best concert film, least known, most unavailable - first half even more classic english characters

https://romascanu.net/the-last-great-festival-film-message-to-love-murray-lerner-1996/

https://www.moviesteve.com/film-of-the-day-17-august-message-to-love-the-isle-of-wight-festival/

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43hwfk

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With all due respect, young fella, try this one on for size, with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Chubby Checker, and many, many more. They performed this in 4 cities, I believe. Best Rock and Roll movie I ever saw, with no offense to the kids in the peanut gallery of this forum.

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Chubby Checker is in the house!