Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine vinyl single on sale this Friday, June 12th, get ‘em while they’re HOT!
Read MoreLittle Steven Van Zandt is Playing at the Newport THIS Wednesday Night, and You Should Go - by Ricki C.
Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul will be appearing at the Newport Music Hall Wednesday, November 14th. Doors are at 7 pm, details available here: Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul.
I didn’t see Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band for the first time until April 5th, 1976, at the Ohio Theater here in Columbus, Ohio on the Born To Run tour. Consequently, I never saw the E Street Band when it did not contain Little Steven Van Zandt – or “Miami Steve” as he was nicknamed in those days – on lead guitar & harmony vocals. Despite everything I read back then in the rock press of the 1970’s before that 1976 tour – about the legendary prowess of Bruce Springsteen as a live performance force of nature from the very beginnings of his career – I cannot believe the E Street Band was EVER as good WITHOUT Steven Van Zandt as they were WITH him.
People tend to forget that Bruce didn’t play much lead guitar until the Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour in 1978. That first night at the Ohio Theater, and the next show I saw, in 1977 at Veteran’s Memorial in Columbus (the so-called “Lawsuit Tour” when the E Street Band were scrabbling out a living on the road after being sued by original manager Mike Appel), Little Steven carried the lion’s share of the lead guitar duties in the soul-smashing E Street Band.
And make no mistake, though Big Man Clarence Clemons on saxophone was undoubtedly Springsteen’s main onstage foil in those mid-period E Street Band days – and I LOVED Clemons’ stage presence & superlative playing – it was Van Zandt who was the Keith Richards to Bruce’s Jagger, that sure and steady hand on the rock & roll rudder that kept everything locked TIGHT and rocking.
So did it break my heart a little when Van Zandt left the E Street Band in the 1980’s to go solo? Yeah, I admit it did. And do I believe for one minute that any of Steven’s “replacements” in the E Street Band – Nils Lofgren, Tom Morello – could (or should) follow five paces behind Little Steven and carry his guitar case, great as they are in their own way? No, I really don’t.
And don’t even get me started on Steven’s sartorial style or the verbal brilliance he deploys on his Underground Garage Sirius radio channel.
Anyway, I could go on gushing like a 15-year old girl all night, but here’s the point: If you can’t get yourself out to New York City and the Great White Way to witness Bruce Springsteen On Broadway, at least get yourself over to The Newport on Wednesday night and see some rock & roll the way it should be done. It can’t hurt ya. – Ricki C. / November 13th, 2018
Tom Petty Fans Were Right to Hate The Replacements - Jeff Hassler
In honor of tonight's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers sold-out Value City Arena show, Pencilstorm re-presents this Jeff Hassler offering from our archives.......
The reunited and better-sounding Replacements are coming to Columbus this week and needless to say Colin, Greg and Ricki C. are just gushing about their greatness everyday at the Pencilstorm office. Brian Phillips is the worst of the bunch and since we co-manage a fantasy baseball team together there is NO escaping his CD1025 elitism. I like The Replacements OK, but one of the best bands ever? please... I thought "Don't Tell a Soul" had some good stuff on it. And the video for "When It Began" was pretty cool with the claymation and Tommy and Paul playing an accordion and banjo. Nice to see them maturing musically and not just falling back into a safe "Hootenany." But seriously? Those early records sound I like I recorded them on a Sony walkman. Totally amateur. Just saying!
I accept the fact the 'Mats have long roots around the 614. Hell, even Ricki himself got offerred a chance to roadie for them. People love to idolize how they showed up, got messed up, couldn't sober up and then the show was disaster. But since it's the holy Replacements, all is forgiven. Colin always makes fun of me for liking Bon Jovi but the bottom line is that bands like The Replacements and - I hate to say it - Watershed just never really had any mainstream success. Is it sour grapes or jealousy or the same thing? (No offense, CG, still love ya.)
Anyway, one of the more popular "old wives" tales is how the Replacements got their big break by opening for Tom Petty on his wildly successful Full Moon Fever tour but were too cool to even bother trying to win over Petty's fans, drawing boo's and catcalls until the 'Mats eventually quit the tour with their tails between their legs. To hang around Pencilstorm, you would think The Replacements were like the next ELO, and Petty's fans were just too stupid to appreciate them. That is FALSE.
Let me tell you, I was at the Petty / Mats show at Pine Knob in Michigan and the Mats deserved the cool reception they received. First of all, they came on ten minutes late and when they finally started playing the sound was really rough. To quote Slim, "not half bad, but ain't exactly good." And apparently they were too cool to hire a keyboard player to help out, so the songs from Don't Tell a Soul sounded really different from the record. I mean, a record company spends all that money printing and promoting your record and then when they finally get you in front a big crowd the songs sound different? That's just bad business. No wonder The Replacements always had trouble moving product.
Even worse, they made NO attempt to win over the Petty fans who were paying attention, if not enthusiastic. Hell, it was so loud you had to notice. There were no sing-along sections and I'm pretty sure they didn't even say "Hello Cleveland" or anything funny like that. I thought these guys were supposed to be funny. Sure, there weren't many people in their seats yet and I only counted around ten standing and clapping, but they could have tried a LITTLE harder. There were THOUSANDS hitting beach balls on the lawn seats. Way bigger than playing Staches. Just saying!
Anyway, the set mercifully ended and my future and now ex-wife Kim and I headed backstage for a meet & greet with Tom Petty himself. SCORE! A fraternity buddy of mine had an internship with Petty's record company and the fact that he was also Kim's ex-boyfriend didn't hurt either. Anyway, we are hanging around the green room with about thirty other people and in walks Tom Petty himself! Wearing a top hat and smelling a little…you know.. green…AND acting TOTALLY professional: "Hey folks, thanks for coming." Just as Kim and I were set to have him sign our cassette of Full Moon Fever, Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson lurches into the room, grabs our cassette out of Kim's hands and scrawls "TOM PETTY IS MY DAD" right across the cover. RUINED.
He pulls the beer out of my hand and chugs the WHOLE THING. Let me tell you, he didn't need any more alcohol. Listen, I'm not a teetotaler by a long shot. Just the previous spring break me and my frat brothers from Sigma Ki went to Panama City, Florida and let's just say Club La Vela was NEVER the same. Kim wasn't pleased. (Long story!) And big deal if Petty smokes some weed before a show. No cops backstage that I saw anyway.
But Stinson, he was SO drunk he kind of fell into Kim, put his head on her shoulder and started talking about how lonely he had been since his brother had been kicked out of the band. Pathetic, really. Kim, back before our divorce and the lawyers and hooking up with Russ, used to be very nice. She used to always take care of people. She used to be so kind-hearted. Writing this story now, I wonder why she changed. Anyway, she helped him up and asked, "Tell me Tommy, why did they kick your brother out of Tom Petty?"
"Because he wouldn't play… Free Falling……" He started to tear up and asked Kim, "Could you help me back to find the tour bus, I need to take my allergy medicine or my eyes will get all red. I should take a shower too. Please?"
I gently grabbed Kim by the shoulder and said, "Kim, I think he has had too much to drink and he isn't even in Tom Petty, that's Tommy Stinson from the Replacements."
She pushed my arm away and said, "DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE, JEFF"
I protested, "I'm not trying to start a fight. I just don't think its a great idea you going back to the tour bus. Besides Tom Petty is about to start."
"Why are you having a cow? Tony always said you were like this but I never believed him. Now, I am starting to think I was wrong to leave him. Especially now that he is a starting a successful career in the music business and you are STILL working at Subway."
"But Kim, I was just....."
"But.. But.. But.. Jeff, I am going to help Tommy back to his bus for some pills and a shower and then I will meet you back at our seats. Be a gentleman and grab me a large Bud light OK? I'll see you in thirty minutes."
"Ok, but I still don't....."
It was too late. Tommy and Kim walked out of the back of the green room. I felt really bad because I was kind of a dick. Here is Kim, just being the kind soul and me, getting all jealous. I knew I had to chill out or I was going to mess this thing up. I started humming "If You Love Somebody, Set them Free" by Sting as I headed off to the concession stand. I got back to our seats by the third song, "Listen to Her Heart." I just knew this would be the song Kim would return to. She would "Listen to Her Heart" and re-appear.
She didn't. BUT the next song was "Free Fallin'" and I was sure she wouldn't miss that one. It was her ALL TIME FAVORITE TOM PETTY song. She loved the line about Elvis and horses. She used to always sing that in the car when we would drive to G.D. Ritzy's between class. She wasn't a bad singer, really.
But she didn't come back. I was starting to get really worried by the time I finished off hers and mine 38 oz draft beers when suddenly I didn't feel very good. I tried to walk around by the tour buses out back to get some air. I started yelling, "KIM! KIM! It's Jeff! Where are you? Kim!"
Around that time a couple of big guys wearing shirts that said "Security" grabbed me and pushed me over the top of a chain-link fence and I landed rough on the gravel of the main parking lot. I don't know how long I laid there but when I finally collected my wits and rubbed the gravel out of my hair, the parking lot was empty except for maybe 25 cars where there had once been thousands.
Kim was standing by my blue Toyota Celica disheveled and noticeably upset.
"JEFF! It's almost three fucking thirty in the morning! Where have you been? The concert ended at eleven and I have been waiting here since 2:50. What the fuck have YOU been doing?"
"I'm sorry, it's just that I got us both beers and when you didn't come back I must have drank them both and I don't really remember what happened after "Even the Losers" Wait, you just got back to the car at 2:50? Where did you get those red boots?"
"At this point, after the way you have treated me, I don't feel like talking but if you must know, Tommy Stinson from Tom Petty gave them to me."
"But why did you get back so late? I don't under...."
Kim cut me off, "Don"t be an asshole Jeff" Just drive me home, I have aerobics class tomorrow at 9 am at Larkins. If we leave right now we can make it. You drive since I need to sleep."
"Okay."
To read previous Jeff Hassler stories please click here
Anyway, this is Jeff again, TOTALLY not pro… Watch this show opening for TOM PETTY with a striptease. Kim thought Tommy looked cute but I just didn't see the point.
Comic Book Movies - by Ricki C.
COMIC BOOK MOVIES, AND WHY THE CREATORS OF ART ARE NEVER THE ONES WHO
MAKE ANY MONEY, or WHY STAN LEE OF MARVEL COMICS IS A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE,
WHILE YOU’VE BARELY EVER HEARD OF JACK KIRBY.
by Ricki C.
(Before there was rock & roll in the Ricki C. universe there were comic books. I was born in 1952 and when I was four years old I taught myself to read with comic books that my brother & sister – ten & seven years older than me – left around the house. Al & Dianne were too old to be bothered with me at that point, and my mom & dad – children of The Depression that they were – both worked two jobs to keep our little West Side family afloat, so I had a pretty solitary childhood existence. Not a bad existence, by any stretch of the imagination, just extremely quiet. Before The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was twelve, superheroes brought The Noise to my world.)
The latest Marvel Studios movie – Captain America: Civil War – opens today and I’m definitely going to see it this afternoon, ‘cuz I’m kind of a sucker for comic book movies: but I’m not going to feel that good about it, since Jack Kirby’s family is not gonna see a penny from it, and Stan Lee is just gonna get richer.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were once a team. At Marvel Comics in the early 1960’s Stan Lee wrote comic book stories and Jack Kirby drew them. In rock & roll terms they would have been John Lennon & Paul McCartney. Or – more accurately – they would have been Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, since Marvel Comics were the Bad Boy counterparts to the ever-so-much more straight-laced DC Comics. (Home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc.)
Lee & Kirby ushered in the Age of Marvel in comic books – The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, The Hulk, The X-Men, Thor, Iron Man. Marvel superheroes were Superheroes With Problems: problems getting along with one another, problems with girls, problems turning into rage-filled green monsters, problems dealing with mutant powers while still teenagers, you name A Problem, a Marvel superhero had it. DC superheroes were a pretty homogenized lot – millionaire playboys, scientists, test pilots, Amazonian princesses, etc. – none of them had any trouble paying the rent, if you get my drift.
I liked DC comics, but I LOVED Marvel comics. And, as I look back now, I realize I loved Marvel comics more because of Jack Kirby’s artwork than because of Stan Lee’s writing. Plus I learned much later in life the modus operandi at Marvel comics was that Stan Lee would present his artists with a general outline of a story, the artist would go away and draw the entire comic book – essentially plotting the issue – and then Lee would fill in the dialogue & captions after the fact. I can’t imagine how that was a workable creative model, but that’s how it was done at Marvel in the 1960’s.
(editor’s note: Ricki, any possibility you could get to the point about your title? / author’s note: I’m tryin’.)
So really, by 1963 when The X-Men debuted at Marvel when I was 11 years old, I had fallen hopelessly in love with Jack Kirby’s story style, still thinking then that it was Stan Lee I liked. But by February 1964 – when The Beatles Hit America – my comic book days were all but over. By my 13th birthday in 1965, when economic realities (and teenage hormones) made it necessary for me to choose between buying rock & roll records or my first love – comic books – The Dave Clark 5 and Lovin’ Spoonful won out.
Here’s where my comic book and rock & roll analogy kicks in…….NOBODY in the comic book industry really made any kind of money back in the 1960’s. Comic books were still a kid’s medium, there were no dedicated comic book stores, no graphic novels, certainly no superhero movies. (There were bad, hokey Superman and Batman TV shows, but the budget for special effects in those was probably upwards of $80 or so per episode. CGI, indeed.)
Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics in a squabble over money & creative control at the end of the 60’s (hey, just like in a rock & roll band) and went over to competitor DC. There he engineered what I consider the highpoint of all comic book history, The Fourth World of The Forever People, New Gods & Mister Miracle (which actually should and maybe someday will be a whole separate blog). Ultimately Kirby wasn’t treated much better at DC than at Marvel, where he eventually returned.
Kirby died February 6th, 1994, exactly two weeks before Kurt Cobain and I didn’t even hear about it until more than a year later, after all the Nirvana noise died down. He left behind a wife & four children, owned a modest home in Southern California and was enough of a stand-up guy that I’ve never read a hateful interview about Stan Lee that issued from his mouth. But think about this: on our 21st century planet, Marvel Studios films – like today’s Captain America: Civil War – now generate BILLIONS of dollars for the parent company and – I have to believe – MILLIONS of dollars for Stan Lee (who rather egotistically makes a cameo appearance – a la Alfred Hitchcock – in EVERY Marvel movie).
What does Jack Kiby’s estate (and grandchildren) get? A quick mention of their gramps as a co-creator of the characters in the closing credits. (About the same as Cleveland boys Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster get in the Superman movies, after selling their rights to Superman to DC for $135 in the late 1930’s.)
Imagine an alternate universe where The Beatles never really made it big in the 1960’s: if they’d made a few singles, an album or three, had a couple of hits and then faded away to memory. Paul McCartney plugged away – did the Vegas circuit, kept things going – and John Lennon died of something other than a gun-wielding fan/madman in 1980.
Then, somehow, in the 2000’s some hipster movie maker finds the old Beatles records, throws them in his movies and Beatlemania EXPLODES 40 years AFTER it actually did. Paul McCartney – who’s still around, though creatively diminished – reaps the royalties windfall, and Cynthia & Julian Lennon (John is never famous enough in this alternate reality to meet & woo Yoko) get nothing but a mention of John in the credits. Does that seem fair?
Think about Jack Kirby while you’re watching Captain America: Civil War. I will be. – Ricki C. / May 1st, 2016
ps. The best book I've ever read about all this stuff is Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison. Check it out if you have any interest in comic books and/or superheroes.
Pencilstorm's Complete Grammy Awards 2016 Coverage - by Ricki C.
I was gonna write a complete minute-by-minute report/review/dissection of the 2016 Grammy Awards show, but then I remembered that I stopped drinking in 1982 and stopped smoking pot in 2000 when I got my first cardiac pacemaker, and realized that I had no proper means to numb/anesthetize myself for the likes of 3 & 1/2 hours of Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar & Bruno Mars, so I decided to just flip over during commercials on MeTV to catch the debut of The Hollywood Vampires, the new "rock" concoction put together by Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and 21 Jump Street star Johnny Depp.
And what a debut it was! I'm puzzled as to how Alice 'n' Joe - two men who wrote some of the finest hard rock songs of the 1970's ("Elected," "School's Out," "Generation Landslide," "Walk This Way," "Sweet Emotion") - chose the leaden dud of a "song" they performed as their nationwide prime-time TV debut (on the Grammys, no less). The "tune" contained not one ounce of melody, no hooks, lame riff and a spoken-word interlude by Depp of which not one syllable could be discerned or understood. Talk about not hearing a single.
Then, to make matters worse, Da Boyz essayed a really powerful, kinda great cover/tribute to Lemmy Kilmister of the all-powerful Motorhead rocker "Ace Of Spades" that made it PAINFULLY obvious how lame a song The Vampires had preceded it with. (Sidenote: Part of the appeal of "Ace Of Spades" was a great vocal from Duff McKagan from the original Guns N' Roses.) (Further sidenote: Serious question to faithful Pencilstorm reader Jim Johnson, one of Columbus Ohio's GREAT drummers - Is there a worse hard rock/metal drummer on the planet than Matt Sorum? That guy seems to think he's John Bonham, but he drags every band I see him play with down into the tar-pit-morass/zero-concept-of-swing-or-excitement-sludge-pit he seems to love wallowing in. No wonder Guns N' Roses sucked after Steven Adler got sacked.)
The only other musical performance of the night that I saw was The Alabama Shakes, who seemed kinda uncomfortable with their transformation from fake Stax/Volt thrift-store-dresses rags-'n'-tatters-indie-rocker chic to Broadway Darlings, complete with gowns, suits, backing singers & a full-time percussionist. Or maybe that's how Brittany Howard & the guys roll now. Beverly Hillbillies, anyone?
Oh, and I did catch Taylor Swift pulling open her dress on her way up the steps to accept her Album Of The Year award, the better to show off her purple panties underneath. Now that's entertainment. - Ricki C. / February 16th, 2016
Vet's Memorial, part five - The New York Dolls, Sunday, May 19th, 1974 by Ricki C.
To paraphrase Bette Davis in All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts, kids, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
I can tell you the entire story of the downfall and eventual long, slow, sad Death of Rock & Roll in one fell swoop in a single story about The New York Dolls at Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, 41 years ago today, Sunday, May 19th, 1974.
As you can see from my tickets reproduced below, it was a pretty big week for rock & roll in my little hometown of Columbus, Ohio. I saw the Dolls on Sunday the 19th, The Eagles at Mershon the next Saturday, May 25th, and Mott The Hoople the next night, Sunday, May 26th. I fully acknowledge that the 1970’s were indeed the heyday of live rock & roll concerts, but I must point out: Columbus did NOT routinely get three acts of that rock pedigree in seven days’ time; it was definitely an aberration.
Anyway, what does this have to do with The Death of Rock & Roll? I’ll tell ya. The Eagles show and Mott The Hoople sold out the 2500-seat capacity Mershon Auditorium. The New York Dolls drew 150 people to the 3000-seat capacity Vet’s Memorial. I couldn’t believe it. When my girlfriend (and later wife) Pat and I arrived at the show that warm Sunday evening there were a scattering of cars in the huge Vet’s parking lot, and nobody going into the show. “Oooooh man, the show must be cancelled,” I moaned to Pat, dispiritedly. Shows were constantly getting cancelled and/or rescheduled back in those pre-Rock As Big Business early 1970’s times. Drug problems, sick band members, routing problems, missed flights, equipment truck breakdowns all contributed to missed shows back in the day. Art and commerce were still somewhat separate then.
“Let’s get a refund and see if the show’s rescheduled,” I said to Pat as we walked up the steps to Vet’s. Weirdly, there was a full crew of ushers in the Vet’s lobby. I walked up to one of the ushers who had been a friend of my dad’s (see last month’s Vet’s part 4 installment) and said, “Is the show cancelled?” “No,” he said, tearing my ticket. “Then why aren’t there any cars in the parking lot?” I asked. “Because there aren’t any people in the venue,” he replied, pointing over his shoulder.
I just couldn’t figure any of this out as Pat and I crossed the deserted lobby & concession area and walked up the steps to our balcony seats. (In those days I always bought front row balcony seats and brought a little portable Panasonic tape recorder to tape the shows on. I put the recorder right on the balcony overhang and got great sound right off the stage with minimal crowd noise. It was great.) There were four people in the entire balcony: Pat & me and one other couple, who soon joined the “crowd” downstairs.
I couldn’t believe my eyes looking down at the main floor of Vet’s: the first ten rows weren’t even full. The ENTIRE MAIN FLOOR was all but empty. Ladies & gentlemen; that was not what happened at rock & roll shows in 1974. Since the Woodstock Festival in 1969, rock & roll shows SOLD OUT Vet’s Memorial. And it really didn’t much matter WHO PLAYED at Vet’s: it still sold out. Aerosmith, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, Rush, Frank Zappa, Foghat, etc. all sold out Vet’s. Christ, the fucking Mahavishnu Orchestra sold out Vet’s Memorial. (But they had Aerosmith opening, that’s a whole other blog for another month.)
Creem magazine – my Rock & Roll Bible of those days – had been telling me for over a year that The New York Dolls were The Next Big Thing, and I had no reason not to believe them. As far as I knew, until that May evening, the Dolls were selling out 3000-seat venues (or bigger, I assumed, in cities like Boston, Detroit & L.A.). This, folks, was definitely a rude awakening.
I really believed to my soul that 1974 was going to be the year that The Great Rock & Roll Reset would kick in. (Reboot was not yet a term anyone outside a few scientist computer nerds in white lab coats would be familiar with.) The New York Dolls would become the New Rolling Stones and Mick ‘n’ Keith & company would retire pleasantly to their English mansions and while away their remaining days playing cribbage, growing roses and/or shooting heroin; Mott The Hoople would become the New Bob Dylan and Mr. Zimmerman would live out his dotage in a Woodstock – the town, not the festival – idyll (actually, that very nearly happened); Elliott Murphy & Bruce Springsteen would be Assistant New Dylans, or at least replace the likes of Van Morrison and Crosby, Stills & Nash in the Singer/Songwriter Sweepstakes. I wasn’t sure who The New Who were gonna be, because Cheap Trick hadn’t been invented yet to my knowledge, it was at least another year before I saw Rick & Robin and the boys open for some long-forgotten lame hard-rock act at the Columbus Agora.
I wasn’t sure who The New Beatles were going to be. I think I figured they were just Too Big, Too Outsized, Too Iconic to be replaced. We would just have to do without.
So after an opening set by a seven-piece, all-female, funk/boogie band (with a horn section!) called Isis – no association with the current Mideast terrorist organization that I’m aware of, although they WERE torturous – The Dolls came out and, truthfully, THEY WERE WEAK. It was the first time I realized that big-time rock critics might be ENTIRELY FULL OF SHIT.
The Dolls couldn’t BEGIN to fill up the big stage at Vet’s, they stayed crowded together like they were in a small club or a bar; the sound – because the huge Vet’s expanse was ESSENTIALLY EMPTY – was just boomy & terrible; and – worst of all – those motherfuckers just DID NOT KNOW how to play their instruments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that was what all the 1960’s Batdorf & Rodney and Grateful Dead hippies that the Dolls were supposed to wipe off the face of the Earth said about them, but unfortunately – and I was an incredibly sympathetic first-hand witness, ready to give David Johansen & friends every benefit of the doubt – THEY COULD NOT PLAY.
Don’t get me wrong, the songs were – and still are right up to when I was blastin’ ‘em on CD today – great, but once Johnny Thunders & the gang got OUTSIDE of those song structures, they were finished. Case in point, the Dolls went into a jam in the middle of “There’s Gonna Be A Showdown” from Too Much Too Soon and COULD NOT FIND THEIR WAY BACK INTO THE SONG! They muddled around for a full minute while guitarists Sylvain Sylvain & Thunders and bassist Arthur Kane tried to find the beat, then just simply petered out to a full stop before drummer Jerry Nolan counted off 1-2-3-4! and they lurched back into the last verse. It was humiliating. To this day I have never witnessed a major band demonstrate that big a trainwreck onstage.
I thought things would get better. I desperately WANTED – almost PRAYED – for things to get better, thought maybe the band just had to get warmed-up, but it never got better. At one point, while the band was pissing around between songs, trying to get their guitars in some semblance of tune, I yelled “DO SOMETHING AMAZING!” from the balcony. Johansen looked up into the stage lights, almost smiled, then shook his head like he knew there wasn’t gonna be anything amazing to be had that night in Columbus.
The first time I saw Kiss top-billed over the Dolls in Cleveland later that year, I knew things were all over. I discerned from the beginning that Kiss was just Deep Purple or Uriah Heep in comic book get-up’s, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how good the Dolls songs or records were, if you couldn’t deliver the goods LIVE to the stoned, bluejeaned masses in the Great Midwest, all the rock critics on the East & West Coasts couldn’t save you. (Further, my love for the 1973-1978 Aerosmith knows no bounds. They pinched just enough from the Dolls – attitude-wise and fashion-wise – with the added bonus of ACTUALLY KNOWING HOW TO TUNE & PLAY THEIR INSTRUMENTS.)
So here we are in the 21st century, in 2015. The Who played Columbus last Friday night. Bob Dylan played Columbus last Saturday night. KANSAS, for fuck's sake, played Newark's Midland Theater a coupla weeks ago. The Rolling Stones are playing May 30th. Rush is playing June 8th. We never exactly got that Rock & Roll Reset I was lookin’ for 41 years ago today.
Up to 1974 or so, rock & roll was a living, breathing thing: Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly & Little Richard gave way to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Velvet Underground and The Kinks who should’ve given way to Elliott Murphy, Mott The Hoople, The Modern Lovers, the Dwight Twilley Band and The New York Dolls, who would then have given way to some group of bands in the early 1980’s, and so on.
Instead, right around 1975 the instigators of what would become Classic Rock Radio decided that we were all gonna listen to The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and, yes, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, and Rush for the REST OF OUR NATURAL LIVES. And then – after we were sick enough of Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page” to puke in our mouths every time it came on Q-FM 96 – then we’d start puttin’ the songs in COMMERCIALS, thereby sucking every last iota of vitality, life & integrity of the Baby Boomer’s precious rock & roll.
I should’ve seen it coming that Sunday night in 1974, but I didn’t. I see it now. – Ricki C. / May 17th, 2015
(By the way, it was this 1974 Dolls show that sparked my "celebrity encounter" with David Johansen detailed in my Exchanging Pleasantries With David Johansen blog in Growing Old With Rock & Roll.)
Shows I Saw at Vet's Memorial May Honorable Mentions
May 14th, 1968 / Cream
May 11th, 1969 / Janis Joplin & the Full Tilt Boogie Band
May 3rd, 1970 / Sly & the Family Stone (instead of attending my senior prom, exactly the right choice)
May 2nd, 1974 / The Mahavishnu Orchestra w/ Aerosmith opening (more on this in September)
