May 302013
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Is it just me geezing, or is this month-long calendar for DC’s main summer festival-style outdoor theater about as good as such a thing could ever get?
Follow-up question: You have $100 in hard-earned 1973 dollars. Each of these shows costs $8.00. You’re saving up for a used ’65 Impala. Beers are 75 cents, and a baggie of dirtweed is $15 in the parking lot. Which shows do you see, and how do you entertain yourself?
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
I should point out that this calendar is from the year 1973. So that’s Pink Floyd on the Dark Side Of the Moon tour, for example. And Al Green touring in support of “Call Me.” King Crimson would probably be ;laying “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic” in its entirety.
Wow…Wishbone Ash and Canned Heat?!? Helen Reddy and Mac Davis?!?! Cheech and Chong?!?? Blood, Sweat, and Tears?!?!? We’re talking value. I’m there, dude.
The first concert for me would be the Kinks, obivously. I think that concert happened a month after Ray had a breakdown/overdose in White City. I always wished I could see the early ’70s Kinks live. I would also check out the Beach Boys, which was probably the same tour as the In Concert album, which I like, especially since they were trying to do other songs besides the “sun & surf” ones. I think I would have also checked out the Geils Band, Bosstown boy that I am, as well as B.B. King & that Miles Davis/Muddy Waters gig. I think that I’ll stick w/beer. Also 2.4 million 1965 Impalas were sold, which is a record:
http://www.greatestcollectibles.com/1965-chevrolet-impala/
Definitely going: J. Geils, Pink Floyd, Kinks, Al Green and the Who (even though I’m not much of a Tommy fan). Total $40
Possibly: Cheech and Chong
The show that would have made sense at the time, and the other show that I should have gone to instead but would have most likely passed on: Steven Stills/Ella Fitzgerald.
The Miles and Muddy show seems alluring at first glance but I only like Miles’ stuff through the early 60’s so I’ll save my $8.
$15 seems steep for dirtweed so I’ll probably just brown bag a joint or two.
I reckon I will have $37.50 by the end of the month to throw towards the Impala if I budget for 6 beers per show (this could be adjusted down depending on the beer/etc situation in the parking lot), and I just attend the “must see shows”. Five shows is a lot in one month anyway and just think of all of the poon I would get in that sweet ride. Why, I’m thinking about it right now.
I love early 70s Miles now, but I saw him around this time and it didn’t really make much sense to me then. Still this is around when he had guitarist Pete Cosey in the band, I believe, and Cosey had played on Electric Mud, so the idea of him playing with both Miles and Muddy is intriguing.
There are indeed some clunkers on this month-long schedule. I submit, however, that the turds-to-treasure ratio is, by today’s standards, unbelievably low.
The Kinks would my 1st pick. I always wanted to see the early 70s Kinks live. This would be after Ray had his breakdown/overdose at White City. I would also check out the Beach Boys, especially since this was probably the tour documentated by the In Concert album when they were doing stuiff other than the “surf” hits. I would also consider J. Geils (being the Bosstown boy that I am), B.B.King, Miles/Muddy & Ella Fitzgerald. I’ll stick w/beer.
Since I’ve never seen the Who, I would probably buy a ticket for “The Who’s Rock Opera Tommy,” only to experience the crushing disappointment of arriving to find an orchestra tuning up to present some godawful classical adaptation.
Mostly I’m just giving you a hard time, though I think there are an awful lot of losers. But even the losers are bathed in a nostalgic glow.
OK, I’ll need to be dragged out to this many shows, because even cool and hip 1973 would-be me is likely to resist going to summer festival shows.
For starters I can’t miss Stevie Wonder, just 2 days before my actual 10th birthday. My uncle got to see him open for the Rolling Stones. That’s a bill I’d like to go back into time and see.
I’m afraid my would-be cool and hip 1973 me would have been just as snobbish as any present-day me and skipped the Kinks, no matter how much I loved them just a couple of years earlier.
Al Green is a definite show to attend! I’ve still got $84 to play with.
The Temptations! Definitely.
I wish cool and hip would-be me would have been cool enough to see Ella Fitzgerald, but I’m afraid I would have missed this show and regretted having done so in 2005.
I would have turned my nose up at the James Gang and, unless I was already friends with someone like General Slocum, I would not have been ready for King Crimson. Bummer.
I would have considered Gladys Knight and the Pips, but in all honestly I would have camped out to get good seats for Canned Heat. That would have been too funny for me to pass up. I’ve now spent $32.
Ah hell! Diskojoe just talked me into seeing the Kinks with him. I’ll put the remaining $60 toward that car and the weed.
I really need to save my money for that sweeeet ride, but man! I’m definitely checking out:
– Stevie Wonder on the Innervisions tour
– J. Geils band supporting “Bloodshot”
– Al Green
– ELO
– James Gang, with King Crimson opening (!)
– The Kinks
– Miles and Muddy (gotta see what *that* is all about)
– Dave and Darius Bruebeck, with Gerry Mulligan (!) opening
– Gladys Knight & the Pips touring behind their all-time best album “Imagination,” and just as “Midnight Train…” hits number one.
– Have to do some research on that “Tommy” thing. If it’s the Who, I’m in. But surely they stopped performing that by 1973?
– Beach Boys, if only to see Mike Love in his TM dashiki
Let’s see… at $8.00 per…10 shows for sure… $80! Shit!
Man, what would it have meant to see Herman’s Hermits in 1973? One shudders to think.
I’d go to that Beach Boys show too — I’d love to see that lineup do songs from Holland. Plus you’d get to see the hard workin’ drummer Denny Wilson do his thing.
Someone come with me to see Focus. I want to see that Dutchman yodel.
Can somebody confirm or deny that $15 was a reasonable price for a bag of parking lot dirtweed in 1973?
I’d like to thank Bigsteve and hrrundivbakshi for pointing out that the Who isn’t playing. I’m willing to endure Tommy if I get to hear the actual Who play stuff like A Quick One, but if this is some kind of precursor to Tommy: the Movie, count me out.
I will use that $8 savings to buy a ticket to see George Carlin (whom I’d overlooked the first time) from his Class Clown/Occupation: Foole phase.
I can’t since I was only 10 at the time, but didn’t a dime bag cost $10 and a nickle bag cost $5? Why are you charging ridiculously inflated prices for what you have already admitted is dirtweed?
That’s what I thought, cdm, and in terms of volume a quarter ounce filled 2 fingers’ worth of a baggie.
[Clearly I meant to respond to cdm’s earlier response.]
I imagine Peter Noone in a TM dashiki, like Mike Love.
As long as our 10 year old selves are drinking beer, smoking dope, and driving cares; then I’m using $3 to go see Last Tango in Paris. Heard there were boobies and stuff in that movie.
A point of order: is the act Whole Oats that is on the bill with Sha Na Na an early incarnation of Hall & Oates or is it something else altogether? That’s the name of their first lp, right, which came out around this time?
Holy crap! This, from an interview with “Jocko,” one of the original Sha Na Na dudes, suggests you may be onto something:
Over the years, Sha Na Na had its share of supporting acts that went on to bigger and better things.
Recalls Marcellino: “We had Hall and Oates, two guys with guitars. A lot of comedians — Steve Martin, Jay Leno, Cheech and Chong would open up for us. Steely Dan opened for us, before they stopped performing for decades.”
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/06/sha_na_nas_jocko_rock_n_roll_i.html
Now *there’s* a double-bill for you: Steely Dan, opening for Sha Na Na!
Funny, you wouldn’t think a guy in Sha Na Na would be named Jocko.
According to Doug Hinman’s The Kinks: All Day & All of the Night, that 1973 Merriweather Post Kinks concert didn’t happen. They were supposed to tour the US that July, but they accepted the White City gig instead & the dates were first posponed, then cancelled after what happened to Ray (his 1st wife Rasa left him @ that time, which led him to his breakdown/overdose). They didn’t get back to the States until the next April.
By the way it’s pretty cool that someone was drawing/writing the schedule by hand for a 20,000 seat venue.
Also, I have seen shows there before but wanted to confirm the capacity, so I checked wikipedia, and lo and behold, there was a picture of Pink Floyd from July, 1973.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ROCK_CONCERT._%28FROM_THE_SITES_EXHIBITION._FOR_OTHER_IMAGES_IN_THIS_ASSIGNMENT,_SEE_FICHE_NUMBERS_42,_97.%29_-_NARA_-_553890.jpg
A friend of mine saw a Pipless Gladys Knight a couple of weeks ago at a casino in Biloxi. He said she was still great.
I was in college in ’73, and, in the South at least, the going price for a ‘lid’ was $10. The price increase to $15 occurred a few years later.
I mean, that’s what I guy I knew told me.
How I love, love, LOVE Gladys Knight. Greatest female soul voice, ever? Maybe.
I’ll sit through that entire horrible “That’s What Friends Are For” song just to hear Gladys sing for about 10 seconds.
Ima there!
It had better be a huge bag of dirtweed at that price!