Category Archives: Led Zeppelin

IN THE HOUSE:June 6,1969:THE WHO/ CHUCK BERRY/ALBERT KING@Fillmore East

06 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Chuck Berry, Fillmore East, Led Zeppelin, Rock music, The Who, Vinyl Records

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The Who 6:6:69 1

IN THE HOUSE: JUNE 6,1969: THE WHO/ ALBERT KING/CHUCK BERRY @ FILLMORE EAST After finding out how easy it was to obtain tickets for shows at FILLMORE EAST, I ordered two seats for CHUCK BERRY and ALBERT KING for the Saturday night early show, June 6. I was especially looking forward to hearing Albert King live as I wore out his LIVE WIRE BLUES POWER album. The tickets arrived in record time. When I attended the Led Zeppelin show during Memorial Day weekend I looked for where I would be seated for the Albert King show(fourth row aisle seat on the left).Too cool, really nice sight lines. Then it happened. At the Led Zeppelin show, a stage announcement was made by Kip Cohen, stage manager, that an additional act would be added to the Albert King Chuck Berry bill, headlining now would be…. THE WHO. OMG… I was ecstatic…But How?

Actually, The Who had played the Fillmore East only two weeks prior to the Led Zeppelin show. During their performance that weekend a fire occurred in the adjoining building. A Fire Marshall, not in uniform, attempted to evacuate the premises of the Fillmore by taking the stage. Pete Townshend ,The Who’s guitarist, got into an altercation with the  “undercover” official. Townshend thinking that this guy was a nut job hit the guy and an arrest of Pete Townshend abruptly ended the show. So this new show, the one I had two tickets for, was labeled as THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF THE WHO.

Their album ,TOMMY, which has been labeled a “rock opera” was released only a few short days(May23) before this rescheduled performance and the songs from TOMMY were already in heavy rotation on the radio. So there I sat four rows back from Albert King, he dressed to the nines in a dark suit, white shirt and tie, while playing a short but sweet set on his Flying V guitar,  BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN, PERSONAL MANAGER,AS THE YEARS GO PASSING BY and STORMY MONDAY.  I was amazed at his performance, his grace, and his size, the man was HUGE. Chuck Berry, a rock and roll legend was up next doing what I found out years later was his traditional set list. It was nothing outstanding for my eyes and ears except seeing him doing his duck walk. Chuck was a visual performer and closed with MY DING A LING a really stupid sing along song which I found embarrassing. He reappeared for an encore and was gone and forgotten by me almost that quickly.

THE WHO on the other hand was fantastic. I sat in awe the entire time, mouth opened kind of awe, brought on by the sheer power of the band. Daltry,bared chested, drabbed with a fringed vest was swinging his microphone, Townshend windmilling on the guitar, Entwistle’s magical fingers running up and down the frets on his bass, and then Keith Moon on the kit, all amazing, and so very loud. CAN’T EXPLAIN, New TOMMY stuff, SUMMERTIME BLUES, MAGIC BUS, needless to say my very limited concert experiences just had a new threshold to beat and that would be… THE WHO. Live music to me became a real education and soon an obsession.

IN THE HOUSE: MAY 30,1969- LED ZEPPELIN/DELANEY, BONNIE and FRIENDS/ WOODY HERMAN’S BIG BAND @ FILLMORE EAST

30 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Delaney,Bonnie and Friends, Fillmore East, Led Zeppelin, Rita Coolidge, Rock music, rock music trivia, Woody Herman

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It is now Memorial Day weekend of 1969, a new beginning for a group of us as we copped 8 tickets to see Led Zeppelin at Fillmore East early show on a Friday Night of a Holiday Weekend. Show time 8PM would find 4 of us in one section, with the other four in another section a few rows back. The crowd outside on line awaiting admittance to the sacred hall was a buzzed. Finally, in and seated, house lights go down and BOOM, Woody Herman’s Big Band was way too cool. Pop would have been proud as I recognized a few of Woody’s tunes from our family’s record collection then I fall in love. Rita Coolidge of Delaney/ Bonnie was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,well that night anyway. The JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW afforded a great back drop, something that I had never witnessed. Then, “OHHHHH, I CAN’T QUIT YOU BABE” with a power chord which shook me to the core. This tune followed by Dazed and Confused, White Summer, How Many More Times, a drum solo, and the crowd cheering “MORE,MORE”… The encore was short, yet loud, COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN. The performance bar was now set for this 17 year old youngster on his musical journey.

FILLMORE EAST: 50 Years ago this week

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, BigBrotherHoldingCo., FillmoreEast,BillGraham, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, Rock music, rock music trivia, Uncategorized

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FILLMORE EAST:

Fifty years ago this week BILL GRAHAM opened FILLMORE EAST with a show featuring BIG BROTHER and THE HOLDING COMPANY, TIM BUCKLEY, and ALBERT KING.

This little venue at 205 Second Avenue off of Sixth Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was my home away from home from my first night there in 1969 until it’s closing weekend June of 1971. During that period I saw almost every type of music imaginable. Experiencing live music was a real education for me and here at Fillmore East it was at the Ph.D level of instruction. Jazz, folk, rock, experimental, comedic, whatever, this eclectic bill was all presented usually with a light show in the background. The seating of about 2700 was theatre style, no ballroom here. Programs were distributed at the door and you were escorted to your reserved seating by real ushers wearing their official garb of Fillmore East yellow and green football jerseys. Snacks, no alcohol,were available on the second floor, and all seats were a gem as the sight lines were amazing and the sound system the best in the land (at that time).

Most nights two shows were offered (separate admissions), one at 8 PM and the second scheduled for 11:30PM, Friday and Saturday evenings. The proprietor Bill Graham ran this place as if it was on Broadway. Bands were expected to be ready at show time AND conform to their given time slots. Mr. Graham would introduce the bands (when he was in town) or one of the Fillmore managers were left to the honors. Intros were usually pretty classic for the “head” billed act. Intermissions were entertaining also, as cartoons, or short films would be shown. A crowd favorite was THE SUNSHINE MAKERS, a black and white cartoon from 1935. Obvious a fan favorite because of the way it displayed: Sunshine as a liquid when it hit its victim, well that grouch turned happy ala Orange barrel sunshine of the LSD variety.The crowd roared in delight every time it was played.

So thanks to FILLMORE EAST for the memories.

ONE OUT OF EVERY 40 SONGS IS A TOM PETTY TUNE…

09 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in AMERICAN GIRL :Tom Petty, heart broken, Led Zeppelin, Rock music, Tom Petty

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ONE OUT OF EVERY 40 SONGS IS A TOM TUNE

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers is a strange anomaly in the music business.The band was hitting the scene out of Gainesville, Florida as our great nation was celebrating The Bi-Centennial with 1976 being a year in flux, musically.  Check the BILLBOARD album charts and see how we the record buying public were all over the place: Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire, Bob Dylan’s DESIRE, Eagles Greatest Hits (71-76), Led Zeppelin’s PRESENCE, Wings,The Stones, FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE, FLEETWOOD MAC and Stevie Wonder’s amazing SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIVE. Who in their right mind would want to challenge that line up. Hey, I was enjoying shows by TODD RUNDREN who was morphing into UTOPIA at the time, Frank Zappa, Bowie, and The Stones of course.

Then 1977 has only two albums that control the charts for most of the year, HOTEL CALIFORNIA and Fleetwood Mac’s RUMOURS. 1978 was also stagnate in chart movement with RUMOURS continuing its long run at the top followed by two soundtracks SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and GREASE. Billy Joel ends the year with his 52nd STREET.

So, How does TP and The Heartbreakers get into the mix?

Kudos to Sasha Frere-Jones for her insightful VILLAGE VOICE piece of October 3, 2017 describing the radio audience that TOM PETTY walked into circa 1977-1980. Her article helped me further understand the music business/radio dynamics of that time.

This period was one of a changing environment in radio. Within months stations started the labeling of artists, categories which did not exist before. And Program Directors were pigeon holing artists as well as attempting to define their specific audience’s tastes.  At this date we also witness the demise of free form radio hosts, my radio idols at the time, those willing to play anything and everything unconditionally. The pre Classic Rock format is slowing developing as stations were searching for identities, attempting to capture listeners by their tastes and grabbing the almighty advertising dollars.

 

Into this radio scene, albeit a confusing one, (1977) AMERICAN GIRL is released, a recording lost in the crossfire of the emerging “punk” rock and what Program Directors now defined as “rock”. How does one define this recording or better yet, WHY define it?

For me AMERICAN GIRL was a great record upon release, kinda catchy as they say and today it is still is a great listen. That Byrds Beatles genre which we were missing is somehow captured in  3 minutes and thirty five seconds: The twanging guitars, words that grab your attention. Quite a difference from RUMOURS, no disrespect intended, but hey, this AMERICAN GIRL record was different.

NY radio at this time, again in my opinion for my listening taste and again kudos to Sasha Frere-Jones for reminding me, had only two major players left.WPIX and WNEW. The PIX PENTHOUSE PARTY with Meg Griffin was a delight introducing newer music to us, not the standard Eagles or Frampton. Here at 101 FM we heard Talking Heads, The Clash, Elvis and Elvis Costello as well as the arrival of The B-52’s.

WNEW hitched its wagon to Springsteen (all day-everyday), Pink Floyd soon to all be labeled CLASSIC ROCK.

1979 we get DAMN THE TORPEDOES and Refugee which is another game changer.

So the question is: What’s your point?

According to data accumulated by FiveThirtyEight, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are the fifth biggest classic-rock group in the country, responsible for one out of every forty songs you hear on the radio.

That’s the point, TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS helped change the sounds which emulate out of that device Marconi made so many years ago.

Next up: TOM PETTY and THE HEARTBREAKERS versus THE HEARTBREAKERS

LED ZEPPELIN-MAY 30,1969@FILLMORE EAST

30 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Led Zeppelin, Rock music

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LED ZEPPELIN at FILLMORE EAST: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND MAY 30,1969

For those who only know of the power and popularity of Led Zeppelin of it’s latter days, let me take you back to before the very first album hit the stands.

Jimmy Page was one of the “three”, the triumvirate of rock guitarist gods who moseyed through a British band of some renown named THE YARDBIRDS. This band, legend states took their name from Charlie YARDBIRD Parker, was somewhat known in the USA, but much more popular in their homeland of Great Britain. Without giving the long history of the Yardbirds let say they got residency at CRAWDADDY when the spot was vacated by THE ROLLING STONES, a band on the move. Eric Clapton was the YARDBIRDS guitarist who as time moved on, after hit followed by another hit, became uncomfortable with the band veering far away from it’s blues roots by heading into a pop direction. Clapton leaves and suggest Jimmy Page take his spot. Page, who was the “go to studio guitarist” at the time, didn’t want to vacate that profitable role, so PAGE suggested JEFF BECK who took the gig.

With BECK’s influence the YARDBIRDS moved toward a psychedelic route with fuzz tones, feedback, and overall guitar virtuosity. By 1966 JEFF BECK was voted Melody Maker’s GUITARIST OF THE YEAR.When the bass player drops out of the band  JIMMY PAGE steps in that role for a spell. When a new bassist is recruited PAGE stays on playing guitar which offers a BECK/PAGE dual guitar attack approach. Beck gets sick, misses a few gigs, ultimately leaves the band to Page.With the lead singer Keith Relf’s alcoholism and the band not having any more hits, as well as with the rise of bands like CREAM and JIMI HENDRIX, soon the Yardbirds disappeared, leaving Jimmy Page with the name. To fulfill  some contractual commitments ,with a new manager PETER GRANT on board, the band hits the road as THE NEW YARDBIRDS.

Page had recruited TERRY REID as vocalist but he, with a new MICKIE MOST contract, could not leave. Reid suggested a friend, ROBERT PLANT who brought along his drummer friend JOHN BONHAM . Page called his studio buddy JOHN PAUL JONES for bass and keyboards and after a short tour of Scandinavia, the NEW YARDBIRDS hit the studio to record what would become LED ZEPPELIN’s debut.

The album is released January 12,1969 and some of the tunes hit the New York FM airwaves after the band’s now legendary performance as the opening act for IRON BUTTERFLY at FILLMORE EAST January 31 and February 1, 1969, this being Led Zeppelin’s first US tour.Legend has it, but I have not verified it, that after LED ZEPPELIN played their set the boys in Butterfly decided to just do one song, their hit IN A GADDA DA VIDA, an FM staple  at the time. The crowd cheered for more Led Zep so the British foursome hit the stage again to close out the night.

That leads me to May 30, 1969. A Friday holiday weekend night with me at FILLMORE EAST with a five dollar ticket awaiting to see LED ZEPPELIN in their first FILLMORE EAST headlining show. The underbill was WOODY HERMAN and His THUNDERING HERD, and DELANEY BONNIE AND FRIENDS. Too cool. The Friday early show which according to some who attended the other three shows, the set list I saw was a shortened one but impressive nonetheless.

From the opening howl of I CAN’T QUIT YOU, through the violin bow smacking strings on DAZED AND CONFUSED, acoustic WHITE SUMMER/BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE, followed by BABE,I’M GONNA LEAVE YOU, YOU SHOOK ME, and the closer HOW MANY MORE TIMES, Led Zeppelin owned this audience. The encore was short, yet loud, COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN. The performance bar was now set for this 17 year old youngster on his musical journey.

NEXT TIME: THE WHO/CHUCK BERRY/ALBERT KING