Guitar Gods & Gotham
I feel like telling a story, do ya mind? Long time ago, I lived in New York City. And, I was in the Center of the Universe, according to Tom Wolfe. I headed up the order desk for one of the largest commodities trading operations at the time - Shearson Hayden Stone. It was 1974. Gold had just been legalized in this country and my little brother was on the floor of COMEX - largest precious metals market in the World. High times. I had two phones with a hundred buttons and two teletype machines - one even had a full time operator - Gawd she was pretty. A dozen people seated at a giant desk with a conveyor belt on top to move the orders through. Chaos with a touch of insanity. I was there when gold went from $35 to $835.
The Rolling Stones were booked at Madison Square Garden. I think that was the very first time concert tickets were sold by lottery. A week before the concert, my brother called me up and demanded I get some tickets. Well hell, I like the Stones and all, but I wasn't all that enthused. I speed dialed around my phone - brokers in NYC and Chicago. Funny thing about brokers - they broke anything - gold, wheat, pork bellies and yes, even concert tickets. I found six tickets for $600 bucks a pop. Made the trade and invited a mutual friend of my brother's and mine and his girlfriend.
Which is where we went before the concert. Now, some folks collect things. Some folks have a wine cellar. Mike Seagal had a sample of every pot he'd ever smoked in tin film canisters, labeled neatly, in a briefcase. Go over to Mike's and he'd drag that thing out, pull some canisters out, and reflect on the particular high of each. He'd select a few - paying careful attention to the 'high' he was after. Kind of a wine steward of dope. It was more an experience than just getting a buzz on. He did good. We got stoned.
When we got to Madison Square it was a madhouse. Scalpers all over the place. Crappy T-shirts everywhere. The six of us piled out of a Checker cab and plowed through the crowd. I looked up and lo and behold, next door, at the Felt Forum, ZZ Tops was playing. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Here I got big buck tickets to the Rolling Stones and ZZ Tops is next door. Ah, that didn't take long. I convinced Mike and his squeeze that was a better show. I knew this because my other brother had turned me on to the Tops a few years before.
My little brother was not so convinced. We 'conferenced'. Out there on the concrete, amidst the chaos, we held a meeting. The result of which was Mike and his girl and me and mine gave our tickets to somebody frantically trying to buy same and went in to see Tres Hombres. My little brother and his wife did the Stones. I gotta tell ya, I saw Jimi Hendrix in a high school gymnasium. I saw the Animals at a roller skate rink. I saw Bob Dylan after hours with a dozen studio musicians. ZZ Tops was the flat out best show I ever saw. This was before they had beards. They had a plastic cow and bales of hay on stage. The piping on their cowboy shirts was lit like neon. They rocked.
After the show, we all re-connected and compared notes. My brother and his wife were seated so far from the stage that they were barely able to see the pyrotechnics - this being before the advent of big screens. I sat in the front row - I could smell the hay. Hands down and far away the absolutely best show I ever saw. Jimi Hendrix was asked once by some reporter from the Village Voice - 'who do you see as an up and coming guitarist'? He replied 'better keep an eye on Billy Gibbons' he being the lead axe for the Tops.
Man, was he right on.
Why don't you 'full screen that video?
Why don't you 'full screen that video?
Saw ZZ Top on the beach down in Galveston back in the '70's. Us Texas boys do know how to jam.
Posted by: Uncle Fester | 02/26/2009 at 07:51 PM