The Rush double live album “All the World’s a Stage” introduced me to the trio of incredible musicians in the band called Rush.

The unique vocals of Geddy Lee and Neil Peart’s’s otherworldly percussion were different than any other popular act in the 1970’s. Rush entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, retired, and Neil Peart passed away.

I finally saw the greatest arena opening act for the past over 40 years headline a couple of months before the music stopped. Cheap Trick made a stop at NYCB Theatre at Westbury over the winter where it was nice to catch them up close in a theatre. Cheap Trick is also inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame making The Paladium concert quite special; we got to witness two legendary acts as they pursued their path to arena mainstays.

A Farewell to Kings

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GQ

The one and only time that I attended a concert with Big Frank from my high school, Saint Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows, Queens, was a trek to a hockey arena in Suffolk County to see Robin Trower for a second time and Eddie Money for the first time. A seemingly odd pairing for a tour, it was fairly typical in the late 1970’s to pair up dissimilar acts on the same bill thus broadening the exposure of everyone on stage. The Suffolk Forum was general admission on the floor and it was pretty packed in front of the stage. Undeterred, Big Frank waded through the crowd and we ended up directly beneath Mr. Trower as he wailed on guitar in the somewhat odd venue for a concert. The audience was full of true believers as Robin Trower’s live album and the classic “Bridge of Sighs” collection were in steady rotation on turntables and boomboxes owned by heavy lead guitar aficionados throughout the teenage rock universe. The hypnotic tunes performed by Robin Trower are timeless and worth revisiting.

Little Bit of Sympathy

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GQ

For a bunch of Queens kids, Nassau County might as well have been on the other side of the world. I knew of Jones Beach and the Roosevelt Field mall but the Nassau Coliseum, home of the NHL hockey Islanders, was something new altogether. Styx opened the show for headliner Aerosmith who were smoking hot in 1977 and in the beginning stages of a long strange trip and mercurial legendary career. Somehow we found ourselves standing on metal folding chairs in the orchestra pretty close to the left side of the stage. Aerosmith hit the stage and opened with “Back in the Saddle” off of the outstanding “Rocks” album. The band exploded onto the stage and at some point during the opening song someone cranked the volume up to 11 just as Joe Perry hit the lead guitar riff for the now classic “Back in the Saddle”. The increased amplification mid-somg felt like a sonic wave coming over the orchestra section, the volume of which literally knocked me straight backwards on the chair I was standing on. This was just one of many aural assaults which may have finally effected the high end of my hearing (but in my estimation it has all been worth it; you can’t stop rock and roll). Fortunately as I tilted backwards on top of the chair, someone behind me pushed me between the shoulder blades back forward returning me upright and Aerosmith rocked the barn into the night.

Dream On!

GQ

The home of the Rockettes and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular hosted guitar slinger Rick Derringer of Edgar Winter’s White Trash and Robin Trower, formerly of Procol Harum. The band Derringer had a relatively small but enthusiastic following in the late 1970’s. Rick’s biggest “hit” was the catchy “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” and his band had some nominal fringe success as a good hard rock band.

Robin Trower does not sing. Now when your band is named for a lead guitarist who does not sing at all, a la Jeff Beck, you know he has got chops. Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs” and “Robin Trower Live” are two great albums. The man stands front and center and just plays guitar; and he plays it very well. Robin Trower later on collaborated with Jack Bruce of Cream with a project called B.L.T. and yes the cover art was a delicious looking bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.

Too Rolling Stoned

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GQ

Future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart headlined the Dr. Pepper Concert series at theWollman Rink in New York’s Central Park in August, 1977. It was my first foray into the outdoor music venue and although the tickets were always notoriously inexpensive, we hung out on the boulders beyond the tall fence opposite the stage where you could hear the shows just fine, enjoy the summer atmosphere st the end of a midtown Manhattan workday or NYC weekend and party with like minded people. Heart was an interesting band especially back then; a hard rocking group led by Ann Wilson on vocals and Nancy Wilson on guitars. The song “Magic Man” was a radio hit putting Heart on everyone’s radar screen and they cranked out catchy hard rock songs Through the late 70’s until the music landscape changed in the mid eighties and they began to dabble in an adult contemporary vibe keeping the career momentum moving forward. Ann Wilson is a freak like David Crosby in that their voices are durable, amazing, and they can sing everything and anything to this day. My buddy Sandy and I had the good fortune to see the Wilson sisters at a SiriusXM event a few years back where there was a meet and greet with a photo op after an intimate performance in the Sirius plexiglass cube. The ladies could not have been nicer and it was surreal to meet them just prior to the Hall of Fame announcement and well deserved induction; Heart are true trailblazers and rock and roll originals.

Little Queen

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GQ

In 1977 my favorite band was Yes who were touring in support of the “ Going for the One” album with keyboardist Rick Waksman back in the fold following the Patrick Moraz “Relayer” line up.

Needless to say, seeing Yes at Madison Square Garden was a huge deal for the progressive rock fans in our group. The “Yessongs” triple live album, and the accompanying movie, were landmark events for the genre. The return of the iconic line up at the World’s Most Famous Arena was a big event during what may have been a golden age of live rock and roll music.

Our seats were mid level up toward the right and the stage background resembled the “Going for the One” album cover. It certainly did not hurt that the “ Going for the One” album is one of the strongest in the band’s storied history. It was a traditional end stage set up which is an important note as the band would tour -arenas “in the round” on subsequent tours which turned out to be great because Yes the band were all such extraordinary musicians in their own right and having a different visual focal point as the stage rotated was fascinating. For the “Going for the One” tour the first thing that caught my eye was that Rick Wakeman’s hair was shorter than it was in”Yessongs” and he was not wearing one of his dramatic capes.

Jethro Tull was my favorite band, and “Warchild” was the first rock album that I purchased on my own, but then I discovered Yes’ progressive rock music and the extraordinarily talented musicians who performed these sonic masterworks; while my rock and roll attention runs the gamut, Yes in all its incarnations remain one of my top rock and roll acts of all time.

Awaken

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GQ

Answer to the trivia question: Who was the first act signed to Swan Song Records?

Bad Company

Yes, the first recording artist signed to Led Zeppelin’s record label was the rock and blues band led by the great lead vocalist Paul Rodgers.

Climax Blues Band was a strong opening act as they did have some radio hits at the time.

Our seats atadison Square Garden were mid level and pretty dead center. Way back before tiered pricing, premium pricing, special packages, meet and greets, and worse year, dynamic pricing became commonplace business practices, an entire venue would be sold at one price from the front row to the last seat in the house. Unless you had a hook with someone who had a Ticketmaster machine, the odds of getting really good tickets were slim. In Flushing, Queens the Ticketmaster machine was located at the Jolly Joint on Main Street. The Zjolly Jount was a head shop specializing in selling pipes, bongs and rolling papers. When concert tickets went on sale a line would form up down the street but it seemed that the best seats were always long gone whenever you got in. Years later I learned that the owners of these machines would furiously print out the best seats in between customers. A really tough ticket could mean that you could be left in the cold without one after a really short amount of time on line. Most times we were just happy to go to the show as the best seats were out of out reach.

The most memorable moment of the Bad Company show was that someone for some reason set a seat on fire up toward the left of us. There were actual flames as the seat burned and the band played on.

Burnin’ Sky

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GQ

Fresh on the heals of the only Led Zeppelin show that I would experience, the first of what would turn out to be many Crosby, Stills and Nash concerts that I would attend took place at Madison Square Garden in June, 1977. Now I do not have any specific memory of this particular concert, and I am not sure that this was the same show, but there was a CSN concert where we took the 7 train from Flushing to Penn Station when the ride was abruptly stopped for what seemed like a long time. As a matter of fact, the train did not move for so long that we were in danger of missing the start of the concert. The train eventually got going and we later heard that someone had apparently jumped in front of a train ahead of us causing the delay. While the concert itself is not clear, I do recall the train delay as if it happened yesterday. These blogs will show a decades long journey from teen to grandfather following the music and careers of Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) in all of their many configurations.as solo artists and as a “supergroup”. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have been a focal point of my rock and roll obsession for decades; a perfect blend of acoustic, electric, lyrical genius and harmonies that helped to forge, expand, and cement the folk rock movement as led by Bob Dylan among many others before them. Crosby, Stills and Nash are at odds with each other following various falling outs through the years, and David Crosby claims that he may lose his house due to the inability to tour in this pandemic year 2020. However unlikely a reunion seems at the present, never say never when it comes to these aging road warriors who continue to record and tour as solo artists into, we hope, the foreseeable future

Triad

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GQ

On the heals of an epic Led Zeppelin concert at Madison Square Garden, the soon to be legendary southern rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd arrived at the Nassau Coliseum with the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent, and opener Rough Diamond.

Months after the missed opportunity of attending a Lynyrd Skynyrd show at New York City’s Paladium with Bebop Deluxe, I was given a second chance to see the original line up with Ronnie Van Zant. Our seats were midway up to the left of the stage; where a white piano was a visual focal point while the dual guitars bobbed and weaved around Van Zant who was clearly the ring master of the southern rock virtuosity on display.. The double live album “One More From the Road” had cemented the band’s reputation as a force to be reckoned with along with the Allman Brothers Band and the road warriors aimed to prove their mettle live.

Ted Nugent was with the Asbury Dukes when “Journey to the Center of the Mind” hypnotically grabbed people’s attention but his solo albums developed hardcore fans with those enamored with their lead guitar hero. His first solo album containing “Stranglehold”, and my personal favorite collection “Free For All”, made Nugent a seemingly odd but logical second act on this arena tour.

It was a golden age for live rick and roll.

Wang Dang Sweet Poontang

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GQ

Led Zeppelin coming to Mew York City for six dates at Madison Square Garden in June, 1977 was big news and the toughest ticket in town. My friends and I made the trip on the 7 Line from Flushing, Queens to see rock and rock royalty whose arrival was covered by every newspaper and media outlet in New York and beyond. Our seats were midway up facing the left side of the stage. The crowd was ecstatic and pumped to see true rock gods in the flesh. The music was legendary, the venue epic and the crowd was electric. The laser light show during Jimmy Page’s “Dazed snd Confused” solo was state of the art at the time and amazing. When the band broke in to “Rock and Roll” near the end of the show, the crowd was ecstatic with the masses dancing and singing in a communal rite of passage. It was only my second concert going experience and although I would see Page and Plant incarnations for many years to follow, it would be the only time I would attend an actual “Led Zeppelin” concert. When John Bonham died, the band announced that it was over, and they amazingly stuck to their guns and except for a Live Aid appearance with Phil Collins and a one off for Ahmet Ertegon with Bonzo’s son Jason Bonham on drums.

Led Zeppelin is on the Mount Rushmore of rock and roll acts, with The Rolling Stones, Beatles, and you pick the fourth act. Feel free to discuss.

Unfortunately, a Robert Plant/ Saving Grace gig that had been scheduled for the intimate Town Hall in mid town Manhattan has been postponed due to the pandemic.

Stairway to Heaven indeed

Stay well

Stay safe

Rock on!

GQ