The other day I just happened across a list of the best concerts of 1969 and then of the 1970s. There were some there I would not have remembered if I had concocted a new list. So here's what's on the list. And when I say Best Concerts of the 1970s, I mean 1969-1979.
Best Concerts 1969-1979
1A. Bruce Springsteen, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, 1975. For those of you who don't know, the Guthrie Theater is (or was) about a 1,500 seat theater, home to one of the best theatrical troupes in America. It's where people go for their Shakespeare fix and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and stuff like that. From the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, they also routinely had the greatest emerging acts in rock 'n pop music there, and as you read through the following list, see how many of the best concerts of the 1970s were there. Lots of 'em. Most of 'em. It's a remarkable list. We were so incredibly lucky to have it/them.
Anyway, the best concert I ever saw there was Bruce. It was the opening night of the Born to Run Tour. He was just breaking in a big way. You know, cover of Time, cover of Newsweek. I had had his 1st 2 LPs and especially loved Greetings from Asbury Park and It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City. Still I had no clue what we (me and my girlfriend at the time, now my wife) were in for. Bruce blew everybody completely away with that powerful voice and then on top of that there was Clarence and the E Street Band and of course they played for hours. Totally awesome. My girlfriend (we had been together, well, probably a whole year by that time) thought I must be the coolest guy ever to have known about such a concert and to have gotten us there to see and hear it.
1B. Bruce Springsteen, Toledo Sports Arena, 1977. 2 years later we were living in Bowling Green, OH, where I went to graduate school, and we saw Bruce again in Toledo. We were like 10th row main floor and she was working as a reporter/photographer. Bruce came down into the audience and was not 5 feet away and she got some great photos which are still framed and on display in our house. Oh, and the music was great, again, too.
2. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Circle Star Theater, San Carlos, CA, 1974. My wife (to be) and I traveled to California to visit some friends. We had only been dating for a couple of months at this point. And we were lucky enough that Frank Zappa was playing in the vicinity of San Jose, where her college roommate had settled down for the time being. But not only that, he was at the Circle Star Theater, which featured a circular rotating stage. I kid you not. The stage rotated. So here came Frank, moving into view clockwise from the right. Then there he went out of view off to the left or, well, out to where you'd see his backside and other band members came into view in the foreground. And, then, here comes Frank again. And on top of all of that, this was his best band ever, IMHO. Napoleon Murphy Brock on vocals, George Duke on keys and vocals, Tom Fowler and Chester Thompson and Ruth Underwood on rhythm and percussion. And this fellow we'd never heard of opened. Tom Waits! What a night.
3. Steely Dan, St. Paul Civic Center, 1974. This was my wife (to be) and my 1st date. Steely Dan headlined a 3-band show. Dr. Hook was 1 and I've forgotten who the other band was. But I loved Steely Dan's 1st 2 records, which were out at this time. Reelin' in the Years, Change of the Guard. Eventually I loved all their records. And they did not disappoint, great, great show.
4. Jethro Tull, Guthrie Theater, 1971. Aqualung had just come out, and just imagine hearing pretty much the entire record in a 1,500 seat theater. Incredible.
5. Allman Brothers Band, Labor Temple, 1970. The Labor Temple was a small hall in Minneapolis with open seating, you would just go in and sit on the floor or stand and dance or whatever. There were Sunday night shows there pretty much weekly for a couple of years during my 1st and 2nd or maybe 2nd and 3rd years of college. The Allman Brothers 1st record had just come out like a week before, and nobody knew much about them except that there was a terrific buzz. But the concert was the Sunday after New Year's Day, school was still out, and I went to the 2nd show. There was hardly anybody there--maybe 50 people. And basically the band played their 1st record through from start to finish and then went into some jams like Mountain Jam. Just blew everybody away. I mean, the 2 drummers. The 2 guitars. The singing, the playing. Just awesome. We left thinking this was the greatest band ever and I'm not sure today that that wasn't right.
6. Yes, Berkeley Municipal Theater, 1972. I was visiting friends in the San Francisco area in 1972 and Yes happened to be in town. I loved their atmospherics but wasn't convinced they could pull it off in concert. But they did, recreating the most incredibly intricate music on stage pretty much note for note. And no, I don't mean that it was cold or lacking in soul or anything. It was bee-you-ti-ful.
7. Bob Dylan, Centennial Hall, University of Toledo, 1978. I like Dylan's records but I've never been much for his live concerts or live records. I remember seeing him live one time and finding out what songs he played by reading about them in the newspaper the next day. Seriously. But this was different. This was the Live at Budokan band and tour, and these were by far the best arrangements and the best execution live that Dylan has ever achieved. And we saw it.
8. Gordon Lightfoot, Guthrie Theater, 1971. I know that Gordo is regarded as hopelessly passé, as not just lightfoot but decidedly lightweight. His biggest hit ever was probably If You Could Read My Mind and, yeah, it's a little bit sappy. But listen to his '60s stuff before you right him off. And his early '70s stuff is really terrific, too. The Minstrel of the Dawn and Sit Down, Young Stranger are as good a reflection of how it felt to be alive in the early '70s as the best Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon. I also remember that a buddy of mine had tickets for this concert and then couldn't use 'em. He stopped over at my house, which I shared with 5 of my closest friends, to offer them. I wasn't home and my roommates all wanted to go, so they put everybody's name in a bag and pulled out a pair of winners. Then somebody got a conscience and said, hey, we should call Sunny and ask him if he wants to be in. So they did. I said, sure. So they waved off the 1st drawing, held another, and I won.
9. Led Zeppelin, Milwaukee Pop Festival, 1969.
10. Blind Faith, Milwaukee Pop Festival, 1969.
A bunch of us guys drove from Minneapolis to Milwaukee to see, get this, Blind Faith close the Friday night show, Led Zeppelin closed on Saturday night, and Johnny Winter on Sunday at the height of Winter-mania. Well, I don't need to tell you how that worked out, the results are right there up above. Zeppelin blew everybody away, never seen anything like it. Plant and Page. Who was wailing harder and hotter? Dazed and Confused. You Shook Me. Squeeze my lemon til the juice runs down my leg. My gawd.
Blind Faith was just the opposite. The epitome of cool. Clapton and Winwood, together. Fulfilling many a youthful dream. But still, cool. Not hot. Not super engaging. Not as good as Zep.
As we were leaving the grounds Sunday night, people were there handing out handbills for another festival that was coming up out in New York. Something called...oh, yeah, Woodstock? What's that?
11. The Who, Guthrie Theater, 1969. It was in the spring of 1969, my girlfriend at the time had just moved up to the Twin Cities and I was in heaven. I took her to see the Who at the Guthrie. Tommy had just come out, and they played the entire thing. I had never seen Townsend's windmills or Daltrey swinging his microphone around or Keith Moon just being Keith Moon. Incredible. Still something wasn't right. It should have been the most incredible night of my life. But, no. My girlfriend dumped me the next week.
12. The Rolling Stones, the Met Center, 1972. I was always a Beatles guy and you couldn't be both a Beatles guy and a Stones guy, just like you couldn't be a Ford guy and a Chevy guy or a Coke and a Pepsi guy. I was a Beatles guy. Still I couldn't pass up on a chance to see The Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band in the World at the peak of their powers in 1972. And it was good.
13A and 13B. Jethro Tull, the Met Center 1972 and 1973. They were never ever gonna be as good as doing Aqualung at the Guthrie, but still they were terrific doing Thick As A Brick and then A Passion Play at the Met Center the following 2 years. The Met Center was the North Stars hockey arena, it was huge and the sound wasn't great. Tull made the most of it.
14. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, St. Paul Civic Center, 1975 and 1976. I think it was right around Thanksgiving both years and they billed it as the Turkey Trot.
15. The Beach Boys, St. Paul Civic Center, 1975. Yeah, I know, passé, lightweight. Wrong. Before the Beatles and during the early hey days of the Beatles, the Beach Boys did the most sophisticated music this side of Broadway. But youthful, heartfelt, inspiring. But then Brian Wilson had that breakdown and you wouldn't see them live. But wait, here they come, with Brian in tow. He only sang 1 or 2 songs, but everybody else was there, the spirit was alive and it was a real rave-up.
16. The Band, Guthrie Theater, 1970. At the peak of their powers the Band came to the mecca for Twin Cities rock 'n roll and put on a memorable show. Now here of course is a band that indeed seems passé today, just over the top with all the keyboard histrionics and the faux historicism and all. But thre was a time when they were hot, or cool, and that is when we saw them.
17A and B. Joe Cocker and the Grease Band, the Prison and the Milwaukee Pop Festival, both 1969. Talk about over the top, this took the cake for overstatement of every kind, not least of all of course Joe Cocker's twitchy but soulful singing. Overrated at the time but absolutely a sign of the times.
18. Wings, St. Paul Civic Center, 1976. OK, they were a little light in their loafers. But, hey, it was Paul McCartney! And they put on a good show. And you know, Band on the Run had some good songs.
19A & 19B. Allman Brothers Band, Midway Stadium, 1971 and Berkeley Theater, 1972. The fire had already kinda gone out in the summer of 1971 and then it had really gone out by the summer of 1972, after Duane died in October 1971. I mean, yeah, they were still better than most but compared to that 1st show in 1970, the spark just wasn't there. I guess there was just no way they could live up to my expectations at that point.
20. Elton John, Guthrie Theater, 1970. His 1st record had just come out and he put on just a very high energy show. And of course he had the benefit of playing in the best venue anywhere.
21. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Guthrie Theater, 1969. Opened for the Steve Miller Band and just totally stole the show. If you don't know, they played the original Death Cab for Cutie. The put on an energetic vaudeville type show and were absolutely hilarious. Much better at this stage than Frank and the Mothers, who I saw at this same venue this same year.
22. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, St. Paul Civic Theater, 1973. Not to be confused with the Civic Center or the Civic Center Arena, where Wings and the Beach Boys and Steely Dan played, the Theater was a terrific little venue where an outfit called Stone Bleu put on a series of shows for a year or two. This was their best. I will never forget a lovely harmonica lead on an instrumental version of I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free. I think this show included Black Oak Arkansas and Jesse Colin Young.
23. Mark-Almond, St. Paul Civic Theater, also 1973. Mark-Almond played the most heartbreaking songs and played them so beautifully. What Am I Living For?, indeed. Mark was Jon Mark, who had played with John Mayall. A fabulous band.
24. Bonnie Raitt and Dave Ray, St. Cloud, MN, 1976. This was in the old movie theater, I don't know that it had a name or anything, but the artists were up on this high stage way up above our heads. Dave Ray had produced Bonnie's 1st record, and now he opened for her. This was probably the 1st time we saw Bonnie, whom we eventually saw maybe 5 times. She matured well as a performer, she was so shy and a little tentative at this time. But still the voice was there, it was so sweet. Later she learned to growl and stuff. And Dave Ray, a Minnesota boys who was one of the great white blues singers ever, just had an incredible feel for the music and this terrific blues voice.
25. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Guthrie Theater, 1971. I always wished I had seen the original King Crimson. In the Court of the Crimson King, 20th Century Schizoid Man. Well, this had to be the 2nd best thing. Greg Lake was of course the bassist and singer for both, and Keith Emerson was the heaviest keyboard dude this side of Rick Wakeman. Heavy, man.
26A, B, C. Gordon Lightfoot. We saw Gordon at least 3 more times, maybe running into the 1980s. He used to play Northrop Auditorium at the U of M pretty much every year and was always terrific. But the only time (after the Guthrie in 1971) that I'm positive about when and where was actually O'Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Thomas University in 1972.
27. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Guthrie Theater, 1969. This was not Frank at his best. I remember Jimmy Carl Black and I think this band was about to break up. Still, it was my 1st time to see Frank. Alice Cooper opened.
28. Santana, Magoo's, 1969. Magoo's was just a little dance club where you'd see local acts, but very briefly they brought in some national acts and this was the highlight of that. Their 1st record had just come out and they played it with great energy and passion.
30. Blodwyn Pig, the Depot, 1969. The Depot later became First Avenue. Blodwyn Pig was the band of Jethro Tull's 1st and former guitarist Mick Abrahams, who teamed with saxophonist Jack Lancaster, whose claim to fame was playing 2 saxes at the same time. Big big sound and really straight-ahead, kick-ass rock 'n roll.
31. Cat Stevens, Guthrie Theater, 1971. I'm a little embarrassed about this but people forget just how hot Cat Stevens was in the FM radio world at the time. We dug him.
32. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Guthrie Theater, 1973. Intense. Loud and intense.
33. Pink Floyd, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, 1977. OK, I'm a little embarrassed about this one, too. But the concert just fell flat. My expectations were probably just too high. But Cleveland Stadium held like 80,000 people and it was like watching a movie or a TV show or something. It hardly seemed like there were actually musicians way way way way way down there actually playing live music. Also, it was the Animals tour and that was never one of my favorite records of theirs.
34. Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, Guthrie Theater, 1974. I admired both of these artists but the concert came off a little bit soulless to me.
35A, B, C. Tom Waits, Circle Star Theater, 1974, and Hole Coffeehouse, 1974 and 1975. First saw Tom in San Carlos, CA (see Zappa review above in #3), then came home and told all our friends about him. A few months later he showed up in the Hole Coffeehouse at the University of Minnesota, and again the following year. We took a big group of friends out to see him and I remember people being pretty impressed.
36. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Anderson Arena, Bowling Green State U, 1977. Don't remember much about this, dunno why. It was at the peak of his popularity and just down the road apiece from his hometown. He was basically God at the time. I don't remember him being bad, I just don't remember him being great.
37. Yes, St. Paul Civic Center, 1976. Another one where I guess it's just never as good as the 1st time.
38. Darryl Hall and John Oates, Toledo Sports Arena, 1976. Another one from our Ohio days. We had always loved Abandoned Luncheonette. They were good, not great.
39. Al Stewart, Halenbeck Hall, St. Cloud State U, 1975. We loved Al's moody records and his band was solid, especially guitarist Tim Renwick.
40. Asleep at the Wheel, Halenbeck Hall, St. Cloud State U, 1976. We were so ignorant, we didn't even know that the Wheel was basically schlepping Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys stuff, but we enjoyed it then and we enjoy it now.
41. Randy Newman, Guthrie Theater, 1971. Let's drop the big one, and see what happens.
42. The Moody Blues, Met Center, 1972. I'm sure they woulda blown me away a couple years earlier. By now they were passé. Still, that mellotron was one of rock's signature sounds.
43. Little Feat, St. Paul Civic Center, 1975. Opened for Frank Zappa, believe it or not, and I hadn't yet come to appreciate Little Feat appropriately.
44. Murray McLauchlan, Hole Coffeehouse, 1975. A vastly underappreciated artist. Sweeping the Spotlight Away (album) was a masterpiece.
45. The Band, Midway Stadium, 1971. Already becoming passé.
46. Johnny Winter, Milwaukee Pop Festival, 1969, and the Labor Temple, 1970. Always a let-down, he was just plain overrated.
47. John Hammond, Labor Temple, 1970. Underrated, underappreciated but, still, he was just one guy with a very loud foot.
48. Steve Miller Band, Guthrie Theater, 1969. Boz Scaggs and Jim Peterman had just left the band and they were newly a trio, so they really couldn't replicate the sound of their records. And they were vastly overshadowed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
49. Miles Davis, Guthrie Theater, 1970. Didn't understand a word.
50. Argent, Guthrie Theater, 1972. Not great unless you're talking about Rod Argent on the keyboard.
Honorable Mention
Koerner Ray and Glover
Buffy St. Marie
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Podipto
Poco
John Sebastien
John Baldry
Steve Wonder
Leon Russell
Jesse Colin Young
Muddy Waters
Let Down
MC5
Steppenwolf
Faces
It's A Beautiful Day
Mott the Hoople
Little Richard
Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Al Kooper
Edgar Winter
Savoy Brown
Jerry Lee Lewis
Melissa Manchester
Charlie Daniels Band
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes
Buddy Rich Orcheestra
Crow
The Worst
Fleetwood Mac. I adored Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. But by the time I saw Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green had left. Their manager put together a Fleetwood Mac band that was a total fraud and that was the band that I saw. After Peter Green. Before Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Fraud.
Best Band
That would pretty much mirror Best Concert but not entirely. So Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was #1 but Jethro Tull, the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Rolling Stones follow. With some of the others, their high ranking is due to things like great songs, great vocals, a great show, and so on. Still, rounding out the top 10 would be Zappa and the Mothers (circa 1974), Steely Dan, Dylan's 1978 touring band (Live at Budokan) and Yes.
Best Artist
Bruce Springsteen, Ian Anderson, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Gordon Lightfoot, Duane Allman, Paul McCartney, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant.
Best Vocals
Bruce Springsteen, Gordon Lightfoot, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, Beach Boys, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Dave Ray, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Paul McCartney.
Best Guitar
Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, Dickie Betts, David Gilmour, Steve Howe, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin.
Best Keyboards
Rick Wakeman, Garth Hudson, Rod Argent, George Duke, Roy Bittan and Danny Federici, Chris Stainton, Keith Jarrett, Randy Newman, Elton John, Greg Rolie.
Best Bass Guitar
Jon Entwhistle, Chris Squire, John Paul Jones, Wolfgang Melz, Berry Oakley, Gary Tallent, Tom Fowler, Paul McCartney, Lonnie Turner, Rick Danko,
Best Drums
Ginger Baker, Jack DeJohnette, Keith Moon, Dannie Richmond, John Bonham, Chester Thompson, Charlie Watts, Buddy Rich, Butch Trucks, Max Weinberg.
Best Other Instrument
Clarence Cleamons (saxophone), Ian Anderson (flute), Miles Davis (trumpet), David Mansfield (violin), Paul Butterfield (harmonica), Jack Lancaster (saxophones), Ruth Underwood (vibraphone), Johnny Almond (saxophone), David LaFlamme (violin).
Best Songs
Bruce Springsteen, Gordon Ligthtfoot, Frank Zappa, Jon Mark, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Walter Becker-Donald Fagen, Jimmy Page-Robert Plant, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits.
