August 14, 1972--Stephen Stills & Manassas, Pine Knob Music Theater, Clarkston, MI: A popular outdoor venue, Pine Knob's good seats are covered, with the cheap "seats" up on a grassy hill; I met friends under the covering. Stills and company played most of their inspired Manassas double album, which touches rock, blues, folk, country and Latin. They also performed "So You Want to Be a Rock'n'Roll Star"--Manassas' Chris Hillman co-wrote it when he was in the Byrds--and steel guitarist Al Perkins (previously with the Flying Burrito Brothers) was outstanding. I was 17 years old, my driving experience totaled eleven months and I lost my way on the road; warmup band Joe Walsh & Barnstorm had finished their set as we arrived...late. My date didn't seem to mind. Okay, she probably did mind--it was our only date.
February 14, 1973--The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Henry & Edsel Ford Auditorium, Detroit: Powerhouse hard rock jazz fusion, with John McLaughlin's blazing guitar and Billy Cobham manning a huge drum set--and he used every piece. Jerry Goodman played violin, Jan Hammer keyboards and Rick Laird was on bass. The Orchestra dove into their robust 1971 The Inner Mounting Flame album and the new Birds of Fire; what a remarkable feast for the ears and eyes. Jo Jo Gunne, led by ex-Spirit singer-pianist Jay Ferguson, opened. A newspaper ad with a WABX-FM graphic said that "Arrowsmith" (sic) was on the bill but I sincerely doubt that--and I don't remember Aerosmith, either, the band that had just released their debut album.
April 30, 1973--Faces, Cobo Hall, Detroit: Faces were huge in Detroit--the motley Brits played the Motor City area over a dozen times in 1970 alone, building the kind of following and fervor similar to what Boston's the J. Geils Band was also achieving in Detroit in the '70s. Tonight, Rod Stewart was singing his ass off and I got to see Ronnie Lane (1946-1997) on bass. It was a fun gig, although live archives reveal that the boys were in an alcoholic stupor during their last few years (Rod left in 1975, effectively dissolving the quintet). I spotted a tour shirt I liked so much that I made a facsimile using embroidery paint on my tomato colored T-shirt and wore it a lot at college that autumn.
September 1973--The Shirelles, Memorial Gymnasium, Texas Lutheran College, Seguin, TX: My first concert as a Texas resident and college freshman, as I lived in the Lone Star state from 1973-1981. Shirley Alston and her pals were the first 1950s and '60s girl group with sustained pop success (Shirley Gunter & the Teen Queens preceded them but lacked material as good as the Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Baby It's You" and "Tonight's the Night"). It may have been ten years past their heyday, yet I still loved hearing the Shirelles sing their many hits in 1973.
November 1973--Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen, The Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX: Cody & the Airmen were recording a live album that weekend that would be titled Live from Deep In the Heart of Texas. The energetic bar band was beyond spirited and the crowd was diggin' it, from "Diggy Diggy Lo" and "Good Rockin' Tonight" onward. I went with my pals Danny Davila and Alfred Martinez--Alfred kept yelling "buzz off!" to try and get on the record. We were convinced we could hear him on the headphones when the album was released a few months later.
March 16 and November 6 or 7, 1974--Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, The Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin: Radio stations KRMH/San Marcos and KLBJ/Austin were all over The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle in late 1973 and early 1974, and it seemed like every freshman in the upper wings of Texas Lutheran's Knutson Hall was buzzing about hearing "Rosalita" on the radio. Well, it felt like everybody; I think it was just my friend George Daeschner and me and maybe a few others, and we prepared for Bruce's first week performing in that unique place called Austin. There were six--some sources say five--Springsteen shows at the Armadillo from March to November in 1974 and after the sweaty, raucous reception faded following that last gig, it was obvious he wouldn't be able to play there again--his audience had ballooned. The March date was my tenth overall and although I'd seen some first rate shows since 1972, that initial experience with Bruce & the E Street Band was everything I'd heard a great concert was supposed to be. Audiences always hope to be blown away, and at last, I found out what that best case scenario was like.
The group at the March 16 gig included David Sancious on piano and Boom Carter on drums, who had just replaced Vini Lopez. Straight ahead yet with exotic touches, funky, lyrical and loaded with humor and serious grit, Springsteen's original songs and presentation were astounding--he seemed equally influenced by Bob Dylan, James Brown and the British Invasion and girl groups of the '60s. He also did that kind of whistling scream, a la Wilson Pickett, so well; now that's a lost art! It was the whole history of rock'n'roll in two and a half hours--calling it electric would be an understatement. In November, the show started with only Sancious, then violinist Suki Lahav and then Bruce's guitar and voice on "New York City Serenade" in a spare, thrilling display of tension and release; saxophonist Clarence Clemons capped it off in sweet fashion. Next, the remaining additional E Streeters took the stage for the Crystals' "Then He/She Kissed Me"; the spotlight reflected off the singer's sunglasses in a sort of special punk visual. "Kitty's Back" was simply out of this world; the way the lighting changed during the song was oh so dramatic. And if it's possible to create more than one hurricane in the same spot, Clemons' playing blew the roof off the joint all night. My first two Springsteen experiences reignited feelings of euphoria I had not experienced since the arrival of the Beatles ten years earlier.