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Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix.
But it's hard to complain after seeing Bob Marley twice.
For a while, I thought I was turning into some sort of dangerous fan...
Used to LOVE Morphine and caught lotsa shows. Had a ticket to their "return from Italy" show and Mark Sandman up and died in Italy.
Before that, I had a ticket to Sublime when I lived in SF, but the lead singer died the day before or the day of the show.
Then I had tickets to The Who at the Hard Rack in Vegas...and stupid John Entwistle had to up and die.
I was tempted to go buy a Celine Dion ticket, but then I realized, someone like Mariah Carey would just step in to fill her space.
(Lucky for the music world) I then switched to big time wrestling, and look how that is turning out!
(Joke there at the end.)
Morphine definitely rocks, and their records sound great. Got into them my freshman year, and got excited. Then I found out Mark Sandman was dead.
I did not like The Who until very recently when i saw a video of them playing and the focus was on Entwistle. holy shit, he's absolutely amazing. what a loss
Bhudda, remind me never to go to a concert with you. it seems like the musicians tend to die right before the show.
Missed opportunities: Phish. My all-time favorite band since the 5th grade, yet I somehow never get a chance to see them. They came to Birmingham when I was in 8th grade, but I had not really started going to concerts yet or understanding their role in relation to a band. Around the time I started driving, they called it quits, and now I'm just waiting for the reunion.
I don't know if I can be friends with you anymore.
Because he said "fifth grade" like it was in the past?
I figured someone would comment. no shame here. i love their music and when they "jam." there is a much deeper musical complexity to a lot of their stuff that some people don't take the time to think about and assume it's just brainless noodling. That, it is not. They are focused, exciting, and incredibly smart musicians. and what can I say, I like guitar solos.
And all these years there I was thinking it was "mindless" noodling. Thanks for the clarification.
In all seriousness I enjoy Phish but I never bothered to actually go and see them. I would have gladly gone to one of their Halloween shows when they played entire "classic rock" album. Some of the albums they played were the Velvet Underground's "Loaded", Talking Heads' "Remain In Light", The Beatles' "White Album" and The Who's "Quadrophenia". Plus Phish also played plenty of other cover songs as well, their version of the Stones' "Loving Cup" is pretty good.
However, the kings of jam band noodling are Medeski Martin and Woods. It seems that every time they might be in danger of finding a nice groove to settle into they just start into noodling again. I guess that's why I've only cared for them when they were playing along with someone, like John Scofield for example.
If it makes you feel better, Ariel, I used to listen to Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark and Erasure when I was a kid. A lot. And loved it. A lot.
Those Halloween shows are all classic, but the best joke ever played on an audience has to be at one of those shows, or right after that is. Every year, Phish had built up more and more steam from all these classic albums they would play in Vegas every October. Then they played "Loaded" by VU and the sold-out arena had no idea what was going on for the most part. The next night in a small half-filled venue in Utah, they covered all of Dark Side of the Moon.
MMW is pretty awesome. Phish is actually the band responsible for kicking off their career. Trey Anastasio of Phish found he would always drive uncontrollably fast while listening to them and invited them to open for them on a tour. That's most of where they picked up their jamband audience base. I've seen them a few times, and I agree they have a penchant for losing their groove by getting a little muddled, but John Medeski sure can play the organ and Billy Martin has got to be one of the coolest drummers in the world to watch. I've seen him play with an animal skin basshead and he plays with such style. When I saw MMW in New York for Halloween, they invited the entire NYC Halloween Parade to play and sing and dance with them. Maybe mindless, but sure was fun.
Do you still?
I listen to a few singles here & there for nostalgia's sake. I came to the U.S. & didn't speak a word of English, and one of the guys that I befriended was really into that stuff. So went to the chain music store Wherehouse (you guys remember that place?) and got OMD's Best of. Listened to the song "Secret" like one hundred times, thinking about this really cute blond girl in my class named Jennifer P.
And what can I say? You can never really turn against the music you loved as a kid, no matter how bad you find it now. And besides, music's all about genealogy, too. OMD & Erasure led to New Order, which obviously led to Joy Division. Then I started growing up.
Some of those OMD songs are really well-crafted pop songs, with real hooks, you know... that ain't a crime.
I saw Bob twice.
It was at the same concert. When I came to, after thinking I was dead..I realized I was alive and at a Marley Concert!
Way Cool!
So true. I find myself flipping through CDs trying to find space in a booklet for new ones, and I'll look at Chumbawumba and think, "Maybe, I dont really need Tubthumping." but i can't do it. it means something.
And following that genealogy through different wikipedia articles till you have a family tree of records to buy.
Hey Stephen,
I was in high school, hanging out in the summer, with not much to do....A friend calls and says he has four tickets to see the Doors..that evening....he says, " I'll give you two tickets free...find a date and I'll drive". I thought for a second and replied, "Nah" too busy, too tired, too stupid.
Ouch, I bet that still hurts a bit even after all these years.
I'm quite happy to say that my own experience is 180 degrees from Dave's. One night as I was coming home from work I ran into a couple of friends of mine who were going to wait on line for tickets to George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. I had just gotten paid and so with cash in hand I asked if they could get me a couple tickets. Of course my friends got me the tickets, along a rather tall tale of their "on line" exploits, and I went to see this historic musical event.
I do have my share of missed opportunities, such as Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix (although I was still pretty young when Hendrix died), Janis Joplin and Quicksilver Messenger Service. But I've still seen plenty: The Stones (in a 3,000 seat theater), Dylan, The Band, Duane Allman, Bruce Springsteen (in a small club in NYC), The Who (with all the original members) and lots of others.
John Lee Hooker. He played gigs just about every year in the SF Bay Area where I moved 13 years ago. I kept putting it off, and then he passed on. Bummer.
Happy to say I caught Grover Washington Jr. just before he left us.
Wish I had seen Pink Floyd with Roger Waters. I was amped to buy tickets for Zeppelin in '79, but that didn't work out.
I am going to see Roger Waters next Friday. I would like to have seen all of Pink Floyd together but I will take what I can get.
I saw Iron Butterfly for free two years ago at an American Iron Horse shop grand opening. They can still rock. Saw Savoy Brown last year and they were pretty good. Saw Crosby Still Nash and Young a few years ago in Dallas and they were as good as ever. I would really like to see a bunch of guys called Down To The Bone, or Rukus, but they don't come to the metro-mess. May have to travel to see them.
I saw Roger Waters live last year with one of my sons, great concert with amazing sound and great music.