At a party one night in late October someone suggests we get tickets to see JETHRO TULL, the suggestion being made while their TIME WAS album played in the backgroung.Subliminal?, I think not. Just someone wanted to see Tull at Fillmore East first week of December. My vote was a resounding NO, as I wanted to see HENDRIX on New Years Eve. But they won and I lost out. Eight tickets for TULL with Fat Mattress and GRAND FUNK RAILROAD opening....Who??? Grand WHAT? Away we go. Orchestra far back on the right. Grand Funk was loud, fast, hair flowing and a lot of running around on the stage. Geez, they got encore after encore...WHAT? Opening act at Fillmore East getting multiple encores? Grand What? Then, FAT MATTRESS which was basically Noel Redding from Hendrix's Experience and a bunch of Noel's drinking buddies. Not particularly good, terrible actually. They did a tune called ALL NIGHT DRINKER to which I think Noel was, drunk. Then JETHRO TULL hits the stage with NOTHING IS EASY. Pretty cool but something was amiss, somewhere the natural order appeared to be disrupted to me. Something felt amiss. After the show i found out what it was. Prior to the Tull show one friend arrived a bit early grabbing two tixs for the Hendrix show which I assumed was sold out. Stupid me. So my Friend attended Hendrix BAND OF GYPSIES on NEW YEARS EVE while I attended this stupid party.This is not supposed to happen.
1970: It's A New Dawn
The Holiday vacation was almost over yet I was itching to listen to some live performance so I attended a Fillmore East Monday Night Audition and met the FLAMIN Groovies. This to me was the future of rock and roll, not Grand Funk, The Groovies... What a band, what a blast. All for $1.50. and stylish...
Spending my Christmas bonus on new slacks, cut perfectly for my skinny body, a nice pullover, new suede jacket and almost matching boots, I even got a recut for my styled hair as we went to see The Doors,Sunday, January 18 1970 at The FELT FORUM. Second shot at seeing the band but again the rants and poems by Morrison while the group played a pedestrian beat in the background sort of made me think...ah, not that good. But the women in the crowd loved him. John Sebastian helped open the Doors segment with ROADHOUSE BLUES and Lonnie Mack was superb.
Quicksilver/Country Joe Fish at FILLMORE EAST ( 1/24/70) also known as HOW I SPENT MY 18th BIRTHDAY. It was early Saturday morning when Mom asked if there was anything special I wanted for my birthday. While she probably meant for dinner, may be a special meal. Nah, I selfishly requested two tickets to see Quicksilver. Twenty bucks exchanged hands in a card and away I went. Real proof of age as I was now legal, got me a bottle of wine for the train ride in. A pack of Marlboro Reds, LIRR tickets and 2 Fillmore tickets.Dinner later would also be on my bill. Thanks Mom.Eric Mercury opens, Country Joe and The Fish, then Quicksilver Messenger Service with Nicky Hopkins on piano and Dino Valenti. Not the band I was expecting but an all out San Fran bill, cool.
Now 18 years old , ready to rock or get drafted to Vietnam but not old enough to vote. A bottle or two of red wine and two tickets to see Delaney Bonnie Friends with Eric Clapton on a bitter night February of 1970. ERIC CLAPTON playing with DBF.This was a dream come true. I hoped Rita Coolidge would be there to make the night complete. Met some older (by one or two years) town folks on the train ride in who were also heading to the show . Live music became the topic for our small talk. And we spoke, and spoke. Too cool, I held my own. Eric Clapton was the man that night and the Fillmore East sound made it amazingly good.. So much better than the Garden with Blind Faith . Seals and Crofts opened.
February in New York is cold and this night was extremely cold, temperature wise also. Four tickets for Savoy Brown ,Renaissance, Voices of East Harlem at FILLMORE EAST 2/21/70. Why four? Ah, NO...I sensed things are shifting, personally and to top it off The KinKs cancelled at the last minute. The Voices started with a video of the ensemble singing while running down the streets of Manhattan, suddenly Second Avenue, oh look the Fillmore Marquee, then the actual group running down the aisles toward the stage singing. Very cool. Renaissance was the left over Yardbirds, quite different from what I expected. Savoy Brown BOOGIED and then they BOOGIED. Chris Youlden was great on vocals with a top hat, Noonan danced and Kim Simmonds rocked. Nice. But The KinKs cancelled. Ahhhhhh...
It was only one full week and I was back doing what I do but this time it was a late show on A Saturday night midnight extravaganza. And I was ready to party. TYA, Zephyr, Doug Kershaw Feb 28, 1970.
