Music To My Big Ears
When you have ears the size of satellite dishes, one tends to enjoy music.
I was thinking about the concerts I’ve attended and thought it would be fun to share my perspective.
Here we go……
ZZ Top My first concert experience at 16 years of age. I had never heard of the bearded Amish icons–we only went because Loverboy was supposed to be the opening act.
The Cars I love the Cars, but the mannequins on the Old Navy TV commercials are more animated! So I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the music!
Rolling Stones My favorite band. I’ve seen the Stones twice. The first time was goose-bump exhilarating! We got home at 4:30am and I had a college midterm at 8.
Years later, my 2nd Stones’ concert was just as special.
Beach Boys
Hall & Oates These guys are fantastic. I drove my ’81 Datsun B-210 to the show. This car was small—I’ve been in roomier phone booths. At the show some friends asked for a ride back to our college dorm. So on the ride home I had nine people in my car! Stupid I know. Don’t try this at home.
Genesis Tremendous concert. I went to this show with my friend Ted. Ted looked like Ronald McDonald, but was 6′ 6″ tall and pushed 300 pounds. He wore size 19 shoes. I drove my Datsun and Ted poured into the passenger seat, spilling over into mine. My faced was pressed flat into the driver’s side window. It didn’t regain its shape until about 4 or 5 songs into the show.
Moody Blues
The Pretenders One of my favorite concerts. Again with Ted, we danced, sang and played air-guitar like idiots. (You never got hassled when Ted was around!)
Gallagher 3rd row and still sticky from the Sledge-O-Matic!
Air Supply I swear I was the only dude there without a date (mine cancelled). While everyone around me was making out, I sat there—-uncomfortably.
U2
Jay Leno My buddy was the opening act.
Howie Mandel, Steven Wright & Mike Binder They performed for the Budweiser Comedy Stop Tour at my college. I saw all three for a one dollar admission! I even had a poster promoting the show on the wall in my dorm room. Yeah, I was a geek.
John Denver One of my favorite concerts. A very inspiring performance and it was FREE! Back in the day all shows at the Ohio State Fair were free. This poor college student soaked up alot of entertainment!
The Who
Jeff Lorber Fusion Fusion jazz. I worked security for this show (because of my imposing, bird-like physique!). After the show someone asked me if I was OK—that I looked high. I replied…”I am high on music!” Whoa, awesome concert!
Saturday Night Live Tour Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon each did 30 minutes of stand-up.
Pointer Sisters Hey, it was free at the fair….I’m so excited!
Carrot Top He is disturbing to look at, but very funny!
Blue Man Group More of a show than a concert. I saw them in Vegas. At $95 dollars, it was my most expensive ticket, but glad to have seen them in person.
Jerry Seinfeld
Weird Al Yankovic Hey, it was fun. It was my kids 1st concert. A sign of the times?….After the show, instead of holding burning lighters in appreciation, people held up their cell phones. It was cool–and safer too!
So there you have it…my concert roll-call.
What has been your favorite concert to attend? Have you seen a legend? Let me know.
We’ll get back to the MS stuff next time at My Odd Sock. Now, go clean the wax from your ears.
5 Replies to “Music To My Big Ears”
Legends:
Bob Marley, many moons ago
David Bowie, Glass Spider 1987, Sound and Vision 1990, A Reality Tour 2003…which is the best concert I have ever seen in my life.
Leonard Cohen 2009…okay so this was the best concert I have ever seen.
Bob Dylan…2006
Neil Young…2003
Midnight Oil, the best Australian rock and roll band ever… many concerts during 1988-2001 in North America and Australia.
Just regular folks. Pete Seger, Alice Cooper, Muddy Waters, Foo Fighters.
Always wanted to see U2 and I have missed out on tickets EVERY time!
I’m a jazz fan and former jazz/classical musician (MS zapped my hands so I can’t play anymore). At age 16 I attended a Stan Kenton concert with my jazz musician dad, which was a big deal since I’d listened to his records for years. Same year, Michel Legrand, two nights in a row. I even went to his hotel and tried to get an autograph–what a groupie!
Much later, I met Jon Hendricks of the jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. I was dating his musical director at the time. On Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend had Jon call me and sing “No More Blues” to me over the phone. Jon wrote the lyric for that standard. His personal serenade remains one of the biggest highlights of my life!
…my D-day was back in 2005. I have found comfort in writing about my MS experiences through my funny bone. I laugh lest I cry…I am sure you can relate. I have humorous poetry and many short stories…one not so short (OK, 3 or 4 not so short). I don’t find an e-address for you, or a “contact us” thing to click on. How might I send you some of my “Multiple Scribblings…memoirs of an MS
fledgling”? kathy d ps i know this is not where this request belongs, but i host an MS brain…i’m sure you understand
You have a nice list. Gallagher was a hoot but I was a lot father away.
Beach Boys, The Band, Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers (twice), John Sebastian, Ringo Star & Friends, Sha Na Na, Randy Newman with Bonnie Raite as the openning act, & probably a few others I can’t recall at the moment. I’ll still never forgive my sister for making me miss The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
From your list I’m guessing that you’re about my age. A few weeks ago I went with my son to see the Doobie Brothers and Chicago (my husband wasn’t feeling well). It was the first concert I’d been to in a long while. The first thing I noticed was that pretty much everyone was ancient – including me. We only spotted 2 people other than my son who were born after 1980. The second big difference was the smell – all clean & fresh instead of sweet & smokey. I needed accessable seating but still managed to stand up to dance more than most of the other old codgers there. It was also funny that the “younger” middle aged people (40ish) seemed to have no idea how to enjoy a rock concert. I think they were trying to beat the traffic or something & left before the encores.
It was a great show with the bands playing both separately & together. In 2 weeks we’ll be rocking to Stevie Nicks.
My first ever concert was The Osmond Brothers (yes i’m that old).
The most fun was Barry Manilow! My sis is a big fan, so I’ve been to about 8 of his shows. Amazed to find I knew ALL the words to ALL HIS SONGS LOL! It was too funny.. his concerts are like a New Kids on the Block for middle aged women all screaming and trying to get his attention! But he really puts on a great show!
Other concerts and i’m stunned how many i’ve seen when i started listing them. Some when they are big stars, some before they were big stars and some you may not have heard of! –
Willie Nelson, george strait, loretta lynn,Don Rickles. Tim McGraw and his opening act at the time – Kenney Chesney! Montgomery Gentry, Reba McEntire . dierks bentley, zac brown band, little big town, kelley pickler carrie underwood, KIETH URBAN, pat green, craig morgan, trace atkins, alabama, alan jackson, allison krauss, big and rich, big kenney, brooks and dunn, bucky covington, clint black, collin raye, cowboy crush, cowboy troy, diamond rio, dwight yoakum, emerson drive, eric church, gary allen, joe nichols, gretchen wilson, hank williams jr., jack ingrahm, james otto, jamie o’neal, jimmy wayne, toby keith, john michael montgomery, josh gracin, josh turner,leann womack, lonestar, luke bryan, neal mcCoy, nickel creek, pam tillis, phil vassar, sarah evans, shedaisy, steve azar, the wreckers, trisha yearwood, trick pony, van zant, vince gill.
I’m jealous of celeste, cuz i always wanted to see bonnie raitt, and haven’t!