If You Could Attend Just 1 Past Concert....

Let's say you could be transported back in time to your choice of one past concert or musical event which would you choose?

My choice: Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert

 

I think Id take on the roof top at Abby Road for The Beatles' Get Back gig.

 

Alpine Valley, WI 8/26/90 with better weather.

-Ed

 

The Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival 1969. No wait, I was there.

How about the Bob Dylan's "Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert" when he introduces the new Electric Dylan and the Hawks?

 

Ok, maybe this is a weird one, but I would have just loved to have been at Johnny Cash's concert at Folsom Prison, January 13th, 1968. Wow, what a performance! And watching it with Folsom inmates in 1968!

Yeah yeah, I'm an odd fellow. What can I say?

 

The Monterey Pop Festival

 

I've seen most of my favorite acts so I'd have to go with Genesis , Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour or any Kate Bush concert.

 

The Ramones first CBGB show.

 

One of the Beatles gigs at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, circa summer 1962, when Ringo was new but they were still completely unknown outside of Liverpool and didn't even have a record out.

 

Yeah, I guess you had to be there.....

 

I 2nd The Monterey Pop Festival of '67.
Everybody who was anybody (save the Fabs) was there and the music was par excellence.

but if I had another couple pics,

Caruso at the Met-any pagliacci performance
Billie Holiday-Royal Theatre-any performance
Beatles at Candlestick Park '66
Pink Floyd at the Technicolor Daydream
Elvis' 68 comeback special taping
Queen at the Rainbow '74
George Harrison '74 largo md
Yma Sumac -copa 1952
Smashing Pumpkins-Metro 12-2-2000

 

Choices. And a historian's request that we add a rule forbidding any INTERVENTION.

I'm sorry, but I MUST bend your rule in the event that my time machine can't take me to my first choice (you know, mechanical troubles and all that).

1.) First choice: Louis Armstrong's first live Chicago performance with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band 1922 (Royal Gardens/Lincoln Gardens on Chicago's South Side). Would the future be revealed in that first Chicago performance? Was Armstrong already fully-formed as an instrumental voice? In short, would we KNOW from that first note, that first concert? I want to hear that music when it was INDEED the emergent AVANT GARDE of its day.

2). Second choice: Okeh Records artists showcase concert in Chicago at the Chicago Collosium. It is in 1926, I think, and features Okeh's Chicago-based "race records" recrding artists. Among other events of the concert, it features the only live performance (I believe) -- as a working group -- of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five with Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, Johnny St. Cyr, and Lil Hardin Armstrong. The rest of the artist line up is pretty astounding as well.

3). Third choice (if the time machine is REALLY screwed up and can't even get me to choice number two): the battle of the bands between the Goodman and Chick Webb Orchestras at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in 1938 (I think). Both bands were at their absolute peaks, although Krupa felt on that night that he "was never 'cut' by a better man" (meaning Webb himself).

My criterion of selection for the first two: no recorded evidence in existence of the event, and nothing approximate or contemporary in existence. And no surviving witnesses to report on the event in the here and now. And it couldn't be something that I was alive to have witnessed, but didn't for whatever reason and now regret it. Re: the third choice. The event speaks for itself.

Steve: as a historian I must beg you NOT to interfere with history. Let them (Bopper, Valens and Holly) get on that plane!!!!

In fact, may I request the addition of a rule? You may only listen and observe. You cannot in any way act in or intervene in the event and change the course of history. Who knows WHAT the unforseen consequences could be. Perhaps if Steve prevents that plane crash there will be no Beatles, or some other similar musical tragedy. We simply do not KNOW how history would turn out if we changed it. It might turn out to be even worse than what DID happen.

 

Just 1, Woodstock

others:
Monterey Pop
Stones' free concert at Altamont(that would of been a sight)
Like Steve said, Buddy's last show
something Beatles but I don't know enough about their concerts to be able to single one out.

 

Any Allman Brothers early 70's concert.

 

For me, I would have liked to have seen the following:

The one concert that has some many incredible performances would have to be

Woodstock - original of course

Others that come to mind:

Queen (during their late 70's dominance)
The Band's Last Waltz (I bet the turkey was good too)
The Who - Live At Leeds
One of Jimi Hendrix's last performances
Stevie Ray Vaughan at Carnegie Hall
The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl
The Beatles Ed Sullivan appearance
Led Zeppelin after Physical Graffiti lp

 

OK here's my second choice. I would have loved to be at this recording session that took place in NYC from Aug 3, 1971 to Aug 10, 1971.

The result was the album Big Apple Bash featuring Jay McShann.
These sessions were absolutely fantastic 'specially the way you could here this group 'jell' as the sessions warmed up. The following are track listings and personnel courtesy AMG

1. Crazy Legs and Friday Strut (McShann) - 7:47

2.Georgia on My Mind (Carmichael/Gorrell) - 7:50
IMHO the definitive version

3. Dickie's Dream (Basie/Young) - 6:05
4. Ain't Misbehavin' (Brooks/Razaf/Waller) - 5:07
5. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (Miller) - 4:41
6. Blue Feeling (Ellington) - 5:10
7. Jumpin' the Blues (McShann/Parker) - 7:11

PERSONNEL:

Eddie Gomez - Bass
Herbie Mann - Flute, Sax (Tenor)
Jay McShann - Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Joe Morello - Drums
Gerry Mulligan - Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano)
John Scofield - Guitar
Connie Kay - Drums
Doc Cheatham - Trumpet
Milt Hinton - Bass
Jack Six - Bass
Earle Warren - Sax (Alto)
Dicky Wells - Trombone
Ilhan Mimaroglu - Producer

The record was on Atlantic
The CD was out for a very short time on the New World label.

If there is one SACD or even CD that I REALLY wish they would bring out, this is it.

PLEASE SOMEBODY BRING THIS OUT!