Your host’s interest in live music began in the early 1970s. My school-mates, camp-mates and friends shared music the old fashioned way and we got up to speed on all the great 60s/70s bands that were part of the FM radio and rock concert scene, after growing up with AM radio (and all the musically themed TV shows). By the 70s, a larger concert industry was evolving, as Rolling Stone, Circus magazine and other music publications gave increased coverage to the rock acts on their big concert tours, and more shows were taking place at sports arenas and other large venues. FM stations like WLIR and WNEW in the NY area were hugely important, as they provided a broad coverage of the entire scene of albums, interviews, tickets and live performances, still reflecting a cultural landscape in stark distinction to anything that a young person’s parents could be happy about or comfortable with. I began watching “In Concert”, “Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert” and the “Midnight Special” on TV. Bands like Slade, Deep Purple, Elton John and Led Zep occupied my time in those early days, but I also soon discovered the Stones, the Faces, and many other great bands that were featured heavily on FM radio and TV.

My first piano teacher had a frank discussion with my Mom about how it might be ok to let me go to Madison Square Garden for a concert with a group of my 14 year-old friends - this in his estimation being a safer alternative than going to venues that would involve dropping off by car and picking up after a show, in the days before cell phones or other means of mobile communication.

My Dad had a lot of experience in photography, and owned several cameras including some from Europe during WW2. I got my first single-lense reflex camera in my teens and started my own black and white darkroom at home. I didn’t hesitate to bring my new camera and telephoto lense to some of the first concerts I went to, and neither did some of my other friends who, like me, took photography classes in Junior High School. I was inspired and impressed at the time when I saw the amazing photos one of those friends took of the 1975 Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd shows at Nassau Coliseum when we were just 14 or 15 years old.

Below: Some Brushes with Musical Greatness

Most of the rest of this story is reflected in my various blog posts for the shows I attended over the rest of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the following years. College started in 1978, coinciding with one of the most productive and active period for not only the Grateful Dead, but for the Stones, Little Feat, Pink Floyd and other monumentally great rock acts. Some of us had felt we missed the boat because we would never get to see Jimi, Janis, Jim Morrison or Pigpen perform. But in retrospect now, the extraordinary amount and variety of amazing shows in the 1978 through early 1980s timeframe can’t be denied. As years progressed some of us opened up to new wave, electronica, and an assortment of other great music. In those years, it was also great to be in Ithaca, NY when one of the most active and vibrant reggae scenes existed for several years, and where an assortment of great acts from Muddy Waters to Peter Tosh to the Grateful Dead stopped by to do concerts right in town.

One of the reasons I created the concert blog is to highlight the connections and trends in my concert-going experiences. I love all kinds of great music, but I really appreciate great bands who work together over decades and who draw in and draw upon so many varied musical influences. When I first really got into Elvis Costello and the Attractions I had no idea I would later be listening to Elvis with Burt Bacharach and Allan Toussaint or reading about his experience seeing the Grateful Dead in London in 1972. Likewise, I saw Rob Wasserman play with Bob Weir, but never expected that on the night I went to see him play with John Wesley Harding (Wesley Stace) that the “special guest” he mentioned at the start of the show would be Lou Reed. During recent (pre-pandemic) years there’s been a wide range of great shows to see; in any event, the overall linkage to my rock - and jazz - experiences and influences connected me further to Dave Matthews Band and Phish over the last decade. Connection points abound throughout my concert blog and can be found by searching the Blog and using the Tags.

Most of all, this Concert Blog is a tribute to the great artists who have brought so much positive in the way of live music to so many people.

Above: in Central Park and Nine Miles, JA
Right: Before a DMB performance at SPAC