Text by Robert Barry Francos
Doing some cleaning, I recently came across a stack of ticket stubs from shows and events I had seen in New York. While the shows the tickets represent is hardly inclusive to the shows I have attended, and it mostly certainly does not include clubs like Max’s and CBGBs, here are some of them. Note that I have some with no dates, so I will leave them blank. Notes will be in [brackets]. I have also added who I attended to the shows with, if I remember, or in certain cases, I know but do not want to say. Here they are in order of date:
* NY Rangers vs. Detroit Red Wing, Madison Square Garden, Feb 4, 1970 ($4.00) [My father would occasionally get tickets from the office pool]
* The Kinks, Felt Forum, Nov 27, 1974 ($6.50) [After the first half where they played older material, they returned and did the entire Preservation; attended with Bernie Kugel]
* Marcel Marceau, City Center, Mar 25, 1975 ($7.95) [Was on the guest list after interviewing him earlier in the day; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Mireille Mathieu, Carnegie Hall, April 8, 1975 ($5.00) [Beautiful voice; learned about her from the Des O’Connor Show on television; this was just 3 months before the first time I went to CBGB’s and was introduced to the Ramones; attended this show stag]
* Alice Cooper / Suzi Quatro, Madison Square Garden, May 5, 1975 ($6.50) [last row of the balcony, dead center, and he looked like a spec; saw Cooper a total of 4 times]
* Mary Travers / Paul Davis, The Bottom Line, May 19, 1975 ($4.00) [I saw her do the same show twice, and she wore the same dress… other date below; RIP]
* Rolling Stones / Dem Boys, Madison Square Garden, Jun 27, 1975 ($12.50) [Dem Boys was pure torture: a sea of steel drums in an echoing auditorium; it sounded like one long and continuous note, and I have not liked the sound of steel drums since]
* New York Cosmos vs. San Jose Earthquakes, Downing Stadium (Randalls Island), Jul 23, 1975 ($4.00) [Pele was in the Cosmos then; it was a long day, going into double overtime, and by the time we left, my backside was killing me, sitting that long on concrete seats]
* Mary Travers, The Bottom Line, Jul 28, 1975 ($4.00) [Attended with Bernie Kugel]
* Sparks / Mott, Avery Fisher Hall, Nov 19, 1975 ($6.50) [Opening was Mott; note that it was not Mott the Hoople; was on the guest list after interviewing Sparks the evening before: ffanzeen.blogspot.com/2009/04/bad-interviews-lynyrd-skynyrd-and.html; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Roxy Music, Beacon, Nov 26, 1975 (?) [Saw them twice, the other at the Academy of Music; attended with Bernie Kugel]
* Linda Ronstadt / Andrew Gold, Beacon Theatre, Dec 4, 1975 ($7.50) [Our seats were the very last row, left side; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Patti Smith, The Bottom Line, Dec 27, 1975 ($5.50) [The infamous show that was bootlegged everywhere; RIP Richard Sohl; attended with Bernie Kugel]
* NY Rangers vs. Buffalo Sabres, Madison Square Garden, Dec 10, 1975 ($6.00)
* The Who / Golden Earrings, Madison Square Garden, Mar 10, 1976 ($8.50) [The Who was amazing, of course, and did a large chunk of Tommy]
* Sparks, Bottom Line, Dec 21, 1976 ($4.50)
* Patti Smith Group, The Palladium, Dec 31, 1976 ($8.50)
* The Dictators / The Dead Boys, CBGB Theatre, Dec 18, 1977 ($7.50) [RIP Stiv]
* Patti Smith Group / Richard Hell, CBGB Theatre, Dec 29, 1977 ($7.50)
* Harry Chapin, Central Park, Aug 11, 1979 ($4.50) [Saw Harry a number of times; RIP; attended with Dennis Concepcion]
* Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Club Tomato, Sep [?], 1979 ($4.00) [Attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Herman’s Hermits [sans Peter Noone], Club Tomato, Sep 20, 1979 ($4.00) [Also saw HH with Noone once, and saw Noone without the HH once; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* The Uncle Floyd Show, The Bottom Line, Dec 6, 1979 ($5.50) [attended with Alan Abramowitz and Stacy Mantel]
* The Tourists / Speedies, The Bottom Line, Apr 15, 1980 ($6.00) [The Tourists were Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, soon to be the Eurythmics; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Alice Cooper (New York, New York show), Palladium, Aug 15, 1980 ($12.50)
* Dictators, ?, Sep 12, 1980 ($8.00)
* Rockpile / Moon Martin, The Ritz, Nov 24, 1980 ($10.00) [Have no memory of Moon Martin at all; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Blotto / Doug & the Slugs, The Bottom Line, Mar 16, 1981 ($7.00) [On guest list; RIP Doug Bennett]
* Franken and Davis, Savoy, May 20, 1981 ($3.00) [The show was a disappointment, despite the famous audience members, and many of SNL members guest appearing; this was the night I insulted David Bowie to his face; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Alice Cooper / The Spiders, Savoy, Aug 14, 1981 (12.50)
* NY Rangers vs. Buffalo Sabres, Madison Square Garden, Jan 3, 1982 ($8.00)
* Mireille Mathieu, Carnegie Hall, Apr 10, 1982 ($10) [The whole audience was full of Russians, which I found surprising; didn’t hear a word of English from the audience the whole night; attended with Alan Abramowitz]
* Dave Edmunds / NRBQ, The Ritz, May 17, 1982 ($12.50) [This is around the time Dave Edmunds was a phenomenon, and rightly so; while I respected NRBQ’s talent, I found them so boring, in a Phish kind of way, and my ex-FFanzeen managing editor had quit because I refused to publish an article about them; attended with Alan Abramowitz and Stacy Mantel]
* Let’s Active / Fuzztones, Irving Plaza, Oct 21, 1983 ($8.00) [I had met Lynn Blakey of LA at a party while on vacation in North Carolina a couple of years earlier; the Fuzztones are always great]
* The Animals, Beacon Theater, Nov 12, 1983 ($15.00) [on guest list; night I met them backstage and interviewed Eric Burdon (you can find the interview on an earlier blog); saw the same 2-1/2 hour show on the same tour earlier in the year at Shea Theater in Buffalo, NY; Attended with Mary Anne Cassata]
* Monkees Reunion, Jones Beach Theater, Jul 17, 1986 (14.75) [No Mike]
* Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Mar 14, 1987 (?) [This may have been the time at the Bottom Line; I’ve seen JR a few times; attended with Dawn Kugel]
* Sweet Honey in the Rock, Washington Irving High School [Gramercy Park], Jan 14, 1990 ($19.00) [Another group I have seen a few times; some of the most magical harmonies; attended with my partner and Tamani Wooley]
How many of these have you attended? Feel free to leave a comment on the blog!
Showing posts with label The Kinks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Kinks. Show all posts
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
DVD Review: You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks
Text and live photos © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen
Images from the Internet
You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks
Voice Print / ABC Entertainment, 2010
87 minutes, USD $18.95
Voiceprint.co.uk
MVDvisual.com
I have never seen a documentary about the Kinks, and that alone makes this worthwhile. However, I did see the band play the Felt Forum in November 1974. The opening act was themselves, doing their touring set. Then they came back and did the entire Preservation show (both parts).
The Kinks were one of those bands that cool people seem to like. Yeah, everyone who picks up a rock guitar plays “You Really Got Me” when they first start learning (along with “Louie, Louie,” of course), but they were different than, say, the Beatles or even the Rolling Stones, in that they were a bit off kilter (i.e., not following the norms in style either musically or vocally), despite their early strong blues bias. That is also what makes this documentary so interesting.
As documentaries go, this is somewhat light footed, but that’s fine. For the first few years of the band’s history (this film starts when the band is formed), the songs are represented by the Kinks performing live in concerts, usually made up of full songs, with no narration over them. Starting off with television appearances in the U.K., most of the rest of the early period songs are signified by two concerts, one from 1966 in black and white, and the other in color during the mid-1990s, where the full band, including Dave Davies on flashing guitar, plays their more famous numbers, sometimes faster than the original (“You Really Got Me,” for example).
Speaking of the b&w concert, I had forgotten how much lead guitarist Dave also sang in the early days, such as with “Milk Cow Blues,” since he is often overshadowed by his brother, with whom he shares vocals on this particular video. Ray Davies, in the later footage, ranges from extremely fey to solidly aggressive. It’s a shame they had such a tumultuous relationship, because they played off each other so well, both in the early footage and the later. Both Ray and Dave are among those who give first-person accounts in the doc.
Luckily, Max Leinwond’s narration is held at a minimal, especially at the beginning, though it becomes slightly more intrusive in the middle segments. Luckily, it’s not enough to ruin much of the music parts. The writing is kind of fluffy and not overly deep, but again, I would rather hear the songs with some dialog than the other way around, especially for a group like the Kinks, where their sound is king.
In the States (where they were banned from performing though the late ‘60s due to Republican misguidedness (there’s a redundancy for ya), they actually had more hits than most can probably think of off the top of one’s head. One of my favorites, and one of the very first 45s I ever purchased, is “Well Respected Man,” which is represented here. Dozens of their hits are, though I noticed a lacking of “Sunny Afternoon,” and then there’s “Lola” and “Tired of Waiting,” both great songs, which are mentioned in the narration but lacking in soundbites.
Speaking of their songs, and this is a digression, I never realized how much the rhythm of “Superman” sounds like Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” (which is funny because both characters are from rival comic companies…but I digress in my digression).
The footage used, along with those in concert, include backstage shots as the band roams around the dressing room waiting for their call, and home movies, and some interviews of Ray and Dave, among others.
Seeing the progression of the band in one overview makes it interesting to be able to track how the band changed over the years, from hard bluesy numbers, to a harder rock sound at the end of the ‘60s, to a rock opera, and then to ‘80s charting formulas. The latter period (post-MTV) is shown here as music videos rather than concert shots, including their later hits, “Predictable” and “Come Dancing.”
There is a brief interview with Ray in New York, where he discusses the Kinks in relation to punk. He posits that punk was not directly influential by the band, though punk may have adopted their quick playing. Personally, I believe their influence was more that Ray and Dave are not conventionally “pretty” singers, and their earlier songs were also not formulaic for the time.
Unfortunately, the odds of the original Kinks getting together again are slim, with Dave Davies having suffered a stroke and full recovery is not expected. This happened after the date of the DVD, so it is not mentioned, though neither is Ray’s fathering Chrissy Hynde’s offspring, not that it has anything to do with their music, I will admit.
Yes, this is not a perfect documentary, but very few are. That being said, I highly recommend this. Uberfans (like Gary and Doreen) will just kvell, and even those who just loved their music for what it was, will be happy.
Here is a taste of what’s on the DVD; notice the use of “sharp” elbows everywhere by the people dancing in very jerky motion…I just find that interesting, as well:
Bonus, unrelated video:
Images from the Internet
You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks
Voice Print / ABC Entertainment, 2010
87 minutes, USD $18.95
Voiceprint.co.uk
MVDvisual.com
I have never seen a documentary about the Kinks, and that alone makes this worthwhile. However, I did see the band play the Felt Forum in November 1974. The opening act was themselves, doing their touring set. Then they came back and did the entire Preservation show (both parts).
The Kinks were one of those bands that cool people seem to like. Yeah, everyone who picks up a rock guitar plays “You Really Got Me” when they first start learning (along with “Louie, Louie,” of course), but they were different than, say, the Beatles or even the Rolling Stones, in that they were a bit off kilter (i.e., not following the norms in style either musically or vocally), despite their early strong blues bias. That is also what makes this documentary so interesting.
As documentaries go, this is somewhat light footed, but that’s fine. For the first few years of the band’s history (this film starts when the band is formed), the songs are represented by the Kinks performing live in concerts, usually made up of full songs, with no narration over them. Starting off with television appearances in the U.K., most of the rest of the early period songs are signified by two concerts, one from 1966 in black and white, and the other in color during the mid-1990s, where the full band, including Dave Davies on flashing guitar, plays their more famous numbers, sometimes faster than the original (“You Really Got Me,” for example).
Speaking of the b&w concert, I had forgotten how much lead guitarist Dave also sang in the early days, such as with “Milk Cow Blues,” since he is often overshadowed by his brother, with whom he shares vocals on this particular video. Ray Davies, in the later footage, ranges from extremely fey to solidly aggressive. It’s a shame they had such a tumultuous relationship, because they played off each other so well, both in the early footage and the later. Both Ray and Dave are among those who give first-person accounts in the doc.
Luckily, Max Leinwond’s narration is held at a minimal, especially at the beginning, though it becomes slightly more intrusive in the middle segments. Luckily, it’s not enough to ruin much of the music parts. The writing is kind of fluffy and not overly deep, but again, I would rather hear the songs with some dialog than the other way around, especially for a group like the Kinks, where their sound is king.
In the States (where they were banned from performing though the late ‘60s due to Republican misguidedness (there’s a redundancy for ya), they actually had more hits than most can probably think of off the top of one’s head. One of my favorites, and one of the very first 45s I ever purchased, is “Well Respected Man,” which is represented here. Dozens of their hits are, though I noticed a lacking of “Sunny Afternoon,” and then there’s “Lola” and “Tired of Waiting,” both great songs, which are mentioned in the narration but lacking in soundbites.
Speaking of their songs, and this is a digression, I never realized how much the rhythm of “Superman” sounds like Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” (which is funny because both characters are from rival comic companies…but I digress in my digression).
The footage used, along with those in concert, include backstage shots as the band roams around the dressing room waiting for their call, and home movies, and some interviews of Ray and Dave, among others.
Seeing the progression of the band in one overview makes it interesting to be able to track how the band changed over the years, from hard bluesy numbers, to a harder rock sound at the end of the ‘60s, to a rock opera, and then to ‘80s charting formulas. The latter period (post-MTV) is shown here as music videos rather than concert shots, including their later hits, “Predictable” and “Come Dancing.”
There is a brief interview with Ray in New York, where he discusses the Kinks in relation to punk. He posits that punk was not directly influential by the band, though punk may have adopted their quick playing. Personally, I believe their influence was more that Ray and Dave are not conventionally “pretty” singers, and their earlier songs were also not formulaic for the time.
Unfortunately, the odds of the original Kinks getting together again are slim, with Dave Davies having suffered a stroke and full recovery is not expected. This happened after the date of the DVD, so it is not mentioned, though neither is Ray’s fathering Chrissy Hynde’s offspring, not that it has anything to do with their music, I will admit.
Yes, this is not a perfect documentary, but very few are. That being said, I highly recommend this. Uberfans (like Gary and Doreen) will just kvell, and even those who just loved their music for what it was, will be happy.
Here is a taste of what’s on the DVD; notice the use of “sharp” elbows everywhere by the people dancing in very jerky motion…I just find that interesting, as well:
Bonus, unrelated video:
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