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Bruce Springsteen, The E Street Band
The Bottom Line, New York City / 8.16.1975

After four encores, the house lights came on at the Bottom Line. Half the crowd had already filed out onto Mercer Street. when, at three and change in the a.m., the E Street Band launched into Chuck Berry's "Round&Round". Bruce had exhausted his own catalogue as well as his audience, & was traveling back through time and space.

She and I drove the remainder of the night, until rosy-fingered aurora found us. We fell asleep on the beach at Ditch Plains, Montauk- our surf boards by our side.

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keith moon
  patti smith paul simon richie havens steve miller
  the tubes      
         
         
       
Billy Joel
The Bottom Line, New York City / June 1974

His Bottom Line show was sold out weeks in advance. I was pouring drinks at work when a woman I was close with called, two tickets in hand. It took me all of fifteen minutes to find someone to cover my shift. I stopped off at home long enough to grab my movie camera on that fine June night.

Billy and his band were rocking hard. At this point in his career he could out-play and out-drink all challengers, contenders and pretenders, both on and off stage. Billy, actually that comic book character with a cartoon consciousness- the ephemeral "Piano Man." He certainly enjoyed himself and it proved quite contagious.

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Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters
Daughters of the American Revolution
  DAR Constitutional Hall, Washington D.C.

Well, He could sing, swing, dance and romance
Tickle those ivories & with half a chance get a sizeable crowd up on their feet
Shake it & break it & stay with the beat
He was a natural talent straight off the street
Oh! now!
Heah! now!
Ain' t it sweet?
Ain't it sweet!
[words and music by Neil Bender, copyright 1972 Electric Lion Publishing. all right reserved]

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The WHO
Capital Center, Landover, MD / December 1973
keith moon

Keith Moon truly was the heart and soul of the English group, "THE WHO". He was equally adept at drumming & vocalizing simultaneously, a wry smile gracing his mug all the while.

Keith was pure canned chaos & there always existed an undercurrent of violence comparable with chain lightening.

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Steve Miller
DAR Constitution Hall, Washington D.C.
steve miller

Miller performed at the Revolution's Constitution Hall. This show was a 1973 Halloween night sell out. Those who didn't;t have tickets tried to rush the door. A minor riot erupted with beer bottles serving as projectiles.

He stood at the epicenter of what at the time was a cross between accessible post semi-hippie mind mysticism. Steve also possessed the looks and manners of a matinee idol and the women responded in kind. His white faced and red pancake make up added to the aura of a traveling minstrel show.

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Richie Havens
The Dick Cavett Show. College Park, MD /12.4.1974
richie havens sequence 1

Richie was a family friend on both sides, going back to the '50's, when he hung at my dad's brothers' bar at Bergen and Washington in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He said it kept him away from the street gangs.

I knew him in Greenwich Village since 1968 when he had a crash pad and informal studio above the Inca restaurant, on the corner of West 12th and West Street where I was tending bar so it was kind of ironic when he showed up at my old Alma Mater, The University of Maryland, to tape the Dick Cavett Show, with Lily Tomlin in tow.

Richie used to love watching Alan Funts 'Candid Camera' television show and the evening has that kind of surreal quality. Afterward we met backstage, laughed and harmonized a bit.

richie havens sequence 2
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Paul Simon
DAR Constitution Hall, Washington D.C
.
paul simon sequence 1
Finally out on his own, Paul played the role of Leiber and Stroller, The Little Hebraic kid from Queens who sneaks through the back door of the Baptist church in order for Jessie Dixon and his choir girls to offer up some front row, left handed salvation on the righteous road to redemption. Mr Poetry meet Ms. Harmony and Ms. Melody
 
paul simon sequence 2
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Patti Smith
McDonough Arena, Georgetown University
Washington D.C
.
patti smith

Channeling Jim Morrison, spewing word streams while punching the air, Patti was at the height of her new found fame. She was on high octane, pure poetry in motion. She was a woman in search of peace with a blow torch rather than a candle.

She had a vagabond heart and left the stage, limp and exhausted - soaked to her soul.

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The Tubes
University of Maryland
College Park Maryland
tubes sequence1

Patented parody and erotic outrage took stage by storm without taking themselves too seriously to waybill as their designated hitter and lead vocalist and protagonist. They were really more camp than sleaze, but well ahead of their time.

I recall being particularly impressed with their true musical talents, but this night belonged to classic visual psycho babble conjoined with social & political hallucination. I'm still not sure how they got away with it.

tubes sequence 2
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