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The thing with the Top Party Schools list thread.....here's how I think and tie things together.
I went to the South Carolina Campus for one night, for a rock concert. I believe it was Blue Oyster Cult. Whatever we kids were into at the time.
Which has me thinking. Back when I was a kid, the whole music thing was so backward from what it is now. The bands then toured to promote an album they had released. An album, kids, was a round plastic thing that had grooves on it and it rotated and excited a needle riding in the grooves that sent wave differences to an amplifier and ....well never mind all that.
Promote the album. Apparently the profit margin for the album was such that the live concert was nearly free. As kids with nearly no funds, we had to decide whether we were going to buy the album or just go to the show, and there were a lot of shows. The price for the album and the show was about the same. Around 10 bucks for the album and maybe 15 for the live show. A guy at work told me the other day, he has orchestra pit tickets for some late model famous act, and he spent 600 bucks on those two tickets, his anniversary present to his wife.
Back then, I saw Johnny Winter as many times as I could (maybe 6). I saw KISS three times and didn't care because they toured with so many great backup bands that nobody in my circles even cared if we went to a KISS concert. Doobie Brothers (maybe the best music show ever), Billy Joel, Eagles, ZZ Topp (they had awful trouble with their amplifiers, I walked out on that one, dodging Jack Daniels bottles that were being thrown by the crowd in the coliseum), Crosby Stills and Nash (the Dads of harmony vocals), Grand Central Station when Smoking in the Boys Room was a one-hit pony hit, Bonnie Raitt, I can't even recall who all. Lots, many more.
But I didn't see Little Feat and I didn't see the Allman Brothers. I was by a year or three or four too young to go see the Allman Brothers when Duane was alive, same with Lowell George and Little Feat. Both bands died (musically) when their leaders died. And I never saw Yes. They were too big then to come to the Carolinas, not a big enough market.
Does anybody go to concerts anymore? I don't, not for 600 dollars.
I went to the South Carolina Campus for one night, for a rock concert. I believe it was Blue Oyster Cult. Whatever we kids were into at the time.
Which has me thinking. Back when I was a kid, the whole music thing was so backward from what it is now. The bands then toured to promote an album they had released. An album, kids, was a round plastic thing that had grooves on it and it rotated and excited a needle riding in the grooves that sent wave differences to an amplifier and ....well never mind all that.
Promote the album. Apparently the profit margin for the album was such that the live concert was nearly free. As kids with nearly no funds, we had to decide whether we were going to buy the album or just go to the show, and there were a lot of shows. The price for the album and the show was about the same. Around 10 bucks for the album and maybe 15 for the live show. A guy at work told me the other day, he has orchestra pit tickets for some late model famous act, and he spent 600 bucks on those two tickets, his anniversary present to his wife.
Back then, I saw Johnny Winter as many times as I could (maybe 6). I saw KISS three times and didn't care because they toured with so many great backup bands that nobody in my circles even cared if we went to a KISS concert. Doobie Brothers (maybe the best music show ever), Billy Joel, Eagles, ZZ Topp (they had awful trouble with their amplifiers, I walked out on that one, dodging Jack Daniels bottles that were being thrown by the crowd in the coliseum), Crosby Stills and Nash (the Dads of harmony vocals), Grand Central Station when Smoking in the Boys Room was a one-hit pony hit, Bonnie Raitt, I can't even recall who all. Lots, many more.
But I didn't see Little Feat and I didn't see the Allman Brothers. I was by a year or three or four too young to go see the Allman Brothers when Duane was alive, same with Lowell George and Little Feat. Both bands died (musically) when their leaders died. And I never saw Yes. They were too big then to come to the Carolinas, not a big enough market.
Does anybody go to concerts anymore? I don't, not for 600 dollars.
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