70s Saving Graces

[Meg Larson]

> Margaret Larson sez:
> 
> On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, jroca at gallonlaw.com wrote:
> 
> > Joan Jett only when she was with that all-female proto-punk band whose
name I forget.  Her solo career was hardly memorable though.
> > 
> The Runaways, with Jett, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford and I forget who else. 

> Saw them opening for Rush here in Saginaw a godamn'd long time ago; they 
> sucked but the guys all loved 'em . . .
> ---
> Yes, I agree...Rush always did suck, and the guys, for some odd reason,
always did love 'em! :)
> Rush has played Saginaw @ 10-12 times; it's been a while becasue our
arena olny holds 7K--they're too big for us--and then there's the Palace,
the Joe, etc.  Rush started out playing in Saginaw, the first time in 1974
and they opened for Aerosmith.  It cost $7.50 to sit on the floor, it was
their first tour; one of their amps caught on fire.  I saw them do their
tour de force, "2112" in 1976.  (Saginaw, Mi has always loved Rush for some
reason, and I don't mind admitting that I still do).  My point is that now,
in 1997, they are once again doing "2112" complete in concert.  This
thread, is interesting in that it is summer time, and as a long-time
concert-goer, I am once again amazed at the number of people who can do
nothing more than go out on the summer outdoor tour and that's it.  James
Taylor has been doing it for years, but at least he still records--Huey
Lewis and The News?  Whatsupwitthat?  No new material?  And all these
dinosaurs like CS&N, or hell I don't want to even think of about it.  It
just kinda irritates me par exemple when the Rolling Stones announce that
they're going out on tour.  Besides the obvious, what the fuck for?  When
Jagger was 30, he told an interviewer that he could not imagine himself
doing rock and roll at 40.  Yeah, okay, uh huh.  So stop now, ok?

Like boxers (Sugsr Ray) who keep coming out of retirement, and anybody else
who keeps recycling the same old SHIT that they've been recycling now for
25 YEARS, I have one thing to say to these people:  You're doing more harm
to rock 'n roll than anyone else so please just stop it.

Zappa played here in '73; less than 2500 people showed up and they hated
him.  He said he'd never come back here as long as he lived because this
was "a cold fucking town."

One last thing while I indeed reminisce and mourn my well-spent youth.  My
love of music was solidified @ 7-8 yrs. old, a guy moved next door who was
in a band and they'd practice in his apartment.  This was the mid-sixites,
and they were the typical garage band-teen dance band, but they did record
a couple songs, etc.  The band would let me and a few other little kids--he
had a son @3-4--sit and listen to them practice and I fell in love with
live music on the spot.  The guy moved away a year or so later and I lost
track of him personally but he went on to become a well-known figure on the
Michigan Rock Scene (home of the original Punk, Iggy Pop) and later with
Alice Cooper.  He also worked with Ian Hunter, and wrote songs for
ohmigodican'tbelievethis Air Supply.  Twenty years later, the guy lives
across the street from me, and is active once again with the Michigan music
scene, which lost a lot when Was (Not Was) split.  

Anyway, not only does this qualify as MY brush with greatness--no writer's
embellishment--but music is such a big part of Pynchon's works, and it was
a large part of my particular adolescence, and this was during the
seventies--no Ticketmaster--so now that I have strolled down that
particular memory lane, courtesy of this list, I have to say that the 70s
sucked in major ways for a lot of people, but in my particular
case--proverbial Cathlic Girl that I was--music was the only thing that had
it going on.  Disco aside, aberration that it was, rock and roll alone
produced some of the best music ever.  I also listen to jazz, classical and
contemporary, and it was happening as well.  Music was it.

Off the soap box, got that out of my system, at least it's not a flame, 
Meg 



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