The who – 25 years
In 1989, Ashley and I made a big financial plunge to see the Who ion their 25th anniversary tour. Ashley was still working on classes at Tulsa University. We lived precariously between paychecks and made a lot more use of the credit card than we really should have.
I had said that it would be cool to see the Who on that tour, but the closest they were coming to Oklahoma was Kansas City. The venues in Oklahoma had been the sane for years; while other cities had built larger and larger places that the mega bands could sell out. That meant there was a void in Oklahoma for the big acts. Sure, we could get the smaller bands, and bands on their way up, or bands on their way out, but big names like the Who, or Pink Floyd? No.
Well, what I dreamed about, Ashley made happen. Before I knew it, we had tickets at Arrowhead Stadium, and someone to baby-sit our 1 ½ year old Fletcher. Ash had arranged for a hotel for the night and we were set to go. Me, as always, I worried about money and this and that… while Ashley acted.
We dropped off Fletch to his grandparents and turned our car north towards Kansas City. The drive is about 5 to 6 hours, but we had music and Ashley loves a road trip.
When we reached the stadium, we decided to drive on to the hotel to check in and leave our stuff there. The hotel was less than picturesque. It was a little shabby, and after collecting our keys, we walked down a hall that had several burnt out lights, a small crew of suspicious types loitering in the halls and eventually a room that sent shivers up Ashley’s spine. There were huge stains on the floor and an atmosphere that smelled of smoke.
Ashley said, “We are not staying here!” being the no confrontationist that I am, I was saying, “Oh, Ash, it’s not that bad. It’ll be OK and it’s just for one night.” There started the argument, which she won and she went back to the desk to get back our money and find another hotel.
We located another place. It was acceptable. So we unpacked our gear and made ready to head for the musical Nirvana.
The parking at Arrowhead was atrocious. I guess, never having been to a professional football game, I had no concept. I knew college games, but usually got in those on a coach’s pass. It was a huge expanse of concrete, impatient cars and rushing concert goers ranging in age from 13 to their forties.
We finally parked, at another unexpected expense, and made the great trek to the stadium. There, stood in line to handover our ticket and make our way to the upper levels of the stadium, where were about as far away from the stage as possible. We were lucky to even have seats, and I had no complaints about where wee were because the stage had huge screens set up on both ends.
We ended up sitting behind the Hatfirlds and McCoys reunion. There were these two huge mountain man looking guys seated directly in front of us. Both wore overalls, were longhaired and had bushy beards. They started drinking early, it seemed, and were just getting into second gear when we arrived.
The band opened the show with the song “Overture” from the “Tommy” LP. They followed with several “Tommy’ numbers before making a charge through their body of work. Later on, the band would play “Tommy” in its entirety on stage in New York City. Wish I could have seen that too, but there was no disappointment here as Pete windmilled across the stage, Roger growled out the lyrics to “My Generation” and John stoically thundered on the bass guitar.
Keith Moon had been dead for almost 11 years by the time the 25th reunion came around. He had been replaced by Kenny Jones of the “Small faces” and, for this tour, after an apparent fallout with Daltry, Simon Phillips pounded the drums for the Who. But, with the bass guitar vibrating the rafters at the back of the stadium and Townshend bouncing across the stage, wielding the guitar like a weapon, Keith was missed but covered.
The band took a short rest midway through the show while the screen showed a video of Townshend’s solo project “The Iron Man.” It was animated video of the song, “A Friend is a Friend.” A few years later, Pete would follow that up by acting as producer of the animated movie “The iron Man” based upon the book by Ted Hughes. “The iron man” was actually the first CD I ever owned, before I even had a CD player. I won it off Rockline radio.
When the band returned, Roger roared on “Love reign Over Me” and “Behind Blue Eyes,” both songs from two of the Who’s concept albums, but it was only a warm up for what was to come. With the stage lights out and stadium dark, the computer sounds of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” tumbled across the arena. The crowd rose and cried out in unison! The Mountain men in front of us, excited and inebriated, rose quickly, and stumbled backwards into our seats. Rising among apologies and spilled beers, I hurried to see past them to the stage where now, lights flashed on and off in tempo to the building computer sounds.
When the stage lights flashed on to reveal Pete amid a windmill at mid-stage, and Roger, microphone swinging overhead, stepped forward to shout…
“We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song”
The energy of the song that vibrated through the huge stadium crowd was amazing. Hands in the air, people standing side by side, from young teens to mountain men, screaming the lyrics in unison.
As the song was reaching it height of momentum, suddenly the stage goes dark once again, the guitars and drums fall silent. Only the background of the synthesized computer sound echoes across the stadium. Smoke began to roll across the stage as the notes grew louder and were sometimes followed by a roll of drums.
It was then, as the drums began a frenzy of thunder than the lights flashed on, Pete Townshend sailed through the air, landing in a power slide across the sage, hand held high as his wind mill chord roared through the speakers. Simultaneously, Roger Daltry stepped forward through the smoke and gave a scream that must have come from someplace other than earth, and it still chills me even as I type this today, some 20 years later.
“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
And the band crunched the song to its majestic crescendo!
The band would return for an encore, but I was left exhausted by the force of that song. The whole trip had been worth it simply for that moment.
I still believe that scream is one of the best screams ever in rock music. I put Joe Cocker and his wail n “A Little Help From My Friends,” ASL Green in “Let’s Stay Together,” “Mustang sally” and Wilson Pickett, and Janis Joplin “Another Piece of MY Heart” are up there too… but Roger is the king of the scream.
I would get to see the Who once again, and this time with my sons, Fletch and Corwin. We were able to see them after the first album they had made in over a decade, “Endless Wire.” By then, John Entwhistle would have also left this mortal coil. Some people referred Pete and Roger as “Who Two,” but they still played like demons on stage. At the age of 59, Pete may not power slide across the stage, but he is still kinetic and his guitar and pen still excite his listeners. Roger may have lost a little range, but no one, Never, will be able to make chills go down my back like his wail in that song.
05-08-1989: Kansas City, MO, Arrowhead Stadium – set-list
Overture, 1921, Amazing Journey, Sparks, The Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, We're Not Gonna Take It, Secondhand Love, Let My Love Open The Door, Face The Face, I'm A Man, I Can't Explain, Substitute, I Can See For Miles, Trick Of The Light, Boris The Spider, Who Are You, Magic Bus, Baba O'Riley, My Generation, A Little Is Enough, 5.15, Love Reign O'er Me, Sister Disco, Rough Boys, Join Together, You Better You Bet, Behind Blue Eyes, Won't Get Fooled Again, Eminence Front, Hey Joe, Twist And Shout
Monday, March 30, 2009
I Should Have Been a rock Star- Rocking inutero
Summer 1987
Ashley and I had just been married since January. We were definitely a broke couple of newlyweds…. With her taking classes in Tulsa, and me teaching and coaching. We counted pennies ad lived in what we referred to as the slave quarters on Westland Road in Sapulpa. WE moved out of my bachelor duplex into an inexpensive rental just outside of town owned b a local man, Mr. Yocham. He had bought a bunch of flood damaged homes, tore out the walls, re-sheetroocked them and moved them all onto a dirt road on a hill just outside of town.
It was cheap. That was one of our objectives. W only had one car between us. We had sold Ashley’s car to help finance the upcoming birth of our first child. I spent many days of that spring semester riding a bicycle to and from school since Ash needed the car to go to classes in Tulsa.
Summer arrived, and the heat melted over our poor slave quarters without the defense of any air-conditioning. I was fairly acclimated to the heat, but Ashley and her increasing pregnancy were less welcoming of the usual white-hot summer days of Oklahoma.
In need of some escape from the day to day of doing without, we managed to pool enough money for the two of us to attend an outdoor concert at the River pavilion in Tulsa. Local Rock legend Leon Russell was scheduled to perform an early evening concert on the floating stage with special guest Edgar Winter. An interesting pair, Leon with his long flowing graying hair and beard singing and playing with the albino musician Edgar Winter. I had seen Edgar’s Brother Johnny at a concert once before as he ground out blues licks in front of long haired crowd allowed to grace the seats of the Tulsa performing Arts Theater for the first and only time. Apparently a crowd who still tried to light up I the darkness of the rock concert was not as appreciated by the management of a theater usually reserved for Broadway style sows.
The evening arrived. Ashley and I drove to Tulsa, parked in a lot that seemed to be miles and miles away for a pregnant woman. We ambled toward the floating stage and terraced seating that faced the stage from the shore. There we sat, so newly married that our rings were untarnished and giddy with the anticipation of a night of musical entertainment. Ashley was never as big a fan as I was of Leon and his music, but I know now that she wanted to please her new husband. Sweet of her, but not something I ever expect her to have to do. But, it was something that we got to do together at a time when we had to scrape change together to eat cheap Chinese food from the cheapest place in town, China Express.
We hustled to sit as close as possible, making our way down the steps toward the stage. We ended up seated to the left front of the stage, on the concrete steps which rose behind us to become the amphitheater. We sat, waiting as the pre-concert music played over the sound system. Slowly, the crowd shuffled in, a collection of older local hippies and younger fans wearing a variety of concert shirts from bands popular I the 80’s.
Finally, the MC stepped to the microphone to welcome the crowd. The fans rose up to cheer as Leon walked on stage, long white hair flowing from under a white cowboy hat to mingle with his long white beard. He wore reflector shades to block the late afternoon sun. he waved to the crowd and sat, without a word to begin playing that old familiar style of his honed straight from honkytonks and church revivals. Leon moaned and pounded the keyboard, taking me back to times I had sat in the pews of the all black church in Sterling, Kansas while my friend, Dash, preached up a rockin’ storm.
After a few songs, Leon introduced his special guest, Edgar Winter, who played several of his own songs, including “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” It was during his set, while he wailed away on sax, that Ashley grabbed my arm, distressed look on her face. “Something is going on with the baby,” she whispered in my ear.
“The baby is moving… A LOT!” she told me, hand on her protruding belly. “I’m afraid the vibrations might be hurting him! Maybe we should move.”
We gathered our things and moved away from the stage. We walked up the terraces, to stand at the top of the amphitheater on a grassy knoll overlooking the concert. There, we sat in the grass waiting to see if the baby settled down.
Finally, Ashley looked less troubled. The baby had stopped his internal somersaults and settled back into nocturnal bliss. I refer to the baby as ‘him,’ but at that time we did not know his sex. We usually just referred to him as “Baby Who.”
We sat through the remainder of the concert, further away from the effects of a pounding bass and high pitched sax. The seats were still good and the music still great, but apparently the distance was more to Baby Who’s liking.
Ashley was worried that the baby might be adversely affected by the music vibrations, but knowing Fletch today, and the music fan he became? I prefer to think that the baby was getting into the beat, and doing a little mosh pit of his own. After all, the boy did learn to play the trombone and the guitar, so maybe those early Leon vibes altered his brain chemistry ad made him into a musician?
A coupe, of years ago, Fletch did go to a Leon concert with me. We watched Leon open ad Joe Cocker finish the show. Both old-timers, but what they played was timeless… and Fletch was there , tapping is foot and bouncing in rhythm to the music again.
Ashley and I had just been married since January. We were definitely a broke couple of newlyweds…. With her taking classes in Tulsa, and me teaching and coaching. We counted pennies ad lived in what we referred to as the slave quarters on Westland Road in Sapulpa. WE moved out of my bachelor duplex into an inexpensive rental just outside of town owned b a local man, Mr. Yocham. He had bought a bunch of flood damaged homes, tore out the walls, re-sheetroocked them and moved them all onto a dirt road on a hill just outside of town.
It was cheap. That was one of our objectives. W only had one car between us. We had sold Ashley’s car to help finance the upcoming birth of our first child. I spent many days of that spring semester riding a bicycle to and from school since Ash needed the car to go to classes in Tulsa.
Summer arrived, and the heat melted over our poor slave quarters without the defense of any air-conditioning. I was fairly acclimated to the heat, but Ashley and her increasing pregnancy were less welcoming of the usual white-hot summer days of Oklahoma.
In need of some escape from the day to day of doing without, we managed to pool enough money for the two of us to attend an outdoor concert at the River pavilion in Tulsa. Local Rock legend Leon Russell was scheduled to perform an early evening concert on the floating stage with special guest Edgar Winter. An interesting pair, Leon with his long flowing graying hair and beard singing and playing with the albino musician Edgar Winter. I had seen Edgar’s Brother Johnny at a concert once before as he ground out blues licks in front of long haired crowd allowed to grace the seats of the Tulsa performing Arts Theater for the first and only time. Apparently a crowd who still tried to light up I the darkness of the rock concert was not as appreciated by the management of a theater usually reserved for Broadway style sows.
The evening arrived. Ashley and I drove to Tulsa, parked in a lot that seemed to be miles and miles away for a pregnant woman. We ambled toward the floating stage and terraced seating that faced the stage from the shore. There we sat, so newly married that our rings were untarnished and giddy with the anticipation of a night of musical entertainment. Ashley was never as big a fan as I was of Leon and his music, but I know now that she wanted to please her new husband. Sweet of her, but not something I ever expect her to have to do. But, it was something that we got to do together at a time when we had to scrape change together to eat cheap Chinese food from the cheapest place in town, China Express.
We hustled to sit as close as possible, making our way down the steps toward the stage. We ended up seated to the left front of the stage, on the concrete steps which rose behind us to become the amphitheater. We sat, waiting as the pre-concert music played over the sound system. Slowly, the crowd shuffled in, a collection of older local hippies and younger fans wearing a variety of concert shirts from bands popular I the 80’s.
Finally, the MC stepped to the microphone to welcome the crowd. The fans rose up to cheer as Leon walked on stage, long white hair flowing from under a white cowboy hat to mingle with his long white beard. He wore reflector shades to block the late afternoon sun. he waved to the crowd and sat, without a word to begin playing that old familiar style of his honed straight from honkytonks and church revivals. Leon moaned and pounded the keyboard, taking me back to times I had sat in the pews of the all black church in Sterling, Kansas while my friend, Dash, preached up a rockin’ storm.
After a few songs, Leon introduced his special guest, Edgar Winter, who played several of his own songs, including “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” It was during his set, while he wailed away on sax, that Ashley grabbed my arm, distressed look on her face. “Something is going on with the baby,” she whispered in my ear.
“The baby is moving… A LOT!” she told me, hand on her protruding belly. “I’m afraid the vibrations might be hurting him! Maybe we should move.”
We gathered our things and moved away from the stage. We walked up the terraces, to stand at the top of the amphitheater on a grassy knoll overlooking the concert. There, we sat in the grass waiting to see if the baby settled down.
Finally, Ashley looked less troubled. The baby had stopped his internal somersaults and settled back into nocturnal bliss. I refer to the baby as ‘him,’ but at that time we did not know his sex. We usually just referred to him as “Baby Who.”
We sat through the remainder of the concert, further away from the effects of a pounding bass and high pitched sax. The seats were still good and the music still great, but apparently the distance was more to Baby Who’s liking.
Ashley was worried that the baby might be adversely affected by the music vibrations, but knowing Fletch today, and the music fan he became? I prefer to think that the baby was getting into the beat, and doing a little mosh pit of his own. After all, the boy did learn to play the trombone and the guitar, so maybe those early Leon vibes altered his brain chemistry ad made him into a musician?
A coupe, of years ago, Fletch did go to a Leon concert with me. We watched Leon open ad Joe Cocker finish the show. Both old-timers, but what they played was timeless… and Fletch was there , tapping is foot and bouncing in rhythm to the music again.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
I should have been a Rock Star - the Czech rock star prank
My cousin Rob and I went to a lot of concerts together. Rob had grown up just a hundred yards or so from my house out on the hill of Dugan Road. He and his sisters and me and my brothers and sisters had walked that hundred or so yards a lot of times. Their house was like our second home and visa-versa.
Rob was a great deal more daring than the rest of us in dress and hair. While we had all gone through he years of long hair and bell bottom pants, I had trimmed mine down to get a teaching job, and brothers Tim and Tom wore theirs in varying lengths. Rob, for a while, had this shiny, long reddish-orange hair that stood out everywhere.
In fact, we were hairy enough that the local police would sometimes stop us 'just because." Even in the small town of Kiefer where I had grown up and played all the sports, been the Valedictorian, as soon as I went to college and grew out my hair, I suddenly because a target for the local sheriff who stopped me because he thought I was speeding in my beat up 1970 Ford maverick. ( it was lucky to run, much less speed.)
Rob and I were stopped in Sapulpa, the town I had started teaching in, one night late as we returned from a midnight movie. The funny thing was, the only thing we had in our system was popcorn and Coca Cola. But, there Rob was with his long straight hair and me with my beard and afro. It was not uncommon. I imagine it made the police suspicious right away.
With the 1980's and the start of the New Wave music movement, MTV and blossoming punk from the late 70's, the hair styles and clothes changed dramatically. Mine did not. The beard and afro stayed, more due to low maintenance and fear of change than to dedication to a style. Rob changed dramatically. he wore several earrings, dyed his red hair various colors, wore a smoking jacket and began smoking clove cigarettes.
The cool thing about this was, that when we went to concerts, it was only a matter of time till a lot of girls came around because of his style. Neither of us was really forward enough to take advantage of that situation.
Rob started work for a local phone company and eventually moved an hour or so away to work. On one of his return visits, he stopped by my school for the day to visit me. That year, I was teaching mostly 8th grade civics classes, and on the spot, Rob and I devised a quick prank to pull on my students.
When the kids wandered into class, of course, one of the first things they noticed was Rob sitting at my desk, wearing earrings ( not allowed at school for boys) and hair that was half red and half black.
The kids would sidle up to me, whispering "Who is that?"
Now, the name I gave him I can no longer remember, so I will "Vlad" in it's place. I would tell the kids, "This is my cousin, Vlad, from Czechoslovakia. He plays in a rock band and they are on tour. Vlad is visiting me because they are playing at Cains Ballroom in Tulsa tonight."
"Can we talk to him? Can he speak English?"
"No" I told them. "Only Czech, but i can translate for you if you want to ask him something."
So these kids would ask him questions, and I in turn would turn to Rob and mutter some nonsensical gibberish that sounded like ti was Slavic or eastern European. he would then speak the same gibberish back and I woulds make up answers to tell the kids. We would throw in some hand gestures or a laugh every once in the while as if we were sharing a private joke. It was all ad-libbed.
This went on for three class periods, before "Vlad" had to leave. A lot of the kids asked for his autograph and asked if his music was released here in the states yet. Of course, it was not here yet.
I walked Rob/Vlad outside the school door, where he and I burst into laughter and near tears.
I did finally tell the kids in class about the prank. They loved the fact that I tried to pull a joke on them.
Rob eventually lost the multicolored hair, but still wears the earring. In fact nowadays he can often be seen with shaved head, and no trace of the bright red that graced 1/2 of his former Czech head.
Rob was a great deal more daring than the rest of us in dress and hair. While we had all gone through he years of long hair and bell bottom pants, I had trimmed mine down to get a teaching job, and brothers Tim and Tom wore theirs in varying lengths. Rob, for a while, had this shiny, long reddish-orange hair that stood out everywhere.
In fact, we were hairy enough that the local police would sometimes stop us 'just because." Even in the small town of Kiefer where I had grown up and played all the sports, been the Valedictorian, as soon as I went to college and grew out my hair, I suddenly because a target for the local sheriff who stopped me because he thought I was speeding in my beat up 1970 Ford maverick. ( it was lucky to run, much less speed.)
Rob and I were stopped in Sapulpa, the town I had started teaching in, one night late as we returned from a midnight movie. The funny thing was, the only thing we had in our system was popcorn and Coca Cola. But, there Rob was with his long straight hair and me with my beard and afro. It was not uncommon. I imagine it made the police suspicious right away.
With the 1980's and the start of the New Wave music movement, MTV and blossoming punk from the late 70's, the hair styles and clothes changed dramatically. Mine did not. The beard and afro stayed, more due to low maintenance and fear of change than to dedication to a style. Rob changed dramatically. he wore several earrings, dyed his red hair various colors, wore a smoking jacket and began smoking clove cigarettes.
The cool thing about this was, that when we went to concerts, it was only a matter of time till a lot of girls came around because of his style. Neither of us was really forward enough to take advantage of that situation.
Rob started work for a local phone company and eventually moved an hour or so away to work. On one of his return visits, he stopped by my school for the day to visit me. That year, I was teaching mostly 8th grade civics classes, and on the spot, Rob and I devised a quick prank to pull on my students.
When the kids wandered into class, of course, one of the first things they noticed was Rob sitting at my desk, wearing earrings ( not allowed at school for boys) and hair that was half red and half black.
The kids would sidle up to me, whispering "Who is that?"
Now, the name I gave him I can no longer remember, so I will "Vlad" in it's place. I would tell the kids, "This is my cousin, Vlad, from Czechoslovakia. He plays in a rock band and they are on tour. Vlad is visiting me because they are playing at Cains Ballroom in Tulsa tonight."
"Can we talk to him? Can he speak English?"
"No" I told them. "Only Czech, but i can translate for you if you want to ask him something."
So these kids would ask him questions, and I in turn would turn to Rob and mutter some nonsensical gibberish that sounded like ti was Slavic or eastern European. he would then speak the same gibberish back and I woulds make up answers to tell the kids. We would throw in some hand gestures or a laugh every once in the while as if we were sharing a private joke. It was all ad-libbed.
This went on for three class periods, before "Vlad" had to leave. A lot of the kids asked for his autograph and asked if his music was released here in the states yet. Of course, it was not here yet.
I walked Rob/Vlad outside the school door, where he and I burst into laughter and near tears.
I did finally tell the kids in class about the prank. They loved the fact that I tried to pull a joke on them.
Rob eventually lost the multicolored hair, but still wears the earring. In fact nowadays he can often be seen with shaved head, and no trace of the bright red that graced 1/2 of his former Czech head.
Zen Music Moment- happy Together
Ashley and I had been dating for a short time when her father told her, "I think you need to go out with other guys." She was a student at OU. I was a teacher. Obviously he was trying to protect her from the evil intent of an older guy.
She had been my student several years before, so I am sure he thought there was something fishy about our relationship. The funny thing was,there wasn't. I was trying to be a good guy about the whole thing and in fact never even kissed her until I was called "a big puss" buy my friend Mo.
So, Ashley told me about the situation and said she had accepted a date from one of her classmates. He was a guy I had actually coached in football. It was kind of a strange situation.
The rest of the story I only know second hand, but I guess you could say that i6t was the start of "Our Song."
Ashley went out on the date and they went to a restaurant with another couple. While there, a song came on the sound system at the restaurant. It was the old Turtles song "happy Together." Ash told me that hen she heard that song, she knew that she didn't want to be there with him, but wanted to be with me.
"Imagine Me and You
I do
I think about you day and night
It's only right.
To Think about the one you love
to hold them tight
so happy together"
On the way back to her house, Ashley told him that she couldn't date him anymore because she was in love with someone else. When he asked "who?" and she answered "Coach Dugan," he was in shock. I imagine he never pictured that he would be in competition with his old line coach for a girl.
From that time on, we headed in the direction of marriage, kids and a house.
I was always thankful to the Turtles for being there when I needed them. I guess maybe it would have been more appropriate if the tune had been their other song "She'd Rather Be With Me," but "happy Together" is a lot better for us to sing together. It also made a great lullaby for both of our sons.
She had been my student several years before, so I am sure he thought there was something fishy about our relationship. The funny thing was,there wasn't. I was trying to be a good guy about the whole thing and in fact never even kissed her until I was called "a big puss" buy my friend Mo.
So, Ashley told me about the situation and said she had accepted a date from one of her classmates. He was a guy I had actually coached in football. It was kind of a strange situation.
The rest of the story I only know second hand, but I guess you could say that i6t was the start of "Our Song."
Ashley went out on the date and they went to a restaurant with another couple. While there, a song came on the sound system at the restaurant. It was the old Turtles song "happy Together." Ash told me that hen she heard that song, she knew that she didn't want to be there with him, but wanted to be with me.
"Imagine Me and You
I do
I think about you day and night
It's only right.
To Think about the one you love
to hold them tight
so happy together"
On the way back to her house, Ashley told him that she couldn't date him anymore because she was in love with someone else. When he asked "who?" and she answered "Coach Dugan," he was in shock. I imagine he never pictured that he would be in competition with his old line coach for a girl.
From that time on, we headed in the direction of marriage, kids and a house.
I was always thankful to the Turtles for being there when I needed them. I guess maybe it would have been more appropriate if the tune had been their other song "She'd Rather Be With Me," but "happy Together" is a lot better for us to sing together. It also made a great lullaby for both of our sons.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Shoild have been a rock star - Todd is Godd and pyramids in the mid west
Todd is Godd and Pyramid Power at KU
In the spring of 1980, Todd Rundgren and his band utopia played a concert at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I was always a huge Todd Rundgren fan. He ranks right there with the Beatles, separately and as a group, Neil Young and the Who with me. He had put out several; masterful albums as a solo artist and with Utopia.
You never knew what you would get from Todd. He would do an album of power pop ballads such as :Something Anything”or show up in the LP racks with a synthesized work of long, intricate opuses like “Born to Synthesize.” To me, he was the epitome of a renaissance man, often playing every instrument on the album. Mo had played the “Something Anything” LP to death when we were in college. Not that it bothered me… I was a dedicated fan.
Kansas U. was a big school to me. Tim went to OSU and was used to a bigger place. I had gone to little Sterling College. A lot of the people in Kansas referred to KU as Snob Hill. I guess it was because they weren’t an aggie university like K-State, but nothing I ever saw there made me think anything negative. After all, I was interested in a girl there.
That girl was my connection in Lawrence. Even though I was just about through my first year as a teacher and coach at Sapulpa High School, I had been keeping in touch with Cas Turner who was a student at K.U. Cas, I had actually met when I was student teaching at Nickerson High School. I had a world history class that she had taken because she wanted to take a class under my mentor and got stuck with me.
In class, while discussing Da Vinci and Michelangelo, I had brought Todd’s “Born to Synthesize “ LP as an example of Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” Da Vinci’s drawing, of man within the mathematical perfections of geometric shapes, a bit updated and colorized, graced the cover of that particular Todd LP. It was then hat I had my first conversations with Cas, also a fan of Rundgren’s music.
Cas picked up tickets for my younger brother Tim and I. Tim was starting his freshman year at Oklahoma State then I believe. On the date of the weekend concert, we drove north in my unair-conditioned yellowish-orangish Toyota Corolla, zipping along highway 169 bound for Utopia.
When we arrived in Lawrence, Tim and I checked into the Jayhawk Inn, a small and ancient motel. It met the criteria for what we needed… simply a place to sleep. And minimalist is best how to describe it. It was basically two single beds and a light bulb. But, sleep wasn’t what we had come for. This would be the first of many times I would get to see Todd live and in concert.
We met up with Cas and her buddy, Dixie to get tickets and then Cas left to meet her then boyfriend somewhere. I was interested, but she still had a boyfriend there. I have never been a pushy guy when it comes to attraction and in fact probably a little backwards and shy instead.
There was a theater, The Lied Center I think, on campus where the concert was to take place. We sat in the balcony, overlooking the stage. It was a great place… with a perfect view of the whole stage. I think anytime I got to see musicians perform live, it was always nearly perfect.
There was no warm-up band. At most of the Rundgren concerts I have seen, he plays alone. The only time I saw anyone open for him, it was Hall and Oates at the Zoo amphitheater in Oklahoma City. They were old Philadelphia buddies of Todd’s. Todd’s concerts didn’t need a warm-up because he and the band would be on stage a long, long time with songs from his whole career.
The band had recently released the “Adventures in Utopia” album. It had classics such as “The Road To Utopia” and one of their MTV hits “You Make Me Crazy.” The lights flared up and they opened the show with the appropriate “Road to Utopia.” I was pumped. Cas got there about ½ way through the song, but the band was amazing.
The band played songs from their own albums and from Todd’s solo career. Every member of the band sang something, reminiscent of old Beatles performances. The bulk of the show came from the “Adventures…” LP and the next most recent LP called “Ra.” That album was made with an ancient Egyptian theme, including the song “Eternal Love” sung by bassist Kasim Sultan. Sultan went on to play with Meatloaf and some solo stuff after Utopia was disbanded. He still does some tours with Todd as a solo artist too. He even teamed up with Todd on bass when Todd sang lead vocals on tour with the New Cars this past year,
The two most dramatic songs of the show came from the “Ra” album. The band played the 7-minute song “Hiroshima,” about the bombing during World War II. It is a dramatic song that begins with instruments sounding lie something you’d hear in Japan and then reaching a crunching Rock power chord finale when the band screamed “don’t you ever fucking forget!” and the stage front exploded in flames that shot to the ceiling.
The second was an 18-minute song called “Singring and the Glass Guitar.” The stage opened up to reveal a 26 ft. pyramid on stage. It was made of the four corner poles running to a point over the stage. Behind the pyramid sat a 25 or 30-foot tall King Tut death mask. During the song, which chronicled a fantasy story of the spirit of Singring trapped in a glass guitar, the four Utopia members each battled the elements, one by one with long solos that ended with the collection of keys to open the case hiding the glass guitar.
Roger Powell’s keyboards imitated the winds while being blown around stage. The drummer Willie Wilcox played in rhythm as fountains of water shot up around his drum set. Kasim played while fire shot in spurts from a dragon behind Tut’s head. The grand finale came as Todd soloed, slowly walking up the side of the pyramid as he wailed on his Ankh shaped guitar. At the peak, his solo reached a crescendo and he reached below and flipped into the air to be lowered to the stage and finish the song. They opened the case and smashed a glass guitar, splattering like ice crystals across the stage. The crowd went wild!
When the band returned to the stage, they finished the show with a song with which I would hear Todd finish every concert., “Just One Victory.” It was also the song I listened to before every game I played in college. The song has always been a meaningful thing to me.
After the show, we all walked to Cas’s dorm room, sat and gossiped, listened to some new music from Linda Ronstadt. Tim and I eventually left for our digs at the Jayhawk motel. We woke the next morning and made our way back toward Oklahoma on ending our own little trip to Utopia.
It would not be my last trip to KU.
The Road to Utopia – by Todd Rundgren and Utopia
I blink my eyes and then it happens again
I lose my way but I discover a friend
It's a typical day on the road to utopia
I walk along until my feet are sore
I rest a minute then I walk some more
There's no time to delay on the road to utopia
And my destination is the unknown
But I'm never far away from my home
It shines like laser light
It's in my dreams at night
'Cause I've been all my life
On the road to utopia
I will be there to share your tragedy
I know that you would do the same for me
It's no trouble at all on the road to utopia
When day is over and I'm trying to sleep
It comes so easy 'cause I'm not counting sheep
I am counting the smiles on the road to utopia
And I may lose my way again and again
But I'll cross that borderline in the end
Trouble trouble trouble whirling all about
But if we stick together we can stick it out
Will we ever find the loves we lost again
Does this crazy journey ever have an end
And will I find what I'm after
Do I know what I'm after
Guess I'll join in the laughter
On the road to utopia
In the spring of 1980, Todd Rundgren and his band utopia played a concert at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I was always a huge Todd Rundgren fan. He ranks right there with the Beatles, separately and as a group, Neil Young and the Who with me. He had put out several; masterful albums as a solo artist and with Utopia.
You never knew what you would get from Todd. He would do an album of power pop ballads such as :Something Anything”or show up in the LP racks with a synthesized work of long, intricate opuses like “Born to Synthesize.” To me, he was the epitome of a renaissance man, often playing every instrument on the album. Mo had played the “Something Anything” LP to death when we were in college. Not that it bothered me… I was a dedicated fan.
Kansas U. was a big school to me. Tim went to OSU and was used to a bigger place. I had gone to little Sterling College. A lot of the people in Kansas referred to KU as Snob Hill. I guess it was because they weren’t an aggie university like K-State, but nothing I ever saw there made me think anything negative. After all, I was interested in a girl there.
That girl was my connection in Lawrence. Even though I was just about through my first year as a teacher and coach at Sapulpa High School, I had been keeping in touch with Cas Turner who was a student at K.U. Cas, I had actually met when I was student teaching at Nickerson High School. I had a world history class that she had taken because she wanted to take a class under my mentor and got stuck with me.
In class, while discussing Da Vinci and Michelangelo, I had brought Todd’s “Born to Synthesize “ LP as an example of Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” Da Vinci’s drawing, of man within the mathematical perfections of geometric shapes, a bit updated and colorized, graced the cover of that particular Todd LP. It was then hat I had my first conversations with Cas, also a fan of Rundgren’s music.
Cas picked up tickets for my younger brother Tim and I. Tim was starting his freshman year at Oklahoma State then I believe. On the date of the weekend concert, we drove north in my unair-conditioned yellowish-orangish Toyota Corolla, zipping along highway 169 bound for Utopia.
When we arrived in Lawrence, Tim and I checked into the Jayhawk Inn, a small and ancient motel. It met the criteria for what we needed… simply a place to sleep. And minimalist is best how to describe it. It was basically two single beds and a light bulb. But, sleep wasn’t what we had come for. This would be the first of many times I would get to see Todd live and in concert.
We met up with Cas and her buddy, Dixie to get tickets and then Cas left to meet her then boyfriend somewhere. I was interested, but she still had a boyfriend there. I have never been a pushy guy when it comes to attraction and in fact probably a little backwards and shy instead.
There was a theater, The Lied Center I think, on campus where the concert was to take place. We sat in the balcony, overlooking the stage. It was a great place… with a perfect view of the whole stage. I think anytime I got to see musicians perform live, it was always nearly perfect.
There was no warm-up band. At most of the Rundgren concerts I have seen, he plays alone. The only time I saw anyone open for him, it was Hall and Oates at the Zoo amphitheater in Oklahoma City. They were old Philadelphia buddies of Todd’s. Todd’s concerts didn’t need a warm-up because he and the band would be on stage a long, long time with songs from his whole career.
The band had recently released the “Adventures in Utopia” album. It had classics such as “The Road To Utopia” and one of their MTV hits “You Make Me Crazy.” The lights flared up and they opened the show with the appropriate “Road to Utopia.” I was pumped. Cas got there about ½ way through the song, but the band was amazing.
The band played songs from their own albums and from Todd’s solo career. Every member of the band sang something, reminiscent of old Beatles performances. The bulk of the show came from the “Adventures…” LP and the next most recent LP called “Ra.” That album was made with an ancient Egyptian theme, including the song “Eternal Love” sung by bassist Kasim Sultan. Sultan went on to play with Meatloaf and some solo stuff after Utopia was disbanded. He still does some tours with Todd as a solo artist too. He even teamed up with Todd on bass when Todd sang lead vocals on tour with the New Cars this past year,
The two most dramatic songs of the show came from the “Ra” album. The band played the 7-minute song “Hiroshima,” about the bombing during World War II. It is a dramatic song that begins with instruments sounding lie something you’d hear in Japan and then reaching a crunching Rock power chord finale when the band screamed “don’t you ever fucking forget!” and the stage front exploded in flames that shot to the ceiling.
The second was an 18-minute song called “Singring and the Glass Guitar.” The stage opened up to reveal a 26 ft. pyramid on stage. It was made of the four corner poles running to a point over the stage. Behind the pyramid sat a 25 or 30-foot tall King Tut death mask. During the song, which chronicled a fantasy story of the spirit of Singring trapped in a glass guitar, the four Utopia members each battled the elements, one by one with long solos that ended with the collection of keys to open the case hiding the glass guitar.
Roger Powell’s keyboards imitated the winds while being blown around stage. The drummer Willie Wilcox played in rhythm as fountains of water shot up around his drum set. Kasim played while fire shot in spurts from a dragon behind Tut’s head. The grand finale came as Todd soloed, slowly walking up the side of the pyramid as he wailed on his Ankh shaped guitar. At the peak, his solo reached a crescendo and he reached below and flipped into the air to be lowered to the stage and finish the song. They opened the case and smashed a glass guitar, splattering like ice crystals across the stage. The crowd went wild!
When the band returned to the stage, they finished the show with a song with which I would hear Todd finish every concert., “Just One Victory.” It was also the song I listened to before every game I played in college. The song has always been a meaningful thing to me.
After the show, we all walked to Cas’s dorm room, sat and gossiped, listened to some new music from Linda Ronstadt. Tim and I eventually left for our digs at the Jayhawk motel. We woke the next morning and made our way back toward Oklahoma on ending our own little trip to Utopia.
It would not be my last trip to KU.
The Road to Utopia – by Todd Rundgren and Utopia
I blink my eyes and then it happens again
I lose my way but I discover a friend
It's a typical day on the road to utopia
I walk along until my feet are sore
I rest a minute then I walk some more
There's no time to delay on the road to utopia
And my destination is the unknown
But I'm never far away from my home
It shines like laser light
It's in my dreams at night
'Cause I've been all my life
On the road to utopia
I will be there to share your tragedy
I know that you would do the same for me
It's no trouble at all on the road to utopia
When day is over and I'm trying to sleep
It comes so easy 'cause I'm not counting sheep
I am counting the smiles on the road to utopia
And I may lose my way again and again
But I'll cross that borderline in the end
Trouble trouble trouble whirling all about
But if we stick together we can stick it out
Will we ever find the loves we lost again
Does this crazy journey ever have an end
And will I find what I'm after
Do I know what I'm after
Guess I'll join in the laughter
On the road to utopia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
