The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

MY 50 FAVORITE CONCERTS (Cont.)
Irving O Tarbox - Arts and Music Editor

6- JEFF BECK (OCT. 1980 FOX THEATER, ATL, GA Ticket price $12) He was touring behind the There and Back album, and it was my first trip to the truly Fabulous Fox Theater. I kept waiting for Juliet to come out of one of the castle balconies that flank the stage and go “Oh Beck’s Bolero, oh Beck’s Bolero”. Mr. Beck was unbelievable that night. Homer turned to me as we left the Fox and said “I’m just gonna quit playing after seeing that”.

7- IAN HUNTER and TODD RUNDGREN (OCT.1980 AGORA BALLROOM, ATL ,GA Ticket $10) This was part of a tour to support John Anderson, an independent presidential candidate. Anderson had lost the Republican nomination to Reagan and had turned independent. The thought of Rundgren and Hunter doing this is crazy to me even now. Especially when Hunter started a “Reagan sucks” cheer to the audience’s delight. Then “Carter sucks” and everybody booing (this was an ultra cool rock crowd in Atlanta) and Hunter saying “Ah, they all suck. All politicians are crooks anyhow!”

Hunter played rhythm guitar, piano, and sang 90% of lead vocals, Todd played lead, and I don’t know to this day who was on bass and drums. Hunter took off his ever-present shades one time and his pupils were gigantic. I later read they were doing a lot of LSD on this tour.

8- NRBQ (FEB. 1981 EDGARS, CLEMSON U. Ticket $2) As far as I knew, I had never heard a song by these guys when they played on a cold Monday night. I had been reading in music mags that NRBQ was the greatest bar band in the world. My best friend Mark attended with my new girlfriend and I and found that to be true. And they still are. Go see ‘em.

9- BOB DYLAN (OCT 1981 FOX THEATER, ATL) Dylan was on the Shot of Love tour when I caught him in Atlanta. He did nothing but songs off of the “religious” albums, Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love, except for “The Times Are A Changing” and “Like A Rolling Stone” which were the two low points of the night. Instead of hearing songs that had been reworked and turned inside out, we got to hear songs that were fresh to Mr. Dylan, songs that he wasn’t bored with and liked doing them the way they were recorded.

Bob Dylan is in my top five of favorite artists but he has been iffy in concert since the Live at Budokan 1978 era. I have seen him many times and this Fox show is the only Dylan show that made my top 50. I wished I could have seen him in the 60’s-mid 70’s. Half of this list would probably be Dylan shows.

10- GLENN PHILLIPS BAND (JAN. 1982 EDGARS, CU, Ticket $2) We (best friend Mark, his girlfriend Grace, my girlfriend and I) had been snowed in all week. It finally melted enough to drive by Friday. I had seen a flyer advertising the show that said Frank Zappa had took guitar lessons from Phillips. I thought he’d be some jazzy guy sitting on a stool. I never expected him to come out sliding all over the stage in skateboarder knee pads and to have the rockingest band you’d ever want. And to have the most fun dancing away to this band! I told Glenn that he was like a cross between Jeff Beck and Robert Fripp and he seemed to like that compliment.

Glenn ventured between Nugent like guitar prowess, in your face punk rock, and Allman-like lyricism on his six string. And the rest of the band was up to the task of keeping up with Glenn. Bill Rea, on fretless bass, sounding like the funkiest, rockingest, jazziest man ever all at once, and delivering near fatal judo kicks that barely would miss Glenn’s head. The band played five or six songs that Rea had composed with titles such as “Little Red Soldiers Under my Skin”. Paul Provost sounded like some new wave Keith Emerson while doing handstands on his keyboards, and Doug Drum banging away on his kit with finesse and power.

I can probably walk into a Glenn Phillips gig anywhere in the world and yell “I Wanna Talk To My Girl” and the band will know it’s me.

11- CLASH (JUNE 1982 FOX THEATER, ATL $15?) Their record label, CBS, came up with an advertising slogan for the Clash: ”The Only Band That Matters”. To me at that time, that slogan was the truth. It was to be the third night of the Combat Rock tour, after two nights in Asbury Park, NJ. My girlfriend and I had gone to get tickets two months before (this was the days before Ticketmaster and online ticket buying). As we stood in the ticket booth line, we realized we were about the only white folks in line. “How cool!” I told my girlfriend, “Black people are into the Clash’s anti-racist lyrics, and they’re digging the hip-hop influences!” Then, as we got up to the window, we realized that everybody was in line to get tickets to see Patti Labelle in “My Arms Are Too Short To Box With God”. The Clash had already sold out. My girlfriend cried, telling the ticket window lady that “We drove all the way down here from SC, blah, blah.” The lady scrounged up three balcony seats and we were the happiest people on earth. Two weeks before the show, the biggest story in the entertainment world was that lead singer Joe Strummer was AWOL and the tour was in doubt. Then a few days before the Asbury Park shows, the newspapers said he had showed up just in time to tour.

The night of the show, the Communist Workers Party longhaired hippies were present out in front of the theater. They were being taunted by these biker types with shaved heads carrying signs that read stuff like, “If You’re So Bored With The USA, Go Back To England!” (a reference to one of The Clash’s songs).

The Clash were unbelievable. They hit the stage, that was done up in military kind of motif, Joe in fatigues and a brand new mohawk looking like Travis Bickle. But Topper Headon wasn’t on drums. I wanted to know why! Never the less, the band was everything I wanted. They did not let me down for one second. They opened with “London Calling” and played a bunch off of Combat Rock, a few from each of their other albums, especially the first one. I thought the unknown drummer was especially good on songs from that legendary first album. I later found out that Headon had been fired for drug dependency, and that was Tory Chimes on drums who had played on the first album.

During “Know Your Rights” these theatrical interpretative dancers acted out the lyrics. “Ghetto Defendant” off of Combat Rock was really great with its Taxi Driver influenced lyrics. The best song they played was “Somebody Got Murdered”. I get chills just thinking about that riff kicking in.

When the show was over, The Fox let out and I witnessed an unbelievable scene. All of the shaved head biker guys, who I later learned were these things called “skinheads”, were beating the crap out of the Communist dudes!

All of the traffic on Peachtree Street was stopped and I’ll never forget this little family of four looking out their car window seeing a skinhead bashing in a commie on the hood of their car. It was like the family was at Lion Country Safari looking out the car window at the wildlife.

12- THE PRETENDERS (AUG. 1982 AGORA BALLROOM, ATL) I love bragging that I saw the original lineup. Chrissie Hynde was great of course, James Honeyman Scott was awesome, but I thought bassist Pete Farndon was the coolest. He had the coolest biker boots on and wore a black leather Triumph motorcycle jacket. He was as rock and roll as a person could get. Pretenders II had just came out and they did about every song off of that and the first record. What a show.

13- MAYA ANGELOU (SEPT. 1982 TILLMAN HALL, CU free show) The four of us that I mentioned above used to get up early, and so hungover, to see Ms. Angelou’s poetry show on PBS every Sunday morning. My girlfriend and I went to see her on a Tuesday night to speak on the subject of love and to read some of her poetry. In addition to being a great poet, Ms. Angelou is an accomplished singer of blues, gospel, folk and even opera. Poetry is lyrical and rhythmic and never was that more evident than when Ms. Angelou “sang” her poems. The whole audience was crying tears of joy at the end of her performance, which was more concert than poetry reading. It was incredibly uplifting.

14- The SATELLITES (A Tues. night OCT. 1982 MOONSHADOW SALOON, ATL $3 cover) My girlfriend and I had went down to Atlanta to surprise her sister. Her sister had a big term paper due the next day and couldn’t go out with us. But she said that there was this good “R&B band”, The Satellites, playing at the Moonshadow. Well, we went anyhow, and there were four people, including us, in this huge club. But the band wasn’t a “R&B” band. They were a hard rocking southern band, who loved that Dylan Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde sound. We sat up front going crazy. The only other two people in the bar, another couple, sat way in the back furiously making out. The lead singer, Dan Baird, got our four names and after each song he’d say, “Thank you Irving, Stephanie, ……”. By the end of the night, only six other people showed up, but the band played five sets that night as if they were playing a sold out Madison Square Garden. What an influence on me that was. I can’t say it enough.

Years later the song “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” hit big and they had added “Georgia” to their name.

15- GLENN PHILLIPS BAND (NOV. 1982 EDGARS, CU $2) They played Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to a packed house. The band stayed with us in our mobile home that weekend. It was like having royalty stay with us.

16- REM (SEPT. 1983 LEGION FIELD, UGA, ATHENS, GA) It was a free show for their hometown. Their first full-length album, Murmur, was shaking up the whole rock world. My new roommate, a prog rock kind of guy, had never seen a whole crowd dancing at a show before.

17- NEIL YOUNG ( Oct 1983 ATLANTA CIVIC CENTER) Finally, I was going to see Neil. His rockabilly album with The Shocking Pinks had just been released shortly after the computer influenced Trans album.

The show was very theatrical, which you know I like. There was this giant 50’s era looking TV hanging above the stage showing old black and white television show clips. Then this guy “Newsman Dan Clear” appeared on the screen talking to the audience and interviewing roadies and such. He interviewed Neil’s long time guitar tech Joel and told how he tunes all of Neil guitars and sets them out on stage. “All but the Martin D-45” told Clear. He was holding it saying “Neil likes to keep this one right up until he is to go onstage.” He turned to the camera and told us “When you see me bring this Martin guitar out, you know Neil is ready”. Thirty minutes later when he brought that Martin out, the crowd recognized it and went nuts.

Neil opened with a half-hour acoustic set. Then he put on the Trans glasses and did “Mr. Soul” Trans-style. Then he did an unreleased song called “I Got A Problem” that was on an album years later. Neil then picked up the D-45 again and started saying that “today’s rock and roll just don’t move me like it used to do”. “1983” came up on the giant TV. Neil told us if we sang along we could turn back the clock to 1956 “when rock and roll was great”. He started singing “Sugar Mountain”. We sang along and the years on the TV started rolling back. He left the stage and we kept singing and the years kept turning back. Then it hit “1956” and Dan Clear now had a 50’s greaser look and it was “Dan’s Dance Party” and the Shocking Pinks hit the stage. But, typical Neil, he was already bored with this concept and must have thinking about the blues thing he would do a few years later. The second song of the Shocking Pinks set was a looong blues song that ended up on This Note's For You. Kind of killed the rockabilly momentum thing the night was built around, but they got it back. As a matter of fact, the ushers had been really militant about keeping you at your seat during the early portion of show. But when the Shocking Pinks hit the stage, the big Atlanta Falcons defensive end types that had been holding us at bay all night starting waving everybody down front and it did turn into a big dance party!

18- RAY CHARLES (JULY 1984 FREEDOM WEEKEND ALOFT, GVL,SC $5 carload) It had rained cats and dogs up until a couple hours before the show. The sun broke through for Ray and we stood in shin deep mud and had a great time.

19- LOU REED (Fall 1984 FOX THEATER, ATL) It was the New Sensations tour, and I was going through a HUGE Lou Reed period. Robert Quine was on Strat and Fernando Saunders was on fretless bass. When Lou sang “Satellite of Love” it was perfect. The whole concert was.

20- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND (JAN 15 1985 old CHARLOTTE COLISEUM, CHARLOTTE, NC) My cousin had 5th row tickets, and she gave me one for Christmas. It was the Born in the USA tour and Bruce opened with that song. Later in his show he dedicated “Promised Land” to Martin Luther King, whose birthday was that day. Springsteen and the E-Street Band played four hours. Broooooooce!

21- THE REPLACEMENTS (Jan 1985 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA $5) The Village Voice had just declared them “the greatest band on earth”. So, of course, they were going to mess that up!! They went on way late, drunk. The bar was announcing last call after the second song. Years later I saw a picture of the owner of the 40-Watt grabbing lead singer Paul Westerburg in a headlock making him go play. They opened with the Green Acres TV theme song. They were the greatest band on earth at that time.

22- MINUTEMEN (1985 688 CLUB $5) I had seen them a year before and they were great. But I only knew one album at that time. This time I knew every note they had ever recorded. On the way into the show, my friend Matt stopped and said “You know, there’s not a better place in the world to be tonight than right here seeing The Minutemen”. And he was right. What a band. They were a world unto themselves. Labeled as “punk”, they were so much more than that. By the time punk hit in 1976, D. Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley had already had band and they were still in high school. They had chops; it wasn’t just get up there and make noise, yelling stuff about the cops, or whatever. As a matter of fact, the hardcore audiences hated them at first and spat, or “gobbed”, on the band.

By the time I saw them this night in Atlanta, the world, at least the hip part of it, had caught on to the band’s unique, Beat, jazz and funk influenced political insurgent rock.

This night they still found away to get the punks’ jaw to drop. They played Creedence Clearwater’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, not in some “let’s make fun of it and trash it” kind of way. They played better and more earnestly than any classic rock cover band ever could.

My friend said I jumped four feet off of the ground when they played “Little Man With A Gun In His Hand”.

23- GEORGE JONES (JUNE 1985 GREENWOOD CIVIC CENTER, GREENWOOD, SC $15 at most) George showed. And we were glad.

24- BLACK FLAG (JULY 1985 UPTOWN LOUNGE, ATHENS ,GA $5) Drinking black coffee! Drinking black coffee!! The most vicious slam dancing I’ve ever experienced. Greg Ginn was the hard core Ted Nugent playing that clear Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar through a massive wall of Marshalls. Cute little Kira Roessler, who had dropped out of the University of Southern California to play with Flag, was on bass And, Henry Rollins, talk about intense. When we got there that afternoon( we were afraid tickets would sell out), Henry was sitting, meditating, on the sidewalk. The Uptown was across the street from the police station and there was Henry sitting out in the 90 degree Georgia heat, getting his hate up staring at the cop station. We knew we were in for a great show that night.

25- MILES DAVIS (OCT 1985 CHASTAIN PARK,ATL) He had just released You’re Under Arrest . Certainly not his best period, but Miles was great that night because he was Miles Davis. After the band played the last song, Miles came immediately from backstage right to me in the first row and slapped me five. He didn’t shake anybody else’s hand or high five anybody else. I felt like I had been knighted into Coolsville.

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