Did that show really happen?  Has it really been five years since that cold, cloudy London evening when I took the Tube from the Queensway station north of Hyde Park to Bond Street, changed from the Central Line to the Jubilee, rode some 40 minutes until the North Greenwich station where I disembarked for what would be the greatest and most surreal concert I've ever seen?

Yep.

Led Zeppelin hadn't played a full, two-hour-plus set in 27 years had been rehearsing like mad for this one-off benefit for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund that had attracted more than 20 million requests for tickets. Yet somehow this kid from Murray, Kentucky now working for KLOS-Los Angeles snared one--thanks to my friend Jeff Albright, who was unable to attend once the concert was rescheduled after Jimmy Page's finger injury.

Surreal doesn't begin to describe watching a band I hadn't seen since the 1975 Physical Graffiti tour and would probably never see again.  With the recent Celebration Day DVD & CD releases of the concert, everyone can see what the select few of us got to witness five years ago.  No band this big ever faced greater odds to leave a one-last-show legacy this tremendous. To this day, I look at these 2007 artifacts and shake my head in disbelief that the concert not only happened, but that I somehow weaseled my way in to witness it.  Funny how no concert since then has quite measured up--or could.

Welcome Back My Surround-Sound Friends!

In the beginning, there was mono and it was meh.  Then came hi-fidelity stereo and things were getting warmer.  Then audio geeks figured that if two channels were good, four might be mack.  So quadraphonic sound appeared and it was really good--especially, believe it or not, the 8-track versions (except for the fading out of one program into another right in the middle of a song; that'll never NOT suck).   The vinyl quad stuff, not so much.  But sometime in the late 70s, 4-channel audio faded into the sonic sunset and remained dormant until....DVDs!  That's when multi-channel home hi-fidelity returned with a passion, this time with FIVE speakers and a sub woofer.  The 5.1 Phoenix, in movie format and the subsequent DVD Audio and SACD discs, was the greatest thing these ears had experienced since those crankin' quad days of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's triple live album, "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends."

And speaking of them progressive rock blokes, we've come full circle.

If you've got a 5.1 system set up at home you'll want to check out all the multi-channel mixes of classic albums.  The latest?  Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first two albums:  the self-titled debut and Tarkus.  Razor & Tie have done a phenomenal job of not only remastering and repackaging these but enlisting Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson to remix new stereo AND 5.1 Surround Sound mixes.  Steven did remarkable jobs on Jethro Tull & King Crimson releases besides being Grammy-nominated for his work.  And take it from a longtime fan, these new ELP mixes are beyond superb.  As Steven did with many of the softer passages on Tull's Aqualung, the analog tape hiss from the quieter moments on things like "Take A Pebble" finally has been eliminated.  Back in the bell-bottomed days of stereo components--separate turntables, receivers and the like--there were a few well-produced & engineered albums you would bring in to the stores to compare the speakers.  ELP's debut was one of those albums (along with Doobies' Captain & Me and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) and the new remixes make their first album that much brighter and crisper.

The great thing about 5.1 versus simple stereo is that quite often musical passages and nuances get lost in the compacting of two channels.  5.1 lets the music breathe and allow you to hear things that have always been there but that you might have never heard.  It happens almost every time I listen to a 5.1 mix--at some point I'll think "That's been there all along? What was I, medicated or something?"

You can find out more about ELP's first album here and their second, Tarkus, here.  It's a very decent price for 2 CDs and a DVD plus great new liner notes about the making--and remaking--of each.

Hackrophenia!

Thanks to NBC's idiocy, The Who and Ray Davies' performances--among others--was gutted from the first 2 1/2 hours of Olympic Closing Ceremony coverage so that the network could shove some inane monkey-in-a-lab-coat "comedy" down our throats.

Wanna see SOME of what you missed?  The Who got edited but it's better than a TV sitcom wasteland.  Click here.

The greatest album from the world's greatest rock & roll band turns 40 this month.  And the making of it is coming to a screen near us in the not-too-distant future.  As long as the joint gets ripped, shit gets scraped right off the shoes and there's fever in the funkhouse, the producers probably can't go wrong.  Read all about it here.

Ready To Rock, Punks?

Aerosmith showed up at The Grove/L.A. to talk about their upcoming Global Warming Tour and the new album (still unnamed) for about ten minutes today. Looking forward to hearing it and seeing them at the Hollywood Bowl (with Cheap Trick!) at the Hollywood Bowl August 6th. BTW, Brad Whitford is on tour with the Hendrix Tribute show and outta town today. But all are well, getting along great and seem more than ready to hit the road.

We Loves Us Some March Madness

So I got that John Wooden Basketball Camp shirt at the UCLA Bookstore and it became my new favorite t-shirt. UNTIL I got the one above that's the poster for the Stones '72 tour in San Fran. Both are made by Original Retro Brand, so I send off a note saying how freaking soft they were and next thing I know the ORB guys and I are in a mutual admiration society. They even think I know something about college hoops (it's either my bluegrass heritage or that KLOS office pool I won a few Marches ago) and challenged me to this.

I still can't believe Murray State was ice-cold from ThreepointLand.

Talent is God-given; be humble..Fame is man-given; be grateful...Conceit is self-given; be careful.

That's one of the many timeless things John Wooden said years ago. It's always good to revisit (and heed) his wisdom, and now his legacy is newly celebrated in a series of shirts benefiting the "Nell & John R Wooden Scholarship Fund." After buying the one above at the UCLA bookstore, I emailed the guys at Original Retro Brand just to say "great idea." Turns out they're fans of KLOS, I'm a retroholic, so they ended up interviewing yours truly for a future blog feature. Stay tuned..

You can find the John Wooden collection here at ORB's site or here (with his books) at UCLA's site. They'll even sell to SC fans.

They Shook Them

This is the week Led Zeppelin first played Zoo York City, at Bill Graham's legendary Fillmore East, January 31st & February 1st. Nowadays most bands hit NYC first, so they can exploit all the media outlets that will in turn send out ripple effects across the country. In 1968, however, Led Zep treated the Big Apple like flyover, opting instead to make their debut in the snowy confines of Denver, followed by shows in cold, damp northwest locales like Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Spokane. In fact, they weren't even listed on the bill for that first Denver show with Vanilla Fudge. But by the end of January '69, word was out that this was one white-hot band.

British rockers The Move were scheduled to support headliners Iron Butterfly for those nights at the Fillmore, but instead dropped out and the Zeppelin signed on--much to the misgivings of IB's people, who were label mates (IB was on Atco, LZ on the more respected, big brother Atlantic imprint). By the end of Zeppelin's first set--they did two each evening, at 8 & 11:30 pm--they'd done two encores and had the crowd in such a lathered frenzy that Iron Butterfly waited a good 45 minutes before beginning their anticlimactic set. You can reviews of the show and check out some very cool memorabilia from those nights (including every page of the program everyone received those nights) here. For $3, $4 & $5 a ticket, people saw history for a bargain.

A mere four months later, May 30th 1969, Led Zeppelin returned to the Fillmore--but this time as headliners. No, Iron Butterfly wasn't reduced to being the opening act this time--that chore went to Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and jazz great Woody Herman and his orchestra. Bill Graham loved putting variety on his bills, like having Miles Davis open for The Grateful Dead, Chicago open for Zappa & The Mothers or Chuck Berry open for The Who. You can read all about those May '69 LZ shows here.

But what goes around....

On the bottom of page 20 here (you may have to scroll up a little), check out what happened later in 1969 when Led Zep's manager Peter Grant forcibly made opening band Grand Funk's manager stop their warm-up set because they were upstaging the Zeppelin. Sure, LZ could dish it out as support, but now as headliners? It wasn't long after this they decided that being the sole act on the bill was probably best--for finances AND karma.

And Cheech & Chong Were A Big "Hit" Here Too

I'm a Murrayan. I grew up in Murray, Kentucky from age 3 until I left for college at 18. That's the same Murray as in Murray State the sports world is talking about. And for good reason: It's the greatest season ever for a tradition-rich program in a basketball-crazy part of the world. Their 13 year-old arena is filled to rafters, finally--kinda like the old days. But this was the arena I watched many an MSU game in. It began life as The Fieldhouse, then was renamed Racer Arena. From 1954-1998 it was where Murray State played its men's and women's basketball games and hosted many a concert (Diana Ross & Supremes, Billy Joel, 3 Dog Night, ELO, Kenny Rogers & 1st Edition, Sly & Family Stone--even Andy Williams--all played there). In 1971, Murray State hosted Western Kentucky when both were ranked in the top 20. See that long steel support beam in the front? The one that curves all the way over to the right press box, just above the word "volleyball?" I stood on top of that very press box and leaned on that very beam during that sold-out, SRO game in 1971. With memories like that still reverberating 41 years later I can only imagine what the big bang of this season will do for my hometown and its people--the best you'd hope to meet--for decades to come. Go Racers!

(BTW Justin Seeley took the photo above; here's his site for more great shots.)

"We Don't Give A Damn How Ya'll Do It Down South."--rest of America

Lowest-rated BCS title game ever. SEC becomes the first conference to simultaneously win and lose the BCS championship game. Dominating defense, ordinary-to-nonexistent offense.

Yes Virginia, there will be a playoff system, but not nearly soon enough.

Having a #13 Michigan/#11 VaTech Equal/Splenda/Sugar-Substitute Bowl and a #15 Clemson/#23 West Virginny Sunny D Orange-Substitute follow a fantastic #5 Oregon/#10 Wisconsin Rose Bowl and a #3 Ok. State/#4 Stanford Fiesta Bowl is like seeing Bruce & E Street Band then Paul McCartney then trotting out as an encore Yanni and Vanilla Ice.

Same Guy Runs Both BCS AND Rock Hall Of Fame!

Authorities confirmed today that just one person oversees both the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for college football and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The man (above), whose identity is being withheld pending further notification of next of kin, granted this reporter a brief interview before his deposition with the state mental health board. For our purposes, we'll just refer to him as "Massa Z."

Me: So why give Bama another chance to beat LSU after they blew it at home the first time?

MZ: Well, I've never been to England. But I've been to Oklahoma. They tell me I was born there.

Me: OK, but that doesn't explain--

MZ: Oh Alabama...banjos playing...and the skies are so blue.

Me: And why would you vote Stanford ahead of Oklahoma State if you're from there?

MZ: I heard Palo Alto means "Trust In Nick Saban." So, as I do every day, I followed his lead.

Me: Makes sense to you. Coupla quick questions about the rock hall of fame..

MZ: Shouldn't you capitalize Rock Hall Of Fame?

Me: No. Especially when you voted in Guns & Roses for basically one great album.

MZ: You didn't like The Spaghetti Incident? Who doesn't like pasta? Or Chuck Manson?

Me: You left out many more deserving artists & groups.

MZ: Name ten.

Me: Rush, Chicago, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Deep Purple, Yes, Moody Blues, Hall & Oates, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Todd Rundgren and Steve Miller for openers.

MZ: Rush is an oxycontin-poppin' pinhead. Time's up--gotta go find my Grammy ballot. Gabba gabba hey!

(apologies to Bill Griffith)

When The Wig Comes Down

So I'm out drinking with Mick and Keef in '78. Some place in L.A., the memory's a little faded. "Hey, wanna be on a record cover?" Keef asked as round 7 of Wild Turkey shots arrived (I'd paid for 6 at this point). "We're gonna spoof some old movie stars, glam it up a bit," Mick added. "Me? But how? I'm just a college DJ using grant money to buy liquor for my heroes," I said. "Just trust us, mate. We'll even put ya between Mick and me. You'll wig when you see it."
And the rest, as they say....

Oddly enough, the new deluxe edition of Some Girls was just released.

In Rog & Robert & UCLA We Trust

Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant visited UCLA today to announce a new Teen Cancer Program modeled after the very successful Teenage Cancer Trust in the U.K. Roger, Robert and His Band of Joy, Dave Grohl and others are doing a benefit (more info here) to raise funds to keep the program up and running for a couple of years. But more help's needed. As Roger told me, "I've just started the fire. Now it's up to others to keep it going, keep the embers burning." Which means other artists will need to step up and help a cause that's so worthy. You can read more about what Roger and Robert had to say and what the program's about here.

Candy Store Rock

If you've heard that you can meet some of the nicest folks with the most creative costumes in Austin, Texas on Halloween, it's true--and here's the proof. These kids thought it was just another house but instead a couple dressed up as Robert Plant and Patty Griffin came to the door with treats. Sweet!

Hey, Sports Genius--Do You Think....

....the karma police have Vick & the Eagles in a choke hold?

....the greatest offensive player ever in the greatest college football conference (SEC) could be any worse than Kyle Orton?

....a certain Brewer should've waited until after their series with the Cardinals before popping off about a certain hot St. Louie pitcher who just shut out the phavored Phillies in Philly?

....there's an offense out there that's better than the Alabama defense?

....the Packers can go 16-0?

....adding Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC makes more sense than inviting Georgia Tech and Florida State and their built-in rivalries with Georgia and Florida?

....going to minor league baseball and high school/college football games is more fun than emptying your wallet for the pros?

....it's time to ditch the black-for-black's-sake uniforms? The joke wasn't funny the first time.

....Hank Senior would've done it this way?

Repeat: College Super Conferences Suck

I'm not looking for an exact date here, but when did university presidents become so nearsighted? It's like "Contagion" only the pandemic here is myopia.

College football & basketball--the revenue sugar daddies for athletic departments--have never in the history of EVER been more popular. March Madness & the flawed-but-fixable BCS games have put both enthusiastic exclamation points and bigger paydays at the end of those seasons. And yet, here you have one clueless Dean Wormer after another lining up to fix college sports? What's Latin for WTF?

There are presidents who were allegedly oblivious to major scandals in major sports at USC, Ohio State, Miami, North Carolina, and Tennessee, among others. (And we won't even get into the Larry Summers no-confidence debacle at Harvard and his conflicts of interest afterwards in the Obama Administration). And now these same geniuses who nodded off want to start "Super Conferences?" All for the love--no, lust--of money. Nothing else. Nice bunch of narcoleptics running these institutions of advanced learnin'.

Let's review: Nebraska--which had already blown off its annual rivalry with Oklahoma years ago--decides to bolt for the Big 10 and the excitement of Minnesota and Northwestern. Then Texas snags a big ol' TV network deal of their own, leaving Oklahoma and Texas A&M to yell "Eff you, we gone!" So the SEC and PAC-12 line up like capped-teeth boys on The Bachelorette, with all the same insincerity and false bravado. If all goes wrong, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and maybe even Texas join the PAC-12. And Texas A&M bolts for the SEC.

None of that is good for college sports, but A&M in the SEC? (Psssst--good ol' boys running the NFL & NBA farm clubs. DON'T mess with Texas. The schools/programs you really want are already in your back yards...)

Seeing as it's the Southeastern Conference, and you have ACC schools Georgia Tech and Florida State--conveniently located IN the southeast--who (a) have both won national championships in football since 1990 and (b) have killer SEC rivals built-in, with Georgia and Florida, wouldn't it make infinitely more sense to invite one or both? Tech has won four national championships, the last being a shared #1 with Colorado in 1990. Florida State has won two titles, in 1993 and 1999. A&M? One national championship, in 1939, before facemasks.

You want more tradition? The Heisman Trophy was named after a Georgia Tech coach, John Heisman. The Ramblin' Wreck. The Noles. The Allman Brothers recorded "Hot 'Lanta." Tyler and Aerosmith screamed "Take me back to a south Tallahassee" on "Rocks." College Station? Aggies? Meh.

They're asking "Why Pink Floyd?" in music circles lately. Well, why A & M?

Texas, A&M and a few others in the Big 12 were in a previous conference called "The Southwest Conference." Why? Because they're all permanently located IN THE SOUTHWEST! Not near the Pacific, not in Dixie, not by the Atlantic coast. The. Southwest. Period.

The things that make college sports special in the first place are rivalries and tradition. And tradition evolves from long-standing conferences. Example: My Western Kentucky Hilltoppers abandoned the Ohio Valley Conference for the Sun Belt. And since going 1-A in football, we no longer can play long-time rivals Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, which always packed the house. Instead, we're supposed to get all goosebumpy over Louisiana Laff-at-it or North Texas playing the 'Toppers. Double meh.

That said, it's still good for Western to be in big-time football. Only now it's all on the verge of becoming too large--so gordito that traditions and annual rivalry games may get pushed aside for the sake of dough. I have a theory that a few "Stupor Conferences" will form, then eventually splinter back into more traditional, fan-friendly ones after realizing the mess they've made and the fans they lost.

And how does college football blow off its fans? Kill the rivalries, add more uninteresting matchups and--especially--start charging more. The latter will start happening first as YOU (and me) soon will begin footing the changes via cable & satellite bills going up year after year, in addition to increased ticket prices. For this, we can thank any the bow-tied type running the U near you.

"The more money you throw at something, the more it gets ruined." Not sure who said it, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't a college president.

(And BTW, I like Maryland's unis. But WKU's new ones are the mack.)

Mad For It?

Banana Republic and the Mad Men TV series just announced a line of clothing inspired by the show that'll be available this August at BR stores. Some of the details are here and you'll find photos of the various items all over the net.

Now, I like Mad Men. And I used to like Banana Republic years ago, when stuff was marked up only 2-3 times over wholesale versus 30-35 times now.

Nowhere in ANY of the stories is there a mention of how much this MM line will retail for. Oh, they know all right. Men's suits will probably go for anywhere from $600 to a grand or better. And what's with the hats? In 2011? There's a big difference in a TV show set in the early sixties and your own life that's kind of now. Besides, as PJ O'Rourke wrote in Modern Manners: "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat...A hat should only be worn if you are employed as a baseball player or hunting ducks in the rain."

So, with legions of Mad Men junkies set to fork over entirely too much dough for clothes they could find at the Salvation Army or Goodwill not long ago--and were the real deals--I say the time has come for a true retro renaissance.

Bring back Robert Hall!

So THIS is what The Allmans at The Fillmore looked like

June 2011 marks four decades since Bill Graham's Fillmore East closed its doors on 2nd Avenue at 6th Street in New York City. While Graham would continue his concert business until his death in 1991, there would never again be a venue--or a time--for live music quite like The Fillmore from 1968-71.

Think that's an exaggeration? On a given night you would've seen Sly & The Family Stone OPEN for Jimi Hendrix. Or Miles Davis OPEN for the Grateful Dead. Or Led Zeppelin OPEN for Iron Butterfly. (Obviously that arrangement didn't last long) Or The Dead play second fiddle to Janis Joplin.

It hardly stops there.

J. Geils on the same bill with Black Sabbath. Frank Zappa and The Mothers with some new opening act called Chicago. The Who with Chuck Berry. The Jeff Beck Group and Jethro Tull. Derek & The Dominoes with Humble Pie. And my vote for sickest lineup of all: Miles Davis (opening!) with The Steve Miller Band and Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

Then there were the times The Allman Brothers set up shop. Their first appearance at The Fillmore was December 26-28, 1969, third on the bill behind Appaloosa (good luck finding their stuff on iTunes) and Blood, Sweat & Tears. By the time the Brothers had returned to finally headline in March, 1971, they'd already played the Fillmore four times. And they'd play four shows on March 12th & 13th, having agreed like many artists to two performances each night--one at 8:oo p.m. and the next at 11:30. The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East double live album was taken from those shows and released four months later in July.

On June 27th, 1971, The Allman Brothers played the final show at The Fillmore, with guests J. Geils, Elvin Bishop and Albert King jamming until six the next morning. This isn't footage of that night--it's from nine months earlier--but it only recently surfaced via the folks at Wolfgang's Vault--Bill Graham's concert archives. You can see what the Allman Brothers at Fillmore East looked and sounded like here.

(Note: The other two videos have problems with Gregg's microphone audio, but not the instrumentation coming through the soundboard)

U Too Can Be An Eco-crite; Just Pay Everybody Off

Funny guy, this Edge of U2 (born David Evans). He's used his name & talents to raise money for human rights causes as well as help New Orleans after Katrina. Being from the Emerald Isle, you'd think he'd actually walk the green walk rather than just talk it, then turn around and rape Mother Nature by building McMansions in a coastal-view area of Malibu that needs neither development or his ilk. But that's exactly what we have here.

I reckon it was time to trade in the U2 CDs and DVDs, anyway. And shame on those who took the dough and looked the other way. Guess those unspoiled ocean views just had too much annoying charm.