I recently posted on Facebook that Sandy and I had attended a couple of concerts over the weekend at the St. Michelle winery near Seattle. On Thursday night we saw the B52s and Blondie, and the following night Chris Isaak performed. One of my nieces commented that I must be more "hip" than she thought. Well duh! But it did start me thinking about what is hip, and also about the many concerts I’ve been to over the years.
I suppose for most of us hip is defined by the trends and music we discovered shortly after breaking away from those made popular by our parents. In other words, we liked the stuff our parents couldn't understand and probably didn't appreciate. When a younger person decides you might be a little bit hip, it is probably because it has occurred to them that you might be into some of the same things they like. It also might be that they are a little surprised that you still can get enthusiastic about music, given that you obviously have one foot in the grave.
In my mind, I'm no different than the guy who started going to music events in the 60s. I have trouble remembering all of them (which may be some proof I was actually there), but I can still remember a lot of great moments. Those years defined my musical tastes, although I must say it has broadened over the years. The best way to experience music is to see it live, but to my mind some of todays pop stars take it way to far by masking lack of talent with theatrical productions that seem to be big on glitter and dance, but short on music.
When I look back at the live performances I've attended over the years, it occurs to me that even though I have not seen as many as some, I probably have been to more than a lot of people.
One of the earliest shows was Lesley Gore and the Four Tops at the Michigan State Fairground. Lesley had just recently made it big with "It's My Party," and the Four Tops were already one of my favorite Motown groups. I don't remember who I was with, but I will never forget the Four Tops doing their show completely acapella.
During my two years on active duty in the Navy I saw Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, as well as Sham and the Pharaohs, at the amusement park in Virginia Beach. We didn't even know there was a concert that day until we got to the park. In New York a group of us went to the Latin Quarter where Frank Fontaine was headlining. For those old enough to remember, Fontaine was a regular on the Jackie Gleason show and often played a character called "Crazy Guggenheim" in skits. The ship spent Christmas, 1966, in Port Everglades and a group of us attended the Jackie Gleason Variety Show when he was broadcasting from Miami Beach. During one stay in New York we had second row seats (they tended to put people in uniform closer to the stage) at the Merv Griffin Show. Merv went head-to-head with Johnny Carson on late night for awhile before he quit to start-up most of the popular TV game shows of the era. The highlight for me of that evening was a couple of numbers by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Folk music was huge when I was in high school and Buffy was an icon.
Returning home from the active duty I started work on an Engineering degree at Oakland University just in time to participate in the exploding live music scene in the Detroit area. In the immortal words of Bob Seger, “Detroit city, the home of rock ‘n roll”. Coming up, the Detroit music experience, also known as why Tom is now going deaf.
