Re: Winterland 12/15/1978

<mbeckbike@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:477d721d-c906-4dd4-88af-6ef59483fd8f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Dec 15, 11:01 pm, "bbison" <bbis...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<mbeckb...@xxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:4f2d546c-4aad-4f5e-890e-c07a31c77e61@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thirty years ago boy that seems like a long time.

I was living in L.A. at the time and had never been to
Winterland
and this 2 night stand was the only time I ever did see a show there.
A friend of mine talked me into flying up and I got the local
CBS
record rep to comp ma a pair for the first night even though as he
said
they were still pissed at me for playing Darkness on the air a couple
of
weeks before it's release. I remember the place as being very much
like an
old high school gym.
I had been lucky enough to see the Roxy show in the summer and
was wondering how he could top that.
That question was answered by the first 7 songs of set 2 which
took
things to a level I had very rarely seen. The friend who was with me
had
gone to every California show on The BTR tour and his jaw was dragging
on the floor.
Words really cannot describe what went on that night and it
almost seems like
it diminishes what went on there. The 2 questions posed above are also
impossible to answer
but I feel safe in saying that is without a doubt the greatest live
radio broadcast of all time.
What are the chances that you could get several radio stations to
commit that amount
of air time to a live broadcast by one artist.
Bruce came in with the attitude that he had something to prove
and prove it he did.
The next night has also always had a special place in my memory as
well. Probably because a
whole bunch of friends came up from San Luis Obispo for it and being
back in the day before the net
they had no idea what they were about to experience. I kept my mouth
shut and just kept a knowing
smile on my face and watched them as they stared in wide eyed wonder.
As i recall ngiht 2 Bruce started losing his voice during the
second set and the band really stepped
up. All in all a very fine way to spend a weekend.
The 2 nights he did in Chicago at the Uptown for the River
tour and last summer in St. Louis are the closet
I have seen him come to that.

Wow. If even you're mentioning 10/10-11/80--with the dasm balcony bouncing
up and down during Rosalita--in the same breath as Winterland, that's high
praise.

I would giess part of it was sitting dead center row 3 night 1 and row 5
night 2
no tickets from the record company that night as the radio station I was
working at
had played The River early and CBS got all pissy and somehow got a cease
and desist order
and tried to serve it on us. We just did not answer the door and then
played it all the way thru a second time.
The guy who was on the air before me played it once and I played it the
second time.
We knew that there was going to be a C&D served so I got to work early that
night and I think we were drinking
ST Pauli Girls. Also this was the first time my wife saw Bruce and he came
and
set on the arm of the chair she was in. Damm I miss making a record promo
guys life a living hell by playing
things early.

Not sure what station you were at, but I remember driving up with a buddy
from Bloomington to the first show. We hadn't heard a thing off The River
except "Hungry Heart", but by the day of the show it was playing on Chicago
radio non-stop. We were frantically flipping around between WXRT, The Loop
and 95&1/2 WMET trying to learn the new songs on the way ot the show. Good
times...


.

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