Publisher's Synopsis
Over the years I have come to regard attending concerts as highlights of my life; chances to witness first hand the wonder created by what I consider to be some of the greatest contemporary musical talents at full power on stage. I am sure that most everyone who has attended a great concert has a least a few memories of it; their own Concert Footage. This book is my account of over 200 of these events beginning in 1970 and spanning forty years. Luminaries in the world of rock and jazz that it has been my extreme good fortune to see perform live are Yes, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Moody Blues, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pat Metheny Group, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Crosby, Still & Nash, Neil Young, Rush, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Return To Forever, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin, Weather Report, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, and Bill Bruford among many others. Included in this chronological history is background material on the performers and their ongoing history. Also detailed are the varied and storied concert venues involving intimate gatherings to stadium crowds for solo acoustic performances to gargantuan rock spectacle. Also detailed are the good and bad travel related experiences, the requisite intoxication and indulgence, and great friends and family sharing in the events. All related, at times with a fair dose of humor, through the eyes of the author; your typical middle class guy from a typical Midwestern background who just happened to fall in love with music during the mid sixties. Much credit must be given to the Beatles for so heavily influencing the direction this love of music would take. But it was the initial concert experiences of the early seventies that forever changed me. In particular, Hendrix in the summer of 1970 was the springboard to all that would follow. Although still too young and inexperienced at the time to fully appreciate the late great megatalent, Hendrix opened my eyes to the amazing possibilities and power of music in a live setting. Subsequent monster shows by Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Yes a few years later set the benchmark and put me on a course to pursue music and concerts that lived up to the set precedent. Touched on are the amazing relationships and lasting bonds formed with great bands like these, forged by the music and such stunning performances. But of course along the way there were numerous new musical paths to explore that rarely, if ever, resulted in anything but a different yet wonderful concert experience. There were drugs and alcohol as well; also contributing to the formation of those bonds and an indisputable part of what the great music of this generation is about. Perhaps excerpts from a sort of top ten list might include shows like Yes' 1976 and 1991 shows in Dallas, The Who's Cotton Bowl concert during their 1982 "farewell" North American tour, Jethro Tull's 1973 Passion Play concert, The Moody Blues' 1982 Long Distance Voyager concert in Dallas, Pink Floyd's 1980 The Wall concert in Los Angeles and their great Texas Stadium shows of 1988 and 1994, and Return To Forever's 2008 Reunion concert in Dallas. I wrote this book for myself, while keeping in mind the thousands of people that were in those audiences with me. Indeed, I have to hope that a number of them will find this book and relive their experiences. Another goal would be to rekindle interest that may have waned in the music of these great artists. Quite obviously, without them, there would be no book. And lastly, should a reader come across an artist new to them (perhaps Camel or Marillion), investigate them, and discover something that enriches their life, then I would deem Concert Footage a worthwhile endeavor indeed.
