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Name: Fleabit Peanut Monkey
E-Mail:
Subject: 30 Years Ago Today - My First Stones Concert Pt 2
Date: Thursday, June 30, 2005
Time: 10:02:59 AM
Remote Address: 199.79.10.118
Message ID: 161485
Parent ID: 161484
Thread ID: 161484
The concert was really long and really great, although there were some sections of it I wasn’t crazy about. I didn’t particularly like “Heartbreaker” and though Mick looked dumb playing a guitar in it. “Fingerprint File” has never been a favorite of mine, and it bothered me that they were switching instruments – Bill playing a little keyboard you couldn’t hear at all while Woody played bass in a style I’ve never liked. And then when Billy Preston did his mini-set I was actually pissed off, because he had done the exact same songs the previous year at the George Harrison concert. Dammit, I didn’t pay $7.50 to see Billy Preston! I was really disappointed that he was the keyboard player anyway, because all of my buddies who had seen them in ’72 raved about Nicky Hopkins, and I was a big fan of his work.
But after Billy’s set was over Mick came back out from doing his midshow blow and went nuts. “Midnight Rambler” in particular was just crazy good, Mick whipping the stage with his glittery girly belt, summoning up some insane and improbable mascara-smeared demon. “Rip This Joint” was a blur.
After “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” they were gone, and we cheered ourselves hoarse, but not hoarse enough for them to honor us with an encore. After a few minutes the house lights came up and I stumbled out into the hot night air, changed.
Setlist:
Honky Tonk Women
All Down The Line
If You Can’t Rock Me/Get Off of My Cloud
Star Star
Gimme Shelter
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
You Gotta Move
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Happy
Tumbling Dice
IORR
Heartbreaker
Fingerprint File
Angie
Wild Horses
That’s Life
Outta Space
Brown Sugar
Midnight Rambler
Rip This Joint
Street Fighting Man
Jumping Jack Flash
Epilogue
Dan and I remained close friends and played together in a band that is still remembered in our little rural PA community as just about the most fun anyone ever had there – every gig was a party. In a place like this, you have to make your OWN fun, and nobody was better at it than Dan. We played a LOT of Stones songs. After we broke up Dan moved to Denver, but for the first few years he would come back to visit and we would get the old band together and throw another party. Then after awhile that stopped and we lost touch, as people sometimes do. Just the occasional letter or phone call. Amazingly, we ran into each other in Atlanta at the B2B show in ’97, and renewed our friendship. That was a GREAT show, and it was so great to see Dan again. Afterwards we went to a blues club and then stayed up most of the night drinking in the place he was staying.
In ’99 Dan came home for a visit and we got the old band together for our 20th anniversary. After that we stayed in touch through email and were always planning the next gig. We compared notes about shows we saw, and talked about seeing the Licks show in Denver together, but it didn’t happen. I emailed to see how the show was, and his response was uncharacteristically undetailed and flat – just “yeah, they were really great.” But actually Dan didn’t go to the show because he was in a hospice dying of cancer. He didn’t tell me, or any of us back home, I guess because we all looked up to him and he didn’t want us feeling sorry for him.
I couldn’t make it to Denver for the funeral, so I threw a wake for him in the bar where the old band used to play. Everyone told stories about Dan – there were a lot of them - and at the end of the night, after many tall frosty pints of Guinness, all of the old boys gathered around a microphone and everyone in the whole bar sang “You Gotta Move” with tears streaming down our faces.
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