Alive As Yesterday: 1971 Concerts

Allman Brothers Band

Wet Willie

Charlotte Coliseum

Charlotte, NC

 

Little Feat

12th Gate

Atlanta, GA

 

Stephen Stills

Crazy Horse

Boston Garden

Boston, MA

SET LIST

Rock & Roll Woman

Questions

Helplessly Holding

Fishes and Scorpions

Go Back Home

Love The One 

Black Queen

Know You Got TO RUn

Word Game

Change Partners

Do For The Others

Jesus Gave Love Away For Free

I'd Have To Be Crazy

Attitude

You Don't Have To Cry

49 Bye-Byes

For What It's Worth

Ecology Song

Open Secret

Lean On Me Baby

Bluebird Revisited

Cherokee

  1.  

B.B. King

Ballin' Jack, Christian Rapid

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

 

Steve Miller Band

Grits

Cowtown Ballroom

Kansas City, MO

Cowtown Ballroom was a legendary concert venue in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened in the summer of 1971, and over the next 38 months it established itself as one of the finest venues along the concert trail. A little over 10 years ago there happened to bee a documentary about the venue titled Cowtown Ballroom … Sweet Jesus! that was filmed as an oral history from many of the musicians that played there, along with the people who helped run it and the fans it attracted. If you were lucky enough to see it, you’ll probably agree it’s a tale of both geography and that small, special period of time in 20th-century music history.

 

Cactus, Flamin' Groovies

Redeye

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

 

Miles Davis

Elvin Bishop Group

Mandrill

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

 

It's A Beautiful Day

James Cotton Blues Band

Jubilee Auditorium

Calgary, Canada

This beautiful handbill, designed by Bob Masse, advertises a show for It’s a Beautiful Day and James Cotton Blues Band at Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Alberta on Sunday November 14, 1971.

 

 

Sly & The Family Stone

Rare Earth, Ruth Copeland

Madison Square Garden

NYC

"There was a time when the music might have justified it. In his first appearances with the Family Stone, Sly Stewart—former disk jockey, superb guitarist, organist and drummer, brilliant songwriter and arranger—established what was virtually a new pop music style, Mixing up the long, tension‐building vamps of rhythm and blues with the electric energy and ear‐slitting acoustical wattage of rock, he became the first major black performer since Jimi Hendrix to conquer the white market.

But the edges of Sly's Olympian dream have begun to blur a bit. Instead of ranging through the wide variety of material he has written and recorded, Sly now focuses on the crowdrousing, everybody‐on‐your‐feet, boom‐sha‐ka‐la‐ka‐la‐ka numbers that are his commercial hits. And after a while, “Dance to the Music” and “You Can, Make It If You Try” and “Stand” and “I Want to Take You Higher” all begin to sound like parts of one incessantly repeated chord, one unending rhythm pattern." (NY TIMES)

 

 

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

Head Over Heels

Cowtown Ballroom

Kansas City, MO

 

Steve Miller Band

Sand

Salem Armory

Salem, MA

 

Poco

Siegel-Schwall

Wishbone Ash

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

 

Rod Stewart & The Faces

Southern Comfort

Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage

Stephen Stills, Frank Zappa & The Mothers

Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin

Berkeley Community Theatre

Berkeley, CA

 

Van Morrison

Paramount Theatre

Seattle, WA

 

 

 

 

End The War Rally

Grateful Dead

Yale University

New Haven, CT

This interesting show has hidden in plain sight for years since being used as a part of Road Trips Vol. 1, No. 3 in 2008.  It has a little bit of everything – two premiere performances, an amazing journey of a first set and a second set larded with rockers, all played by the mean, lean version of the Dead with no Mickey and no Keith either.  What’s not to love?

 

Albert King

Mott The Hoople

Freddie King

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

 

Rolling Stones

UK Tour

 

Elton John with Dee Murray & Nigel Olsson

England Dan & John Ford Coley

City Hall

Newcastle, UK

 

Black Sabbath

Edgar Winter's White Trash

Portland Coliseum

Portland, OR

 

 

December Tour '71

Alice Cooper

 

 

Steppenwolf

Zembo Mosque

Harrisburg, PA

 

 

 

Taj Mahal

Stoneground, Trapeze

Ten Years After

Cactus, Pot Liquor

Fillmore West / Winterland

San Francisco, CA

 

Poco

Emerson Lake & Palmer

John Mayall

Public Hall

Cleveland, OH

 

 

 

Traffic

Mountain

Mott The Hoople

Hofheinz Pavillion

University of Houston

Houston, TX

 

New Year's Eve

Grateful Dead

Winterland Arena

San Francisco, CA

 

Procol Harum

Paramount Northwest

Seattle, WA

 

The Byrds

Bill Withers

Fleetwood Mac

Colosseum

Pacific Northwest

Seattle, WA

 

Ray Charles

The Raelets

The Big Ray Charles Orchestra

Muhammad Ali

R.K.O. Albee

Brooklyn, NY

 

Setlists during this tour include: Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, That's the Way, What Is and What Should Never Be, Whole Lotta Love (medley), Communication Breakdown.

Led Zeppelin

Mayfair, UK

 

 

 

James Brown

The Dramatics

Bobby Byrd, The Stylistics

Clay Tyson, Lynn Collins

Cobo Arena

Detroit, MI

 

Hot Tuna

Emerson Symnasium

Case Western Reserve University

Cleveland, OH

 

Small Faces with Rod Stewart

Savoy Brown

The Grease Band

Boston Music Hall

Boston, MA

 

Alice Cooper

Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come

Rainbow Theatre

London, UK

 

 

The Byrds

Blue Oyster Cult

Mahavishnu Orchestra featuring John McLaughlin

Stony Brook University

Stony Brook, NY

 

 

Led Zeppelin

Hollywood Speedway Park Sportatorium

Hollywood, FL

 

 

 

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

Rueben & The Jets

Paramount Northwest

Seattle, WA

 

John Lee Hooker

Jerry Garcia & Merle Saunders

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen

Jeffery Cain

Berkeley Little Theatre

Berkeley, CA

 

Faces

Deep Purple

Matthews Southern Comfort

Cleveland Public Hall

Cleveland, OH

 

 

Traffic

Fairport Convention

Anaheim Convention Center

Anaheim, CA

 

 

Traffic

1971 Tour Germany

 

Isaac Hayes

The Temptations

Apollo Theatre

NYC

 

The Byrds

Factory

Viking Hall Upsala College

East Orange, NJ

 

The Byrds

Tim Hardin

Meehan Auditorium

Brown University

Providence, RI

 

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Frankfurt, Germany

 

Badfinger

Revelation

Kent, OH

 

 

Van Morrison

Copperhead

David Blue

Berkeley Community Theatre

Berkeley, CA

 

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

Ry Cooder

Comerford Theatre

Wilkes-Barre, PA

Here's a recent Facebook post by John Drumbo French that captures some of the madness of this Capt. Beefheart tour in 1971: “Winged Eel Fingerling and Grant Gibbs both left the touring party about this time. To be honest, I was happy to see them both leave. Grant had not the strength to be a tour manager. Don got away with far too much, and Grant was constantly frustrated and became almost useless. I kept asking Gibbs if we could get some per diem, and kept saying, 'When we get to New York, you'll have money.' In New York, he gave us each an envelope stuffed with twenty one-dollar bills. I looked at the money in disbelief, but most of my stint in the band had been penniless, so I reminded myself of Don's history of not paying the band.

Elliot was getting drugs from Jeff Kaplan -- the bassist for Ry Cooder. I often got stuck sharing a room with Elliot, and, truthfully, didn't enjoy his habit of walking around naked. Add to that the fact that the laws on drugs ( cocaine, I think ) were VERY strict in 1971, I had it out verbally with Elliot. He left the group the next day as I recall. The truth of the matter is, I figured that they'd bust me along with Elliot if anyone reported drugs. Maybe I was paranoid, but I was totally anti-drug at that point. Gibbs was replaced by Carl Scott, a large, rather imposing figure who was, I say without a doubt, morbidly obese. Krasnow had introduced him shortly after the failed Mt. Tamalpais show. We met at his house, an A-Frame structure just where Crescent Heights turned into Laurel Canyon. As I recall, he was the manager of the group Harper's Bizarre." This was the first time I'd seen him since -- some four years' later. When we played Comerford Theater, it was the first night without Elliot, and we didn't have a sound check. We had a short time in the dressing room to prepare, and then took longer than usual to get to the stage -- it was almost a Spinal Tap moment -- with us walking backstage in betwixt props and lighting gear in the freaking dark. 

Finally, we found it, and standing backstage was Carl Scott, wearing a headset and giving lighting and sound commands I guess. It seems like it was about 3/4 full when we emerged onstage to lukewarm response. Don always started the show with "Big Joan" -- and stuck his horn right over the mic, blasting the ears of the audience. 90% of the audience was gone after that. It's too bad, because there was some great music in the set, and I always thought Big Joan was about the most hostile piece -- because of the repetition and the loudness of the horn -- that we could play. I remember people RUNNING for the exits. Carl Scott must have brought Don's old King soprano from Los Angeles -- as I know his Selmer had been stolen in NY. We had quite an entourage -- 2 roadies, 9 band people, Jan, and a tour manager. Plus all our equipment was excess baggage. We were paid nothing for the tour as all the money was used up in tour expenses. The one thing I'll say is that the band was tighter without Elliot. Bill took over the solo in Blunderland, and it was great to see him being given a chance to solo for once. After the last show, we went back to LA and wound up staying with a LA Times journalist (Charles T. Powers) who gave Artie and I a ride back to our house in Laurel Canyon, which had been rented to someone else -- with all our furniture (mostly Artie's) and clothes still in the house. The whole time we had been on the road, the accountants hadn't paid any of our bills. I should have had the sense to leave then, however, I was still under contract for about 6 months -- long enough to move twice ( Santa Cruz and then Trinidad ) and record "The Spotlight Kid" -- and then be fired from the band for the second time."

 

 

 

The Who

UK Tour 1971

 

 


 

 


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