Poll: Which concert would you attend from the listings in the 8-29-77 Village Voice I found at my mom's house?

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Village Gate

I'd probably go with Mingus, but that AC/DC show is real tempting.

aztec two step all the way

Blondie w/Screaming Jay Hawkins

^wow, our city sucks pretty hard now

Definitely Dictators and AC/DC, but Blondie/Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a close second.

clearly Sic Fux w/ Nervous Eaters

tough choice between Talking Heads, Blondie and the last 2.

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks with the Fleshtones (weird double-bill) looks pretty tempting also. And Richard Hell and all those jazz cats and Joia Gilberto...Tough choices

There's a Lester Bangs piece on the front page about Elvis Presley. Stephen Holden reviews Alan Parsons. Dan Oppenheimer reviews the Jam's "In the City."

I don't want to get all "things were better then," but things definitely seem less monochromatic then.

This is tough, Bon Scott era AC/DC, Talking Heads or Debbie Harry in her prime. Depends on how much of a letch I would be in '77.

I guess as AC/DC are support the slot they get would be pretty short. Talking Heads looks good but the chance to see Screaming Jay as well as Blondie is too good to miss.

I'd probably go with Mingus, but that AC/DC show is real tempting.

― Thus Sang Freud, Sunday, January 25, 2009 4:45 PM (35 minutes ago)

exactly.

Was Mingus even able to play in '77? I'm sure his band would have been great, but I don't think I'd want to see him near the end.

Mingus. And I would take your mom.

Talking Heads

I mean, I'd love to be all contrarian in go for Sic Fux or Victims or whatev, but seeing Talking Heads in 77 is like a no-brainer.

Gilberto or NRPS.

usually i abstain due to complete suck, but i think i might have to abstain due to too many options

who am i fooling.

which is free?

Blondie. or Talking Heads

The choice of newave/punk in the flush of youth vs. last and only chance for jazz legend is impossible. I'm boycotting.

Dictators!

seeing Talking Heads in 77 is like a no-brainer.

OTM!

The choice of newave/punk in the flush of youth vs. last and only chance for jazz legend is impossible.

New wave/punk is going to win handily. You should vote jazz to boost the results a bit.

Especially since I just gave Talking Heads another well deserved vote.

Oh wait, I might actually vote for Melanie

Mingus. And I would take your mom.

Haha! I'm not sure she'd have enjoyed it, though. Although I found the paper at my mom's house, it was originally my paper, not hers. Her tastes run more to Frank Sinatra.

who am i fooling.

which is free?

The Dictators, Michael Stanley, AC/DC ad lists a price of $3.50.

Those Central Park Music Festival shows were only a few bucks.

voted Mingus

Was Mingus even able to play in '77? I'm sure his band would have been great, but I don't think I'd want to see him near the end.

― WmC, Sunday, January 25, 2009 12:26 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I was gonna say. Mingus '77 is not the ideal time to see Mingus.

I'll bet if I went to Chuck Mangione my mom would be there.

Mingus still had a great band in '77, though, and was making some monster records. Cumbia and Jazz Fusion!

Definitely Blondie/Screamin' Jay, even though Blondie became much a better live band later on in their career.

Blondie/Screamin' Jay and the fact that I never made it to CBGB = trifecta.

ANDY GIBB.

Blondie/SCreamin Jay almost wins for sheer WTF-ness but the only person on this list I really am sorry I never got to see play live is Rahsaan Roland Kirk

unless '77 is post-stroke...? can't remember

I voted for the Dead: it's Dick's Pick #15! They were hot in 1977.

1. eddie rabbit
2. roland kirk

Either Mingus or Blondie, probably the latter. Parenthetically, as a Clevelander it blows my mind that the fucking Michael Stanley Band is on that AC/DC & Dictators bill.

Who is Michael Stanley Band?

I had a tale about going to New York about 11 years ago.

Peoeple would ask "Did you go to CBGBs?" and I;d say no.

Because it's like if I had gone in 1978 or something, braved the scene to go down to CBGB's to see some proper punk band, and it was something polite like Talking Heads, got all disappointed and left early, but then TH became a great band and one I liked a lot. And I'd tell the tale about how I saw them at CBGB's, and they'd ask "Wow, what was it like?" and I'd go "bit disappointed really" because that's how reality runs.

Dareesay that the same thing might well have happened in 1996 or whenever it was.

So, I'll vote Richard Hell.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/1693334364_7412e2153e.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stanley_Band

All through junior high and high school, they were like the biggest thing on the planet if you were from Cleveland, but nobody anywhere else had ever heard of them, despite a career spanning four major labels and the input of some fairly big-time producers. They were sort of Cleveland's answer Southside Johnny and the Jukes or something like that.

Larry Coryell & Alphonse Mouzon w/Pat Metheny, My Father's Place

99% chance that i was actually at this show as a small child.

not because of my awesome fusion cred, but pretty sure that this was the tour my dad was on.

Torn between Gilberto and Richard Hell.

Go to both and then you too can be Arto Lindsay.

nicely done

I was going to vote for Gilberto, then I decided what the hell: Gilberto's still playing, but when else am I going to see PEZBAND?

In '77 I definitely would have chosen Blondie.

talking heads easy

well i guess i wld pick roland kirk - tho' sonny fortune is a real fave of mine, and i bet he was cooking in 77 - but yeah, 77 is also the dead's last great year - here's their setlist:

Grateful Dead
Raceway Park
Englishtown, NJ
9/3/77
Set One: The Promised Land [3:56] ; They Love Each Other [6:52] ; Me And My Uncle [2:43] ; Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [13:03] ; Looks Like Rain [7:18] ; Peggy-O [8:24] ; New Minglewood Blues [4:45] ; Friend Of The Devil [7:36] ; The Music Never Stopped [6:38]
Set Two: Bertha [8:37] > Good Lovin' [5:14] ; Loser [7:44] ; Estimated Prophet [9:33] > Eyes Of The World [12:55] ; Samson And Delilah [6:27] ; He's Gone [16:20] > Not Fade Away [20:08] > Truckin' [8:37]
Encore: Terrapin Station [10:31]

shame they didn't do franklin's tower or scarlet begonias/fire on the mountain or morning dew, but still...

Very tempted by Mingus or Dizzy but would have to return to my first love and go with the Possum, even if that period was a bit of a creative trough.

Mongo Santamaria! And I'm sure Blondie would be fun - was Gary Valentine still the bass player then? I'm very curious about the Larry Coryell/Alphonse Mouzon show - bet it was worth the while.

totes blondie

seeing Talking Heads in 77 is like a no-brainer.

no fudging shoot.

Richard Hell & the Voidoids w/Helen Wheels & Mars, Village Gate

picked this one cause I never saw Hell w/Robt Quine. see since Im so OLD several more-deserving choices I actually saw around this time.

Talking Heads in early 78 -- awesome.

Blondie in 77 (opening for Iggy) -- not so awesome.

New Riders of the Purple Sage w/David Bromberg -- saw this bill later in 77. probably like it better now.

Pezband in 77 -- much heavier than the records, more power than pop. great gildersleves was a weird place tho.

T. Heads of course, but seriously tempted by Gilberto.

Kinda hard to beat Blondie/Screamin' Jay on the same bill, so that.

To see Nervous Eaters doing Just Head live would be a great thing. Who were Sic Fux though??

Mingus, assuming "Charlie" Mingus = Charles Mingus; or Talking Heads

That Dead show at Englishtown turned out to be pretty iconic-the tape of that show is great. AC/DC was probably on stage for a really short time, so I pick the Dead.

George Jones

(saw Dizzy Gillespie in '80, then twice more)

coryell/mouzon/metheny could have been pretty crazy in '77

voted George Jones just narrowly over Talking Heads

Gilberto.

I think Mars is what pushes that one into the winner column for me, although Blondie and TH are close seconds. Plus, Richard Hell hadn't gotten quite as junked out in '77 yet.

I will be so happy if Roland Kirk wins this

hell + mars, but it wasn't easy

Mingus, though that certainly is an impressive list. At least a dozen other shows I would've died to go see. Weird. Do you think that in 30 years you could do a list of shows from one week in 2008 and be so amazed?

Kirk or Mingus.

With gillespie, richard Hell and Gilberto right behiind.

I think I'd just be hanging outside the back door of the Village Gate all week.

Andy Gibb in his prime!
Foreigner in their cooze-hunting prime!

mongo santamaria would be a trip, but i always hated the bottom line.

tough to choose. probably anything at the village gate!

or the grateful dead at raceway park.

anyway, weird time in nyc history. this was the same summer as the big blackout and son of sam. i was just a baby (in brooklyn) so none of this was really on my radar yet.

Yeah, the Bottom Line was like sitting at high school cafeteria tables with people you didn't know & looking sideways at the stage (at least it was when I went there). I was thinking of that factor too.

Boy, all of these options & you could also have gone disco dancing...

Am I the only one who enjoyed the Bottom Line? Great sitelines, a GREAT sound system, shows started when they were supposed to, you could sit, there was no minimum, the bar food wasn't too expensive, you could actually exchange or return tickets at the box office, the personal pizzas weren't totally horrible. What was not to like? Yeah, they reserved the best seats for industry people, but sometimes it was fun to ogle.

Holy shit - I would HANDCUFF myself to a supporting pillar somewhere inside the Village Gate and stay there for a month! Mingus, Kirk, and Dizzy, not to mention the Voidoids and the no-wave guys - wow...Other than that, I'd probably enjoy seeing the Dictators and AC/DC rock the Palladium.

Marbles w/Avenger - in a heartbeat. The Marbles are like the great lost punk band - not that they were that punk. And then the Avengers too.

Althoust the Teenage Jesus/Fleshtones show would have been a blast.

Holy shit - I would HANDCUFF myself to a supporting pillar somewhere inside the Village Gate and stay there for a month!

Lady, if you have to ask...

Still weighing the NWave vs Jazz. Think I should vote for departed jazz guys, but Quine is gone too.

Don't know why jbr and others hated Bottom Line. The neutral red-checked tablecloth atmosphere turned out to be appropriate to accommodate the great variety of acts that appeared there.

if I had time machine I would go back and have sets at all these shows.

change my vote to this

i chose Hell & Mars

Does the listing actually say "Charlie" Mingus?

anyway, weird time in nyc history. this was the same summer as the big blackout and son of sam. i was just a baby (in brooklyn) so none of this was really on my radar yet.

Same except I was a fetus in Manhattan. That said it would have to have been Talking Heads then Blondie for me.

George Jones

My second choice, not by a long way.

But I'd be worried that he would be too drunk to show.

Does the listing actually say "Charlie" Mingus?

Yup. I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

I left stuff out, too, in the interest of brevity. Now I regret it. McCoy Tyner. Charlie Rouse. Stumblebunny. What was I thinking?

Holy crap -- I think AC/DC were a "special guest" on that Marbles/Avenger bill at CBGB:

http://www.acdc-bootlegs.com/concerthistory/?gig=354

Hey Ned. This bud's for you, in the order of the list.

I grew up in the Bay Area so I saw the Dead a bunch of times, including NY's eve '73 @ Winterland (I think, or maybe '72) and subsequently in Jersey City, outdoors (don't ask) w/The Band just after the big Watkins Glen gig (we went to a big disco too, but no one would talk to me 'cause I saw stoned out of my mind, wearing aviator shades, with hair down to my ass). I saw probably anytime they played @ Winterland from '72-74.

Saw Mingus @ the Tyee Motor Lodge Tumwater Wa in about '77. He stopped the band in the middle of the set and tore Danny a new asshole for getting lost. Mingus made off with my housemate Michaels' girlfriend and we has to retrieve her from his room, so I've seen Mingus, pissed off and naked except for a towel on the middle of the night. Danny subsequently stole my friend Manny (who's band opened)'s tenor and they had to get a search warrant for his hotel room in Seattle the next day, to get it back.

My folks took me to see Mongo Santamaria @ the Checkmate Inn (owned by one of the guys in the Checkmates) in East Palo Alto when I was in Jr high. I took a date. We danced. It was a bar and I don't know how they let us in there. That would be in '68 or '69.

I saw the New Riders a few times, when Garcia was still in the band. The two times I remember were when Garcia had the flu and was high on cold medicine, very psychedelic solos with lots of echoplex, and the other supported by Miles (On the Corner band) @ Frost Ampitheater (Stanford U... outdoors in the daytime, I shot color slides which I still have). This gig is how I always win the "what's the weirdest double bill you ever saw" game.

I made my cousin take me to see the Newport Jazz Festival @ Madison Square Garden when I was about 12, so that'd be about '68: Cecil Taylor, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dizzy Gillespie. I remember Cecil, all fists and elbows, Roland Kirk with 3 horns in his mouth and banging his chair on the stage floor, and Dizzy seeming kind of passe, doing the Afro-Cuban thing. My cousin was bored silly. I guess I was kinda a weird kid.

My ex-roommate/ex-girlfriend took me to CB's to see T Heads supporting Television 2 nights in a row in the Summer of '76. We smoked a joint in the club, and I made eye contact with Lou Reed.

I saw Screaming Jay Hawkins @ Biddy Mulligan's in Chicago around '86, which held, dunno, 100 people? 200? He talked a lot about furburgers. I also saw Ra there around then. The band didn't fit on the stage.

I saw Richard Hell @ the Berkeley Square (I think) in '82 or '83 fronting some suburban rock band. The band was obnoxious, and not in a good way, whereas Hell was obnoxious, but not in a bad way. I think I saw Iggy there too, later...

Dunno what that leaves me with... I would have loved to see Larry Coryell, though maybe not with Alphonse Mouzon, but I was a fusion-head back then, so maybe. I probably wouldn't have been ready for Teenage Jesus & the Jerks yet in '77, not til a couple of years later. The older (today) me wishes to have seen Joao Gilberto (he still touring?), or maybe Mars. Mmmm Robert Quine... maybe I'll come back later and vote. Nice options to have though.

holy fuckin shit! that's it, i'm moving to new york in the late 70's.

compare with this coming friday:

Andy Friedman & the Other Failures
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
Beat Circus
Blood
Steve Cardenas Quartet
Cold War Kids
Dysrhythmia+Tombs
Kings of Leon
Lykke Li+Wildbirds & Peacedrums
Lil' Dusty
The Pretenders
John Scofield
Slipknot
The Sword
The Thermals
Simone White
Maddy Wyatt's Sagebrush Valentine
Christine Ebersole
Joey Calderazzo Trio
Que Bajo?!
Rose Live Music

looks pretty eh to me, but perhaps i'm just not looking hard enough?

Antibalas rules that list

actually further digging through the VV website reveals Talib Kweli at S.O.B.'s, John Legend at madison square, Metallica at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Nightmares on Wax at Music Hall of Williamsbur, Kevin Saunderson at Webster Hall, They Might Be Giants@ (le) poisson rouge, not to mention random stuff like Punk Rock Heavy Metal Karaoke at Fontana's,or 'Ashford & Simpson's Legendary Open Mic Night' at Sugar Bar so maybe no need to invest in a time machine just yet.

i wonder if parlaiment, kool and the gang and sabbath were all also playing 8-29-77 and the voice just didn't bother listing them at the top?

I saw John Legend a couple years back and he was absolutely great. I would definitely see him again if I wasn't so worried about his poor new material dragging him down.

Factcheckr I would like to live in your skull for a while.

i saw john legend a couple of months ago and he bored me to death

Re "Charlie" Mingus: I was just curious about this. It's funny. I don't know if one of the 30 or so albums I own by him is credited this way.

Saw Mingus @ the Tyee Motor Lodge Tumwater Wa in about '77. He stopped the band in the middle of the set and tore Danny a new asshole for getting lost. Mingus made off with my housemate Michaels' girlfriend and we has to retrieve her from his room, so I've seen Mingus, pissed off and naked except for a towel on the middle of the night. Danny subsequently stole my friend Manny (who's band opened)'s tenor and they had to get a search warrant for his hotel room in Seattle the next day, to get it back.

!!!

An impossible list to choose from. I'd love to have been able to see new wave in the 70s but Kirk or Mingus would've been pretty mindblowing too...

Kirk died before the end of 1977.

I thought I'd seen it before. East Coasting by Charlie Mingus. 1957, but I'm looking at a 2000 cd.

I would see Richard Hell, for the Robert Quine especially.

the idea of Dictators, Michael Stanley Band and AC/DC on the same bill makes sense if you think low level major label hard rock signings playing together to help their careers with the hard rock fans and programmers. None of them ever amounted to anything unfortunately.

voted foreigner

cos I don't want to bump into all you douches at the blondie/screamin jay gig

whoa, Stumblebunny?

"No Show Jones." just for the fuck of it.

I think Mingus's widow rants about if you see records that say "Charlie" Mingus rather than Charles, it's a bootleg or something.

hey, maybe it was a Bootleg Charlie Mingus show?

Maybe they were taping it for a future bootleg LP?

Richard Hell, that minx

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510W9JN4QSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31TD5896EGL._SL500_AA216_.jpg

LP 1 is himself going "(sigh) not again.."

I thought this Charles/Charlie controversy was the same as the "Louie"/"Louis" Armstrong controversy.
(xxpost ha)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W4GJDS1WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KV4JPXZDL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Andrew/Andy Cole

Walter/Wendy Carlos

Richard Hell and Mars

From http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/Mingus/unauthorized.html
"Other signs of unauthorized copies include misspelled song titles, Danny instead of Dannie Richmond, misspellings of Jaki Byard, Cliff instead of Clifford Jordan, and especially Charlie rather than Charles Mingus. Many live recordings are also bootlegs."
So ... yeah, funny that a concert so late in Mingus's life would still have him listed as Charlie.

Joey Calderazzo Trio

Har, do you think in 30 years, there'll be people saying, "Dang, I would've loved to see that Kings of Leon show in '09!"

George Jones, just to see if he showed up.

(xpost)
Maybe. Who knows? Of course those people probably won't be posting on the Rolling 2039 Country thread.

My new calling shall be posting lists of gigs to annoy Ned. When I run out, I'll post stories my mom told me about going to the Apollo in '35. THAT's old school.

I voted for the Roy Buchanan gig... 50,000 English guitar players can't be wrong.

"Har, do you think in 30 years, there'll be people saying, "Dang, I would've loved to see that Kings of Leon show in '09!""

honestly no, but talib, legend, metallica or the pretenders quite possibly

also there may be some obscure "radio broker" kinda stuff buried in the listings that i wouldn't know about if i didn't live there but will maybe blow up to talking heads/richard hell level fame one day...

I would be at the front row of that Andy Gibb show.

I saw Andy Gibb at Chicagofest, if not summer of 77 then sometime in the few years after. At one point he jumped through a hoop of fire. (Top THAT, factcheckr!)

I voted Talking Heads, with Mars and Mingus close behind.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Can't touch that...

i couldnt decide on this if you paid me.

Joao Gilberto, Bottom Line
Mongo Santa Maria, Bottom Line
Charlie Mingus, Village Gate
Dizzy Gillespie, Village Gate
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Village Gate
Talking Heads w/Laughing Dogs, CBGB
Blondie w/Screaming Jay Hawkins, CBGB
Richard Hell & the Voidoids w/Helen Wheels & Mars, Village Gate

those all sound like so much fun. i really don't think it's hard to say things were much better back then.

fwiw most of the good shows are probably unlisted in the VV these days because of shadiness of shows and venues combined with VV = worthless. This inc. the Baltimore/Brooklyn set w/ Dan Deacon et al. Those are the ones that ppl will be polling in 2039...

Also went Blondie SJH because one person's weird is another person's appropriate...

Dizzy
(Wonder how far I would have to travel to see Gilberto still playing though)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I voted for George Jones, but I think I probably would have enjoyed the Eddie Rabbit show more.

this was ridiculously hard - even the godawful mainstream stuff sounds great! i mean, if richard hell AND mingus AND the talking heads AND blondie weren't playing, i'd totally go see foreigner. except then i'd miss ac/dc. cripes!

Since we're nitpicking names, Santamaria is one word.

The no-votes are always interesting on these threads. Buzzy Linhart might have been a good show. He played on a Jimi Hendrix album.

No love for Belzer???

Since we're nitpicking names, Santamaria is one word.

I was being overly faithful to the way they were listed in the paper. In Mongo's case, they may have just listed it that way because the Bottom Line ad was too skinny to fit "Santamaria."

Chuck Mangione was robbed.

Did he get mugged or did someone break into his house?

I'm back to say that I was recently tortured by being reminded of one gig from probably the fall of 1978 which I did not attend which I really would have liked to have gone to which I read about in the school newspaper the Monday after it happened which took place in a space that I was in more or less every day of my life for three years, which was The Speedies playing in the Bronx High School of Science cafeteria and throwing Captain Crunch at the audience.

(The previous post eerily prescient of recent Daptone related events)

Ten years later: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/12/arts/critics-choices-pop-music.html

Just became aware of a 1971 double bill at The Bitter End featuring Herbie Hancock and Jackie Lomax and thought of this thread.