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

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.

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.