Tonight between our long meditation and class we were talking about concerts that really rocked.
Number one for me was in 1968 when Janis Joplin was double-billed with Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Janis was already breaking up with Big Brother, who really didn't give a shit about her or the concert. It was so bad that during a "drum solo" the drummer from Paul Butterfield's band came out on stage and punched out the Big Brother drummer. knocked him out cold. after a brief fist fight the conscious Brothers crawled off the stage, and Janis and Paul got down to some serious drinkin' and jammin' The sang every blues ballad they could think of, just dangling their feet off the end of the stage; the concert seemed to go on for days -- but that could have been the paragoric and mescaline time-warp... however long it lasted, it was perfect; good musicians just exploring and sharing their music and letting us all sit in on it.
there were some other memorable concerts--the Who with Keith Moon spending the night trying to bounce a drumstick off his snare and onto the head of a cop; Country Joe & the Fish so stoned they couldn't remember the lyrics to their own songs, but played a great instrumental set until they came down enuf to play a few actual songs; Jefferson Airplane just before they made After Bathing at Baxter's (still the best album of its kind and time in my opinion); Blues Project; VU; Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, and a few more... oddly enough, I never saw the Dead live, even when they played 6 miles from my house--by then I was so busy with studies I had no clue who was playing where. I really wish I had seen them back in the day; Ravi Shankar fresh from Monterey; would have liked to see SRV as well. oh well.
and thinking about those venues and crowds led me somehow to thinking about His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I first met in 1972 or 74, whenever his first trip to America was. I had just bought a car -- a sweet Dodge Dart with a powerful slant six in it--and a group I was (and still am) loosely connected with was to host him in Upstate NY. I was judged too scruffy by the powers in charge to be his chauffeur, but my car was commandeered as his ride for the duration. He gave a talk that year in the War Memorial in Syracuse -- the same venue I saw Janis and Paul Butterfield in, as well as the Who. There were maybe 75 people in the building and only one ex-cop as security. The government really didn't want to acknowledge HHDL; they were terrified of pissing off China, so there was no support for his trip and no media coverage to speak of. We sat very close and had a lively extended debate on the non-Emptiness of the Dhyan Buddhas... After the talk, I was to pick up my car and drive home, while another car was taking him to the airport. Facing a long (and sort of depressing) ride home, I stepped into the men's room to relieve myself--only to walk straight in to His Holiness! He turned to me and without preamble bowed and said: "Thank you for loaning your car to me; it was nice to ride in." To this day I have no idea how he knew that I was the owner of the car! (I can speculate about all kinds of psychic powers or something as simple as being pointed out in the crowd, but in any case, he took the moment to recognize me and say something). I have met and spoken with His Holiness on numbers of occasions of the years, sometimes having substantive interchanges, sometimes little more than a bow and a blessing; that first time, though, so unexpected, prosaic, and simple, is surely the most precious to me.
So the connection to Janis & co? well, besides the association with the same building in Syracuse, it is the moment of stepping off stage, of ordinariness in which something very simple and wonderful happens; something that is not extraordinary in its ordinariness, or filled with portent, archetypal meaning, but truly, only, simply prosaic, and as such a relief from the drabness of our usual uninhabited ordinariness and from the necessity of high meaning or numinosity called forth by the limelight and the marquee..
Number one for me was in 1968 when Janis Joplin was double-billed with Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Janis was already breaking up with Big Brother, who really didn't give a shit about her or the concert. It was so bad that during a "drum solo" the drummer from Paul Butterfield's band came out on stage and punched out the Big Brother drummer. knocked him out cold. after a brief fist fight the conscious Brothers crawled off the stage, and Janis and Paul got down to some serious drinkin' and jammin' The sang every blues ballad they could think of, just dangling their feet off the end of the stage; the concert seemed to go on for days -- but that could have been the paragoric and mescaline time-warp... however long it lasted, it was perfect; good musicians just exploring and sharing their music and letting us all sit in on it.
there were some other memorable concerts--the Who with Keith Moon spending the night trying to bounce a drumstick off his snare and onto the head of a cop; Country Joe & the Fish so stoned they couldn't remember the lyrics to their own songs, but played a great instrumental set until they came down enuf to play a few actual songs; Jefferson Airplane just before they made After Bathing at Baxter's (still the best album of its kind and time in my opinion); Blues Project; VU; Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, and a few more... oddly enough, I never saw the Dead live, even when they played 6 miles from my house--by then I was so busy with studies I had no clue who was playing where. I really wish I had seen them back in the day; Ravi Shankar fresh from Monterey; would have liked to see SRV as well. oh well.
and thinking about those venues and crowds led me somehow to thinking about His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I first met in 1972 or 74, whenever his first trip to America was. I had just bought a car -- a sweet Dodge Dart with a powerful slant six in it--and a group I was (and still am) loosely connected with was to host him in Upstate NY. I was judged too scruffy by the powers in charge to be his chauffeur, but my car was commandeered as his ride for the duration. He gave a talk that year in the War Memorial in Syracuse -- the same venue I saw Janis and Paul Butterfield in, as well as the Who. There were maybe 75 people in the building and only one ex-cop as security. The government really didn't want to acknowledge HHDL; they were terrified of pissing off China, so there was no support for his trip and no media coverage to speak of. We sat very close and had a lively extended debate on the non-Emptiness of the Dhyan Buddhas... After the talk, I was to pick up my car and drive home, while another car was taking him to the airport. Facing a long (and sort of depressing) ride home, I stepped into the men's room to relieve myself--only to walk straight in to His Holiness! He turned to me and without preamble bowed and said: "Thank you for loaning your car to me; it was nice to ride in." To this day I have no idea how he knew that I was the owner of the car! (I can speculate about all kinds of psychic powers or something as simple as being pointed out in the crowd, but in any case, he took the moment to recognize me and say something). I have met and spoken with His Holiness on numbers of occasions of the years, sometimes having substantive interchanges, sometimes little more than a bow and a blessing; that first time, though, so unexpected, prosaic, and simple, is surely the most precious to me.
So the connection to Janis & co? well, besides the association with the same building in Syracuse, it is the moment of stepping off stage, of ordinariness in which something very simple and wonderful happens; something that is not extraordinary in its ordinariness, or filled with portent, archetypal meaning, but truly, only, simply prosaic, and as such a relief from the drabness of our usual uninhabited ordinariness and from the necessity of high meaning or numinosity called forth by the limelight and the marquee..
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
veronika:
This is a late response but I wanted to thank you for the support on my last blog. It was appreciated!
_holden_:
Thanks. I always enjoy reading your insightful and thoughtful comments on my blog. It truly is appreciated. 