It’s not that often that you get to be at a noteworthy rock and roll performance. I’ve had the opportunity to see a couple of musicians in concert as they were preparing to record live albums. I saw Jimmy Buffett in Memphis on August 1, 1978. This was exactly a week before he started recording concerts that became the double live album You Had To Be There. I also got to see Bob Dylan on November 10, 1994 in Jackson, Tennessee which was exactly a week before he started filming the concerts that became the MTV Unplugged show and album. While I didn’t get to see the shows that were the ones that became part of these historic recordings, I did get a chance to see these artists while they were prepping for these important shows. I felt they would be prepping to be at the top of their game during these shows and I was fortunate to see them at those special times.
I was actually in the audience of a live album that won a Grammy award. Robin Williams recorded an album called Live 2002. This two CD set was recorded at various cities during a 2002 tour. The first disc contains the bulk of the material that became part of a Live from Broadway HBO special recorded at the end of the tour. The show we saw On July 7, 2002 was exactly a week before the Live show aired on HBO. The second disc of the CD set includes most of the material he had worked up specific to the cities on the tour. My laughter in the crowd on this track of the CD is my contribution this Grammy winning performance.
Rock star Paul Kantner was a founding member of the band Jefferson Airplane and later a part of Jefferson Starship. With Jefferson Airplane, he has played at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. He argued with a Hell’s Angel at the Rolling Stones free concert at the Altamont Speedway. He was still touring with a version of Jefferson Starship when I had the opportunity to see him perform on January 16, 2016, at a fundraiser in Jackson, Tennessee for a local charity. This would be the last concert he ever played. He died 12 days later. Getting to see the last concert of this significant music icon is probably the most historic show I ever attended.