This is a fine post about Smiley Lewis by Dimestoreradio,
It’s a shame that Lewis’s records are best known in cover versions:
Blue Monday and I Hear You Knocking – Fats Domino
One Night (of Sin) – Elvis Presley (with more wholesome lyrics)
At least nobody else (that I know of) did anything with “Shame Shame Shame”.
11/10/72 Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, PA
Opening act was Lindesfarne. The show was similar to the live record on Everbody’s in Show-biz (1972).
11/25/74 Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
Here’s the setlist. The focus was on Preservation. The Kinks had a large touring company in that era.
May 10, 1993 Hammerjack’s Baltimore, MD
Here’s a review of a 1993 show. By that point, they were back down to a five-piece band and played songs from their entire 30 year history.
This chart lists band members for their history.
The original Hammerjacks was a bar on South Charles St. It looked great – lots of exposed brick. However, it played loud hard rock and heavy metal music which is not my type of music. Then it moved to a huge old industrial building. Again, it looked great. They had concerts but mostly nothing I was interested in. I saw three shows there – Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, and the Kinks. The building was one of the ones demolished to make room for the Ravens stadium that opened in 1998. Attempts to revive it have failed but a new effort is coming.
Design for new Hammerjacks in Baltimore unveiled
The Syria Mosque is my favorite concert hall. I saw some great concerts when I attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1971-1975. The Mosque was torn down in 1991.
This is a great article on the history of the Mosque. It was built by the Shriners and used by them in addition to the hosting of concerts. The capacity was 3,700.
This is a link to a list of concerts at the Mosque.
Here are shows I know I saw there. I’ll add more if I think of them.
| Artist | Date |
| Allman Brothers Band | 10/15/71 |
| Poco, Fleetwood Mac | 11/9/71 |
| John Mayall, Crazy Horse | 10/8/71 |
| Loggins and Messina, Jim Croce | 3/13/73 |
See images here
Two decades later, razing of Syria Mosque still a sore topic | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Clifton Chenier, born on June 25, 1925, is the founder of modern zydeco music. He had a few records on Specialty and Chess in the 1950s but most are on independent labels like Arhoolie.
Note: This is based on my best recollections from 1970-1974. They may not be completely accurate. I’ll say this up front rather than saying “As I recall” or “I think” in front of many sentences.
The Band was my favorite group in the early 1970s. I saw them four times between 1970-1974.
The Band didn’t improvise.
The Band didn’t jam.
The Band didn’t indulge in the excesses of the era.
The Band did not interact with the audience and mostly just stood there and played. (This is similar to Bob Dylan which may be who they took after on it.)
The Band mostly played a limited set list focusing on some songs from their first three albums. They always played “The Weight”, “The Shape I’m In”, “I Shall Be Released”, “Up on Cripple Creek” and a few others. They rarely played such great songs as “Lookout Cleveland” and “Sleeping”.
The Band sounded more unique because of the isolation in Woodstock. Once they got out in the world, they sounded more like everyone else.
November 8, 1970 – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
This was the first and best of the four shows I saw. We sat in seats on the floor level. The sides were not in use. The main thing I remember was that the show was loud. This was Stage Fright-style electric rock, not the more delicate often acoustic music of the first two albums.
They opened (not sure of the order) with both sides of their current single – “The Shape I’m In” and “Time to Kill”. There was no horn section backing them at any show that I saw. There was no opening act.
August 1, 1973 – Roosevelt Stadium Jersey City, NJ
The Band opened for the Grateful Dead and played about an hour and a half. There were shows on 7/31 and 8/1. The way I know which one I saw was I remember the Dead playing “The Race Is On” which was only on 8/1. Here’s the Grateful Dead setlist. Both the Band and Grateful Dead parts of the concert are available as bootlegs. This page on the Band bootleg has the setlist. I saw three shows after the release of Cahoots and they only played “Life Is a Carnival”. I guess they understood it was a bad album. They played “Share Your Love” from Moondog Matinee which was released a few months later as well as “Back to Memphis” which is on the expanded version of the album. In general, the Band stuck to the same songs. There are many songs I never saw them play in person. If they played the great “Look Out Cleveland” live, it would only have been at the 1970 show. They were good but the performances were not as crisp as they were in 1970.
January 6,1974 (afternoon show) – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
This was one of the Bob Dylan and the Band shows from the tour that was captured on Before the Flood. The show interspersed sets by the Band with sets of them backing Dylan and one Dylan acoustic set. The Band played a total of 11 songs. The only unusual choice was “Long Black Veil” and I am sorry it’s not on the album. The Band was excellent that day but that didn’t satisfy the audience. They kept screaming out for Dylan when he wasn’t performing. This is the setlist of the Dylan/Band and Dylan solo songs. I hope that someday they officially release more shows from this tour but I doubt that it happens since I read Dylan isn’t fond of it. Before the Flood is very representative of what I saw, just shorter than the actual show. It’s about 2/3 of the length of the concert. This is my second favorite of the four Band shows I saw.
July 5, 1974 – Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA
This was a bad scene. The show was Eric Clapton as the headliner with The Band and Todd Rundgren as opening acts. We were on the field of the stadium. The crowd was really messed up. There were two guys fighting each other who could barely stand up. Early in Clapton’s set, someone threw something at him and hit him. I have wondered if it was really as bad as I remember but this account sounds like what I experienced. I agree with the writer – Clapton didn’t play with the Band. There was a rumor that Clapton, the Band and Rundgren had planned to play together but Clapton getting hit squashed that. I don’t recall anything much about the Band set but don’t think it was anything special by their high standards. Once again, a focus on the first three albums.
Joni Mitchell’s Blue is 50. It’s a great album. It’s very much about her life but has plenty for all of us to relate to. It’s very stripped down and not easy to listen to. It reminds me of Plastic Ono band by John Lennon and John Wesley Harding by Bob Dylan – austere, stripped down albums I don’t listen to much but are among the best I know.
Joni Mitchell releases ‘Blue 50,’ with outtakes and unreleased tracks from 1971 classic (msn.com)
Blue – Album by Joni Mitchell | Spotify
I remember Tim Considine from My Three Sons. I didn’t know he was a photographer too.
Decoration Day (2003) is one of my all-time favorite albums. I had never heard anything by the Drive-By Truckers before but I loved the album from the moment I began playing it. Later in 2003, I saw the DBT play at Fletcher’s, a small bar in Baltimore. It was a long, loud, sprawling, amazing show. It was even better than the album. I’ve seen them seven times but they were never better. They had three singer-songwriters who played guitar. They even played solos on songs that were written by one of the other guys. The songs were personal but also examined what the South is like today and the link to the past. The title song especially is about the past. It’s a tough world – there are two songs about suicide.
A recording of the show is available here.
The Drive-By Truckers are a great band. I first heard their music in 2003 with the release of Decoration Day. It’s still my favorite of their albums. Later that year, I saw them give an amazing show at Fletcher’s, a small bar in Baltimore. They played for over two and a half hours and the show was even more impressive than the album. The DBT were loud with funny, compassionate and intelligent lyrics. The used three guitars, similar to the approach of the earlier Southern rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I think of their first two albums Gangstabilly (1998) and Pizza Deliverance (1999) together. These are their juvenlia. The songs are fun but nowhere near as mature as their later work. I’m going to post YouTube videos of songs from those albums.
Sad! 