I am such a Springsteen fan, have always been.  Nothing I like better than to listen to his music cranked up LOUD!!  I am a voice person--some voices just hit me the right way and his is one of them!!

In fact I have several OLD LP’s (yup, I do) of his that I need someone to put on cds for me so I can listen to them wherever and whenever.  I suppose I could just go out and buy them, but.... 

I have tried and tried to get tickets to his concerts whenever he is in the area, but unless I am prepared to spend hundreds and hundreds to get decent seats, it just isn’t happening.  So I sulk when he is around and I can’t go!!  Oh well, guess I will just have to continue to worship from afar.....am currently enjoying his cover of the Seeger sessions.  Neat!! (and my word is voice--cool!!)

You know, it’s an odd case. I really like his music when I hear it. But I’ve never gone out of my way to look for it or buy it until now. I don’t know most of his songs, though I recognize the most popular ones. But I still enjoy him very much when I hear him. And I think he’s a great musician and I like his views on things—I don’t really know why he never clicked with me in a big way. That seems sort of wrong somehow. 

About that Dylan show in New Hampshire ... here’s the set list and other stuff.  The “warmup band” was Phil Lesh and Friends, and one of those friends was the great Jorma Kaukonen.  On that tour, the two bands traded off going first/second; we, unfortunately, got Phil first.  Not that Phil was lousy, but his set was too long.

I’ve only seen Springsteen play once, a loooooong time ago—November 25, 1973, when he opened for John Mayall at the Curry Hicks Cage at UMass (a venue with the worst acoustics in the world).  I found an image of the playbill for that show on a Bruce site ... tickets went for $3.50.

I went to that show because I was already a Bruce fan.  I bought Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. the instant I heard it in early 1973.  Been a fan ever since.

Well, there ya go. I didn’ t know who Phil Lesh and Friends were and still don’t really, though at least I can say that I saw them. They did go too long. It *was* supposed to be a Dylan concert.

$3.50? Sheeze.

Lesh is/was the bass player for the Dead.  Jorma, of course, was the lead guitarist for the Airplane and Jefferson Starship, and is still a major component of Hot Tuna.

$3.50 was approximately the price of a tankful of gas in 1973.  Using that (probably unfair) comparison, then, it’s about $35 today.

Actually, quite a lot less. Taking $3.50 and dividing by the 1973 conversion factor ($.220) we end up with a ticket costing $15.91 in 2006 dollars. Like I said...sheeze.

I suppose I might as well wade in deeper and say that I also wouldn’t know if a song was by the Dead, Airplane, Starship, or Hot Tuna. I am a cultural misfit.

"I am a cultural misfit."

Misfit’s a bit strong, innit?  Not in touch with your inner hippie during the 60s and 70s, maybe?

I saw Airplane at a civic center in San Diego in 1972, during Navy training school (post-boot camp).  The crowd got really angry, because they wouldn’t play “White Rabbit.” Instead they insisted on playing material from the new album, whatever that might have been at the time.

I was brought up in a house that only did classical music. My lullabies were Hindemith and Bach for heaven’s sake. Contemporary music was verboten. I had (have) a lot of catching up to do. Still, I am more plugged into the 30s and 40s than the 60s and 70s when it comes to ‘contemporary’ music.