Put me in the backseat and they took me for a ride..... Yeah the radio was on can't you dig the locomotion?

A very long time ago I was put in the backseat and was taken for a ride. After I ended up quitting Powell High School after a stupid incident of being involved in the egging of the Volkswagen Beetle of the Principal Jim Monroe and more or less being told I would not graduate I ended up having a job as a dishwasher at The Best Western (now a Days  Inn) at the corner of Merchant's Road & Central Ave Pike.

For a restaurant job it was OK but both me & my brother Roy worked there and part of the perks was some of the bartenders there would let us get drunk on nickel beers (if ordered from the restaurant) while the bar was open and if we had to breakdown a banquet room that had a portable beer keg we would pump off a gallon or 2 to enjoy after work!
 At the time I was driving my 2nd car I owned a 1964 Chevy Malibu SS that I would have to start by kick starting by dropping the Powerglide  transmission in low once it built up a little speed. It was a bondo buggy but I still loved it!

                              ( Not the actual car I owned but the same model)
 One of my co-workers who was a cook named Randy & his g/f (I can't remember her name but we will go with "Suzy" to stay with the theme of the blog) and their friend & co-worker nicknamed Fergie (her last name was Ferguson) had decided that since my 18th birthday was coming up they decided that they would celebrate it with me. Little did I know I was going but it would end up at The Knoxville Civic Coliseum four days later I would be taken for a ride in the back seat of Randy's Capri (with the side window busted out)

and taken downtown to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.......

to see THE AMAZING BLUE  ÖYSTER CULT along with ANGEL & SAMMY HAGAR!

 

Of course it is said that if you can remember the '70's then you wasn't there holds true for most of the evening as I do know I was drinking & smoking that "Evil Weed" (and might have even had some Vitamin A on the side!) but I do remember that Sammy Hagar did have an leg injury that did not stop him from performing (I think that the local promoters had him billed as Montrose but I could be wrong)...... that Angel was all dressed it white and had the pretty hair that Frank Zappa would make famous with his song "Punky's Whips" and they was promoted by Casablanca Records as being the positive image in contrast to the negative image of KISS was portraying.

 I do remember being on the floor for Blue Öyster Cult pretty well much under the big mirror ball hanging in the center of the arena. (of course it was general admission & smoke filled!)

And then the lights went down and through the pa came the following words.....

"HELLO KNOXVILLE! FROM NEW YORK CITY THE AMAZING BLUE ÖYSTER CULT!"

I remember in the 8th grade at Powell Elementary School that one day a fellow classmate Jeff Callahan brought in the first album and was knocked out by the artwork!

And much like the artwork with the stars in the background when the lasers was pointed at the mirrorball the arena was full of green "stars" and when they projected to the back of the coliseum when they criss-crossed they would form cubes in the smoke filled venue! It was not that much different than portrayed in the movie The Stoned Age

So now as I prepare to do a couple of Blue Öyster Cult shows in Nashville & Columbus we both have something in common.....

                                                      "ON THE ROAD FOREVER!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

Waiting in line....

You have to listen to all the blowhards ramble on about Metallica. Very entertaining!

Crashing in a room full of strangers after seeing Alice In Chains in Milwaukee

I really need to use this page more.... regardless if it is seen or not!