Last night Sean at Ash Creek said that the Cream tickets went on sale for the MSG dates! I had been waiting for the announcement… when I first got wind of it early in the summer, I had committed myself to going regardless of the cost.
Bryan Reid (a major Clapton junkie) dropped by during the summer to say that the tix were already a sell out! (although the purpose of his visit was not to tell me this… it was just a visit & the information came out in conversation) A sell out??? when did they go on sale??
Anyway… it wasn’t a sell out… yet.
Zack and I have talked over the years about concerts… and I dare say that although he is 3o years my junior, he probably has seen more concerts than me. No big deal… but he often asks why I haven’t taken in the Stones… they are my favorite group after all… they have had countless tours… and in fact are still touring.
No… as much as I love the Stones (and I do)… I have never felt the desire to see them live.
But to see the Cream again?
I saw them on their farewell tour… it was ’69 or ’70 (or whenever that tour was… I am too lazy to research the actual year).
The concert was in the New Haven Arena… a venue that has since been torn down (to make way for the New Haven Coliseum across town… which, by the by, is presently headed for the wrecker’s ball… interesting… the Romans built a Coliseum and it has lasted, albeit in a somewhat diminished state, for a couple of thousand years… New Haven builds a Coliseum and it lasts less than 40).
I saw the Concert with Ellen (who was not a big fan) and John Pendelton (and a date, who I don’t remember, and I dare say that neither does he).
I am sure they played their big numbers… but the only song I can clearly remember was a rather extended version of Toad… when Baker moved to his solo, Clapton and Bruce left the stage, and Baker went into another world… you had to believe there was a second drummer hidden somewhere…
Will and I caught Derek and the Dominoes at Fillmore East… also, a monster Concert… and that is the only other time I have seen Eric Clapton.
Well… its been a long time between drinks of water as they say… but I am not going to let this pass by.
When Sean tipped me to the dates… and this is even before I had a sip of my first Wild Turkey… I called up one of my partners in “musical crime”, Mr. Frank Alfiero… and he immediately agreed that the Cream was a must see.
And by the time I had finished my second whisky, I got a return call that Frank had scored two duckets. I might add, that the cost of a seat is what I paid for a month’s rent in our first apartment in 1972.
So… citizens of the world… music lovers and friends… what are you going to be doing on Wednesday October 26? Jim Winston will be taking in Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker… and I’ll try not to cry during Bruce’s bass riff in Crossroads.