A Product of The Seventies

  I was born in the last year of the Fifties and came of age in the Seventies. What a great time to be alive. The music of the seventies was the best of any generation. What my brothers and I would do was go to concerts on the weekends. I lived in Gadsden Alabama and was in the center of the music concert world. We were 2 hours from Atlanta, one hour to Birmingham, and one hour to Huntsville. So, we went to concerts every week end. That is what we all did. The price of a ticket was generally $5 dollars. I am talking about the seventies rock bands that toured and would play at a location near to us, usually in Birmingham. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, The Marshal Tucker Band. I could go on and on. It was the greatest time of my life. We would have a bag full of weed that we would smoke inside. Someone would always have some kind of chemical such as Quaaludes, Valium, MDA what is now called Ecstasy, or some thing else. It was a party every weekend getting stoned on the way to Birmingham or where ever the concert happened to be at that time. There are not many Bands that we have not seen. I can only think of two Bands we missed. It was probably on purpose. We did not see The Who, or The Rolling Stones. Those are the only bands we missed. It was a party. The best were the outdoor concerts at the Rickwood Field baseball stadium. We saw Skynyrd there and they rocked the place down. They played so long that the Birmingham Police shut the power off. You talk about some pissed off fans. Hell, Skynyrd was pissed, too. But it was an unbelievable show. We saw Wet Willie at the Pete Mathews Coliseum at the Jacksonville State University campus. My brother and I were at the stage, we fought our way to the front at every concert and hoped somebody would say something. Sometimes, they did and it was on. Fighting with fists used to be how we settled disagreements.Nowadays, people use guns and people die. It was not that way back when I was in high school. We used to go by the carloads to our school rivalry and duke it out, toe to toe. You did not have to worry about somebody pulling a gun. Times have changed, I must say. Anyway, my brother gets on the stage before the band played and got a set of morocco's and went to the mike and started shaking them. The crowed started clapping in time with my brother. I saw a guy come out from behind  the curtains and it was Jimmy Hall, of Wet Willie. He came to the mike, put his arm around my brother and started to sing. The place was going nuts. After a few minutes, Jimmy left and this big dude came and scooped mu brother up and disappeared behind the curtain. I did not see him until after the show and he told me that big dude carried him to the exit door and threw him out. He missed the show. But, he was the show for only a few minutes. I have enjoyed talking about some good times. Hell, I may even try it, again.  theblogmeister