Wow! You are a musician? What instrument do you play or are you a singer? Are you on Spotify? I like the playlists Spotify puts together to introduce me to new music.
I've only been to Outside Lands & the Treasure Island Music Festival. And Burning Man twice. Ever been the The Playa? So other-worldly. Truly an amazing experience.
I was at The Beatles last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966. They played 35 minutes and left in a hurry in an armored car. So much screaming it was impossible to hear the music. I kept the ticket stub ($4.50 for a seat) and sold the stub for $450 in 2010 when I moved to Barcelona. Still have a picture of it though, which is just as good.
I still think Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best album ever recorded. Multi-track was just coming into common use and George Martin was a brilliant producer.
My second all-time greatest album is Graceland by the legendary Paul Simon. I had to pay $150 to a scalper for a single ticket to the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA. I talked to his mixer, who told me Simon is a perfectionist, and they rehearse the entire show the afternoon before every performance. Even if they are playing two concerts back to back, the rehearse both days,
It is funny that the one song that made Nilsson a star, Everybody's Talkin', was the one song Nilsson didn't write. It was a Fred Neil song. Midnight Cowboy was a great film, and holds up well today, other than the cars on the road are all dated. That film made stars of Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. It was the first mainstream film from a major studio with an X rating.
Nilsson wrote "One (Is The Loneliest Number)" that was made famous by Three Dog Night
Harry Nilsson was an alcoholic drug addict who died young. But a massive talent. He used to hang around the lobby of a major Hollywood recording studio and sold songs to other artists for $10 a song. A lot of his catalog isn't available on the streaming services, but if you can find the album Aerial Ballet I'd love to know your reaction. Or Nilsson Schmilsson. "You put the lime in the cocanut and drink 'em both together, you put the lime in the cocanut, then you feel better."
Some other artists you might enjoy are the group Love and their album 7 and 7 Is. Gotan Project. Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Morcheba. Thievery Corporation. The song Dream Machine by Mark Farina. And the saddest song to anyone who has ever had their heart broken, the song Hearts by Marty Ballin.
I saw Janis Joplin perform live once. The Stones five times live. Also saw Sinatra, Tina Turner, B.B. King, Madonna, James Brown, Diana Ross, Pet Shop Boys, Jefferson Airplane, Boz Scaggs, Susan Tedeschi, Etta James, Joe Jackson, Stevie Wonder, John Cougar Mellencamp (where young Cantalopes go in the summer. John Cougar Melon Camp), Les Paul in his 90's in NYC (He invented the electric guitar and multi-track recording), Moby, LCD Sound System and Corine Bailey Raye in Barcelona.
A few HUGE misses I regret. Never saw Queen, The Mamas and the Papas, Elton John, Billy Joel, Eagles, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone. And had the chance to buy tickets for all of them.
San Francisco used to have a great jazz club called El Matador, where I saw Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Byrd, and Vince Guaraldi.
I worked in the Radio - TV business for 17 years. I was on the set for the last night of filming of "Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom". Harrison Ford and Dan Ackroyd at an abandoned Air Force base north of San Francisco.
Saw filming of the exteriors of the Towering Inferno with Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and O.J. Simpson outside the Bank of America building in downtown San Francisco.
A friend got me onto the set of Alias with Jennifer Garner. Sat next to Ben Affleck and didn't recognize him (their relationship wasn't yet public, so I assumed he was just some guy reading a book waiting for Jen to finish work).
Have you seen the movie "The Wrecking Crew"? If not, you might want to check it out. It is streaming now. All about the studio musicians who played for everyone who made records in LA in the 60's. From Sinatra to the Beach Boys, the Association to The Tijuana Brass.
What part of the country do you call home? The internet has to be the most influential invention of mankind, right up there with the steam engine, fire, ad the electric light bulb.
My grandmother came to the U.S from Poland in 1906, never to see her mother and family again. I think about my parents trying to remember something from their past . . . "Remember that romantic hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon?". They would have to rely on their memories and if they couldn't remember, had to live with the frustration of never knowing. Now we just go look it up online.