Thanks Michael, for a great writeup on the concert...I'll try not to blab on too much,
but wanted to add some notes.
Firstly, big thanks to Victor for being chauffer & host extroardinaire, made tricky by
the fact that he's moved down to Athens, GA!
Thanks also to the incredible Mr. Paz for the Yes tickets & backstage pass! You don't
know how cool it is to walk past people trying to get even a TICKET to a sold-out show
and flaunting a backstage pass!
This was the first time I'd seen Yes. It was very impressive, obviously I was very
excited to hear "Roundabout" & "Seen All Good People", as well as "Close To The Edge",
"Wondrous Stories", "Long Distance Runaround" and ESPECIALLY "Perpetual Change". The
Yes Album is one of a handful of 'perfect records', without a misplaced misconceived
second! Victor was also very accomodating to allow me to beat out the rhythm on his
back.
Michael also alluded to the crowd noise and the nature of the venue...though our seats
were great, we WERE right behind the families and dates who were there for the "social
event" and not for the music. Very distracting, especially when a little rain caused
all the Muffy's and Buffy's to put up umbrellas so's not to spoil their
'doos...luckily I was able to tone that out and enjoy the show.
And as always, lots of good music made by jmdler's before & after the gig...Micheal
previewed some of his Topsfield set for me. I'm sworn to secrecy, but be prepared to
be blown away! Very exciting stuff, assuming Michael's stage fright doesn't cause him
to choke!! LOL!
Victor played bass, keyboard, a catfood dish, a lamp, and his carrot piccolo. He
played a new song, which was very enjoyable, and sounded like a Carole King/Jimmy Webb
melody. Had a great line about a street singer, who "sang just like Otis, but nobody
seemed to notice".
I also made an early blood donation to the Atlanta mosquitoes, hopefully they'll send
a message to Topsfield that this poor boy's got no more blood to give...I've got more
bumps than a topographical globe!
**About Michael's bad back...the true story is that he was snoring at the hotel and
when I told him to shut up he told me "Oh yeah, make me!" so I had to open up a big
ole can of SC whup-ass on him! I didn't mean to hurt him so badly, sometimes I forget
my own strength. Anyway, he'll not mess with the SCJoniguy anytime soon, I can tell
you that! I only hope I can still convinve him to play some backup for me at the
fest.**
Anyway, all in all it was an immense amount of fun. When you get a chance to socialize
with JMDL'ers, do it. Always.
On the way back to Greenville on Sunday, I got stuck in a traffic jam for about an
hour. I mean, emergency-brake-on-going-nowhere stuck. I found this little book in the
Saturn about friends, so I read it while I waited. One of the quotes was by Walt
Whitman, and it went "Surely I deserve my enemies, but I don't believe I deserve my
friends".
I know what he meant...I don't know what I ever did to rate such wonderful friends
like Victor & Michael, but I'm glad that I did!
Bob
NP: Thin Lizzy, "Cowboy Song"
**writer's embellishment
