Chris,
excellent post! especially the inside hard data
on Joni! thanks
to all:
pls forgive my late posting on this. my digests
are piled up a bit again, but I just have to
chime in on this one.
(so the old fart leans back in his rocking chair
and begins...)
of course, as always, my post refers to the very
early, pre-recording artist Joni when you could
get in the door to see her play for $1.25 and
there was no expense account and, accordingly,
few 'requests'... but for the sake of history:
in my role as booking manager and defacto stage
manager, *most* of the time I spent with Joni was
literally 'backstage' in the small dressing room
or the tiny cubby Brian and I shared as an
office, and there were really only two concerns
she had which she expected me to handle: it
actually boils down to one request but primarily
regarding two distinct groups, both of which I've
described before to this list: first, the 'cactus
tree' gang, as I have come to call them... a
small but consistent/persistent bunch of guys,
'groupies' if you will, who, apparently, followed
Joni, venue to venue, as she toured the circuit
and, believe me, were quite avid in their desire
for an audience with her as well as creative in
coming up with schemes to get past me. secondly,
there were the recording company agents who would
show up wanting to convince her to sign a
recording contract, also quite persistent. so
this was Joni's 'request'... that I act as a
buffer/shield and under no circumstances was I to
allow any of these guys access to her. pretty
straightforward... not really all that strange...
only the circumstances were strange... or,
rather, unique to Joni Mitchell.
the mention of 'strange requests' also made me
think of another little adventure of mine... it
was in the early '70's when I was heading up a
folk club at the local community college...
Michigan's own Ted Nugent was coming to play a
concert and some of us were asked to volunteer
for stage security. I happened to be chosen as
Ted's personal security and just what that
entailed is kind of interesting. see, Mr. Nugent,
as you are probably aware, is a rather headstrong
fellow and, as a rock musician, this manifested
in two major ways: first, of course, was his
total abstinence from any use of drugs; very
unusual in that day and time, and I can witness
that it is true... in fact, I would guess that if
any of his band members were using, they had to
hide it and Lord help 'em if they showed up
stoned before a show. the second thing had more
to do with the music itself. unlike most rock
musicians, Ted never used effects (a trait shared
by only one other rocker that I know of, Rory
Gallagher) he depended on two things for his
sound, outside of his playing ability: full tilt
volume from and, for feedback, proximity to his Fender stacks, and his fine, early
'50's Gibson acoustic-electric guitars which he treated like they were made of
glass... which was where I (and his 'strange request') came in... after sound-check
and tuning, his trademark blond Gibson was kept in the case back in the dressing room.
then, when it was time to mount the stage, I had to take it out of the case *with* him
and walk *with* him, both of us holding the guitar, one hand on the body, one hand on
the neck, all the way on to the stage... then I had to stand behind the PA speakers, a
few feet away to his left, through the entire concert and then return to the dressing
room cradling his guitar together all the way back in the same manner.
well, there ya go... time for my geritol... ;o)
pat
NP: Journey To The Center Of The Mind - Amboy Dukes
http://homepages.go.com/~badwolff/albums/album1/
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