Well, almost... 5 days and counting!!!!!
Toonage:
Ramones - Time Has Come Today
Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
WURM - Time Has Come Today
The Tip Toppers - Time Has Come Today
Smashing Pusbags - Time Has Come Today (live)
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14 comments:
The end of an error - no more Bush! Nice selection of covers with the original classic.
LOL on "Smashing Pusbags!"
What time is it?
I saw The Chambers Brothers do this in Paramus, NJ. Long time ago. They did the whole extended psychodillic interlude live on stage. George Bush was off doing coke with his pals from the Air National Guard.
Somehow I think anonymous got off at the wrong bus stop. The straight talk express never made it here.
And Jon... was that at The old Capital Theater?
The Capitol Theater was in Passaic.
This was a very strange, star studded fund raiser for some disease or other. Someone, I know not who, talked The Chambers Brothers, Long John Baldry, Tommy James and the Shondells, Don McLean and I forget who all else, to play for free in a parking lot at a mall.
I don't know who managed to put the thing together, but he or she was clearly a genius. The event was sponsored by a Jersey based top 40 station. Several of their DJ's were MC's. Several of the bands had current hits. American Pie by Don McLean was at or near the top of the charts and he was, briefly, a huge star. A bunch of local bands played between the big name acts.
I was a teenager at the time, and had no idea what must have gone into putting on such a huge show. The show went on with almost continuous bands for about eight hours. There were no technical problems. The crowd was well behaved. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Every once in a while, people would pass through the crowd with cans and ask, "Spare a little change for (Muscular Dystrophy? Cerebral Palsy? Cancer?) man?" There was no admission charge.
Admittedly, most of the acts were pop lightweights. Their music hasn't exactly stood the test o' time. But I will give them all credit for putting on good shows. I will have to say that Tommy James put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen. He got the jaded New York response when he took the stage. Half the kids had their backs turned to the stage. By the end of his set the whole crowd was dancing and singing along. The Chambers Brothers were real pros. They obviously were prepared to do their set anytime, anyplace under any conditions.
Strangely enough, I think this show prepared me for punk a few years later. I had seen quite a few of the "heavy" rock stars of the time. A lot of them struck me as self indulgent shits. They were clearly contemptuous of their fans. These pop stars, by comparison, were willing to work hard to put on a good show.
Punk bands were clearly not professional, but they were about having fun. They related to their audiences. When they weren't on stage, they were down in front pogoing. You could get up jump around and have fun when they played. The various rock gods expected (and got) luded out zombie audiences who listened passively while they pontificated on time and space, showed off their classical training and told us all the tale of Henry the VIIIth and his wives. Fuck that.
Those pop bands clearly cared about entertaining us. They wanted us to have a good time. In that sense, they were way more punk than Led Zeppelin.
As I recall, I was around 17, so this all would have taken place around 1971. My how time do fly.
PS, I thought this was all very ordinary. I was a kid. I'm sure there are kids who don't see what the fuss is over Obama. I mean, we already had a couple of Black presidents on TV and in the movies. Plus, Bush has been president, like, forever. So, what's there to compare him to?
Jon- thanks for the recollection. Very enjoyable.
Yeah, we've had plenty of black Presidents already... there were two on 24 in fact. And wasn't Morgan Freeman President in some Asteroid movie. And James Earl Jones had tohave been President at least once, right?
What about the Angry Samoans' version of "Time Has Come Today"? My personal favorite.
Jon - That free concert in 1971... It was in the Fashion Center/Midland Bank parking in Paramus. I believe the event was called the WWDJ Rock-a-Thon for Muscular Dystrophy, and may have been on or near Labor Day Weekend. I was 13 at the time and it made a huge impression on me. I have searched online for some articles about that show; your post is the first thing I have found.
Jon - That free concert in 1971... It was in the Fashion Center/Midland Bank parking in Paramus. I believe the event was called the WWDJ Rock-a-Thon for Muscular Dystrophy, and may have been on or near Labor Day Weekend. I was 13 at the time and it made a huge impression on me. I have searched online for some articles about that show, your post is the first thing I have found.
Wow, thanks anonymous. That all sounds about right. I haven't so much as set foot in Jersey in more than twenty years. A lot of details have faded. Now if we only knew who was responsible for pulling that thing off.
Wow! I just stumbled onto this discussion about the Fashion Center concert. I was there, and I've been searching for years about information about it, including when it was, and never found anything. I saw Tommy James last night at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, and it got me searching again. I remember Tommy James and the Chambers Brothers playing -- I didn't recall Long John Baldry or Don McLean -- I wonder if I wasn't there for their performances.
Thank you!
My oldest friend and I were just reminiscing about walking around with the cans soliciting donations. Another memory validated!
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