Led Zeppelin / Woody Herman Big Band / Delaney & Bonnie and Friends

Rock's In My Head Apr 21, 2018

MAY 30: LED ZEPPELIN/DELANEY, BONNIE and FRIENDS/ WOODY HERMAN’S BIG BAND @ FILLMORE EAST It is now Memorial Day weekend of 1969, a new beginning for a group of us as we copped the 8 tickets to see Led Zeppelin at Fillmore East early 8 PM show on a Friday Night of a Holiday Weekend. Show time 8PM would find 4 of us in one section, with the other four in another section a few rows back. The crowd outside on line awaiting admittance to the sacred hall was a buzzed. Finally, in and seated, house lights go down and BOOM, Woody Herman's Big Band was way too cool. Pop would have been proud as I recognized a few of Woody's tunes from our family's record collection then I fall in love. Rita Coolidge of Delaney/ Bonnie was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,well that night anyway. The JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW afforded a great back drop, something that I had never witnessed.
Then, "OHHHHH, I CAN'T QUIT YOU BABE” with a power chord which shook me to the core. This tune followed by Dazed and Confused, White Summer, How Many More Times, a drum solo, and the crowd cheering “MORE,MORE”… The encore was short, yet loud, COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN. The performance bar was now set for this 17 year old youngster on his musical journey. Sweating profusely we leave into the warm May air at a bit before midnight. Walking through the East Village,then Greenwich Village, we get a bite to eat, a gift or two, taking the E train to Penn Station in time for the midnight train. Arriving home I felt like a new person, never to return to the old one.