yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of what many consider to be the most important rock event in cleveland music history, and arguably bruce springsteen’s career. ‘born to run’ was released in 1975 and had catapulted him to critical acclaim and sold well, but a two year battle with his previous manager kept him on the sidelines from recording and touring for about two years. in promoting the ensuing album ‘darkness on the edge of town’, a number of nationally broadcast concerts were considered. larger markets were looked at for the initial broadcast, but eventually all agreed on cleveland as the first one, for a number of reasons. in a smaller market, it would be considered a marquee event, and would draw more media attention. keep in mind that bruce was still playing small venues and did not have the draw power to fill arenas. the second was his close friendship with local dj kid leo, who was the driving power behind the dominant rock station in northeast ohio, wmms. at that time wmms was one of the most influential rock stations in the country. rolling stone named them ‘radio station of the year’ nine years in a row. kid leo was personal friends with bruce, and his promotion of bruce’s work was profound even before ‘born to run’.

in addition to bruce, they were considered instrumental in breaking in rush, boston, roxy music, meat loaf, lou reed, the pretenders, and many others to a national market. my high school record collections were dominated by these bands. indeed, you were kicked out of my car if you changed the station from wmms.

the concert was scheduled as part of the station’s tenth anniversary and was announced less than two weeks beforehand. postcards were drawn from those that listeners sent in, and admission was free. beverages were not served, allegedly to keep the background noise down. it was simulcast by seven other midwest stations, and it is estimated to have reached over 3 million listeners. the sound quality was so good organizers assumed that it would be widely bootlegged, and so it was never considered for a live release. they were correct in their assumption, as it is considered to be one of the most widely circulated concert bootlegs in history. springsteen concert archivist toby scott found the original agora tape reels when visiting the rock and roll hall of fame’s ‘asbury park to the promised land’ exhibit, and it was remastered and released in 2014. to the best of my knowledge it is only available on nugs.com. i listened to the second half of the first set on my way home tonight from work. after the organ and piano prelude ends and the full force and gale of the e street band hits the first notes in the set closer ‘jungleland’, the hairs rise on the back of the neck and the chest swells. many consider the ‘darkness’ tour to be their finest hour, and this is a great snapshot of that era. the energy and freshness devoted to the anthemic stories of springsteen’s characters is breathtaking. i wish i had been there. i will settle with this instead. play it loud.

bob dylan turned 76 today. in light of this occasion, i am sharing with you a little nugget i found today. ‘tomorrow is a long time’ is a song he wrote in the december 1962 as a demo for witmark and sons, his publishing company. it was also released as a live version from a concert in 1963, and he made a studio version for ‘new morning’ but it didn’t make the final cut for that album. the first two versions inspired odetta to include it on an all dylan cover album she did in 1965. charlie mccoy, a nashville studio musician who had played with dylan on ‘blonde on blonde’, introduced elvis to the odetta album while recording a session with him. he became smitten with this particular song and recorded it during the sessions for his 1966 release ‘how great thou art’. at one point dylan was quoted as saying it was the favorite cover of his songs, and that it was ‘his most treasured recording’.

i give you the king:

when most people think of the music of the byrds, they often think about two of the more famous alumni, roger mcguinn and david crosby. but a good argument could be made that they may have never hit the big time in the first place if it wasn’t for the singing and songwriting talents of one of the more introverted members – gene clark.

born in 1944 in missouri, gene was an early musical prodigy and eventually wandered west to the music scene in l.a. in the early sixties. after meeting mcguinn in the famous troubador club, they set out to find other like minded musicians, keen on grafting the influence of the beatles onto the local folk scene. gene wrote or co-wrote many of the byrds’ original songs on their first three albums.

eventually a management decision gave mcguinn the lead vocals on their major singles and dylan covers, and this started a chain of events that became the beginning of the demise of the initial lineup of the group. gene had a chronic fear of flying, which inhibited their touring options, and the band members were also growing jealous of the royalties he was receiving for his songwriting credits. he left the group in early 1966.

in 1968 he started a collaboration with a local bluegrass banjo legend named doug dillard. seeking a more traditional musical template that he had grown up with, they rounded out their group with bernie leadon on guitar (later with the flying burrito brothers and the eagles), bassist dave jackson and mandolinist don beck. they only made two albums, and this is the first one. it is just flawless, in my opinion. the song featured below, ‘ train leaves here this morning’, was co-written by leadon and was eventually covered by the eagles on their debut album.

his work with dillard rejuvenated gene’s creative fire but also greatly contributed to his growing drinking problem. they were rather legendary in their pre-concert preparations and were rarely as effective onstage as they were in the studio.

gene went on to make many fine solo recordings after this, and i encourage you to start with this one and explore more if you enjoy it. i have a couple i have been listening to that might find their way into another nugget entry.

as i have stated before, one of the main purposes for starting this site was my disagreement with those people who believe that ‘they don’t make music like they used to’. you just have to get past the industry filters and seek things out. to a certain extent, that has always been true. there is plenty of high quality material out there from the past that never saw the light of day. it is in this spirit that i have decided to start a new category – one dedicated to visiting vintage releases that didn’t get the attention they deserve, for whatever reason. we shall dub this new category ‘nuggets’. here is the first installment.

robert charles guidry was a cajun from louisiana who was best known for writing ‘see you later, alligator’ and ‘walking to new orleans’. in the summer of 1971 he was on the lam due to drug charges in nashville, and at some point arrived in woodstock, ny. a couple of local musicians took him in and and gave him shelter. they eventually started introducing him to other musicians in the area, including rick danko from the band. rick introduced him to albert grossman, who was the manager for dylan and the band. grossman offered him a deal: i will contact the powers that be down in nashville and get the charges dropped if you will sign a five year contract with me. charles agreed, and work got under way to record his first record under bearsville records – grossman’s new label. grossman also had a studio built on his property (called bearsville, of course), and local musicians started congregating there to begin working on the demos for the project. in addition, the studio was frequently visited by levon helm, garth hudson, and danko from the band, mac rebennack (dr. john), and nashville pedal steel guru ben keith (redeye readers may be familiar with his work with neil young, beginning with the harvest album).

sessions began in earnest in the winter of ’71, usually after the local bar closed. all involved thought that they were still cutting demos, and they never got around to any ‘final cuts’. what we have here is a series of vignettes of a bunch of guys just messing around with sketches of songs in a retrofitted barn out in the woods. very laid back, the songs all have a swampy, sleepy, country funk feel, and bobby’s southern molasses vocals are perfect throughout. released in 1972, it sold poorly, due in large part to bobby’s lack of interest in promoting or touring to support the album. i found it for 9 bucks on amazon, and rhino records produced a three cd offering in 2011 after he died. the latter went for over fifty bucks, and that was a little rich for me. add the former to your library, and you will not be disappointed.

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/150960729/the-untold-story-of-singer-bobby-charles

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16118-bobby-charles/

http://www.rhino.com/product/bobby-charles-handmade