YA PAYS YER MONEY... YA TAKES YER CHANCE(S) …

YA PAYS YER MONEY..YA TAKES YER CHANCE (S)…

        The editors of this fine publication have asked me on occasion to wax reflect on 36 years of  Hudson Valley musical encounters, predominantly at The Chance. I have taken it upon myself in the past few weeks to wax poetic and gush over some events. This morning as Greg Gattine was talking with John Barry of The Poughkeepsie Journal on 100.1 fm WDST

( shameless plug)… Gattine suggested a survey of your worst concert ever. He then referred to Sly and The Family Stone at The Chance (circa 84?). I have photos of that show..Marie Spinozza of Prof. Louis and The Cromatix was singing backup that night. She was the opener..he band invited her up   a) because she sang great 

    And b) because they couldn’t get Sly off the bus. Sly hit the stage 2 hours late…yet he was right outside  the building on the bus…

Sly rambled on the organ did a plausible vocal on Higher…danced around..couldn’t get his guitar to work…and walked off…..

IN FRONT OF A SOLD OUT AUDIENCE.!!!!..Pete Francese ..then owner of The Chance went on the air the next day and offered ticket holders tickets to anything else ,..he was humiliated and furious…

  On another occasion during Pete’s regime…Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker 2/3 rd’s of Cream…MY FAVORITE LIVE BAND!!!! Boy were my expectations high….Ginger was 90 minutes late.. Jack was on stage apologizing.. the audience was getting ugly and Jack started to lecture them..that for all he knew Ginger was dead in an alley..we should show more concern. Tt bordered on surreal. Ginger shows up and he is characteristically LOOPY. Jack calls off Politician and opens the song the distinctive 4 bars of solo bass..which is supposed to be followed by a distinctive drum part..which Ginger decides to play in ½ time……it no longer bordered on surreal..it was the middle of a full blown Dali painting…The guitarist that evening was one of those teased hair kids of the day ..could have been Punky Meadows or Snowy White..but he did not belong in Clapton’s chair. Ginger decided during a guitar solo that he really didn’t like him and actually winged a drum stick at him..now it had gone from surreal to the 3 Stooges…(ironically the only trio that has influenced me MORE than Cream)…..There is rumour of a Cream reunion in 2005 ,..I am sure that I will be there..but my expectations will be tempered..

                       The whole point of reflecting on a WORST show list has everything to do with expectations. ..Did you go into the show with high or low ones?...example…I had low to no expectations every time The Ramones played The Chance..but every time I went They exceeded my expectations and made me smile..and eventually laugh…. Or Wendy O. Williams and The Plasmatics….a frightening exhibition that involves smashing TV’s with a sledge hammer and a shot gun…my jaw hung open like the audience in The Producers when the curtain goes up on Springtime for Hitler….my expectations were low..but the show was beyond description…

                   Or the Bay City Rollers in 77 at the height of Roller mania at the Mid Hudson Civic Center…you know… S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y…NIGHT!!!!

            My expectations were nill….but ..the fever pitch of the screams of the 12 year old girls was so frightening..that I knew that this was what Beatle mania was like..The performers worked damn hard to hear each other…we had to set up a triage backstage for fainting girls…

           But then there is the consummate icon of my generation Bob Dylan. As I sit at my desk at WDST in Bearsville, looking out my window to the grave of Dylans’ manager Albert Grossman. Dylan has been with me for all my changes..good and bad on both our parts.. I have forgiven him his excesses as I am sure he forgives mine. No musician has had more written about him but that night at The Chance last August  hit me emotionally on a lot of levels…I was happy to see him standing in that place..i was thrilled to be a mere 25 feet away from him…and I still couldn’t see his eyes under the brim of that cowboy hat…I was appalled at the condition of his voice and body…..He really did look and sound like an old jew at a senior home on Collins Avenue in Miami….The band was great ..his courage was great…the event was confusing…He leaned over an electric piano as if he were pushing the air out of his lungs….and although there was a guitar at his side he NEVER picked it up….but this was Dylan at The Chance…I was there with my kids and my fiancé Pam and her kids and I could actually feel the spirit of my late wife Rosalie who shared so many experiences in that club with me…Ro and I  were married at The Chance in 83 right after the renovations..when the place was spotless..she worked in the office there…and I could here her chuckling as to the surreal aspects of the Dylan event…. And I was there with Larry Plover…..when I called him up to say ..”Short list..who do you think is playing the Chance..give me the ONE name you’d never expect”..he said Dylan…Larry could not have imagined Dylan performing at The Chance in the 70’s when Larry had dozens of Dylan sidemen on that stage..Happy and Artie Traum..John Herald..Al Kooper..Harvey Brooks, Roger McGuinn, Rob Stoner, Scarlett Rivera, The Band….hell…. everyone BUT Dylan …. And now he was to grace the stage…expectations were somewhere up in the ceiling fans….but the reality….sore feet from standing in one position in the crowd  and a headache from trying to figure out what song he was croaking..….and yet I’m glad I went… It seemed to bring the club full circle.

     I am reminded of one of my favorite Jackie Mason lines:..” the act before me was so bad..that half way thru my show they were still booing HIM !”…… Loudest show EVER  at the Chance..believe it or not …Paul Young…british heartthrob..stadium phenom .made his USA debut at The Chance circa 83 ..the soundman was ramping up for The Garden..there was enough equipment to take up the entire upper level in front of the bar…I believe the performance and the band ( featuring Pino Paladino on bass ) may have been great..I’ll never know..because it was the loudest ear bleed I have ever heard…..

     Most puzzling show at The Chance?.....Gary Glitter….his wonderful one hit now plays in stadiums ( stadia actually). Rock and Roll Part II has become an anthem..but in 1984 it was just a fat guy in too tight spandex and sequins ala Elvis with a 15 year old novelty song..and a bizarre stairway set center stage to create a Busby Berkley effect. He kept going up and down the staircase kind of shuffling along like a cross between the manic energy of Steve martin and Howie Mandell and the shuffle of Ozzy….a quite bizarre show…  another bizarre Chance show was Men Without Hats …a bunch of keyboard players from Montreal…no drums ..no guitars..no talent….but the Vassar kids loved them…

And there was Flaco with his bizarre Duke of Earl type top hat and cape and his disco take on Puttin On The Ritz performing to tracks…..ouch…

These are all Chance events that deserve to be forgotten…I’ve already put too much energy into remembering them. 

       Barry Manilow is noted as a songwriter..He wrote the McDonalds jingle..he wrote lots of hit songs…ironically..he did not write I Write The Songs…one of his biggest hits was written by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys… Barry Manilow played the Civic Center ..a real pro…and one of the phoniest performers I have ever seen….remeinded me of the Eugene Levy character Bobby Bittman from SCTV…”HAWAYA..?!..”

…….Next time you think about the worst concert you’ve ever been too just think about the performer who has to do that over and over and over and over…