Natalie Wood staked out Elvis Presley.
The promoter turned a bigger profit than the Beach Boys at their first headlining gig.
The Rolling Stones feared for their lives, escaping an out-of-control gig by way of an overloaded helicopter.
A chicken-related accident led to free publicity for Alice Cooper and his heavy-on-theatrics shows.
Why was the Beatles’ final performance on a rooftop?
All is revealed in the new book “Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders and Fans Who Were There.”
It’s a worthy exploration executed in interesting fashion by author Marc Myers, who relied on artists, concert organizers and others connected with the music industry to provide details and remembrances.
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Rock concerts are only 70 years old — not very ancient in the grand scheme of things — so Myers tracked down eyewitnesses to history, including Oklahoma’s Wanda Jackson. The queen of rockabilly was interviewed about her career and the rise of Presley. They dated before he was “the king.”
“I’ll tell you this,” Jackson said in the book. “He was a good kisser, but I don’t know what he looked like up that close. I had my eyes closed.”
While on the concert subject, what’s the best or most memorable concert you attended in Tulsa? The question was pitched to readers on social media forums and responses were selected to accompany this article.
Before checking those out, here are 10 appetizers that might motivate you to read Myers’ book about rock concert history.
1. Leon Russell
The book gives readers a backstage pass from the first rock concert in Los Angeles in 1951 to Live Aid in 1985 and significant events in between, including Woodstock and the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Tulsa music artists Leon Russell and Jim Keltner got mentions in the Concert for Bangladesh recap.
Two years later, Russell could have been among headliners at another historic concert, a Summer Jam at Watkins Glen that set a Guinness Book of World Records attendance mark. Jim Koplik said he and co-producer Shelly Finkel targeted the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers for the event.
“We just needed a third act,” Koplik said. “We spoke to Leon Russell about doing it. Leon was all in, but then the Dead’s Jerry Garcia didn’t want him for some reason. Instead, Jerry wanted The Band. He said he felt that Upstate New York was The Band’s home and that it was only appropriate that The Band be on the bill. We didn’t want more than three acts on the show, so Shelly had to call Leon and disinvite him. We paid him half what he would have gotten had he performed. This was before we even put tickets on sale.”
2. Bob Dylan
Because Tulsa is a Dylan town (the Bob Dylan Archives are here), be aware that the book delves into the drama that led to Dylan plugging in and, shockingly, going electric rather than acoustic at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It was the night that rock and roll became rock. Yes, there’s a difference.
3. Chuck Berry
Berry came to Chicago in 1955 and was sent by Muddy Waters to Chess Records. Leonard Chess, co-founder of the label, listened to a tape with Berry singing a couple of songs. One of them was “Ida Red,” inspired by a Western swing record by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, the group responsible for turning Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom into the Carnegie Hall of Western swing. The label head didn’t dig the country lyrics and urged Berry to rewrite the song. The result was “Maybellene,” an early rock and roll smash.
4. Natalie Wood
Among interview subjects: Barbara Hearn Smith, the first president of the Elvis fan club and a former Presley girlfriend.
Smith shared that Natalie Wood came to Memphis for a few days and seemed to have a crush on Presley.
“She stayed at his mother’s house. In the morning, Wood waltzed around in a negligee while workmen were there. From then on, Mrs. Presley didn’t like her. Wood was too modern and sophisticated.”
The next day, Presley visited Smith at her aunt’s house for about a half hour. The aunt left them alone.
“When my aunt returned, she said, ‘Natalie Wood was sitting out in front of the house on a motorcycle the entire 25 minutes he was here.’ At this point, I think fame confused and frightened him, especially as he became exposed to Hollywood.”
5. Bonding through music
The book says rock concerts can be traced to R&B revues held in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Music began bringing young people of different races together for concert events. Word spread and disc jockey Alan Freed began playing R&B records in Cleveland. Rosa Parks once thanked Freed’s son, Lance, for helping to desegregate the country through music. Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary talked in the book about taking part in the historic 1963 March on Washington.
“In addition to Martin Luther King’s moving speech, musicians were performing in front of 250,000 people,” Stookey said. “The March on Washington performances redefined what an outdoor concert meant and could be. It would take another six years before musicians performed in front of 400,000 people at Woodstock.”
6. The Beatles
Beatlemania was an accident. Tony Barrow, the Beatles’ publicist from 1962 through 1968, explains why in the book.
7. Woodstock and Altamont
The book digs into specifics about the myriad obstacles that had to be cleared to make Woodstock a reality in 1969. There were fears that the large crowd would grow fangs. Instead, the vibe was chill. Joel Rosenman, co-creator and co-financier of Woodstock, said he fell in love with his generation that weekend.
A few months later, jumbo-size concert events were dealt a black eye by what happened at the Altamont Free Festival in California.
The Altamont crowd turned violent. An “out of control” attendee was stabbed to death by a member of the Hell’s Angels, who were tasked with protecting the stage. The Grateful Dead pulled out before going on stage. The Rolling Stones were left to close the concert. Said Ethan Russell, a tour photographer for the Rolling Stones: “Bill Wyman later said to me: ‘The Rolling Stones have been scared maybe only two times. Altamont was one of them. Because you knew you could die. You knew. It was clear.’”
8. Origin stories
The book includes many origin stories. How did Cameron Crowe’s career begin? What’s the story behind the Rolling Stones’ logo? Why does AC/DC’s Angus Young wear a schoolboy uniform? How did Bill Walton’s love affair with the Grateful Dead begin?
9. The Wall
The book said the 1980s began with the most spectacular and costly rock concert to date — Pink Floyd’s The Wall Tour.
Wrote Myers: “The industry had grown to a point where no matter what you imagined, there were niche companies that could pull it off. A giant wall that goes up onstage and tumbles down at the end? Surreal large-scale inflatables hovering over the audience? A surround-sound speaker system? A plane slamming into a wall? No problem. Pink Floyd’s The Wall had all of that and more.”
The Wall was, said rock journalist Dave DiMartino, a game-changer. Roger Waters name-dropped Woody Guthrie when talking about the social statements that were infused into the tour.
10. Live Aid
The book ends with a recap of Live Aid, a benefit concert that raised funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. The event was broadcast for 16 hours from stadiums in London and Philadelphia. Phil Collins hopped a Concorde and played at both locations. Myers wrote that Live Aid “was perhaps the last spectacular rock concert before ticket prices climbed significantly and concert revenue, not albums, became the leading moneymaker for rock artists.”
Leon Russell statue installed at Church Studio