Tripping Thru The Memories!

I was going thru a stack of old Scene Magazines from the early seventies yesterday that I picked up for reference material for clevelandrockandroll.com and man that started my trip down memory lane.

It got harder and harder to do the job I had in front of me as I kept reminiscing with each page I turned. The concerts, the stories, the old photos, the old bars, basically the old times and they were all sitting in front of me in the withered, yellowed pages.

Thinking about it, Scene Magazine has really been a part of my life for most of it. Weekly for the past 40 years the paper has been around, I have picked it up in bars, record stores, clothing stores, head shops (okay that was in the 70’s, not now……….well……..) to see what was happening around town and looking back, it really has been a great snapshot of the times.

Looking back, do you remember trying to figure out where to go out too? Let’s take a Thursday night when at the Harbor Inn down in the Flats (before it really was the Flats), Eli Radish (with David Allen Coe and Danny Sheridan) ruled the stage or Fully Assembled did the same at the Longhorn in Maple Hts or Sweetleaf was playing at The Utopia, Circus at The Agora or you asked your buddy, where was Tiny Alice playing tonight, how about Glass Harp? Grab a Scene and find out.

Remember buying albums? Do you remember buying them at Clarkens? Or Woolworths? Or Disc Records? Or Recordland? Or Music Grotto? Do you remember paying $2.49 for the new releases?

Going thru the ads themselves. Do you need a waterbed, then go to The Water Works on Noble Rd and get one for only $24.50. There’s a bikini contest at the Eastown Motor Hotel on Euclid Ave Saturday night. (Eastown Motor Hotel! Where in the hell was the Eastown?) How about the sale at Fox’s Audio Center in Kamms Corner, 8-tracks are on sale for only $2.95 including The Carpenters and Led Zeppelin III. It’s like a matched set! Want to go to a movie? “Dagmar’s Hot Pants Inc.” is playing at The LaSalle, Mapletown, Canal Road Drive-In and at the Mentor Drive-In. Ohhh, Budweiser just came out with a Malt Liquor as they say in the ad “finally a Malt Liquor good enough to be called Budweiser”. (boy that lasted a long time) The TV cops of Adam 12 will be at the Auto-Rama along with James Brolin. Don’t want to miss that! Over at Audio Hall you can get a complete Pioneer AM/FM receiver with turntable and speakers for $399 and you get a free Blood Sweat and Tears poster. Go to Bob’s Sohio on Detroit Rd and get your gas pumped by Bob’s Girls in hot pants! This one I really don’t get but love. At Air Con in Willowick buy a tape get a free turtle! Don’t buy a tape get 2 free turtles!!!! and of course the full page ad’s that ran each week for Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine. Wow now that brings back memories, no what that probably did for me was kill more brain cells than anything I could have drank at the time but at least we were all a little preserved with the formaldehyde in each bottle. Ahhhh the good times…….

Then there are the concerts. The Scene was the best source of information on who was coming to the Cleveland area and everyone came to Cleveland. Until going thru these old papers, I didn’t really know there were other promoters in the area other than Belkin Productions at the time. A Friend Productions, American Concerts and Stone Head Productions were all here in the early 70’s and the music fans of Cleveland were the benefactors. Can you imagine now in 2009 seeing bands such as Pink Floyd at Case Western Reserve University, Jethro Tull at Admiral King High School, or Edgar Winter at Normandy High School? How about all of the concerts at the gymnasiums of Kent State, the College of Wooster, John Carroll University? I’m not talking about teen dances at these gyms but bands such as Emerson, Lake And Palmer, Frank Zappa, Uriah Heep, Yes, The James Gang, The Beach Boys, Deep Purple, The Eagles, The Kinks to name just a few. Pick up The Scene back then to figure out where you were going to spend your hard earned $5.00. Do I go see Dave Mason and Jo Jo Gunne at the Allen Theatre on Sunday or wait until Tuesday to see Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac at the Akron Civic Theatre. Hold on, Humble Pie and J. Geils Band are at Public Hall on Friday and on Saturday Deep Purple and Buddy Miles are playing in Akron and Pink Floyd is there next Wednesday. What do I do? I only have $5.00…..

It is a been a real trip to go thru these old Scenes. I have sent Danny some of the old Eli Radish photos I found and my good friend Alex Bevan write-ups I found of him, they are great to read and reminisce. Seeing Peanuts in the old issues and still seeing him around town now when I go to shows, some things haven’t changed. (Okay Peanuts maybe we are both a little older!). Reading about Jim Bonfanti and David Smalley leaving the Raspberries back in 1973 and here in 2009 they are re-united and performing again. It’s like we have come full circle.

Well it’s time to get back to work and stop looking thru the time machine. Wait what’s in that box in the corner? 1974-1976 Scene’s! Oh boy, another day lost to the seventies and my memories………..

Nuff said, least till next week
Peace Out
Bear