This is the last part of the story of the fans that were going to various George Harrison concerts during his North American Tour in 1974. This time they are at Madison Square Garden. This was written by Pat Simmons.
And then there was New York….
Mysteriously enough, Kris, Marla, Deb and I had all come
down with malaria that Friday (December 20th) and were unable to go
to work. Beautiful blue skies awaited
us in New York City and Mary Ann had volunteered to pick us up and take us into
Manhattan. The temperatures were well
into the 40s and it looked like it was going to be an all-around beautiful
weekend. We just regretted that Joy
wasn’t able to afford to come with us. We
just barely, by the time we’d landed and met Tempy and four Mary Ann’s car, had
enough time to go to our hotel (Park Lane – and no, he didn’t stay there. He stayed next door at the Plaza), dump our
rubbish and bop over to the Plaza to try to see George depart for the
concert. We waited right up until ten
minutes to four (the show started at 4:00).
We had seen Billy, Tom, Willie, and just about everyone else leaves, but
not George. We figured out later he
must’ve bopped out the side door. We all
crammed into taxis (along with Jean and Cyn from Minnesota) and proceeded
toward Madison Square Garden averaging about two miles an hour most of the
way. The crowds not only with the
concert but with last minute Christmas shoppers were just unreal, considering
NYC is usually a rat race anyway. Not to
mention that by the time we approached Madison Square. It was also the beginning of rush hour with
people leaving work! The group in the
other taxi gave up about ten blocks from Madison Square and ran the rest of the
way. They were smarter than we
were. We finally got there and were seated
about halfway through the second song.
We were in the lower balcony about halfway back. You could see beautifully (especially thanks
to Mary Ann’s binoculars!) but if you own an Instamatic camera, forget it. It seemed hard to believe that just 3 ½ years
ago Bangla Desh had happened in that very place. This time George was wearing plaid trousers
and white shirt, looking as good as ever, but also looking very tired, about to
fall over. It’s been a LONG tour. He changed the order of songs somewhat, doing
“In My Life” as the 3rd song in the first half instead of in the
second half. During that song, instead
of singing “I love you more” he sang “Olivia more” which really blew our minds
– pass THAT one on to Gloria Stavers, folks!
He introduced that song by saying, “The net song is about some old
friends of ours.” And during “Sue You
Sue Me Blues” he sang, “Bring your lawyer, don’t bring Klein.” And when Billy sang “Will it Go Round in
Circles” he said, “I got no melody…gonna sing it to my George.” George introduced Ravi by saying “I would
like to introduce to you the man without whom my life would be a misery and
very boring.” Lakshmi had her Apple
watch on – one of the watches Ringo sells – is that right? Anyway, it seemed funny to see her wear
it. At one point George said that he, in
his other NYC shows, had been getting knocked because during the Indian section
people were shouting “ice cream! Ice
cream!” And he said, “So would the people selling ice creams please shout “ice
cream” a little quieter?” That cracked
everybody up. (They didn’t shout “ice
cream” any softer by the way). That was
weird seeing people bop around the aisles selling ice cream and pop (pardon me,
you New York people, SODA) during George’s concert! IT was like being at a football game. George said before introducing “Zoom Zoom
Zoom,” “I’d just like to say that as
we’re finishing this tour, what there appears to be is a battle against
people’s concept of what we’re supposed to be, and this plays a big part in the
battle of concept. So, the easiest way
to enjoy anything in your life is not to try to pre-judge it. And we’d like to continue with a piece of
music called “Zoom Zoom Zoom.” When
George finished introducing the Indian musicians, Ravi stepped up to the
microphone and finished the intros saying, “and the fifth one, George
Shankar!” It didn’t get much response. And during “Dispute and Violence” during each
beat, George would do things like kicking his leg or slide forward or lift his
guitar – that man can’t keep still even during the Indian music part. Shame on him.
When George introduced Jim Horn and all of them, he added, “You name it,
they’ll blow it.” He once in a while
would look behind him as though remember he had an audience behind him and
would say, “Forgive me. I tend to forget
about you.”
He changed the order of the songs in the 2nd half
too. He introduced “Tom Cat” by saying
“It’s a pleasure to be playing in Tommy Scott’s band.” During “Dark Horse” he was having amplifier
trouble – kept giving off a high-pitched squeak. He kept looking around and thought things,
“somebody do something!” Eventually, somebody did, because it was all right after that. There was an extra-long version of “While My
Guitar Gently Weeps” with a long, long guitar duet between George and
Robben. He received tremendous applause
afterwards, to which he said “Thank you.
Thank you. God bless you
all.” During “Nothing From Nothing”
George kept pitching in little comments, like Billy would sing “Nothing from
nothing mean nothing, ain’t that right?” and George would say “Yeah, that’s
right.” Oh, when Tom did “Tom Cat,” he
came up behind the unsuspecting George, who had his back to him and stood next
to him. When George finally realized someone
was behind him, he turned around, grinned, put his arm around him, and proceeded
to do the Harrison soft shoe! And during
the encore, he tried again to get the audience to participate saying that they’d
be the back up band and the audience should be the singers. “The Lord lives within all of us – we are a
reflection of each other. The sooner we
discover ourselves within our hearts, the sooner we’ll have united nations, because
it’s the same sap that runs thru the maple tree – whatever you like. The message is to see God – it’s so hard, but
it’s so easy. And I’d just like to tell
you that this band is a gas! It didn’t
take them long, did it?” It brought the
usual response, which wasn’t much, but oh well, we had fun anyway. Just watching him on stage was worth the
price of the ticket.
Between that show and the second, which would be the very
last one of the tour, Cyn, Mary Ann and I went to scrounge up din-din at a
coffee shop underneath Madison Square (*you’d have to see that place to believe
it. It’s fantastic!) Afterward, we ran
into some scalpers who had 2nd-row seats for sale, which we promptly
bought. IT turned out that they were 2nd
row lower balcony about ¾ of the way back.
WE met up with everyone else.
Tempy and Deb had managed to get front row seats from a scalper! Marla had one about ½ way back, the main floor,
which she traded with me so that I could be on the main floor instead of the
balcony. Before the show started, while
sitting there, I had itchy feet, so I bopped down to where the first half
started to talk to Tempy and Deb. Somehow,
I managed to double-talk my way into the first half of the main floor. There was an empty seat next to Deb and I
managed to keep it until about halfway through the second or third song when
the owner of the seat finally showed and the little man in the red coat kindly
ushered me out. I thought for a while he
was planning on throwing me the rest of the way out. I was scared to death. Before being escorted away, dear Deb shoved
her ticket at me so that I wouldn’t get thrown out altogether, and mumbled
“come back during intermission and I’ll trade seats with you.” I must have the nicest friends in the whole
world or at least the most unselfish, which seems to be a rare trait in the
“Beatle fans” today – generally, it seems “everyone for herself” which is rather
sad. Anyway, I wormed my way down an
aisle to lose the ever-following little man in the red coat, and then wormed my
way back. Never having made a practice
of this, I continued to be scared to death.
Eventually, I found an empty seat in the first section, about a third of
the way back, and the seat was toward the middle where the usher couldn’t reach
me, so I wormed my way in there and plonked myself down. Still was a beautiful seat. I noticed a couple of empty seats ahead of me
a couple rows and only wished I could get the attention of Mar, Kris, Mary Ann,
Cyn, and everybody else who were still back there in our super-gyp scalper
seats.
I even had an extra scalper ticket for a seat up in peanut
heaven which I hadn’t been able to sell at all.
People had approached me asking me to give it to them for free, which I
wasn’t about to do, so it became a souvenir, an expensive one, but a souvenir. Anyhow, I sat there in the middle of that
section, terrified I would get chucked.
After a while, I got over that feeling and was finally able to enjoy the
concert.
You could just feel the tension in the air because everyone,
absolutely everyone it seemed was expecting Lennon to show. But he never did. I was really disappointed. So were a lot of people. We heard later that Lennon had been backstage
but had decided not to join George onstage because he didn’t like the way
George changed the lyrics to “In My Life” and George wouldn’t sing them the way
they were supposed to be sung, so that was that. John couldn’t have been overly mad at him
though because he did show up at George’s after-tour party later that evening.
I forgot to mention that this show was a bit late in
starting and guess how the extra time was filled in? By a group of people singing Christmas carols. And George wore this time the overalls and a
yellow shirt and red tennis shoes! He
opened the show saying “Good evening, New York, take 3!” He introduced “In My Life” this time “I’d
like to do a song written by two old friends and one and a half new
friends. You figure out which is the
half! (ooooh!) however we all live and learn, and the Lord bless us all.” He again ended the song by saying, “God bless
John, Paul, Ringo, and all the other x’s.”
The intro to “Sue You Sue Me Blues” – “I’d like to do a song off the
Living in a Material World album which was born and bred in New York
City.” Introduction to the Indian
musicians: “We’d like to enlarge the band or orchestra or whatever you want to call
it and hopefully bring new preconceived ideas as to what the Lord should and
should not do in our lives. It’ll take a
minute or two to plug Bushy Barkley pickups in, and hopefully, you may enjoy it
depending on the kind of concept you like (Bushy Barkley pickups – what is
that?). When, one time, George went up
to the mike to speak, at first it wouldn’t work and he looked panic-stricken. He tapped at it, going “Hullo,
hullo, hullo.” Before one of the
Indian songs, he mentioned “Shankar Family and Friends” album “on the Dark
Horse label at your local deals now – plug, plug, plug again!” This is called “Dispute and Violence” and you
know all about that in New York!
Introducing the rest of the band: “Ace lunatic on percussion, Emil
Richards!” After introducing Robben, he
announced that he was only 18! And Jim
Keltner threw his drumstick in the air, and as usual, he missed! He introduced himself as Carl Marx. The introduction to Maya Love was the topper
when he said, “Not to be confused with My Love.” Before “Tom Cat,” his amp broke once again
and this time it really took them a while to fix it. The band started up some background music
while George inquired, “Well, anybody got any jokes? No?
Well…” During the Indian part, George introduced “Na Da Dani” by saying “It’s Swahili or Benga!” Also during “I Am Missing you”; George and
Kumar sang real loud and very off key trying to out-do each other and Lakshmi
sounded very much like Yoko. The two in
a duet would’ve been far out. But Yoko
didn’t show up either! Tempy did thinks
she saw Julian to the side of the amps at one point. Oh, it really took a while for that amp to
get fixed and finally George plucked s trying and said “ahhh!” and the show was
underway again.
Anyway, George once said “I must tell you, since 1971, New
York is much more patient and that’s a nice sign. Thank you.”
During the encore, he tried again to get people to participate by asking
them to blow the rafters off the place.
We didn’t do as bad as we thought, but in the very end George said, “See
you in another 8 years.” That was one
bummer about this tour – he seemed to be totally intolerant of those who
wouldn’t accept his religious beliefs, tried to shove it down your throat
whether you wanted it or not, and was very sarcastic at times. That kind of business turned me off, but it
was hard staying mad at him, watching him bop around the stage and singing in
what was left of his voice – a hoarse voice just ain’t too bad at times. No sir.
During the intermission, I had bopped up front to talk with
Tempy and Deb at which time Deb said “I’m switching seats with you.” Just another little sample of how unselfish
some people can be. Turned out she was
sure glad she did switch with me because after the show, while standing on Tempy’s
coat, I felt this vise-like grip on my arm and there was Deb, dragging me off
the chair saying “you aren’t gonna BELIEVE this…” Turns out that just after intermission, when
the house lights had gone off again, who should sit down in front of her, directly
in front of her yet but Paul accompanied by Linda! I wish you could have seen this poor kid –
she was so excited. It was her very
first time ever seeing any of them close up, particularly Paul, who happens
to be her fave-rave. I was so glad it had
happened to her – to someone who certainly deserved it, and to someone who had
never had any kind of luck in seeing them before. But I’ll let Debbie tell about that bit later
on in this newsletter – I don’t think she’s recovered since! Nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever quite
like the first time seeing one of them close-up.
Very much elated, we bopped down the stairs of Madison Square,
while I sang a rousing chorus of ’Give me Air, Give me Air…” We were just unable to believe that the tour
was over and that we wouldn’t be bopping off somewhere next weekend. Even if Rolling Stone and the critics hadn’t
liked the concerts, each one had a special meaning.
We had heard that there would be an after-tour party at a
place called the Hippopotamus and we took a cab there in an effort to
crash. That bombed-out – would you
believe TV nearly wasn’t let in and they didn’t let Robben in and was he
mad! We saw George arrive and when
Lennon arrived, that was the REAL topper.
I heard Tempy say, “Lennon!” and I said “Lennon?” And there he came bopping up from behind us
with May Pang, grinning away, grinning even more when someone screamed. I would’ve thought he would’ve been annoyed,
but he didn’t seem to be. When he came
out he held up his arms and said “Keep cool, keep cool!” (I did get a photo of him but it’s really
blurry…blah). Lennon was so cute. George came out and looked very, very stoned with
a blank, dull look in his eyes – it was frightening. He was being assisted to his car. His dad came out accompanied by a
groupie! His hair really is long. And he used to complain about the length of
his son’s hair? Looks like George has
brainwashed him into the Krishna bit because he wears those buttons and symbols
all over his coat too and we hear Peter, George’s brother, who also accompanied
him on part of the tour is very much into that too. One of the best parts of the whole weekend
had to be when Alla came out, you know the pudgy little bongo player in Bangla
Desh and he was plowed! Two people were
helping him walk up and down the street to get some air. He was that tanked – not realizing his
problem was one too many. I thought he
was sick and walked up and asked him if he was all right. He just grinned back and said “I’m all
right. I’m all right” and I caught a
whiff of his breath and almost passed out.
That struck me so funny. I
thought their religion said they weren’t supposed to drink. Come to think of it we never did see Ravi
leave. Anyway, that was THE perfect
ending to a most perfect day.
The next day we bopped over to the Stanhope where Paul was staying
and after having a drink in the hotel’s pub in an effort to thaw out a bit, we
whiled away the time fussing over every dog that trotted past. We always seem to attract the dogs! Mary Ann had waited with us at the Hippo but
had caught the flu and couldn’t go with us to the Stanhope. I was really sad about that. I really wanted her to see Paul. She had been one of the ones who’d never seen
any of them either, until seeing George and John at the Hippo. Anyhow, after about six hours of waiting,
Paul and Linda finally bopped out and somehow when you see him, the waiting is
always worth it and you suddenly forget that you were frozen solid just a
minute ago. They were dressed to kill,
on their way to see the Sgt. Pepper play.
When he first came in, Paul’s mouth dropped open in mock astonishment
and he exclaimed, “are all of you waiting for me?” What a ham, but he was as gorgeous as
ever. There were even some older people
hanging around waiting for him, wanting autographs. Though he’d hate that, but the really loved
the attention and was quite enjoying himself.
They were out there for about 10 minutes. Don’t know how Paul could stand the cold
win. He just had a suitcoat on, no other
coat, and it must have been in the 20s by then.
Sunday we spent hanging around the Plaza, having learned
that George was supposed to leave that day, but after hours and hours of waiting
in the freezing cold, we finally learned that he’d cut out at 6 that
morning. Leave it to George to think of
something sneaky like that. We hit the
Stanhope briefly but decided we really didn’t have the time to wait because we
did have to fly home and go to work the next day. Just when we caught a cab in front of the Plaza,
Kris, Mary Ann and I had gone precisely one block when we saw Jeff Raven out in
front of the building and two limos slither up, so we shoved a dollar at the
cab driver and wailed over, only to see Tom Scott leave. To think we paid a
buck to go one block to see Tom Scott … then again, he ain't half bad!
Off to the Stanhope for about a half-hour where we finally
split up, all going to our appointed airports to catch flights for home. It was sad, breaking up the group! Still, McCartney’s coming soon (so he
says!). We talked to Jeff a bit at the
Plaza when we saw him, and when we mentioned that line George said at the last
show, “See you in another 8 years,” he seemed very surprised and said that
George had been saying he was very pleased with the way the tour went. So to the people, especially the
Clevelanders, that never got to see him, it seems he’ll be back again before
long, and this time, maybe he’ll learn and tour in the summer. It’s so weird being back to the “normal
routine.” Being at those concerts gave
you a feeling you can’t explain in words…but you will find out when he comes
back!
