Going traditional so bird is currently browning nicely, plus all the usual trimmings. I am playing bartender this year so its Rusty Nails, Smoked Maple Old Fashioned's, and Gin & Tonics. I miss my old bartending days and would love to do a part-time gig but at 53 years old, fugetaboutit. Unless I can wrestle the job away from Gertrude at the VFW Hall my ass is outta luck. People want to see the young & beautiful, not the old and cranky 😉

That was a god damned debacle. I just don't know what the hell is wrong with some Chicago folk but that event was a shit show. At the time I was no fan of disco and I was 11 year old in 79/ when this happened. At 11 years old I was cognizant enough to understand you don't trash a baseball field because you don't like a particular type of music. Just a bunch of Old Style swilling, brat eating jackoffs as far as I was concerned at the time. Later I became a musician (joined band in jr. high and continued through HS and switched from trumpet to guitar when I hit 15 and joined the HS jazz band) which gave me a greater appreciation of all types of music including disco. Then again I remember being in shop class in 79' and almost getting into fistfights over Zeppelin vs. Stones vs. Who. People be cray cray!

Blah, blah, blah, more nonsense from a nonsensical source. Give it up will ya

In Chicago, WMET & the LOOP played NFBM & HOFN a LOT. Achilles got airplay quite a bit on more expansive format stations such as WXRT as did Tea for One & CSR. Chicago was always a massive Zeppelin stronghold and never really took to punk rock. I remember some dude in my Freshman year in HS getting his ass kicked just for wearing a Sex Pistols shirt. Chicago was a weird place when it came to music. Not friendly in any way to punk, new wave, or alternative music at all until the mid-80's.

Actually surprised Austria is doing this as they are a coalition government with the President a Green Party Member and the Chancellor the head of the Peoples Party. The Peoples Party is a Christian conservative, anti-socialist party and Austria has seen a resurgence of fascist / Nazi groups over the past 10 years. They are not a liberal country as the OVP holds the majority of minster positions and both Chancellery ministers are OVP, instead they are very conservative. I guess it's getting bad when even the semi-fascists go full lockdown. However, with the situation of Belarus shipping refugees to the Polish border and the chaos that is causing, maybe they are being proactive with the likelihood of a bunch of un-vaccinated refugees trying to get into Austria?

Exactly. Carter was the only President not to engage in a war or military action against another nation while in office (the Iran Hostage botched rescue not included). Think on that for a minute. Only one President since 1789 has kept us out of military action, just one. Carter's malaise speech was 100% truth, 100% spot on and the American people hated it. How dare ANYONE expect American citizens to actually be responsible and accountable! Damn that man!!! Just compare to what Carter has done post-Presidency vs. literally every other former President. Actions speak louder than words and a 97 year old man and his wife building houses for the poor with their own hands speaks volumes. Unlike all the other past Presidents who are doing exactly nothing to help the poor and / or disenfranchised. With great power comes great responsibility, a few understand that, most just take the money and run.

I liked Ike for the most part. The guy would be considered a left-wing loonie in today's political environment. 92% marginal tax rate, civil rights, etc. He was not perfect as he engaged in way too many covert mini-wars and the toppling of democratically elected heads of state but they, no one is perfect. I would vote for Ike today over any current or potential politician / candidate out there. You know Ike would immediately purge the republican party of all the crazies, then tell everyone to grow the hell up and stop acting like children from Lord of the Flies. Old Ike would have immediately rallied the world to fight the COVID, get a vaccine, and probably put together a catchy phrase to sell it all to the American people.

Ah yes, good point. They do tend to change from year to year. I was in a Euro 80' kick a few years back but that burned out fast. Right now I am enjoying some of the really strong 75' & 77' shows with some 71' tossed in. Funny I typically don't listen to many shows from 69' as the set is just too much blues, not a whole lot of variety even though the band is just amazing.

How about checking with the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre? That's usually what I do. Or possibly Robert's web site?

It really is hard, for me at least, to pin down just three shows. Of course they were hot as F from 69-72' with every member bringing their A-game pretty much nightly, but the other years are just as good but on an inconsistent basis, or, Robert's voice issues 73-75'. In 73' you have the absolute consistent peak of instrumental tightness during the European tour and pretty damn good during the NA shows, only problem is Robert's voice on a few shows. In 75' it's just all over the place, great shows instrumentally but with really bad vocal problems from Robert in most cases. D&C & MD were just bloated by this point but when they hit it they REALLY hit it well in 75', just hard to find a show with all the element present. 77' has Robert almost back to 72' form and actually meeting it in several shows plus the instrumental machine of Jones & Bonham it possibly at their best ever. In 77' Jimmy was the "unknown factor" which would either tank the show or bring it to a new level. Sure there is Tempe and other sub-par shows but then you have Cleveland 4-28, Pontiac 4-30, Landover 5-30, The whole NY & LA runs for the most part. For 79' you have four shows, two of which were excellent with 7-24 in their top 10 shows of all time IMO, one mediocre (8-4) and one which goes from brilliance (communication breakdown) to disaster (STH) and back again (8-11). Europe 80' is another mixed bag but only three or four shows consistently good from start to finish. I think a better approach which was mentioned earlier would be best shows ranked either by tour or by year due to the different approaches used for each tour. Can anyone really compare 9-19-70 to a 75' or 77' show with all the stage production of those later tours? It really is apples to oranges as the overall approach was completely different.

Looks like we need to take it down a notch as certain folk are getting a wee bit grumpy-bumpy:

I agree with you on this Steve. In fact, IMO state universities should go back to their pre-WWII structure where you studied for degrees in STEM & law exclusively and if you wanted to learn art history you went to an art college. We should be motivating the youth to go into vocational studies if they are not interested in a STEM or law degree. Also, only STEM, law degrees, and vocational schools should qualify for student loans at a zero percent interest rate. All other fields of study pay for it on your own. I also could not agree more about your assessment of public health in general. These issues are where the conservative in me comes out as I should not have to subsidize another persons bad lifestyle and poor choices. In several European countries health care systems they simply do not. You are a smoker and go to your doctor for a check up the doctor will tell you any illness you get as a direct result of your habit will be your responsibility to pay for. The structure of both health care & education is so outrageous its criminal.

and this is the problem. The taxes on the middle-class either go up or stay relatively the same while corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy keep going down. It's not rocket science. You can only pay out what you take in so what always gets cut are programs designed to help the average American. College educations used to be affordable, then the states started contributing less & less to the universities so now tuition is outrageous. Health Care used to be affordable, insurance companies covered just about everything and deductibles (that is if you had any) were very low, not anymore. Everything is going through the roof as a direct result of the 2017 tax cuts plus the supply chain issues as a result of Just in Time manufacturing protocols. Of course we also have the typical, "never let a tragedy go unexploited" corporate mentality so everyone is raising prices because, well, because they can and its that simple. The very fact any life saving drug costs anyone a single dime is a crime against humanity IMO, especially as the American taxpayer funds over 95% of all drug research costs while the drug companies then get to benefit off of our blood. I would say at least the COVID vaccine is free but it ain't, the govt. is paying the drug companies bigtime for those vaccines, vaccines which were developed with American tax dollars. So the fact is, we paid for those too.

Hey, when did Elvis's bassist join Zep?

Maybe we should all just walk around in hazmat suits. I for one can get behind this idea 100% if only exclusively for commercial air travel. Just imagine how silly people will look trying to beat the shit out of each other while in a confined cylinder at 30k ft. wearing a hazmat suit. I would watch that on YouTube

Now that brings back memories. Remember this commercial clearly, loved it. Went to the KISS concert in Chicago that year (September) which WMET was a sponsor. Shitty show but had one hell of a great time.

I never knew Robbie Robertson was part of Sparks. Go figure.

Copenhagen 1971 Vienna 1973 Cleveland 4-28-77 Bonus Show: Copenhagen 7-24-79

I hear what you are saying however it really does come down exclusively to trade. You may think Taiwan is insignificant but we live in a global economy akin to a Jenga Tower, pull one piece and the whole thing could collapse. One last note, China can not and will not invade Taiwan, plain and simple. The US is the only nation on this planet which could engage in a large scale amphibious invasion and is the only country to have done so successfully in the past. The Chinese has primarily what is called a littoral Navy for coastal defense only. It's only deep water assets are its subs and two really shitty, diesel powered, extremely antiquated carriers. They simply do not have the necessary assets to invade anyone not directly on their land border. They could blow it off the map but no way they could successfully invade Taiwan. Now even if they did have the assets (which they do not) the entire invasion force would be destroyed long before it was even in sight of Taiwan. Again, amphibious operations rely on one thing above all else, the element of surprise. No way an amphibious invasion force would not be spotted long before it left port. Totally impossible. Just one American carrier group could literally destroy the entire Chinese surface navy and any attacking air forces with little effort. It's just sabre rattling, nothing more.

Moby Dick is the only song I consistently skip unless I am driving long distance in which case I skip it only 99% of the time 😉 RnR from 73'-75'. Just horrible with Robert's voice issues. Kinda going off-topic a bit here but I also skip most boots from 75' where Robert's voice is bad regardless of the quality of the playing though there are exceptions such as Montreal where the playing is so damn good I endure Robert's attempt at singing. Case in point the famed 2-12 NY show. Sorry, I hate it because Robert is just really bad.

Problem there is, how does one write a song about the loss of their child without it being somewhat schmaltzy or slushy? Though I do get your point. I actually prefer Robert's "I Believe" from Fate of Nations as IMO it's a better song and more heartfelt / direct than AML which is metaphor laden. I Believe makes me cry whereas AML makes me think, what a pretty tribute to his son.

Well, you started strong with your first two sentences but after that went right off the rails. Come on John, no need to insult. I believe most thinking people agree with your first sentence. Now regarding WWII Australia really had no choice as the Japanese wanted to invade Australia during WWII and attacked her 111 times during the war. Poor Aussies just wanted to eat Vegemite and ballroom dance when Tojo arrived to spoil the party. Its not like they could have just sent a few thousand Drop Bears and some Inland Taipans' to take out the Japanese 😉

Now that's a cop-out and you know it. Not getting into with you Steve, must respect the rules. COVID, evolving toward sentience? Enquiring minds want to know.