When I was about 14 years old in 1971I went to my first big concert in the city at the San Francisco civic auditorium. Previously I had seen a few of the local San Francisco groups at a small venue in Tahoe, then at the local Santa Clara county fairgrounds we saw Savoy Brown, the Faces, and Deep Purple.
I had been a Who fan since the first time I heard the song I Can see for Miles when I was 10. At that time I think they would have been considered a pop band but there were some thing about that song that was definitely not pop. Then a couple years later my dad took me to the R-rated film Woodstock. I’m sure he had no interest in going but he did say he liked Sha Na Na my favorite was The Who! So when it was announced that they would play in San Francisco in support of their new album who’s next, I was determined to go. Back then you had to go wait in line at a Ticketron outlet to get a ticket. I threatened I would cut School but my dad stepped in and said he would go on his lunch hour and see what he could do. He was able to get the last available ticket for $5.50. Since I didn’t have a second ticket and no way to bribe someone to drive I had to come up with a ride. Luckily for me my brother and his girlfriend came through & said they would go party in San Francisco and drop me off and pick me up.
To get to the point lo and behold more than 50 years later the concert is released as part of the Lifehouse box set last week. Amazing all these years later & I quality isn’t half bad. StI’ll ranks in my top five concerts of all time and I believe this was truly at their height of live performance.
The whole concert is on YouTube right now & it’s what I am listening to now…
Intro by Bill Graham
Baba O’Reilly
I had been a Who fan since the first time I heard the song I Can see for Miles when I was 10. At that time I think they would have been considered a pop band but there were some thing about that song that was definitely not pop. Then a couple years later my dad took me to the R-rated film Woodstock. I’m sure he had no interest in going but he did say he liked Sha Na Na my favorite was The Who! So when it was announced that they would play in San Francisco in support of their new album who’s next, I was determined to go. Back then you had to go wait in line at a Ticketron outlet to get a ticket. I threatened I would cut School but my dad stepped in and said he would go on his lunch hour and see what he could do. He was able to get the last available ticket for $5.50. Since I didn’t have a second ticket and no way to bribe someone to drive I had to come up with a ride. Luckily for me my brother and his girlfriend came through & said they would go party in San Francisco and drop me off and pick me up.
To get to the point lo and behold more than 50 years later the concert is released as part of the Lifehouse box set last week. Amazing all these years later & I quality isn’t half bad. StI’ll ranks in my top five concerts of all time and I believe this was truly at their height of live performance.
The whole concert is on YouTube right now & it’s what I am listening to now…
Intro by Bill Graham
Baba O’Reilly
