Music for Grownups: Concerts--Costly, Free, Canned, and Otherwise
Our music writer points us to places on the Internet where you can hear classic concerts of yore—for nothing!
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-07-24
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City. His reviews for AARP.org appear every Tuesday; his columns on Thursdays.
I feel a little guilty.
Billy Joel performed the first of his two musical send-offs to Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets, and I wasn't there. Although this feels like an abdication of critical responsibility on some level, Billy Joel never quite clicked for me. So the notion of joining the love fest with 63,000 other Long Islanders on July 16, or for his final final show on July 18, hardly felt like my idea of a good time.
Joel’s fans apparently had a blast, however, and you can read Rolling Stone's coverage of his tribute to the Beatles (whom he thanked for the use of their "room") and special guests (Tony Bennett, John Mellencamp, and Don Henley) here. Then read complaints about the $100 tickets, $30 parking tab, and sound quality (a piano in center field?) in the review's comments section.
I love live music; it's the tens of thousands of people in one place I can't stand. Which is why I spent the same evening surrounded by several dozen folk dancers stepping merrily to Serbia's finest gypsy brass band, Boban & Marko Markovic's Orkestar, at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing series. Apples and oranges when compared to Billy Joel, I know, but a lot more manageable, intimate, and just plain unusual.
But I digress. Given my aversion to the stadium concert scene, I wanted to rave about places on the Internet where you can hear classic concerts of yore—for nothing! Part of the larger Wolfgang's Vault Web site dedicated to displaying and hawking memorabilia for San Francisco’s famed Fillmore arena, the Concert Vault holds a treasure trove of more than 1,500 concerts available for streaming and, sometimes (for a fee), downloading. They range from the Allman Brothers and A Flock of Seagulls to Zebra and ZZ Top, with hundreds of other performers in between.
So you like rocking piano players? Enjoy Elton John opening for the Kinks at the Fillmore West in 1970 during his first U.S. tour. And for the ultimate Billy Joel stadium experience, hear the Piano Man celebrate the glory of glasnost during a 1987 concert at the Lenin Sports and Concert Complex in Leningrad (now again St. Petersburg)—a show he closed with the Beatles' "Back in the USSR."
The Live Music Archive, a major component of the much, much larger Internet Archive, is a fantastic source of free downloads from "trade-friendly" artists; those are musicians who encourage, or at least tolerate, their fans’ music-sharing. There are a few thousand Grateful Dead shows, for starters. These include many high-quality streamable soundboards and downloadable audience recordings. This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, insofar as 3,000 other folk, country, jazz, indie-rock, improvised-rock, and extremely local acts have made their own live recordings available too.
And finally, this summer marks the 114th edition of the annual London classical-music festival known as the Proms. Initiated to make classical music affordable to the man on the street (by removing the Albert Hall's seats, for starters), all Proms concerts are broadcast, and webcast, by their major sponsor, the BBC. Read a lively account of the Proms' history, tradition, and highlights (including great performers and performances to watch) here. Then click here for the schedule, webcast, and on-demand options available on the BBC until the Proms' September 13 finale.
Then go see some live music.
Billy Joel performed the first of his two musical send-offs to Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets, and I wasn't there. Although this feels like an abdication of critical responsibility on some level, Billy Joel never quite clicked for me. So the notion of joining the love fest with 63,000 other Long Islanders on July 16, or for his final final show on July 18, hardly felt like my idea of a good time.
Joel’s fans apparently had a blast, however, and you can read Rolling Stone's coverage of his tribute to the Beatles (whom he thanked for the use of their "room") and special guests (Tony Bennett, John Mellencamp, and Don Henley) here. Then read complaints about the $100 tickets, $30 parking tab, and sound quality (a piano in center field?) in the review's comments section.
I love live music; it's the tens of thousands of people in one place I can't stand. Which is why I spent the same evening surrounded by several dozen folk dancers stepping merrily to Serbia's finest gypsy brass band, Boban & Marko Markovic's Orkestar, at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing series. Apples and oranges when compared to Billy Joel, I know, but a lot more manageable, intimate, and just plain unusual.
But I digress. Given my aversion to the stadium concert scene, I wanted to rave about places on the Internet where you can hear classic concerts of yore—for nothing! Part of the larger Wolfgang's Vault Web site dedicated to displaying and hawking memorabilia for San Francisco’s famed Fillmore arena, the Concert Vault holds a treasure trove of more than 1,500 concerts available for streaming and, sometimes (for a fee), downloading. They range from the Allman Brothers and A Flock of Seagulls to Zebra and ZZ Top, with hundreds of other performers in between.
So you like rocking piano players? Enjoy Elton John opening for the Kinks at the Fillmore West in 1970 during his first U.S. tour. And for the ultimate Billy Joel stadium experience, hear the Piano Man celebrate the glory of glasnost during a 1987 concert at the Lenin Sports and Concert Complex in Leningrad (now again St. Petersburg)—a show he closed with the Beatles' "Back in the USSR."
The Live Music Archive, a major component of the much, much larger Internet Archive, is a fantastic source of free downloads from "trade-friendly" artists; those are musicians who encourage, or at least tolerate, their fans’ music-sharing. There are a few thousand Grateful Dead shows, for starters. These include many high-quality streamable soundboards and downloadable audience recordings. This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, insofar as 3,000 other folk, country, jazz, indie-rock, improvised-rock, and extremely local acts have made their own live recordings available too.
And finally, this summer marks the 114th edition of the annual London classical-music festival known as the Proms. Initiated to make classical music affordable to the man on the street (by removing the Albert Hall's seats, for starters), all Proms concerts are broadcast, and webcast, by their major sponsor, the BBC. Read a lively account of the Proms' history, tradition, and highlights (including great performers and performances to watch) here. Then click here for the schedule, webcast, and on-demand options available on the BBC until the Proms' September 13 finale.
Then go see some live music.
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