LITERAL IS THE NEW SURREAL

HANDS I’VE SHAKEN (no particular order): Oscar Peterson, Eddie Albert, Andras Schiff, Stephen Bishop Kovacevich, Phyllis Diller, Marian McPartland, David Lindley, Rosanne Cash, Richard Thompson Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Peter Guralnick, Greil Marcus, Vince Aletti, Joel Krosnick, Jan DeGaetani, Paul Katz, Robert Gottlieb, Dan Rather, Zubin Mehta, Joan Osborne…

TOP TEN ROCK CONCERTS (fab dinner party game):

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, June 20, 1978 [fresh out of high school, entranced by DARKNESS, in advance of Dave Marsh’s RS cover story… by the third number, ” Spirits in the Night,” when he lept into the front rows with us and started dancing, you felt certain you were in the presence of greatness… I kept thinking “this is what it must have felt like to see Elvis…” A life-changing event.]
2. The Who (Who By Numbers tour), Denver Coliseum, December 1975 3. Bob Dylan and the Band, Denver Coliseum, January 1974
4. Paul McCartney and Wings, Denver Coliseum, May 1976
5. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, War Memorial, Buffalo, NY, December 1984
6. Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit, Paradise, Boston, 1995
7. Marshall Crenshaw (trio) [opened with “I’m Sorry But So Is Brenda Lee”], Paradise, Boston, 1989
8. Fats Domino, Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, 1989 [humped his piano all the way across the stage]
9. Richard Thomson, Rochester, NY, 1985
10. George Harrison, Denver Coliseum, 1974 [this tour was unjustly slammed: Willy Weeks on bass, Andy Newmark on drums, Robben Ford (!) on guitar, Billy Preston on keybs with solo spots… and “In My Life” was searing… Harrison had a blast]