They were there to see Eric.\u00c2\u00a0 If he played fast and grimaced, the audience leapt to its feet.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like Winwood was a sideman, living in Slowhand’s shadow.<\/p>\n
But I was there to see Steve.<\/p>\n
You’ll be impressed if you go to see Clapton.\u00c2\u00a0 He assumes no airs and doesn’t battle those competing with him.\u00c2\u00a0 He just picks out the notes, like an old bluesman, who was here yesterday and will be here tomorrow.<\/p>\n
That’s what the gig felt like.\u00c2\u00a0 Not nostalgia, not a calcified rendition of what once was, but old warhorses uniting to try and kindle a spark one more time.\u00c2\u00a0 And make a fuck of a lot of money.<\/p>\n
Not that Clapton needs any.\u00c2\u00a0 Although, as Michael Jackson proved, we can always use just a bit more.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that high guarantees yield high ticket prices, and the night at the venue is no longer a chance, a risk, rather you expect perfection, the night of your life, which is why so many acts have half their act on hard drive, they don’t want to disappoint you, they don’t want to appear human, flawed and less than the image in your dreams.<\/p>\n
Actually, Winwood’s voice was a bit frayed.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is a guy who hits every note year after year, so that was a surprise.\u00c2\u00a0 Although it was only truly noticeable when the background singers left the stage, along with Eric and the rest of the band, and Steve sat down at the piano alone.<\/p>\n
He spoke.\u00c2\u00a0 Which no one else did.\u00c2\u00a0 This was an evening of music.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn’t a play, not a Britney Spears extravaganza, with set changes obfuscating the fact how little talent is truly on display, rather this was a concert.\u00c2\u00a0 And what Steve had to say was not riveting.\u00c2\u00a0 But once he walked his fingers over the piano keys, we sat in rapt attention.<\/p>\n
Conventional wisdom is the highlight of the evening was "Voodoo\u00c2\u00a0 Chile", with those in the know claiming that Winwood played on the original.\u00c2\u00a0 It wouldn’t have been such a surprise if anybody had bought the double live album of the Madison Square Garden concert within which a rendition is included, but no one needs that.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve already got the originals.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to hear how this music sounds live.<\/p>\n
And if you want to hear something live that’s truly stunning, track down Winwood’s rendition of "Voodoo Chile" from the bonus disc of his 2003 album "About Time".\u00c2\u00a0 It clomps in a way last night’s rendition did not.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re taken away to a mysterious place just like the one you used to inhabit in high school, when you laid on the floor in the dark with your headphones on, listening to your favorite albums deep into the night.<\/p>\n
Yes, this music was vital.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Jobs may be a visionary, a brilliant businessman, but he’s no match for the note of one guitar, played by Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton or Steve Winwood.<\/p>\n
That’s the uncovered mystery.\u00c2\u00a0 That Winwood, famous for playing the organ, can truly wail on guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 Which he did on "Dear Mr. Fantasy" last evening.\u00c2\u00a0 But that was not the high point, unlike when he plays solo gigs.<\/p>\n
The peak was "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys".<\/p>\n
Give Clapton credit.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s managed to maintain, make music that people want to hear decade after decade.\u00c2\u00a0 He delivered the same energy in "Had To Cry Today" and "Well All Right" that he did forty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 And, I loved hearing "Forever Man", from the unjustly pooh-poohed 1985 Phil Collins-produced "Behind The Sun".\u00c2\u00a0 But since his eighties hitmaking days, Winwood’s been receding.\u00c2\u00a0 "About Time" is a revelation, better than the work of each and every one of those jam bands he played with when he concocted the record.\u00c2\u00a0 The record featured not only great playing, but great material.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an album that you played for weeks to fully comprehend and sounds just as fresh when you hear it today.\u00c2\u00a0 But, failing to break through with his younger brethren or his old fans, Winwood retreated into the arms of a major label just when it was time to leave.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d been too early, and now he was too late.<\/p>\n
"Split Decision" was actually better than the take from "Back In The High Life", it breathed in a way the original did not.\u00c2\u00a0 And "Pearly Queen" swung in a way the studio version of yore did not, Eric’s solo spiced it up.\u00c2\u00a0 But these numbers were played with an entire band.\u00c2\u00a0 One made up of not only Abe Laboriel, Jr., but Willie Weeks and Chris Stainton.\u00c2\u00a0 (Chris Stainton?\u00c2\u00a0 Just ripple out the riff from "Hitchcock Railway", please!)\u00c2\u00a0 But "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" was played alone.<\/p>\n
You know those notes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the soundtrack to late night dorm life.\u00c2\u00a0 College is a world removed from reality, and what rooted it way back when was the music.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the music that linked us, that kept us together.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why we went to Woodstock and wouldn’t miss a rock festival thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 We needed to commune with our brothers!<\/p>\n
If you see something that looks like a star<\/span><\/p>\n That’s what Clapton and Winwood were.\u00c2\u00a0 Not built by the media, but their playing. Actually, from the black vinyl spinning on your turntable.<\/p>\n And your head is spinning from a loud guitar<\/span><\/p>\n The music set your mind free.<\/p>\n And you just can’t escape from the sound<\/span><\/p>\n Nor did you want to.<\/p>\n Don’t worry too much, it’ll happen to you<\/span><\/p>\n It happened to everyone.\u00c2\u00a0 The straightest kid from your high school grew out his hair, stood in line overnight to buy tickets, no one was left out.<\/p>\n We were children once, playing with toys<\/span><\/p>\n And that’s just the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone there last night was a child once.\u00c2\u00a0 Including the people on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 But now we’ve grown up.\u00c2\u00a0 Where does this leave us?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s creepy to diet down to a stick, wear teenage clothing and get plastic surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 But we want to be alert, alive and vibrant, we want to feel like we’re twenty again.\u00c2\u00a0 Alas, we can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s been too much hurt, we’ve seen too much, nothing’s new.<\/p>\n The percentage you’re paying is too high-priced<\/span> It’s not only the rock stars who got caught up in the vicious cycle.\u00c2\u00a0 We were a couple of decades and a couple of changes behind them, but the baby boomers started living off credit cards, paying exorbitant interest rates to fuel the lifestyle they believed they were entitled to, convinced the value of their real property and the stock they owned would only go up, just like an artist believes his career will never fade.<\/p>\n And the man in the suit has just bought a new car<\/span> He’s working at Goldman Sachs.\u00c2\u00a0 He made money when you lost it.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s carved out a lifestyle you can’t afford, that you don’t have access to.\u00c2\u00a0 He flies privately and vacations the same way, behind the wall that used to separate rock stars from their fans.\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike the rock stars of days gone by, these "financial wizards" created nothing vital, left nothing in their wake to be remembered by other than debt, and an endless line of broken and battered investors.<\/p>\n But today you just read that the man was shot dead<\/span> In the sixties, we took to the streets, protesting inequities.\u00c2\u00a0 But, there’s been very little protest against the financial ruin the robber barons have wreaked upon the populace.\u00c2\u00a0 Because everybody still believes in the American Dream, they believe that they too can make it, and they want to live unfettered lifestyles when they do.<\/p>\n Utter hogwash.\u00c2\u00a0 The game is rigged.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s against you.<\/p>\n The same way it was in the music game.<\/p>\n But Clapton and Winwood have outlived those who profited from their dream.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t give up, they kept picking themselves up off the floor, kept creating.\u00c2\u00a0 And now are reaping incredible rewards on the road that they’ve got to share with almost nobody.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they get the lion’s share of the profits.<\/p>\n But where does this leave you?<\/p>\n And me.<\/p>\n I’m not sure.\u00c2\u00a0 We remember when the music was vital, when we had to own the live album, when we traded obscure factoids because we cared so much.\u00c2\u00a0 Can we care again, in a country dominated by a limited number of promoters, in a nation where we don’t know what the number one record is, and don’t care?<\/p>\n If I gave you everything that I owned<\/span> This was the sixties mantra.\u00c2\u00a0 We were all in it together. This is the age of Reagan and thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck you, I’m looking out for me.<\/p>\n Our culture has been bent and broken.\u00c2\u00a0 You wonder why we get this nihilistic music?\u00c2\u00a0 You wonder why the best and brightest go into tech instead of music?\u00c2\u00a0 In tech, you’re in control of your own destiny.\u00c2\u00a0 In music, you’re a cog in a machine run by men gone amok, who are just interested in maintaining their profits, even if they’ve got to kill someone to achieve this.<\/p>\n But spirit is something that no one destroys<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the day, we’re optimistic.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise we die.\u00c2\u00a0 We need to believe tomorrow can be better, otherwise we commit suicide.\u00c2\u00a0 What keeps us going?<\/p>\n Music.<\/p>\n Yes, our heads spin when we hear the sound of a loud guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 And everybody in attendance last night at the Bowl remembered that, that’s what drove them there.\u00c2\u00a0 And despite the financial shenanigans, the posturing of the business boys, it’s the only way the business will be saved, via the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Played by boys inspired by classics as opposed to riches.\u00c2\u00a0 Clapton and Winwood had no idea they’d still be playing decades on, never mind making a fortune doing it.<\/p>\n So stop focusing on money.\u00c2\u00a0 Question authority.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop getting ahead at the expense of others, bring them along.\u00c2\u00a0 The music inspired once, it can inspire us again.\u00c2\u00a0 When Steve Winwood sat down at the piano last night and played "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" I remembered the day I bought it, I remembered listening to it at Middlebury, and I got in touch with how vital it still sounded, and that gave me hope, that I too could be vital.<\/p>\n That’s what live music played by real people does.\u00c2\u00a0 Illustrate that we can concoct something beautiful out of nothing, which is different every night, which touches humanity.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody can now sample recorded tunes, they’re free to stream online.\u00c2\u00a0 If only everybody could afford to go to the show, and hear people as inspirational as Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They were there to see Eric.\u00c2\u00a0 If he played fast and grimaced, the audience leapt to its feet.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like Winwood was a sideman, living in Slowhand’s shadow. 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And it’s shooting up out of the ground<\/span><\/p>\n
While you’re living beyond all your means<\/span><\/p>\n
From the profit he’s made on your dream<\/span><\/p>\n
By a gun that didn’t make any noise<\/span>
But it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest<\/span>
Was the low spark of high-heeled boys<\/span><\/p>\n
And asked for nothing in return<\/span>
Would you do the same for me as I would for you<\/span><\/p>\n
Or take me for a ride<\/span>
And strip me of everything, including my pride<\/span><\/p>\n