{"id":71,"date":"2005-07-02T12:17:59","date_gmt":"2005-07-02T19:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/07\/02\/loggins-messina-at-the-greek\/"},"modified":"2005-07-02T12:21:14","modified_gmt":"2005-07-02T19:21:14","slug":"loggins-messina-at-the-greek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2005\/07\/02\/loggins-messina-at-the-greek\/","title":{"rendered":"Loggins & Messina At The Greek"},"content":{"rendered":"

We teach our children virtue then we send them off to war
Then we ask ourselves the question, what in the hell are we fighting for<\/em><\/p>\n

"Same Old Wine"<\/p>\n

In Mexico City before the gig it came out that Larry grew up in Argentina.\u00c2\u00a0 With that, I had to know more, how did this happen, how did he get from DOWN UNDER to working for AEG?<\/p>\n

It involved his father working for the State Department.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple more South American countries.\u00c2\u00a0 But, after his dad died suddenly, Larry found himself ensconced in Montebello.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that he minded.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d think he would freak, going from private school to a multi-cultural institution with a graduating class of two thousand.\u00c2\u00a0 But Larry embraced the Southern California lifestyle.\u00c2\u00a0 He went surfing.\u00c2\u00a0 He got into radio at Pasadena City College.\u00c2\u00a0 He was a page at ABC.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he got drafted.<\/p>\n

Imagine the possibility of YOUR ass getting sent over to Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 THEN you’ll know how we felt back in the late sixties and early seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 For a while there, as long as you stayed in school, you were clear.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they only gave you four years.\u00c2\u00a0 When you were eighteen, you got your draft card.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just a matter of time before you would be shuffling off to Canada or battling gooks.\u00c2\u00a0 You got drunk, thought about girls, but in the back of your mind you always confronted the possibility that your life could be cut short.\u00c2\u00a0 Real soon.<\/p>\n

I thought it was too late for a Loggins & Messina reunion.\u00c2\u00a0 That their audience no longer cared.\u00c2\u00a0 THEIR kids were in college.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d rather watch DVDs on the home theatre than go to the multiplex.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn’t Fleetwood Mac, and even Fleetwood Mac can’t do sellout business anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Would they come to see Loggins & Messina?<\/p>\n

Felice constantly reminds me that we’re closer to the end than the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 But I don’t want to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I go to a gig like this.\u00c2\u00a0 And see the people.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s positively frightening.\u00c2\u00a0 Loggins & Messina weren’t even a SIXTIES act, they didn’t even DEBUT until the seventies, but there was more gray hair in attendance than blond or brunette.\u00c2\u00a0 Bodies were lumpy.\u00c2\u00a0 This was my generation, no getting around it, and it was scary.<\/p>\n

At the backstage box office they didn’t have our tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 They were up at the PEOPLE’S box office, where the LINES were.\u00c2\u00a0 But Mike Krebs offered to run up and get them for us.\u00c2\u00a0 It pays to have friends.\u00c2\u00a0 And there were an astounding number of friends there.\u00c2\u00a0 Lisa said it was like the Pollstar Conference.\u00c2\u00a0 And it wasn’t only the fiftysomethings.\u00c2\u00a0 Marc Friedenberg was there.\u00c2\u00a0 More fortysomethings.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, unlike today’s tunes, the music of the seventies had shelf life, it not only penetrated down the age scale, it survived past its initial chart success.<\/p>\n

It was an evening with, and, as Milt told me, Jimmy is punctual, so the gig started on time.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was eight o’clock.<\/p>\n

And it’s freaky being at the shed (well, there’s no roof in SoCal, but you get the idea) when it’s still light out.\u00c2\u00a0 It removes the drama and the charisma from the performance.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it was like they were playing in our living room.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry had us parked dead center in the first permanent row.\u00c2\u00a0 And sometimes this can be too close, but not this evening, the sound was perfect.<\/p>\n

It was the entire original lineup.\u00c2\u00a0 In instrumentation.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the drummer and piano player, but the reedsmen too.\u00c2\u00a0 All behind a scrim.\u00c2\u00a0 Up front were Kenny & Jimmy.\u00c2\u00a0 With their guitars.<\/p>\n

God, it’s been LIGHT YEARS since I’ve seen Loggins & Messina.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been to see so many has-beens since.\u00c2\u00a0 The thought that the frontmen would actually PLAY, without SUPPORT, never crossed my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 But Kenny & Jimmy played every guitar part.\u00c2\u00a0 Well.<\/p>\n

Oh, they started off with hits.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what Lisa told me, I’d hear all the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 But half a dozen songs in, when Jimmy tore into "Changes", a warm, fuzzy feeling coursed through my body, kind of like when they inject you with that dye before they take pictures of your insides.<\/p>\n

I endured a white knuckle drive from Salt Lake City to Sun Valley one afternoon in February 1975 that I’ll never forget.\u00c2\u00a0 The only thing that got me through was "Mother Lode".\u00c2\u00a0 With the snow blowing and the asphalt of the Interstate unseeable I wasn’t able to eject the cassette and insert something new.\u00c2\u00a0 That split second might have me in the ditch on the side of the road.\u00c2\u00a0 All I could do was let the tape play, over and over again.<\/p>\n

That’s when you fall in love.\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re on a long drive and you’ve exhausted your everyday life.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s THEN that you reveal who you truly are.\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re locked up in a machine with nowhere to go.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like being in a foxhole.\u00c2\u00a0 You bond.<\/p>\n

It was a Maxell cassette I’d made from my sister’s vinyl album.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet that tape, which I still have today, had a value far exceeding the cost of the cassette.\u00c2\u00a0 Wrapped up in that little machine were my friends.\u00c2\u00a0 Two guys who had been through something with me.\u00c2\u00a0 We might have gone our separate ways since, but we were forever linked.<\/p>\n

I downloaded every track on "Mother Lode" from Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 And I PLAYED them.\u00c2\u00a0 They always reminded me of that dark February afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 But I didn’t expect Loggins & Messina to play any of them.\u00c2\u00a0 For even though the album went Top Ten, none of those songs were hits.<\/p>\n

And then Jimmy was playing "Changes".<\/p>\n

And at this point it’s starting to get dark.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s that eerie time of day when if you’re my age you have trouble seeing.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re leaving the external world behind, and just living in your mind.<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t only "Changes".\u00c2\u00a0 They played "Sailin’ The Wind".\u00c2\u00a0 "Be Free".\u00c2\u00a0 "Whiskey".\u00c2\u00a0 All the songs that I thought only I knew, that I thought only I was a fan of.\u00c2\u00a0 The ones that not only I heard in southern Idaho but Middlebury, Vermont.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so far away, so many years ago, but hearing just one note of those old tracks brings me back to my dorm room.\u00c2\u00a0 Lying on the bed, listening.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to tell you I’m a different person now, but I’m not.\u00c2\u00a0 And that feels good and bad.\u00c2\u00a0 Good to know that there’s a continuum, bad to know that you take your problems, your mind-set, everywhere.<\/p>\n

During the break Andy spoke of the energy level.\u00c2\u00a0 That they were great, but he just wasn’t FEELING IT!\u00c2\u00a0 And Andy’s a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 He might be the agent for Social D., but he also represents Richie Furay.<\/p>\n

And, after intermission, Jimmy played "Kind Woman".\u00c2\u00a0 Which I thought was going to make Andy wince, but then he credited Richie as its author.<\/p>\n

Still, he played "You Better Think Twice".\u00c2\u00a0 From the second Poco album.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why I bought "Sittin’ In".\u00c2\u00a0 Because of Jimmy’s HISTORY!<\/p>\n

And they played "Your Mama Don’t Dance" at the end of the first set.\u00c2\u00a0 MOST of the big hits came before the break.\u00c2\u00a0 And, in the second half, they played the extended numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 They started to amp it up.<\/p>\n

May 23rd of last year, driving way past dark, I heard something completely familiar, yet I couldn’t place it.\u00c2\u00a0 How did I KNOW this song?\u00c2\u00a0 What was it.\u00c2\u00a0 I looked down at the XM readout, of course it was Loggins & Messina, but "Same Old Wine"?<\/p>\n

I pulled up at the Shell station in the Palisades but I couldn’t get out.\u00c2\u00a0 I was running my mental rolodex.\u00c2\u00a0 What ALBUM was this from?\u00c2\u00a0 I might not be able to download it quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d better enjoy it.<\/p>\n

And it went on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 "Same Old Wine" is eight minutes and seventeen seconds long.\u00c2\u00a0 But I couldn’t pump my gas, I couldn’t move.<\/p>\n

And when I got home, I downloaded it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s from "Sittin’ In".\u00c2\u00a0 Even though the track is so long, according to iTunes I’ve played it 25 times since then.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind listening on my iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the second song I wanted to hear, NEEDED to hear, after "Changes".\u00c2\u00a0 And about halfway through the second set, I heard the violin.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy started to pick.\u00c2\u00a0 I started to get woozy.<\/p>\n

"Well we give them the election…"<\/p>\n

It wasn’t like today.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a very clear dividing line.\u00c2\u00a0 We were liberals, we were Democrats, but the people in power, making the decisions, the President, they were Republicans.\u00c2\u00a0 The disconnect was palpable.\u00c2\u00a0 Only exceeded by what we’re feeling today.\u00c2\u00a0 How could it be that we were in this unjust war, that we might DIE for an old man’s folly?\u00c2\u00a0 We just wanted to get high, chase girls, get on with our lives, how come we were POWERLESS!<\/p>\n

Everybody felt this way.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody under thirty.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t just the males.\u00c2\u00a0 And what brought us together, and KEPT us together, was music.\u00c2\u00a0 The musicians didn’t do a focus group before going on record, weren’t worried about hurting their careers, they just said what they believed.\u00c2\u00a0 And we listened.<\/p>\n

Loggins & Messina weren’t the Rolling Stones.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even Crosby, Stills & Nash.\u00c2\u00a0 But second-tier bands back then were LIGHT YEARS bigger than the major acts of today.\u00c2\u00a0 All their albums went gold, they sold out arenas, they were household names.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, you see, music ruled.<\/p>\n

Because music was different.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was an EXPERIENCE!\u00c2\u00a0 You dropped the needle on the album, kicked back, and listened.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you smoked a little dope, maybe you talked with your friend, or maybe you just sat alone in your space, listening.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t need to multi-task, that wasn’t even a virtue, just listening to music was enough.<\/p>\n

Those days might be through.\u00c2\u00a0 The world is no longer that small.\u00c2\u00a0 Coldplay’s "X & Y" is the largest selling album in the world, yet you don’t FEEL IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, the trade press trumpets the success, but Loggins & Messina meant more thirty years ago than Coldplay does today.\u00c2\u00a0 There were fewer diversions, everybody was focused, everybody was paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 And the album tracks were every bit as important as the hits, we knew them just as well.\u00c2\u00a0 And to hear them Wednesday night, in all their glory…brought me right back.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t only "Same Old Wine".\u00c2\u00a0 There was "Trilogy".\u00c2\u00a0 And "You Need A Man".\u00c2\u00a0 All the tunes embedded in our DNA, the kind of tunes that are meaningless today, that bands don’t even play live, the ALBUM TRACKS, they played them.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a return to the days of glory.<\/p>\n

And the encore was…<\/p>\n

Time, time and again
I’ve seen you starin’ out at me<\/p>\n

Now, then and again, I wonder
What it is that you see<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, right now there are tattooed baby boomers resplendent in black clothing puking, saying it’s all about the Ramones, the Sex Pistols.\u00c2\u00a0 And, although I’m not a big Johnny Rotten fan, I love not only "Rockaway Beach", but "Blitzkrieg Bop" too.\u00c2\u00a0 That music had its place.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, to dismiss what came before is to display ignorance.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, in the early seventies, everybody could PLAY!\u00c2\u00a0 It was about musicianship, creativity, stretching out, testing the limits, to the point where the almost eight minute "Angry Eyes" was just as big a hit in the mind of the listener as "Your Mama Don’t Dance".\u00c2\u00a0 "Your Mama Don’t Dance" was for radio, "Angry Eyes" was for us.<\/p>\n

Kenny Loggins looks astoundingly good.\u00c2\u00a0 Closer to fortysomething than fiftysomething.\u00c2\u00a0 Time has not been as good to Jimmy.\u00c2\u00a0 But contrary to our faded memories, Jimmy was every part Kenny’s equal in this band.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only did he play the notes, he wrote and sang some of your favorite stuff.<\/p>\n

They exuded no charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 Hanging five feet away from Kenny after the show, I had no desire to meet him, to talk to him.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you see it wasn’t about the cult of personality, but the MUSIC!<\/p>\n

And they might have made it, but all these years later, it’s MY music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s MY life.<\/p>\n

There are no commercials in my brain.\u00c2\u00a0 No endorsement deals.\u00c2\u00a0 In my mental radio all I’ve got is my life.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes I’m collecting new data, but most of the time I’m just playing my soundtrack, the one I’ve accumulated over a lifetime of listening.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, sometimes I’m having new experiences and playing the old tunes in my head.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, that’s when I feel most alive, when something new is happening and an old song spontaneously cues itself up in my mind, with a specific lyric.<\/p>\n

Felice is right.\u00c2\u00a0 Our time here is limited.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s more sand in the bottom of my hourglass than the top.\u00c2\u00a0 And now, with this new perspective, I can see that not only will I be forgotten, but that life is not about answers and the people who preach don’t know shit, certainly no more than you or me.\u00c2\u00a0 Took me a lifetime to realize this, but now I know.\u00c2\u00a0 That my life and my experiences and my insight are just as valid as theirs are.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re supposed to play that which is edgy, you’re supposed to impress your friends with the music you listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 But I just want to play what sounds good.\u00c2\u00a0 Loggins & Messina sounded good back then, and they still do today.<\/p>\n

It all seems so long ago.\u00c2\u00a0 College.\u00c2\u00a0 The Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Our experiences were all different, but really, they’re the same.<\/p>\n

In any other era, I would never know Larry Vallon.\u00c2\u00a0 But the music brought us together.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re fans.\u00c2\u00a0 We needed to be closer.<\/p>\n

I know you need to be close too.<\/p>\n

Actually, we all do.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just about impossible to find someone who didn’t believe back then.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of the music is fading from public consciousness, but it’s our shared history.\u00c2\u00a0 All those records that came in cardboard covers, that we dropped the needle on, that we flipped over to hear the other side.<\/p>\n

We survived.\u00c2\u00a0 Many people did not.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the soldiers in Vietnam, but the drug casualties, others who lost their way.<\/p>\n

We’re still connected.\u00c2\u00a0 You might think it’s about BMWs, four thousand square foot houses and exotic vacations, but it’s really just about the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Your physical possessions you have to leave behind, but you can take your tunes with you, EVERYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it helps to have them on an iPod, but you don’t really need the device, they’re in your head, playing, all the time, keeping you company. <\/p>\n

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We teach our children virtue then we send them off to warThen we ask ourselves the question, what in the hell are we fighting for "Same Old Wine" In Mexico City before the gig it came out that Larry grew up in Argentina.\u00c2\u00a0 With that, I had to know more, how did this happen, how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-19","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}