1048 Sunset Boulevard

“August 14, 1976…All Is As It Was Except…YOU ARE THERE-ere-ere…”

October 23, 2007 | Nostalgia

The Worldwide Web never ceases to amaze me even after the past fifteen years that I’ve been fooling around with it.

I was working here in my hotel room in Wichita, listening to music on Rhapsody. Specifically, I was listening to a live-recording compendium from the band YES, which most of the older folks in the family remember well. I noticed that some of the tracks were from a 1976 concert in Detroit, and that made me remember that I had seen that tour, the Chicago stop, when I was attending college at Beloit College.

I remembered that it was at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Cicero, Illinois just west of Chi-town proper, so I Googled it.

Lo and behold, someone has put up the entire program from that concert, including some photographs, notes with recollections of folks who attended, etc.! All the other acts that played that day are listed as well - Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, Lynyrd Skynyrd - so I know this is precisely the performance that I attended, it was an all day “festival” kind of affair, we stood in line for HOURS just to get in.

The weather was hot, but tolerable, and the day was sunny and bright. I remember YES’ lead singer, Jon Anderson, making the remark about “the sun” being the lighting-man for that day (he was always into all this mystical junk about the sun, etc.)

Well, you youngsters who might be looking on, look upon something of your eldest brother’s/uncle’s/grandpa’s history, and laugh!