June 10, 2020 OLD TIME ROCK & ROLL

Concerts. I read a book a few weeks ago that got me thinking. Back in the day--concerts were a MAJOR event. Remember---Kind of like seeing the The Wizard of Oz on television. Tickets were about $10--Can you believe it? Seriously--you could see Van Halen for $8.50--BUT--that was a lot of money-considering minimum wage was about $3 an hour. CRAZY.  Then I started thinking about some of the concerts I went to in the 1980s.  It's funny--some of them I remember VIVIDLY--while others NOT SO MUCH--I'll leave it at that. To the BEST of my recollection--these are some of the concerts I saw WAY BACK WHEN. Genesis-Rush-Journey-Bryan Adams-Def Leppard-The Police-Fleetwood Mac-Rod Stewart-Madonna-Elton John-James Taylor. I'm sure there were others but I can't think of them right now. I can still remember wanting to be a groupie though. Wanting to run away and follow a band around the country. I fantasized that Rod Stewart would see me in the crowd and whisk me away.......SORRY....back to reality. I'm sure we have all fantasized that we were either in a band or part of the band and if you REALLY want to feel that way again--for a little while-- you must read Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
This book is unique in that it is written as a series of interviews about a famous rock band of the 1970s. The interviewees include members of the band, groupies, agents, and friends of the band, forty years after their mysterious break up. Daisy Jones, the lead singer, grew up in Los Angeles on the Sunset Strip. She hangs out with bands and enjoys the lifestyle of a groupie. As she grows older, she discovers her talent for song writing and eventually as a singer. Billy Dunne, is the leader of The Six, a band gaining popularity in the early 1970s. After the two join forces, the sky is the limit until problems in the band --jealousy-drugs-alcohol-sex--become too much. This is the story of the rise and fall of a rock band and how things are recalled by members of the band forty years later. It's interesting that things that seemed important then--seem quite ridiculous now. The story seems so real that I actually googled the band--only to find out that the book is VERY loosely based on Fleetwood Mac when they were recording their album Rumors. This is a great story. I loved the writing and the format. I fell into it and wanted to stay. I did read that the book is going to become a mini series too. It about 370 pages or a 4 mile run that I thoroughly enjoyed.