One of the biggest thrills of my life was seeing George Carlin in Vegas in a small theater at the MGM Grand. I was only a few feet away from him. He didn’t do any new material and I didn’t care one bit.
I can’t be the only Doper who saw The Clash live, can I? Sadly Joe Strummer passed in '02.
I saw The Tragically Hip play an amphitheater in the Toledo Zoo. Gord started the show by yelling “let’s wake up some animals!”
Blossom Dearie
Yikes bassists in bands…
Benjamin Orr
Paul Raven
Peter Steele
Lemmy
Just some that I can think of:
Jerry Garcia
Keith Godchaux
Brent Mydland
Vince Welnick
Merl Saunders
BB King
David Bowie
Muddy Waters
Levon Helm
Rick Danko
Gregg Allman
Richard Nixon
Johnny Unitas
I saw my first concert at 14 in 1976, I’ve forgotten how many I’ve seen, so I’m sure I’m missing some, plus I saw the majority of the Baltimore Colts home games from 1970 to 1980, so probably a lot of late NFL players and coaches, and a whole lotta Baltimore Oriole games (my first was when I was 6, 1968, but I don’t really remember much beyond the cotton candy), so probably a lot of late MLB players…
Others’ lists have reminded me of a few more whom I’d seen:
Mary Travers
Lemmy
Tommy Makem
George Carlin
Saw Pantera twice with the then alive Dimebag Darryl and Vinnie Paul
Saw Gwar nearly 20 times with Dave Brockie and a dozen or so times with Corey Smoot.
RIP all of them. tear
Mary Travers, Pete Seeger, Kate Wolf … I guess I’m more of a folkie than I realized …
I came in to post my list (Muddy Waters, John Entwistle, Clarence Clemons, and many others who have already been mentioned) and was very surprised to see this:
I had no freakin’ idea he had died. And I just watched the Cream reunion concert yesterday.
mmm
I saw George Carlin. It was wonderful hearing him tear into a heckler.
I saw Rick Wright (of Pink Floyd) in his very last performance on stage… and several times before that as well.
I recently had the opportunity to see The Amazing Jonathan. Although, as of this writing, still, technically alive, he hasn’t been well for a while. If you want to see him, you might want to hurry.
Bob Marley
Pete Tosh
Joe Strummer
Clarence Clemons (hey, let’s not forget Danny Federici)
Laura Branigan
Shit, this is depressing. I’m not going to think about if there are any others.
Post 23 (and now 92).
I saw all of them between ages 10 and 19:
John Hartford
Richie Havens
Bo Diddley
Tom Petty (and Howie Epstein)
I’m sure there are others I don’t recall, like members of opening acts or backing bands (e.g. César Díaz, a guitarist for Bob Dylan in 1990).
The only ones I can think of off the top of my head is the classic lineup of the Ramones, John Entwistle with the Who and Adam Yauch with the Beastie Boys when they were a punk band. Saw them open for The Dead Kennedys in '83.
I saw B.B. King when I was 15 years old (1992). It was in a small venue in Dayton, OH called Gilly’s Jazz.
Alex Chilton! (twice).
Keith “Cheese Blotto” Stephenson, John Panozzo, Don Williams, Glenn Frey, Leon Wilkeson and Billy Powell (Lynyrd Skynyrd). If it counts I saw Robert Goulet play King Arthur in Camelot some years ago and Don Knotts starring in On Golden Pond. Got an autograph from Mr. Knotts and he let my wife take a picture of him with me. Oh, Chris Ledoux (oddly enough on the same bill with Kansas at a state fair), Porter Wagner, Grandpa Jones, Little Jimmy Dickins, Minnie Pearl, Jim Ed Brown. Tom Spanic of The Spanic Boys (maybe not so well known. I saw them open for Cheap Trick in the 90s)
Possibly some other I can’t remember right now.
I saw Tito Puente play just months before he died. Not bragging, but I think I win.
Ray Charles
Duane Allman and Berry Oakley with the Allman Brothers
Terry Kath with Chicago
Earl Scruggs
Junior Wells
Paul Kantner and Spencer Dryden with the Jefferson Airplane
Richard Wright with Pink Floyd
Mary Travers with Peter and Paul
Deborah Coleman
Wilson Pickett
John Philips and Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas. This was long after Cass Eliot died; they had two women (Lisa Brescia and Deb Lyons) singing the vocal parts.
Johnny Winter (he came on stage with Edgar for a couple of songs).