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| Gary Wright onstage at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Grandstand, July 4, 1976, opening for Peter Frampton ( from the Nashville Tennesseean July 5, 1976) |
The live rock concert business exploded all over America in the 1970s. Rock bands criss-crossed the country, and concerts got bigger than ever. What were once events held in modest ballrooms in bohemian downtowns had became much larger, moving into local sports facilities with more capacity. Basketball and hockey arenas found that they could be rented profitably for touring rock bands, and in bigger markets even baseball and football stadiums came into play. This wasn't just big cities, either. Once a band was playing big venues in big cities around the country, they had to play places in between. By the early 1970s, FM rock radio was in every market, so rock fans everywhere knew who they might want to see in concert.
Most '60s rock history has been about a few rock capitals: London, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The music and the culture radiated out from those hubs. The rock concert business in the 1970s was more about the intervening spaces. Rock concerts played out differently in different places, depending on the local radio, the distance from major hubs, and most importantly, the availability of venues for live rock. Nashville, TN, legendary as the capital of country music, had a unique arc in the rock concert business in the early 1970s. The principal large venue for rock concerts in Nashville was an auto racing facility, rather than a basketball arena. Lynyrd Skynrd, then just on the rise, played some big shows at the Speedway, as did Leon Russell, ZZ Top and Peter Frampton. This post will look at how and why the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds temporarily became the locus of rock concerts in the city during the first half of the 1970s.
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| The front page of the June 30, 1972 Nashville Tennessean shouted "Hard-Rocking Stones Roll At Sellout Performance." Staff writer Kathy Sawyer reviewed the band's Thursday night show at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium (June 29) |
1972 Status Report: Nashville Concert Market
Nashville had thrived on the banks of the Cumberland River because it had become a critical transportation hub for cotton and iron. The city's industrial importance was magnified by the completion of the 187-mile Louisville and Nashville Railroad (the L&N) in 1859. Nashville was one of the most prosperous cities in the South in the second half of the 19th century, serving as a center of commerce for the entire region.
The initial flowering of what we call Country Music was indeed in Tennessee, but it was actually in the Knoxville area, in the more mountainous part of the state that bordered Virginia. Country music initially thrived around Knoxville and Bristol, VA, in the late 1920s, with radio station WNOX audible throughout the Southeast. Nashville was a larger, richer and more important city than Knoxville, however, so the record industry moved 180 miles Westwards, even though great musicians such as the Everly Brothers were still coming out of Knoxville. The record industry naturally gravitated to the regional center of finance and transportation, and thus Nashville became the center of country music after the 1940s.
Live performances were a big part of the rise of country music, and most prominently at the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast on the 50,000-watt WSM (am) station every Saturday night from the Ryman Theater in Nashville. Acts would play live all over the South all week, only to rush back to Nashville to play on the Opry, so that they could promote their shows all over the region. It is ironic that country music tapped into live radio broadcasts as a promotional tool long before rock music did, but that is a topic for a different post. The Ryman had opened in 1943, but there were large and small venues all over Nashville, too, appropriate for a city where country music was both a principal industry and the principal entertainment.
By the 1970s, the city's principal music venue was the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Nashville Municipal had been built in 1962, and it was the first air-conditioned arena in the Mid-South, no small thing. The Auditorium had a capacity of about 8000 in a basketball configuration, and up to 9300 for concerts. There was seating "in the round," although I'm not certain that was always used for performances. Nashville had plenty of teenagers, and teenagers in the early '70s liked rock and roll, whether or not they also happened to like country music. Plenty of popular pop and rock acts played the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in 1972:
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| Sound Seventy presented David Bowie at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium on November 20, 1972. The opener for the Monday night show was Mom's Apple Pie, a band managed by Grand Funk Railroad's Terry Knight (don't google their album cover at work). |
A brief sampling of rock shows at Nashville Municipal indicates that most of the big bands came through Nashville, but often not on Friday or Saturday night. Clearly, Nashville fans had similar preferences to other cities, across the rock spectrum. Some notable rock concerts at the Municipal Auditorium in 1972 included:
- April 9, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Neil Diamond (Sunday)
- April 30, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Three Dog Night/Kindred (Sunday)
- May 21, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: James Gang/Tiny Alice (Sunday)
- June 29, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Rolling Stones/Stevie Wonder (Saturday)
- August 6, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Jackson Five (Sunday)
- October 24, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN:Jethro Tull (Tuesday)
- November 12, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Elton John/Family (Sunday)
- November 20, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: David Bowie/Mom's Apple Pie (Monday)
- December 8, 1972 Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN: Poco/It's A Beautiful Day/Jim Croce (Friday)
All of this was great for Nashville rock fans. If a touring band was playing, say, St. Louis and then Atlanta, Nashville Municipal made a nice stop in between.
The only problem with Nashville Municipal as a rock palace was that it was an important venue for a lot more than just rock concerts. In particular, Nashville Municipal was the location for the highest profile country music concerts. On October 21st ('72), for example, was the 47th Grand Ole Opry Celebration and the Country Music Association awards show. It was a high profile industry event, one of many at the Municipal. At other times during 1972, the Municipal Auditorium booked Disney On Parade, Holiday On Ice, the Greater Tennessee Auto Show, Roller Derby, Longhorn Rodeo and the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Many of these attractions were booked for days or even weeks. So the Auditorium was busy and crowded, and rock acts were only going to find occasional dates.
Nashville had grown enormously in the preceding decade, going from a population of 170,000 in 1960 to a population of 448,000 by 1970. But since its growth had come recently, the city did not yet have some of the facilities that similar sized cities had, particularly sports facilities. Northeastern cities usually had an arena primarily for use by hockey teams, but of course that wasn't a priority in humid Nashville (the NHL Predators were decades away). Also, surprisingly for the South, Nashville had had no minor league baseball team since 1964. The Nashville Sounds (then AA Southern League) would not arrive until 1978, so there was no minor league baseball park to act as an occasional outdoor rock concert venue.
In some smaller cities, a local university might have facilities that could be hired for rock concerts, but that wasn't really viable in Nashville. Yes, there was Vanderbilt University, with its 40,000-capacity Vanderbilt Stadium, built in 1922, and also Memorial Gym, built in 1950 and expanded in 1969 to have a basketball capacity of more than 15,000. But wealthy Vanderbilt didn't need any revenue from renting out facilities, they weren't going to allow beer sales, and apparently the gym didn't even sound that good. There were a few concerts for their students, but there wasn't really any available facilities for outside promoters. So as rock concerts got bigger along with the city of Nashville, there was a need for an available facility could absorb the noise and excitement of touring 70s rock bands.
The principal rock promoter in Nashville was Sound Seventy Productions, run by Joe Sullivan and Roger McDaniel. They had begun promoting rock shows in 1970, right when FM rock radio had started to bring albums into every teenage bedroom. Unlike most cities, rock shows were not the biggest live attraction in Nashville. Rock promoters in Nashville were always going to be competing for venues with country music shows. Country had an older audience, and with money, but that kind audience didn't necessarily want to see a performer in a really big place. Rock was different. The crowd was younger, and ticket prices had to be reasonable, but attending a rock concert was an act of community in the early '70s. With no basketball, hockey or minor league baseball facility to rent, Sound Seventy had to look elsewhere in Nashville.
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| Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, exact date unknown. The Speedway Grandstand is at the far side of the race track. The Figure-Eight course on the infield was the backstage area. The Tennessee State Faigrounds are behind the Grandstand. |
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Due to the rise of NASCAR as a national "brand" in the 1990s, many sports fans are somewhat familiar with how County speedways in the South created a kind of NASCAR minor leagues, giving an opportunity for the likes of Dale Earnhardt to thrive and rise. In places like the Carolinas or Tennessee, just about every county had a speedway, often just a 1/4 or 3/8 mile track, often dirt rather than paved, which would provide the weekend entertainment for all the gearheads and farmers. On either Friday or Saturday nights throughout the summer, all the local drivers and a few regional hotshoes raced their cars for prize money. Neighbors, co-workers and family members helped with car prep and pit crew. There wasn't much doing in many of these small towns, so going to the local Speedway on Friday or Saturday night was the most fun around until High School football season would kick off. A few "locals," like Earnhardt (in Kannapolis, NC), rose through the ranks and went on to fame at the NASCAR superspeedways.
After World War 2, farming had become fairly mechanized, and of course many future farmers returned from the War with a sophisticated practical understanding of internal combustion engines. Regardless of anyone's actual profession, or what crop was grown in their region, come the weekend, a lot of young men wanted to see how fast their cars would go. In the South, some of that was about running moonshine, but that was less of a factor elsewhere in the country. Yet the urge to put pedal to the metal was nationwide. Indeed, it was little different than a prior century before when their grandfathers might have wanted to see who had the fastest horse. Now, the racing was with modified Chevy, Ford and Dodge sedans, but the impulse was the same.
In many places, county or state fairgrounds also had an auto racing track. There was usually a horse racing track already, and there was parking, concessions, power, light and bathrooms. Nashville was no different Local racers had competed at the Tennessee State Fair on dirt tracks from 1954 to '57, and a permanent paved oval was built, with the first race on July 18, 1958. The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds has been holding weekly races every season since then. The Speedway was--and is--at 625 Smith Avenue, 3.5 miles South of Downtown Nashville on Nolensville Pike.
The Speedway was initially a 1/4 mile paved oval, but in 1965 it was extended to half-mile with lights. In 1969, the track was lengthened again (to 0.596 miles) and given a 35 degree banking (keep in mind the turns at Daytona are only 31 degrees). The banking was scary fast, however, and by 1972 the banking was reduced to 18 degrees, where it remains today. Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race from 1958-84, until the series stopped running at shorter tracks. Nashville Fairgounds Speedway ran races every Saturday night. NASCAR regulars often stopped in, and country singer Marty Robbins raced his car there regularly.
July 9, 1972 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds,
Nashville, TN: Leon Russell/Poco/Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose/JJ Cale (Sunday) Sound Seventy Presents 1st Annual Rock and Roll Holiday
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway had been remodeled in 1972, most critically to lower the banking on the oval turns from 35 degrees to 18. However, there was also a new covered grandstand. My general assumption is that there had been plenty of country music performed at the Tennessee State Fairgounds, and probably plenty of them had used the Fairgrounds Speedway grandstand for shows. But rock shows were on a different scale than country shows. When Johnny Cash played the 9300-seat Nashville Municipal Auditorium, that was a large arena for his tour, albeit not the largest. When Three Dog Night or the Rolling Stones played Nashville Municipal, however, it would be one of the smaller venues on their tours, something they would book to fill in a Tuesday night. The Rolling Stones '72 tour played some stadiums, and lots of big city basketball arenas. Nashville wasn't Washington, DC, but there were plenty of teenagers, and they would be willing to go to a big place if ticket prices were reasonable.
Joe Sullivan and Sound Seventy Productions were the first to use the new Fairgrounds Speedway grandstand for a rock show. Keep in mind that while someone like Johnny Cash might be a huge draw, until the early 70s, sound systems could not have kept up with the demands of a large venue. On top of that, a country music crowd might complain if the sound was too loud, and a concert that was heard a thousand yards back would be pretty loud up front. Not a rock crowd--turn it up, baby. So the Speedway grandstand was a good choice. No one could complain about the noise, since the race cars were just as loud on Saturday. Probably most or all of the teenagers in Nashville knew how to get to the Fairgrounds, too, and parents wouldn't prevent their daughters from going (no small thing in this era).
The stage was set up on pit row, with the backstage part of the general infield area of the race track. The Grandstand probably held around 15,000, and apparently there was standing room on the sides as well, so the total capacity was as high as 25,000. The concerts were General Admission, usually unheard of for a country concert but common in the rock world. Since the Speedway was an existing facility, concessions were built in. This, too, was no small point, as lengthy outdoor rock concerts often made their profit selling cokes and hot dogs (I don't think they sold beer--please advise if you know). The Leon Russell show was advertised from 3-10pm, pretty reasonable for a Sunday night. The hot sun would have cooled off, and there were lights at the racetrack, so the audience wouldn't be left in darkness.
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| Leon Russell's 1972 album Carney, on his own Shelter Records label, included Leon classics like "Tight Rope" and "Masquerade" |
Leon Russell was a rising star at this time, about to peak. Russell was an unlikely star. The Oklahoma native had been a studio pro in Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s, playing on numerous sessions. He was known for his piano playing, but he also played guitar. In the late 60s, he had come to greater notice by playing important roles behind Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker. Cocker had scored a big hit with Russell's "Delta Lady" song, and Russell became a sort of known figure due to Cocker's Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour, album and movie. With long gray hair, a full beard and a top hat, Leon looked like a mountain man with a secret.
Russell's third album, Carney, on his own Shelter Records label, had just been released in June 1972. Russell was an excellent songwriter: today, songs of his such as "Tight Rope," "Masquerade" (both on Carney) and "A Song For You" are pretty much pop standards. While Russell has a gravely voice, engaging but hardly pop-friendly, and he still sold a lot of records. Ultimately, Carney would reach #2 on Billboard. Russell had also made a grand appearance in George Harrison's Concert For Bangla Desh movie, released in March, 1972, so his profile was very high indeed. The Nashville Fairgrounds show was the first show on Russell's '72 tour, after extensive rehearsal at Leon's spread near Tulsa.
It didn't hurt that Russell had a cracking live show, merging Pentecostal tent revival music, which he knew from TV rather than actual church-going, with rock and roll, which of course had its roots in that music anyway. Russell toured with a big ensemble, lead by veteran session men (including bassist Carl Radle from Derek and The Dominoes) and supported by a gospel vocal trio. His 1973 triple album Leon Live would be recorded a few weeks after the Nashville show (at Long Beach Arena on August 28), so we know pretty much what he sounded like, and it would have rocked the house.
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| Nashville Tennessean July 6, 1972 |
Poco had arisen from the ashes of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. By this time the quintet had released four albums on Epic, their most recent being 1971's From The Inside. Poco had originally been a vehicle for two escapees from the Springfield, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. They had been initially joined by Randy Meisner, who left early and soon joined The Eagles. Meisner had been replaced by Tim Schmidt, who himself would leave later to replace Meisner in The Eagles. Rusty Young played pedal steel guitar and other instruments, and George Grantham played drums. By 1972, Jim Messina had left the band, having been replaced by Paul Cotton (ex Illinois Speed Press). All five members of the band (Furay, Cotton, Young, Grantham and Schmidt) sang and wrote. Poco inevitably got great reviews and killed it in concert, but their record sales were consistently disappointing.
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| United Artists released the Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose album in 1972 |
Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose were a very hot soul act, but nonetheless an anomaly at a 70s outdoor rock concert. In 1970, Eddie and Carter Cornelius, both from Dania Beach, FL, (near Miami), had formed a group with their sister Rose. Very quickly, they had a huge hit single in 1971 with "Treat Her Like A Lady," which reached #3 and went Gold in August. They had followed it up in 1972 with an even bigger hit, "Too Late To Turn Back Now." "Too Late" got to #2, and went Gold in August, just three months after its release.
Now, plenty of catchy soul music was played on AM rock radio--I can sing along with both those hits even today, I know them well--so R&B had plenty of white fans. Yet the music didn't usually cross over to live shows. Black fans saw soul music in concert and white fans saw rock or country. It might have fit record company orthodoxy to have the Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose opening for Leon Russell, to widen their audiences, but the rock market just didn't work that way. I'm sure their hits went over well in concert, as everyone knew them, but this kind of experiment was largely never attempted in the 1970s. There were a few designated "crossover" acts, like Earth, Wind & Fire, but mainstream soul bands usually didn't perform live with popular white rock bands.
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| J.J. Cale's debut album Naturally had been released by Shelter Records in October, 1971 |
J.J. Cale (b. 1938-2013) was from Tulsa, and had worked with Leon Russell in LA studios from 1964-67. He was a studio engineer and played guitar, playing sessions and live in little clubs. He would fill in at the Whisky A-Go-Go for Johnny Rivers, and club owner Elmer Valentine dubbed him "JJ Cale" to distinguish him from the Velvet Underground's John Cale. In 1967, though, after recording some demos and struggling, Cale gave up and returned to Tulsa. In 1970, he was surprised to find out that Eric Clapton had recorded "After Midnight," having heard one of Cale's demos. Suddenly JJ Cale had some traction.
JJ Cale's debut album Naturally had been released by Shelter Records in October 1971. Not only did it include Cale's version of "After Midnight," but also Cale's only hit single "Crazy Mama," which had reached #22 in 1972. As if that wasn't enough, it also included "Call Me The Breeze," which was made famous later by Lynyrd Skynyrd. While never mainstream, Cale's unique, laid back style was very influential. Eric Clapton was only the most famous of the many guitarists and singers who were inspired by JJ Cale's work. Cale would have been on the Fairgrounds bill because he was on Russell's label, but he was a good choice. Fans would recognize a few of his songs, and he was a great, if understated live performer.
According to the indispensable Poco site, the Fairgrounds concert drew 12,620, and had a gate of $65,466. It sounds like a pretty good day to me. Yet after the Allman Brothers show a few weeks later, Sound Seventy would not return to the Fairgrounds Speedway for two years.
Three weekends after the Leon Russell show, Sound Seventy booked the Allman Brothers Band for a Friday night concert. Like almost all short tracks in the Southeast, Nashville Speedway only ran races on one night, in its case Saturday. For short track racing, one night a week was all most of the local participants could manage. Equally important, it allowed some semi-professional racers to race two nights at different tracks, thus increasing the starting grid at more places (i.e. the pro's would race Friday at one track and Saturday at another one). Hence Friday or Sunday was available for rock concerts at the Speedway, but not Saturday. The Allman Brothers show was the only Friday night concert at Nashville Speedway that I am aware of.
The Allman Brothers Band had been on the verge of superstardom in the Summer of '71, behind their relentless touring and their epic double album, Live At Fillmore East. Live At Fillmore East had been released in July of '71 and had been played constantly on FM radio. Duane Allman was starting to rise in status to equal Eric Clapton, and it didn't hurt that Duane and Clapton had teamed up on the Layla album. When Duane Allman died in a tragic motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971, it seemed like all of that would come crashing to the ground.
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| Eat A Peach, the Allman Brothers 4th album, was released by Capricorn Records in March 1972 |
But it didn't. The Allman Brothers next album, Eat A Peach, part studio and the rest live with Duane, was a huge hit as soon as it was released in March 1972. It reached #4 on Billboard and went Platinum, and the FM airplay was nonstop. The Allmans simply went on tour without Duane, and guitarist Dickey Betts, bassist Berry Oakley and brother Gregg on organ simply stepped up their game. It was sad, heroic and a rockin' good time, too. The Allman Brothers were bigger than ever.
The Nashville Tennessean did not have a rock critic until 1974, so all I can discern is that the concert apparently took place. Allman Brothers history sites do have a setlist. I'm sure the Brothers killed it and everyone had a good time. Opening act Dr. John (The Night Tripper) was on Atco, and had just released Gumbo, an album of New Orleans standards (like "Junco Partner"). Dr. John's band included pianist Chuck Leavell, who would join the Allman Brothers a few months later, in time for "Jessica." Dr. John was a great pianist himself, of course, but having Leavell on board freed the Doctor to do some voodoo schtick while the band kept playing. I assume White Duck was a local band, as they are unknown to me.
Since I'm sure the Allmans sold plenty of tickets to a Friday night concert in Nashville in 1972, we have to speculate why Sound Seventy did not return to the Speedway until 1974, and why they never put on another Friday night show. With respect to the Allmans, I suspect the issue was partially how much the band was paid versus the gate. The Allmans were very hot in '72, and it may not have been a bargain for the promoter.
The Friday night question is more open. Since concerts returned to the Speedway, it's plain that the venue didn't object to rock music. They were racing on Saturdays anyway. One factor may have been that with a relatively young rock audience, the same parents that would let their teenagers use the family station wagon to go to the Nashville Fairgrounds on a Sunday afternoon were not as willing for a Friday night. So maybe ticket sales were under expectations.
Another more mundane issue might have been traffic. Since there had essentially never been major events at the Fairgrounds Speedway on Friday nights, perhaps it caused an unexpected traffic problem. This would have been more true the more successful the show was. So perhaps their might have been pressure from other businesses or the cops to keep the shows on a Sunday. If anyone can shed any light on this Allman Brothers show (or frankly, any of these shows), please do so in the Comments.
October 21, 1972 Alumni Lawn, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN: Grateful Dead (Saturday)
A remarkable rock concert took place in Nashville on October 21, 1972, yet it remains largely unheralded except for me. The Grateful Dead appeared at Vanderbilt University, which in itself was typical of the Dead's touring during the early 70s. What's generally forgotten, however, was that Nashville--of all places--was the Grateful Dead's last free concert outside of San Francisco. The Dead had pioneered the seemingly counterintuitive strategy of playing for free in a new town, getting everybody interested, and in turn creating new, paying fans. It worked over and over, in Vancouver, Manhattan, Boston and elsewhere, and they own those towns even now. Grateful Dead road manager Sam Cutler tried again in the Fall of '72, and there were two free concerts: one at American University in Washington, DC (Sep 30 '72), forgotten because of rain, and the other at Vanderbilt.
The Dead had been offered the use of Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym, but apparently the Grateful Dead's advance team (probably led by Bob Matthews) rejected the venue. The Dead's sound team was among the most advanced in rock, and if they rejected the Vanderbilt Gym, that was a clear indicator of an acoustically inferior venue. Since Universities in that era subsidized most visiting performers anyway, Cutler made the pitch that the Dead should play for free in Vanderbilt's main quad. The Dead still got paid--maybe not as much as if they had sold tickets to the gym, but not a token amount--and played a free concert on a Saturday afternoon. The show was delayed an hour (from noon to 1pm) to accommodate those finishing their LSAT exams.
I wrote about the otherwise forgotten Nashville free concert elsewhere, in great detail. It was a beautiful Fall afternoon, and 15,000 people showed up. Many had come from up to 400 miles away, and Vanderbilt allowed camping. Vanderbilt also arranged to hold better places for its students--hey, UC Berkeley never did that at the Greek!--although it's unclear if any townies were actually restricted. The Dead crushed it for four hours, they played "Tennessee Jed," everyone had a great time, and there were no arrests or trouble. A lot of Vanderbilt Commodores got on the bus that day.
The free Grateful Dead concert actually got written up in the Tennessean, unlike other rock shows. Note was made of the fact that there was no trouble. Whether the locals paid attention isn't clear, but the local music industry had to have noticed. 15,000 fans, people traveling hundreds of miles to see it, no trouble, all for a band with not even a prayer of a hit single. Surely rock promoters like Sound Seventy had to notice, and they must have liked being able to point to the Vanderbilt Dead show to allay any fears by venue operators or city officials.
June 24, 1973 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds,
Nashville, TN: Chuck Berry/Bill Haley & The Comets Coasters/Bo Diddley/Danny and The Juniors/Jack Michael (Sunday) WENO Radio Presents
Sound Seventy did not promote any concerts at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in 1973. They did promote a "2nd Annual Rock and Roll Holiday" at another site, also a motorsports facility (see below). A different promoter, however, did promote a show at the Speedway. Chuck Berry headlined a "1950s All-Star Spectacular," along with Bill Haley & The Comets, Bo Diddley, The Coasters, Danny & The Juniors and local oldie Jack Michael. At this time, Chuck Berry had scored with his biggest selling album, The London Chuck Berry Sessions, with live and studio recordings from London, where he was considered an icon. The album would reach #8. Berry also had, ironically, his biggest hit single with "My Ding-A-Ling," which would reach #1 in October '72. Berry had been performing the silly novelty song in concert for years, but by the 70s it was merely racy rather than obscene. Berry wrote some of the most foundational songs in rock history, but those weren't the biggest moneymakers.
The London Sessions album was a chance for younger rock fans to hear Chuck Berry, who only knew hm from hearing their favorite band encore with one of his classics. In Summer '73, Berry was only 46 years old. The audience who remembered his hits from the 50s and early 60s, and the other groups on the bill, was probably in their 30s. In those days, however, current rock was for young people. The audience for the Chuck Berry/Oldies show was probably pretty much the same as for the stock car races. I don't have any idea whether the show was a financial success or not.
August 19, 1973 Riverside Raceway Park, Nashville, TN: Focus/Blue Oyster Cult/Freddie King/Stories (Sunday) Sound Seventy Presents The 2nd Annual Rock 'N' Roll Holiday
Sound Seventy had tagged the 1972 Leon Russell show at the Speedway as "The First Annual Rock and Roll Holiday." The Second Annual Rock and Roll Holiday was held at a different venue. Riverside Raceway Park was a dragstrip about twenty minutes West of Nashville on I-40. Note that the ad doesn't even give an address, just a freeway exit: I-40W at Exit 192. For locals, Exit 192 is McCrory Lane, and the site wasn't far from Harpeth River State Park (a further local note: ten miles further West, at Exit 182, there is a "Dragstrip Road," but that's a different abandoned dragstrip).
Motor racing in the 1960s and '70s was a niche industry, kind of sketchy but fun--sorta like rock and roll, actually. But drag racing was a step down the food chain from oval or road racing, less middle class and with fewer national sponsors. So a dragstrip was probably easier to rent than a NASCAR track near downtown. If neighbors could tolerate a dragstrip, a rock concert wouldn't be a big deal. I assume Sound Seventy booked Riverside Raceway instead of Fairgrounds Speedway because the deal seemed better.
There's evidence that this show took place--there was a newspaper listing the day of the show that said "tickets available"--but I don't think it was a success. For one thing, there wasn't another rock show at Riverside Raceway. Even Hot Rails, the formidable Blue Oyster Cult site can find no eyewitness reports. So I think the show was a stiff, but that's just a guess. There was no scathing report in the Tennessean about riots or fires, so I don't think it was a debacle, just not a good seller. Note that Sound Seventy returned to the Fairgrounds Speedway the next Summer, as there were no other available venues of size.
The Riverside bill was fairly surprising, for Nashville, with a Dutch progressive rock band, a Long Island hard rock band, a sort of white-soul crossover band and a legendary blues guitarist. No Southern rockers, nothing with a country edge. Now, plenty of English bands played Nashville Municipal, but they were already popular, and getting tons of play on FM: David Bowie, Elton John, Jethro Tull and so on. Focus was a prog-rock band from Holland, of all places, with the unlikely hit "Hocus Pocus." Readers of a certain age who draw a blank would nonetheless instantly recognize Thijs Van Leer's yodeling and flute call and response, and Jan Akkerman's slashing guitar. Although the song had initially been recorded in 1971, it was re-done the next year and released as a single in mid-73. The single got as high as #9 in the Summer of '73. Their current album at the time was Focus 3, which went Gold, although it didn't include "Hocus-Pocus."
Blue Oyster Cult was from Long Island, and they had played around New York under various names since 1967. By 1972, when their debut album as Blue Oyster Cult had been released, the band had slid over from psychedelia into a harder rock sound. In February '73 the band released Tyranny And Mutation, their second album on Columbia. Blue Oyster Cult toured hard, all over the country, winning over one crowd at a time.
Stories was a New York band, too, led by veterans Ian Lloyd and Michael Brown. Brown had written the hit "Walk Away Renee" for his band The Left Banke in 1967. Their current hit was "Brother Louie," which, in the parlance of the time, "sounded black," although the band was white. White people loved soul music, of course, so that was fine for the radio, but the record company was squeamish about the disconnect. "Brother Louie" would in fact reach #1 on the week of August 22. The great Kenny Aaronson was on bass by this time, but Stories rapidly faded out.
Texas guitar legend Freddie King had been signed by Leon Russell's Shelter Records label. His current album was Woman Across The River. White rock fans paid lip service to the blues--Eric Clapton loved the blues, and so on--but didn't really listen to it. King probably sounded derivative to many fans, who didn't realize that it had been other guitarists who were actually copying Freddie. Freddie King died in 1976 of a heart attack, unfortunately, so anyone who got to see him was lucky.
While the Riverside Raceway show had an interesting bill, it must not have done well. I can't help but think that an implicit part was the downscale, working class nature of drag racing. Rock audiences were largely teen or college age, white and middle class, not just in Nashville but everywhere. Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was downtown, and in the Fairgrounds. Many middle-class Nashville rock fans had been to the Fairgrounds or the Speedway before, possibly many times. Parents would let their teenage kids go there, and girls might have gone on a date there.
Drag racing, however, had a seedy reputation, and appealed to real gearheads. Drag Strips were out in the country (or in urban locales, in the warehouse district), and events were always at night. To be clear, the do-it-yourself seediness was a big part of drag racing's allure. But middle-class Nashville teenagers hadn't likely ever been to Riverside Raceway Park, and parents weren't as likely to hand out the keys to the family station wagon. Riverside Raceway Park closed at the end of the 70s, or maybe the early 80s. Some of the old dragstrip was still apparently visible by air in this century.
On August 31, 1973, the Tennessean reported that a storm ripped off the Fairgrounds Grandstand roof, causing $100,000 in damage. If Sound Seventy or anyone else had plans for concerts, they had to be put off until 1974.
November 3, 1973 Murphy Center, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN: Chicago (Saturday) Sound Seventy Presents
Middle Tennessee State University was in Murfreesboro, about 30 minutes South of Nashville. on I-24. It had been founded as a Teacher's College (Normal School) back in 1911, but it expanded significantly after WW2. After 1965 it became a State University. Today, MTSU has 20,000 students. I don't know how many it had in the 1970s, but it was rapidly expanding. In November 1972, MTSU opened its new basketball arena, known as the Murphy Center, to host the MTSU Blue Raiders. With a capacity of 11,500, the Murphy Center was the largest indoor venue in the Nashville area.
Columbia Records had released Chicago VI in June. The album was the fifth album in a row by the group to reach #1, and it was certified Gold within a month of its release. The album has since gone Double-Platnum (two million units sold). Chicago doesn't get much attention as an archetypal 70s band, but the fact is they were hugely successful and sold at least 100 million albums. At this time, the original seven members were still in the band.
Sound Seventy would produce concerts at the Murphy Center off an on throughout the 1970s. This 1973 show by Chicago seems to have been the first one. Just as rock shows had to compete for dates at Nashville Municipal with country acts, trade shows and other entertainment, however, opportunities to book rock shows at Murphy were likewise limited by basketball games, finals week and other restrictions. It also appears that the Murphy Center was not available for bookings in the Summer (it may not have been air-conditioned, anyway). So while there were some good shows at Murphy over the years (The Who and Toots and The Maytals on November 25, 1975 was apparently pretty memorable), the venue couldn't serve the regular needs of Nashville rock fans, particularly in the Summer. So the Fairgrounds Speedway Grandstand remained the principal summer venue for the region.
June 9, 1974 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN: ZZ Top/Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sunday) Sound Seventy Presents
Sound Seventy returned to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in earnest in the Summer of '74. The June concert featured two bands moving up the ladder from success to stardom. ZZ Top, a power trio from Texas, had released their third album Tres Hombres on London Records in July of 1973. It had risen to #8 on Billboard. Surprisingly, the single "La Grange" even had some success, reaching #41 in June 1974 (the song was about the same house of ill-repute celebrated in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas).
Lynyrd Skynyrd, meanwhile, from Jacksonville, Fl by way of Atlanta, had toured heavily behind their 1973 debut album (Pronounced 'Leh-nerd Skin-nerd') on MCA. "Free Bird" was an FM staple in most cities, and the band had already played a few smaller venues in Nashville. Skynyrd had probably been booked for the June 9 Fairgrounds show about the time their follow-up album Second Helping had been released in April. That album would reach #12, and the anthem "Sweet Home Alabama" would reach #12 by September. By June, Skynyrd was no opening act. It probably didn't matter, however: the type of people who liked Skynyrd usually liked ZZ Top, and vice versa. Apparently there were 16,200 fans at the show.
July 3, 1974 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN: Marshall Tucker Band/Charlie Daniels Band/Freddie King/Grinders Switch (Wednesday) Sound Seventy Presents
Sound Seventy followed with another multi-act show on July 3, which was effectively a weekend night. The Marshall Tucker Band were still rising stars themselves.The band were named after the sign on the Spartanburg, SC warehouse where they rehearsed. They had been signed by Capricorn Records, the Allman Brothers' label. The Tucker band was led by guitarist and songwriter Toy Caldwell, and were part of the first wave of Southern rock bands in the wake of the Allmans. In the 73-74 period, they often opened for the Allman Brothers. Many rock fans first heard Marshall Tucker opening for them (certainly true for me). At this time, they had just released their second album, A New Life, in February.
Although Charlie Daniels was well-established professionally in Nashville as a producer and session musician, as a performer he was still seen as a kind of local. He had scored a modest national hit with the talking blues "Uneasy Rider." He had only recently formalized his Allman Brothers-style twin guitar Southern ensemble as The Charlie Daniels Band. Way Down Yonder, his first Charlie Daniels Band album, had been released on Kama Sutra records in January of '74. The next CDB album, Fire On The Mountain, would be released in November of '74, ultimately going Platinum (hits included "Trudy," "Long Haired Country Boy" and "The South's Gonna Do It"). Grinders Switch was a new band on Capricorn, founded by bassist Joe Dan Petty who had been a roadie for the Allmans. They had just released their first album, Honest To Goodness.
Since his '73 Nashville appearance (above), Freddie King had moved from Shelter Records to RSO Records. RSO was run by Eric Clapton's manager (Robert Stigwood), and acts included Clapton and the Bee Gees. Clapton himself had recommended King to his label. King's 1974 album was Burglar, and it included Clapton on one track. Such appearances lent an enormous air of credibility to a guitarist, even though, in fact, it was Clapton who had followed Freddie, covering songs of his like "Hideaway" and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman."
The booking can be parsed by looking at the relationships of the different bands. Marshall Tucker used the same booking agent (and record company) as the Allman Brothers, who had played for Sound Seventy in '72. Grinders Switch was probably on the bill as a condition of booking Marshall Tucker. Daniels was mainly local, and Freddie King had played for Sound Seventy the year before. Eve Zibart reported on the show for the Tennessean. She was still a general assignment reporter, but she would soon graduate to full time music writer. She said that about 5000 attended the show, but the show was so long that many fans had drifted away by the time Tucker came on stage.
Leon Russell and Poco returned to headline another July show at the Speedway. Russell was still a big rock star, but things moved quickly in the 70s Rock world. After Carney and Leon Live, Russell's star dimmed. Leon still put out fine albums, but they didn't sell as much. His newest album was Stop All That Jazz, released in May '74. On the album he had been backed by a funky band from Tulsa, the GAP Band, newly-signed to Shelter Records. The album only made it to #34, great for most artists, but a step down for Russell. The GAP Band were originally booked to open this show, but they were later replaced with Isis. The GAP Band would go on to considerable success some years later, albeit on a different label, but credit Leon for signing and producing a great band from his home territory.
Poco was soldiering on, still releasing terrific albums with little to show for it. Founder Richie Furay had left the band, so the group went on as a quartet. Poco's latest album was called Seven, but few people bought it (I did, though--it's great).
Waylon Jennings was a country legend of course, but since 1973 he had moved to Austin, TX and was consciously introducing himself to rock audiences. His first, high-profile effort in that regard had been when he had opened a Grateful Dead concert at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on May 26, 1973. While that seems like a natural alliance today, that booking was seen as revolutionary at the time. Jennings had continued to book himself with many rock bands for the next few years, and this was clearly another effort. I have no doubt that Jennings had headlined many country concerts in Nashville, but he was making a conscious alliance with long-haired, pot-smoking rock and rollers here.Waylon's current album, his 19th, was This Time. The album was on RCA, and was co-produced by Willie Nelson. It would reach #4 on the Billboard country charts.
Nashville Tennessean staff writer Eve Zibart, then about 20 years
old, wrote an interesting feature article for the July 21 paper that
included an interview with Roger McDaniel of Sound Seventy and a brief review of the (non) history of rock concerts in Nashville. She
mentioned some of the issues with rowdy crowds, specifically this Leon Russell show. After (or near) the conclusion of the show, an undercover cop attempted to arrest someone, apparently for drug dealing, and the crowd collectively tried to prevent it. McDaniel made the point that the much larger ZZ Top/Skynyrd concert had fewer problems, which was the promoter's way of throwing shade on the cops. The Poco site said that 9000 attended the show.
Tennessee had established the State Fairgrounds in 1906, to host the annual opportunity for farmers and associated industries to meet. State Fairs are typically held at the end of the harvest season. The rest of the year, the State Fairgrounds was an ongoing entertainment concern. It hosted various events, and there were a number of business on the site. The Fairgrounds Speedway, for example, was a client of the State Fair, and paid a substantial rent each year in order to produce events.
The 1974 Tennessee State Fair was the 69th edition of the event. There had always been plenty of music at the State Fair. Mostly, however, the performers were performing as part of the fair itself--once people had paid the fair admission, they could listen to the performers as they liked. In 1974, however, the State Fair took a different tack. With the racetrack closed for the Fair (as was normal), three concerts were put on at the Speedway Grandstands. All three of these shows had a separate admission from the Fair itself, although a concert ticket also included State Fair access. This was new ground. The State Fair was booking major acts, and they weren't all country, either. Sound Seventy was the producer of all three concerts.
This was the first Saturday night concert at the Grandstand, since there were no stock car races during the State Fair. Headliner Mac Davis was a country star, but he had a real mainstream appeal that made him an ideal headliner for the State Fair. The Fair attracted people of all ages, from families to teens to grandparents, and Davis could reach a wide cross-section. Davis had first come to national notice for writing the 1969 Elvis Presley hit "In The Ghetto." The unlikely ballad reached #3, and was Elvis' big "comeback" hit.
In fact, Davis (1942-2020) had been a music industry professional for some time. He had played guitar in rock bands in Texas, and in the later '60s he was writing songs for Nancy Sinatra's production company. He dabbled in music production and had even owned a label that had released an archival Grateful Dead album in 1970 (the Dead weren't happy about it).
After "In The Ghetto," Davis had focused on his own recording career. His breakthrough hit was 1972's "Don't Get Hooked On Me," which went to #1. By 1974, his album Stop And Smell The Roses, released by Columbia in March '74, would reach #13 on the Billboard pop charts, and #2 on the country charts. The titular single reached #9 (and #1 on the Easy Listening chart) by August 74. Davis had co-written the song with trumpeter Doc Severinsen, who of course was the leader of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show Orchestra.
Although Mac Davis was at his high water mark as a chart performer in 1974, his entertainment career was just getting started. He would go on to have his own network variety show, an extended career as an actor, a producer and numerous other credits. In 2010, he co-wrote the hit song "Young Girls" for Bruno Mars. The number of writers who scored with Elvis Presley and also in the 21st century is pretty small.
Barefoot Jerry was an interesting attraction, since they probably almost never toured. The band was made up of Nashville session men, and they were a kind of progressive country rock band. Guitarists Wayne Moss and Mac Gayden had played on an infinite number of country and rock sessions in Nashville, and had both been in the band Area Code 615 (Nashville's code). Area Code 615 had featured many of the players on Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde and Nashville Skyline albums, and made two intriguing country/rock crossover albums. Moss and Gayden had carried on the same concept with Barefoot Jerry.
In 1974 Barefoot Jerry released their third album on as many labels, Watchin TV, on Monument Records. Mac Gayden had left, but Wayne Moss had carried on with numerous other Nashville pros. The title track was rocking and catchy, with the memorable chorus "Watching TV with the radio on/The music will stay 'til the test pattern's gone," evoking a 1974 technological universe that no longer exists. I can recall the song being played regularly on KSAN in San Francisco, so it probably got decent airplay in Nashville. I don't know who was in the live configuration of Barefoot Jerry, but they probably cooked in person. Anyone who actually got to see them was lucky.
Black Oak Arkansas was a boogie band who really were from Black Oak, AK. In late '73 Black Oak had released their fifth album on Atco, High On The Hog. The album would be the high water mark for the band, reaching #52 on Billboard. The album included the single "Jim Dandy" (with the chorus "Jim Dandy to the rescue"), which itself went to #55. Black Oak Arkansas had been among the initial wave of Southern rockers, even though they sounded quite a bit different than the somewhat jazz/R&B influenced Allman Brothers. Black Oak Arkansas' twin-guitar attack was pretty much straight boogie. It's actually harder to play high-speed shuffles than it appears, so the band may have been better than they were given credit for, but they did not have the reputation for musical virtuosity like the Allmans and their peers.
In 1974, Black Oak Arkansas released a new album, Street Party. That album peaked at #52, as High On The Hog had done, but they never got any farther. The band would continue to be popular on tour, but their records faded away. In fact, the arc of Black Oak Arkansas was the same as just about every other '60s and '70s band, popular in concert long after their records stopped getting airplay or notice. But in '74, Black Oak Arkansas was still on the crest, and they probably drew a good crowd.
Wet Willie, from Mobile, AL, was on Capricorn Records. They opened regularly for the Allman Brothers, and played the same circuit when opening for other bands. Sound Seventy had regularly booked the Allmans and other Capricorn bands, so it made sense for them to book Wet Willie just as they had scored a big hit. In 1974, Wet Willie had released their third album Keep On Smilin'. The title track would reach #10 on Billboard. It's one of those songs that you don't think you recognize, until it plays and you realize you've heard it a million times, if only in commercials. Wet Willie were Southern rockers, but they leaned more towards a funk sound than either boogie or country.
September 21, 1974 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN Lynyrd Skynyrd/Blue Oyster Cult (Saturday)The State Fair concluded with a Saturday night concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Speedway Grandstand. Skynyrd had played at the Grandstand earlier in the year, and Blue Oyster Cult had played for Sound Seventy the previous year at the Dragstrip. "Sweet Home Alabama" was roaring up the charts, and Skynyrd didn't need ZZ Top to help pack the Speedway. Eve Zibart quoted a State Fair official who said that the concert drew 18,000, and not surprisingly considered the concert a big success.
The show was utterly fantastic and shaped me and my musical taste and style for the rest of my life.
The most amazing part of this experience is this... imagine yourself in Nashville TN in 1974... BOC opens for Lynyrd Skynyrd (who are riding a big wave about then). After BOC's set....most of the audience starts to get up and leave (I did... I mean who the hell could top BOC) after they did about 2 encores... and Skynyrd had to come out and OPEN with Free Bird just to keep the audience there.
After the substantial crowds at the Speedway Grandstand concerts in the Summer of '74, it would have seemed that 1975 should have been even bigger. But the opposite was the case. Sound Seventy produced only one show in the Summer, and then one show at the State Fair. While I'm not privy to any special information that wasn't in the newspaper, I can make a pretty good guess as to why the Fairgrounds Speedway went from the premier Summer venue in Nashville to an afterthought. It wasn't that the rock concert market was getting smaller. It was that the rock concert market had gotten even bigger, and the Speedway Grandstand was only open for concerts on Sunday.
Rock concert touring had exploded in the early 70s, and bands needed paying gigs at substantial venues. The Speedway stood in for a basketball venue with respect to the Nashville market. By '75, however, rock concerts were getting really, really big. The Allman Brothers had played the Speedway Grandstand in '72, but now they were headlining football stadiums. Belkin Productions was staging The World Series of Rock every Summer at the enormous Cleveland Municipal Stadium, home of the Indians and Browns, with a concert capacity of 88,000. Roosevelt Stadium in New Jersey had been putting on rock shows every Summer since '72. Around the country, baseball and football stadiums were finding dates for huge multi-act rock shows. Even being second or third on the bill at these shows was an absolutely huge payday, and massive exposure to boot.
The Fairgrounds Speedway could only book dates on Sunday. Saturday night was for racing, and there were never shows on other nights of the week save for the State Fair (save for that single '72 Allmans show). Sunday, of course, was the prime day for suburban stadiums to have their largest events. Nashville was still a secondary market. Bands who could really draw, like the Allman Brothers, wanted to book a major league stadium on a Sunday. That left fewer bookings for places like Nashville Speedway.
The listing in the Tennessean for the July Grandstand show (above) says "Bachman-Turner Overdrive; They may be a little far South for Canadians, but they've picked up some Southern company in guest stars Wet Willie and Elvin Bishop." This was likely a mild joke, as acts like David Bowie and Jethro Tull did quite well in Nashville, but nonetheless it's true that two bands with a Southern flavor were booked in support of the Canadian quartet. No doubt a certain kind of longhaired yahoo came to every Fairground show, and the promoters knew to have something they would like.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive had established themselves with their debut album on Mercury, released in May 1973. Winnipeg guitarist Randy Bachman been in the The Guess Who in the late 60s, and had written or co-written most of their hit songs (like "American Woman" and "No Time"). He had left the group in the early 70s, and after a false start with the group Brave Belt, he had formed a band with bassist Fred Turner and two of his brothers (Tim on guitar, Robbie on drums). Their debut had done fairly well, but Bachman Turner Overdrive II, released in December 1973, included the huge hit "Takin' Care Of Business." August '74's Not Fragile was even bigger, with the album reaching #1 thanks to the single "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." It also hit #1. BTO were huge anywhere you could hear radio waves.
Wet Willie and Elvin Bishop were both on Capricorn, who regularly booked shows with Sound Seventy. Bishop had been the guitarist in the classic '60s lineup of the Butterfield Blues Band, but he had moved to San Francisco in 1968. He was a popular act in San Francisco and the West, but Capricorn was determined to break him nationally. Capricorn emphasized the twin guitars in Bishop's band (Elvin and Johnny Vernazza) and played up Bishop's country roots, as he was from Tulsa. It worked pretty well. His early 1975 album, Juke Joint Jump, would reach #46. Bishop was a limited singer, so he was professional enough to always have a real voice in his band. Singer Mickey Thomas had been added to the band, and Thomas would sing lead on the early '76 hit "Fooled Around And Felled In Love."
Whether or not "Truckin'" is your jam, there's no question that the Grateful Dead were way out in front of the 20th century concert industry. When Dead road manager Sam Cutler proposed that the Dead play a paid show that was free to students and the public, he had to persuade the University it was a good idea. Three years later, we see that there was a free Willie Nelson show as part of a Festival. The listing in the Tennessean said
Nashvillian-turned-Texan Willie Nelson, Asleep At The Wheel and special guest Guy Clark get together for a free concert of progressive country music that begins at 1pm on the Joint University lawn.
Only Nashville would see Willie (b. Abbott, TX in 1933), a music row songwriter back in the '60s, as "Nashvillian-turned-Texan."
Yet, Willie Nelson was performing on the "Joint University Lawn." If anyone should be Chancellor of Joint University, it's Willie Nelson. I'm not certain where the "Joint University Lawn" was, and I suspect it was the same Alumni Lawn at the center of campus (at 2301 University Place) where the Dead had played in '72. The Vanderbilt classes of '75 and '76 would have had opportunities to see both the Grateful Dead and Willie Nelson for free. A rare thing.
The T-For-Texas Festival must have gone alright, since Vanderbilt would continue to hold free concerts n Alumni Lawn. In 1977, both the jazz festival and the David Bromberg Band had concerts on Alumni Lawn.
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| The September 21 (Sunday) Nashville Tennessean had a picture of the huge crowd for ZZ Top at the Speedway Grandstand on Saturday night. The caption lists the crowd as 30,000, although a later article said that the attendance was just (a still record) 25,200. |
September 20, 1975 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN: ZZ Top/J Geils Band (Saturday) Sound Seventy Presents
The 1976 Fourth of July show at the Nashville Speedway drew over 20,000 fans, but since it featured perhaps the hottest touring act in the country, it was one of Peter Frampton's smaller concerts that Summer. Frampton had released his Frampton Comes Alive album in January 1976, and it rapidly became the best-selling live album of all-time. The double-album has sold over 20 million copies, and tracks like "Do You Feel Like We Do" were FM radio staples as soon as they were released, and indeed remain so today.
Peter Frampton was actually really good live, which everyone forgets (I saw him in San Francisco in May 1975, a month before the famous recording, and he was great). He led a tight quartet, his lead guitar ably supported by Bob Mayo (keyboards, guitar), Stanley Sheldon (bass) and John Siomos (drums). Frampton had formed the group Humble Pie in 1968, with guitarist Steve Marriott, from the Small Faces, and bassist Greg Ridley, from Spooky Tooth, along with drummer Jerry Shirley. After five albums with the Pie, Frampton left to go solo (replaced by Dave Clempson). Manager Dee Anthony kept both Frampton and Humble Pie.
Humble Pie, even without Frampton, had gotten fairly big themselves before they had ground to a halt. The re-formed Spooky Tooth had even opened for Humble Pie on their 1974 tour. Spooky Tooth had been led by Gary Wright, who shared lead vocals with Mike Harrison and songwriting with guitarist Mick Jones. Spooky Tooth, too, ground to a halt in early '75, so Wright went solo himself (Mick Jones would found Foreigner). Dee Anthony also signed up Wright. As Humble Pie had ground to a halt, drummer Jerry Shirley had hooked up with Natural Gas, a new group that was led by guitarist Joey Molland of Badfinger, and--yes--the Gas were managed by Dee Anthony. So all three acts at the July 4 Fairgrounds show were managed by Dee Anthony.
Over 20,000 attended the July 4 Nashville show, according to the Tennessean. Sounds big, until you realize that during the Summer Peter Frampton had headlined at RFK Stadium on June 13 (with Yes), Anaheim Stadium on July 17 (again with Yes) and Royals Stadium in Kansas City (with Santana). Gary Wright and Natural Gas had shared the bill with Frampton at most of those big shows. Wright had chosen to record and perform with only keyboards and drums, giving him a unique sound. His debut album was also huge: there's few people who are from that era who don't instantly recognize "My Love Is Alive" and "Dream Weaver" from Wright's debut album of the same name (and thanks to Wayne and Garth, "Dream Weaver" is immortal).
According to the Tennessean, the show was scheduled to start at 4pm, but the show was delayed. The gates were supposed to open at 2pm, but did not open until 3:30. This made the local police very nervous. At an outdoor venue with no reserved seats, the gate opening always presaged a mad rush, and a delayed opening only made the crowd bigger and the rush crazier. Ultimately the show began at 5:15 with Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth. Nelson was an excellent singer from Wisconsin, who had relocated to Nashville via San Francisco, where Mother Earth (in various incarnations) had played the Fillmore and Avalon many times. Ultimately the show came off fine, so the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway hosted the biggest touring act in the world on July 4.
In 1974, ZZ Top had headlined the Speedway Grandstand, with Lynyrd Skynyrd opening. Both bands had since scored big hits and gotten much bigger, and both had returned since than, and both would return in 1976. Skynyrd had released their 4th album, Gimme Back My Bullets, in February of '76. They were bigger than ever. Johnny & Edgar Winter were opening the show. Both of them had some success separately, and now they were touring together. Also on board were three other bands. Ted Nugent was a Detroit hard rocker from back in the 60s, and 38 Special was a Southern rock band featuring Donnie Van Zandt, the younger brother of Skynryd's lead singer. Point Blank, a Texas band associated with ZZ Top's management.
As it happened, the Winter Brothers canceled. Apparently, Johnny was sick. His ill-health was one of the reasons that he never achieved the heights his talents suggested. Nonetheless, with Skynyrd and three other bands, it seems like it should have been a massive event. Yet it wasn't, really. The crowd was just 15,000, nothing like ZZ Top. Eve Zibart, now the regular music critic for the Tennessean, noted (in her August 3 review) that the crowd was extremely "rowdy." The larger crowd at the Peter Frampton show earlier in the month would have skewed towards suburban teenagers, because that's who liked Frampton. At the Frampton show, I'm sure some beers were chugged in the parking lot, and some joints were passed around, but it was probably a pretty mellow afternoon. I'll bet there were a lot of girls there, too, and not all of them on a date.
But Lynyrd Skynyrd was going to be different. Beer and weed were just the chasers, with downers and Jack Daniels the order of the day. I remember crowds like that from the mid-70s (albeit in San Francisco). If you stumbled into someone at a Frampton show, you said "excuse me." At a Skynyrd-type show, the party you bumped into might be semi-comatose, or he might be looking to fight. The crowd would have been almost entirely male, and by the time the show wore on they would have been pretty messed up. At a General Admission show, drunk rednecks wacked out on 'ludes was a serious detriment to enjoying a show.
Now, sure, the Nashville cops knew how to handle wasted young yahoos. But since it was General Admission, a lot of the kids who had went to Frampton didn't want the hassle of the Skynyrd crowd. They weren't bringing their girlfriend, who would have insisted on going home before 38 Special had even finished anyway. So the large-but-not-huge 15,000 attendance was because of all those suburban kids who said to themselves "I don't need this grief." General Admission ("Festival Seating") shows were a relic of the 60s, and by the mid-70s were less appealing for anything but a mellow Grateful Dead concert. .
There was only one Grandstand concert at the '76 State Fair, a big Saturday night blowout. ZZ Top returned again, bigger than ever. The concert drew around 25,000. Initially, the opening act was supposed to be Black Oak Arkansas, who were still touring--I mean, they're still touring today--which was typical of the rowdy boogie bands who played the Fairgrounds. Intriguingly, Black Oak was replaced a few weeks before the show with The Band. The Speedway concert was the last concert performance by The Band prior to the Last Waltz. Opening the show was the Cate Brothers, who featured Levon Helm's nephew Terry Cagle on drums.
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| Nashville Tennessean Sep 23 |
September 16-25, 1977: 71st Tennessee State Fair, State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN (Friday>Sunday)
September 23, 1977 Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN: Mylon LeFevre/Travis Wammack/Mac MacAnally (Friday) free
A free concert was typical State Fair stuff. Mylon LeFevre was pretty good, actually, and almost made it as a rock star, but by 1977 he was just another entartainer at the fair.
Heart was a popular band in 1977, but still on the rise. Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were a rare female duo who fronted a Led Zeppelin-style band. Their debut album had been followed in May 1977 by their Little Queen album, which featured their signature hit "Barracuda." The song would reach #11, and the album reached #9. Heart rocked fairly hard, but they were definitely appealing to the suburban crowd who liked Frampton, not the yahoos who wanted to get rowdy for ZZ Top or Skynyrd. Opening the show was an Alabama-by-way-of-LA group called the Sanford-Townsend Band, on Atlantic. Their hit was "Smoke From A Distant Fire." Openers Dixie Dregs were sort of progressive Southern rockers, who played mostly instrumental music.
I don't know how Heart went over. We can infer that it wasn't that big a hit, because paid concerts at the Nashville Grandstand Speedway seem to disappear after this. The show wasn't reviewed, because Tennessean popular music critic Eve Zibart had moved on to the Washington Post, where she would work until 2008. The rock critic moving away to a bigger city is pretty much what you need to know about the status of Nashville rock concerts.
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| The start of the 1972 Southern 300, the last race at Nashville Fairgounds Speedway before the high bank was reduced from 36 degrees. Darrel Waltrip won the race. |
Rock Concert Business, 1977-99
I am singularly curious about auto racing tracks as rock concerts venues in the 1960s and '70s. Realistically, no one else looks at this, because no one else really cares. That being said, the failure of racing venues to become semi-permanent multi-use concert venues shows the attractions and the fault lines in the rise of the live rock concert business more clearly than looking at basketball venues. Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was the principal summer outdoor venue in a good secondary rock market from 1972 through 1977, and though the track continued to thrive, the concert business disappeared. The track arose as a venue because there were no other basketball arenas or minor league baseball stadiums to pick up the Summer rock concert business. Yet still it did not last. Three reasons stand out for the end of Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as a Summer rock concert venue:
- The Speedway was only available on Sunday afternoons and evening. That was a good day for booking, as it happened, but it was the only day available. A venue in a secondary rock market like Nashville had to have more flexibility.
- The General Admission set-up was less attractive as rock matured. By the mid-70s, fans were willing to pay more for rock concerts, but they wanted their own seat in return. The bands whose fans were attracted to General Admission shows appealed to a mostly male audience who weren't much fun if you weren't wasted.
- The really big shows in the 70s were General Admission, it's true, but they were in NFL or MLB stadiums. Cleveland Municipal, for example, could hold 80,000. The dollars involved in such a show drew the absolute biggest acts, not as rowdy as ZZ Top or Skynyrd, and thus more manageable, but much too large for the Nashville Speedway. By the end of the 1980s, even stadium concerts had reserved seats anyway.
Aftermath
The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway continued to operate as a racetrack, in fact there's still racing there most Saturday nights. The Speedway hosted a NASCAR Grand National (now Cup) race, The Pepsi 420, which ran from 1958 through 1984 (it only ended because of a NASCAR dispute). The secondary Busch series (now the XFinity series) ran intermittently from 1984-2001. There is a new Nashville "Superspeedway," a 1 1/8 mile track in Gladeville, 30 miles Southeast of the city, but that track has had its ups and downs with NASCAR as well.
Nashville had continued to expand, particularly the suburban counties surrounding it. The Nashville Metropolitan area had a population of just 676,000 in 1960, but by 1980 it had ballooned to 948,000. In the 2020 census, the Nashville Metro area had a population of 2,014,444. Nissan Stadium opened in 1999 (as The Adelphia Coliseum), and it is home to the Tennessee Titans NFL team. The first concert was held there in 2000. The NHL Nashville Predators play in the Bridgestone Arena, which opened in 1996 and has a concert capacity of 18,500. The Nashville Municipal Auditorium is still in regular use.
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| Bob Marley and The Wailers and Betty Wright played Memorial Gym at Vanderbilt University on December 8, 1979. I guess the Joint University Lawn wasn't available, more's the pity. |
The Universities and Colleges around Nashville produced many concerts in their basketball arenas, schedules permitting, during the Fall and Spring. Big name acts playing for free in Vanderbilt, however, were lost to history. Now, as it happened, Bob Marley and The Wailers came to Vanderbilt on December 8, 1979, but they played Memorial Gym. Maybe the sound problems were solved by then. Too bad Brother Bob couldn't have held a free one on the Joint University Lawn, December or not, so all those Commodores could lively up themselves. Maybe Willie and Jerry could have flown in for some consultation. Not to be, I guess, but I'm pretty sure there were a few administrators around in '79 who remembered Willie and the Dead playing for free. Whether they were relieved or wistful that Marley didn't do the same I cannot say.
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| Nashville
resident Peter Frampton's plaque on Nashville's Music City Walk Of Fame
(photo Feb 2020), in the Nashville Music Garden (121 4th Avenue S). |
As near as I can tell, the Fairgrounds Speedway show on July 4, 1976 was the first time Peter Frampton had played Nashville, and likely the first time he had been there. But not the last. Frampton would ultimately move to Nashville, where he still lives. If you go to the Music City Walk Of Fame at the Nashville Music Garden (at 121 4th Avenue South), you can see his star. It's right there with all the other Nashville legends, where it belongs.
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