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I've been a U2 fan for many years. I think I first heard them
with Sunday Bloody Sunday, and then didn't really pay attention till Joshua Tree came out in 87. So I can't say I've been
a staunch fan from the beginning. But living in Sedona in '87 and the desert imagery of Joshua Tree certainly was a
seemless mesh for me. Bono has got to have the best rock voice and his lyrics are deep, his political stance admirable. I
was totally enthralled by Joshua Tree and Bono, who's song With Or Without You seemed to mirror the feelings I was having
at the time in my relationship at that time. I managed to get backstage at the final U2 concert in Scottsdale in Dec 87.
I've always been a Rock n Roll fan. I've always loved music.
My first big rock concert was seeing the Beatles at Maple Leaf Stadium in 1964, of course
everyone was screaming like mad.
I was fortunate enought to get to see the Beatles 3 times in concert! My Uncle John was friends
with Mr. Ballard who owned the Gardens at the time and got me 4th row seats for one concert and 18th row seats for the 2nd
concert that day.
I was an incurable Beatles fan, dreaming about them, listening to them, even playing hookey
from high school and jumping on a plane to New York in 1967 when I heard they were there.
I was hooked on rock 'n roll. I got a press pass from Tiger Beat Magazine, a teen mag. and
had a fairly decent camera and got up front to all the concerts and backstage to most of them.
I saw The Monkees, The Who a couple of times, Jimi Hendrix, who my girlfriend Linda S. and
I {she called herself Fontana Taylor and was wearing an afro-wig at the time} got to spend the whole night talking to
on the night he got busted for heroin in Toronto at the old 4 Seasons Hotel on Avenue Rd. We didn't know he'd gotten busted.
We found out where he was staying and politely called in on him. He was a very nice man, quiet, talked quite openly, a gentleman,
polite. He seemed very happy and relieved to have some company. He told us about his life growing up in Seatle, his Dad, how
he got into music, he was interested in art. That was an amazing night.
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| Jimi Hendrix who I spent the night talking to in Toronto |
I saw the Rolling Stones a couple of times in Toronto, and
I have a picture of Mick Jagger filming me! I met Keith Richards on the Stones first tour at the King Eddy Hotel, I got his
and Brian Jones autograph. I saw Led Zeppelin at the Rock Pile at 888 Yonge Street the Masonic Temple in '69. I was backstage
wearing a black lace see-through shirt with a body stocking underneath. Robert Plant who did an amazing performance, almost
brought the house down, seemed pretty sloshed later backstage. He grabbed me by my shirt front and ripped my shirt open! I
was stunned. There were a lot of other people milling around and later they would recognize me and say oh you're the girl
Robert Plant ripped the shirt off of.
I saw Cream perform at Massey Hall and went to visit
Eric Clapton at the Royal York Hotel, we ended up watching Bobbe Kennedy's funeral together and talking about American politics,
how he started guitar late, at 15, he was also in art school. I do have a picture of us together. Yes, I was a groupie but
I was a virgin groupie!
I've seen Leonard Cohen perform twice, once at Queen's PArk
in a LOve In and once at Massey Hall.
I had a press pass for The Rock Pile as a High
School Rep. I went every Friday and Sat. nights and saw Julie Driscoll, all kinds of people.
I was at the big rock festivals too. I"ve seen Janis
Joplin, Alice Cooper, The BAnd, Ten Years After, Sly and the FAmily Stone, The Doors numerous times, and met them-I have pics.
What the heck is Al Jolson doing on the rock and roll page?
Well this also has to do with musical memories. I know he's considered politically incorrect these days but he was my first
heart throb when I was a little kid. I first became aware of Al when I was about seven years old. I was in Florida on Christmas
vacation with my parents and we came back to the hotel in the evening where we were staying in Miami. They showed movies in
the lobby on Wednesday nights, and on this particular Wednesday night we came in about 3/4 of the way through the movie. If
you are familiar The Jolson Story is Jolson's life story very Hollywoodized with actor Larry Parks playing
his version of Al, and an excellent one I might add. So that movie was my Jolson initiation.
We came in and there is "Al" talking on the phone from California
to his girlfriend "Julie" who is supposed to be Al's actual wife, dancer Ruby Keeler. He flies to New York to surprise
her at her Broadway opening and stands up in the audience singing Liza. I was totally enthralled by Al Jolson's real voice
and soul coming through in all those corny songs which I still loved nevertheless as my father sang them all to me as a child.
His family had all been in vaudeville you see, and I loved hearing his old stories about going to the Vaudeville shows when
he was a child and seeing comedians, Jack Benny, Phil Silvers, Henny Youngman, etc. and he used to go see Jolson and Frank
Sinatra, the Big BAnds, Tony Bennett etc. They used to show all the old black and white musicals on tv. regularly and I used
to love watching all of them with my Dad.
Anyway, I went back to our hotel room with my Mom and I remember
asking her, that man Al Jolson he sings so wonderfully how come we don't hear of him? My Mother told me that he had died before
I was born. To this response I burst out in tears, I felt totally heartbroken that he was dead. TAbout two hours later my
dad comes into the room and wonders why I'm up and crying and he asks my Mom what's the matter with me. She tells him that
this is how I responded to learning that ols Jolie isn't around anymore. They went out and bought me every Jolson album there
was almost and I learned all the old songs. I taught both my children to sing Toot Toot Tootsie before they went to bed at
night. It seemed to be their favourite. My daughter recently sang it at her school's idol contest.
It was a toss up for her between a Beatles song, Do You Want
To Know A Secret. an early one or Tootsie, and Tootsie won.
Copyright 2002-2022 Tara Greene - All Rights Reserved
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