Monday, April 6, 2009

California Jam

April 6, 1974. Ontario Motor Speedway in California. 200,000 people. Earth, Wind & Fire. The Eagles. Black Oak Arkansas. Black Sabbath. Deep Purple. And the top of the bill, ELP.
CALIFORNIA JAM.

Kind of like Woodstock (except this festival was never intended to be released on film). Or Altamont (minus all the brutality stuff).

Anyways, there's quite a bit of footage on Youtube of this festival, but I've got to share with you this video by my favorite:

3 comments:

Jeff said...

I certainly wish I could have seen ELP. I've seen Keith Emerson, and nearly saw Greg Lake, but to see them altogether would be incredible. Although if I was to see Greg Lake with anyone, I would be happiest if it could be with Fripp and have a little King Crimson reunion.

Whizkid said...

Jeff..ELP was my best friend's favorite band in high school. He and I saw ELP in the Houston Astrodome in Feb 1974 on their tour for Brain Salad Surgery. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it was the huge venue, but the sound was awful and there's something about the long, long songs they did that just bored me that night. However, I remember that Keith Emerson was awesome and I saw them later in the 70's on TV and that was really good.

Classic Rock...maybe you should do a post asking people who their favorite keyboard/synthesizer player of the 70's was. There were quite a few good ones that came along...Keith Emerson, Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Tony Banks (Genesis), Jan Hammer, Rick Wakeman (Yes), Gary Wright, etc.

classicrockforthesoul said...

@ Jeff - Not a fan of ELP, but maybe I should check them out one of these days.

@ Whizkid - Great idea for a blog post! I just did one for today, but will do something like you suggested in the near future. :)

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