Pencilstorm Staff and Friends Weigh In On Mayweather v McGregor

We are hosting a viewing party for this fight at the Pencilstorm offices (thanks for the FREE cable, Mr. Biggie) and we thought it would be fun to get thoughts of everybody attending before the big "fight."  Below are the responses. - Colin G. 

Ben Galli (Pencilstorm NBA Beat Writer) - MMA or UFC was never something I was really into.  I remember starting to see crowds gather for live events at the old BW3's on campus in the early 2000's.  I noticed the increase in acquaintances that were going somewhere to "watch the fight" even though there wasn't any boxing on and more dudes on the street wearing Affliction shirts.  I understood the draw (not to the shirts) but I'd rather just watch Bloodsport again.  However, recently, I have made a point to see any fight Conor McGregor is in.  Maybe it's the braggadocio that he backs up or the underdog's confidence that you can't help but root for, but he's brought me slightly into UFC.  And I will watch this fight and I will root for McGregor (especially due to Mayweather's past behavior) because even though I think Money is one of the best boxers of all time and should easily win the match, you're saying there's a chance! 

Big $ (North Coast Posse / Browns Beat) - I was a casual "boxing guy" until I saw my first Conon McGregor interview. From that time I've been a full-fledged unapologetic "UFC bro" (visor and Ballers on DVR sold separately). I'm head over heels for the sport and thus my perspective is a little MMA biased, but as someone who has watched every Conor fight here is why Mayweather domination is not a foregone conclusion:

- Conor's left is an absolute sledgehammer, he has serious one-punch power for a 155 pounder. In his loss to Diaz, Nate mitigated that power by inside kicks to Conor's front leg. Eventually Conor couldn't push off and Nate got him to the ground. Obviously Floyd won't have that option. It will be interesting to see how aggressive Conor will be when he does not have to defend against or worry about kicks.

- Although the UFC rules aren't in play, Conor will still be able to employ some of his Martial Arts discipline. If Floyd is deeking and dunking in an arm's reach (which Floyd is known to do) or wrapping up the muy Thai, MMA style prepares fighters to strike in tight spaces. Conor is also very adept at shrinking the octagon, if this translates to getting Floyd cornered, I don't know how many combos Floyd will be able to with stand.

- Lastly, Conor's jaw is made of steel. If Floyd goes on the offensive, Conor will be able to withstand every strike and will need only small window to sling a widow-making haymaker.

So that's my take, from a decided green, orange and white tinted-glasses perspective. All I'm saying is don't be so quick to write of the notorious Conor, and enjoy the spectacle.

Brian Phillips (CD1025 Morning Show) - Both of these guys seem like assholes. 

Ryan Haye (Boxing Aficionado/ bass player in Ghost Shirt) - Just as Patrick is a die-hard MMA fan, I feel it's important to note that I have been watching boxing since before I could spell boxing or spell box, for that matter. Having said that, I would love nothing more than to watch the guy who's never fought a single round in a professional boxing match beat the guy who, despite being an asshole of heroic proportions, is considered one of best boxers of all-time.

The reality is that Conor doesn't stand a chance in hell. None. Zilch. Zero. I would be willing to bet that the Irishman doesn't even land a punch, and I will take all bets that the poor Mick doesn't win a round. I could break down the fight by pointing out that nobody has ever really hurt Mayweather, and that includes De La Hoya, Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, and Manny Pacquiao. For those that don't know, I just named some of the best boxers of all time, and none of these could hurt, let alone find, Mayweather in the ring. But, I won't break down the fight, because it doesn't matter, it's a done deal. Prediction:  Mayweather in...whatever round he decides to end the fight.

Can we talk about GGG vs. Alvarez?

Ricki C. (Medicare patient / NFL fan) - As a child in the late-1950's/early 1960's I would watch the Friday Night Fights on our piece-of-furniture Zenith TV with my sainted Italian father and my big brother.  That's right, boys & girls of the "Pay Per View" 21st Century, back in the Dark Ages boxing was shown on network TV.  (And there only THREE networks and THREE channels back then. The only "pay-per-view" aspect was that your dad might have to buy some Barbasol shaving cream the next day at Big Bear.)  Jeeez, two men beating each other bloody on a Friday night was considered healthy prime-time entertainment.  (Actually, on the West Side - where I grew up - we could just glance out our front window and get that same "entertainment.")  Anyway, in honor of my dad and my brother Al, I'm goin' Mayweather all the way.

James Baumann (Buckeye Hoops Expert and Overall Renaissance Man) - I don't know squat about this fight (or any other one, for that matter) other than it seems like they are both horrible human beings and the best possible outcome would be that they both knock each other into something resembling a coma, but more painful than that.

Colin Gawel (Bowler, Cheap Trick Fan) - For the first time, I'll be rooting for Mayweather. Like Ryan, I'm a fan of the sweet science. To me, UFC fights have all the poetry of watching skate crash compilations on youtube.  AS IN, not much. And I agree that GGG vs Alverez (and even Rungvisia vs Chocolatito) will be much more competitive fights than this one.

However, there is no denying the pure spectacle this match-up  provides. Floyd was shrewd to make his heel turn from "Pretty Boy Floyd" to "Money Mayweather". And the fact that he is truly a dick makes the "Money" character that much more irritating.  (Click here for excellent story about that on 538)  But Conor is not one to be "out-dicked" so when he told Floyd to "dance for me boy," it rubbed me the wrong way. I know Conor was just saying it for shock value and the whole purpose of the publicity tour was to get suckers like me worked up into buying the fight, but I fell for it anyway. There are too many real dudes floating around thinking the same thing for me to take that as just harmless trash talk. I'm pulling for Floyd to get some payback.

And yes, I'm aware that I've basically turned into a grumpy old man who prefers boxing to that new-fangled UFC the kids love and I'm offended by McGregor's trash talk. What a drag it is getting old. Having said that, I like Money to get Conor off my lawn by the 7th round.  

David Martin -  Mayweather's boxing skills are off the charts. I think he will win. I also think it's possible he takes a dive or holds back in order to generate interest in a lucrative rematch.

Patrick Buzzard -  March 31st, 1985.  For me, that was the first time worlds collided.  It was the first Wrestlemania.  The Main Event was Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorf.  Worlds Collided.  A professional actor wrestled with three of the biggest professional wrestlers of the day at the biggest event conceivable!  What could possibly be next?   After that, as teenagers we would guzzle Jolt Cola and argue if the United States would send Bo Jackson, and ONLY Bo Jackson, to the Olympics??  

It really hasn't really happened since.  Not to that level, at least. It takes more than being outrageous.  It's takes the perfect storm.  It takes the perfect players. Enter Conor McGregor.

An outlandish, boastful carnival barker packaged in a lethal MMA fighter.  Throwing stones at the "establishment" and campaigning for the fight of the century against the old guard, Floyd Mayweather,  the champion of a by-gone era.  It's great entertainment.  It's something that won't happen again at this level.  So enjoy the circus.  I know I will!

I'll be watching live.  My prediction is Mayweather is no fool.  He will not get into a toe-to-toe punch out scenario.  He is smart and knows how to win and is going to jab McGregor to death.  It goes the distance and neither get embarrassed, but the win to Floyd. 

Joe Oestreich (Author, Bass Player, Hurricane Survivor)- I'm not watching, but I have a prediction: The MMA dude beats the boxer in a shocking upset, which means that a rematch is set and they both get the huge payday a second time.

Scott Pleasant (CEO Pleztone Studios, Author, AC/DC Fan ) I'd say Joe's about right with that. What are the rules? If they have to go by straight boxing rules, I say advantage boxer. If the boxing rules are modified to allow some MMA, I say advantage MMA guy. It all sort of reminds me of when Rocky fought Thunder Lips with Mr. T. in the audience. (Watch it here)

Wal Ozello (Author, Singer)  The fact of the matter is I haven’t watched a fight since Tyson v Holyfield.  That’s when boxing was AWESOME.  I mean Tyson is a beast.  If you can’t knock someone out in the first round then what are you doing boxing?  Nobody fights like Tyson.  On Saturday night, I’ll be combing through youtube watching reruns of Tyson fights. Check out when he knocks out Michael Spinks. (Watch all 1:26 minutes here)

Deadly Serious Fun - Five Scenes From "The Kids Are Alright" You Will See In No Other Rock Documentary, Ever - by Ricki C.

For ten years, from 2000 to 2010, I served first as a roadie and then as road manager for Hamell On Trial: a solo acoustic force-of-nature whom I described – and at times introduced onstage – as “A four-man punk band rolled into one bald, sweaty guy.”  The very first rock & roll conversation Ed Hamell and I ever had when I opened for him at Little Bothers in 1998 was about how we saw The Who three weeks apart back in 1969 as high school boys – me a senior in Columbus, Ohio; him a  sophomore in Syracuse, New York.  We both agreed unequivocally that it was the greatest rock & roll show we had ever seen.  We both agreed unequivocally that The Who in 1969 was rock & roll’s most perfect organism EVER, and that all of our musical standards of professionalism were based on that band, and those four men: Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle & Keith Moon.

I stand by that assertion to this day.  The Who – from sometime in 1968 when Pete Townshend started to write Tommy, to sometime in 1973 before Quadrophenia came out – were, quite simply, the greatest rock & roll band of all time.  I say this with apologies to my dear friend Jim Johnson – The Rolling Stones have been a great band for a good many decades – and my good friend Chris Clinton – Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have been the world’s greatest rock & roll band from 1978 until sometime last week – but neither of them of are as good as The Who were at their 1972 peak, when they wrote & recorded Who’s Next.

And this movie – The Kids Are Alright – is a true testament to that band.

Five scenes from The Kids Are Alright that you will see in no other rock documentary EVER:

1)    A little perspective: The opening segment in The Kids Are Alright, The Who’s appearance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on September 15th, 1967, came three months after the June 1st release of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” ruined the concept of FUN in rock & roll and made everything DEADLY SERIOUS.  The Smothers Brothers really had their hearts in the right place – attempting to bring a little bit of the counter-culture to white-bread Sunday night television – and this night, bringing The Who in all their anarchic, gear-smashing glory to National Commercial television when there were still only three channels, they succeeded.  Deadly serious fun.  Keith overloads his blast-powder in the bass drum and in the ensuing explosion Pete’s hair gets singed, he loses some of his hearing, you can hear the audience GASP, Bette Davis faints backstage, and Keith gets knocked cold.  I was literally stunned, staring open-mouthed at the TV as this performance transpired.  I had always kinda liked The Who, now it was Luv, L-U-V.
 
2)    The short segment of Keith throwing his “Pictures Of Lily” drum kit into the audience (and, by the way, the audience THROWING THEM BACK) took place not at the “My Generation” smashing-the-gear-at-the-end-of-the-show finale of the August 6th, 1968, appearance at the Boston Music Hall, it took place THREE SONGS INTO THE SET, when an obviously, let’s say “over-exuberant” Keith Moon lost track of where The Who were in the show and started to forcefully dismantle his kit.  The show had to be stopped, the roadies had to regain all of the gear and reassemble the drum kit so the show could resume.  Deadly serious fun.

3)    The grainy black & white footage from some British teen program in 1966 when Pete Townshend opines – apropos of the musical quality of The Beatles – “When you hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy.”  Again, a little historical perspective for the rock & roll youngsters: If you were a rock musician in 1966, you didn’t go on English television and badmouth The Beatles.  Deadly serious fun.        

4)    The compendium of gear-smashing sequences that flows from the Monterey Pop Festival appearance by the boys in 1967.  This is not play-acting.  This is not Kiss smashing a plywood guitar at the end of “The Act” after they were raking in millions from The Rubes In The Cheap Seats in the 70’s.  This is at least three seriously pissed-off young men taking out their aggressions on their instruments, and doing a damn fine job of entertaining the audience while they’re at it.  This is the only time Art ever successfully mixed with Rock & Roll.  This was Deadly Serious Fun.

5)    My favorite scene in the entire movie and, sadly, the one that I think tells the entire Story Of The Who in one glorious 30-second segment: right after “A Quick One Whiles He’s Away” Pete Townshend is pontificating – as he so often has, indeed to this day in 2014 – about how “The Who can’t just remain a circus act, doing what the audience knows we can do, until we become a cabaret act.”  It’s pretentious as hell, as Townshend so often was/is, and in the midst of it Keith Moon – feigning agreement in the Lofty Pronouncements being Uttered – proceeds to do a circus-act headstand on his conference-room chair, forcing Pete out of his Painfully Serious Overly Intelligent Rock Star Stance into trying to balance a brandy on Keith’s boot-heel and totally derailing Pete’s pomposity.  

Keith Moon died September 7th, 1978, just over four months after the May 25th performance that yielded takes of “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” for this film.  The Kids Are Alright was released in May, 1979, and I think I knew even then that The Who without Keith Moon was never going to be the same again, that without Keith’s genius comic tempering of Pete’s pretentiousness, that everything was going to devolve to the Deadly Serious, and The Who would never be Fun again.  I was right.

In some ways this entire movie serves as a tribute to Keith Moon, and as a tribute to a simpler time in rock & roll: when guitars & drums, extreme volume, cool clothes, great songs and a cute blonde lead singer were enough for anybody.  In many ways, I have no problem with that.

If you think you’ve ever loved rock & roll music for even a single moment, you’ve gotta see this movie.  – Ricki C. / May 17th, 2014.

(So, Ricki C. has been on quite the Who bender this week, but if any rock & roll gluttons for punishment out there among you have a stomach for 2500 more words on the subject, check out Ricki's 2012 blog Shows I Saw In The 60's, part two - including his full account of the November 1st, 1969 Who appearance at Veteran's Memorial.  But first, a video.......) 

Vet's Memorial, part six, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, September 5th, 1978 - by Ricki C.

(I should have mentioned at the end of Vet’s Memorial part 5 back in May that there would be no entries in the series for June, July or August because every year Vet’s was taken over by The Kenley Players – a kind of early traveling Broadway Series – for the summer months.  Yes, Spotify boys & girls, show tunes did indeed take precedence over the rock & roll back in the 1960’s & 70’s and now people flock to see Green Day concept albums presented on Broadway.  I cannot wholly condemn that fact, but I certainly don’t go along with it, either.)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND / SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1978

The first time I heard Bruce Springsteen was in the old Pearl Alley Discs record store on 13th Avenue, just off High Street, WAY back in the day, when you could still turn off High onto 13th.  From perusing my Springsteen reference materials I see that Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. was released on January 5th, 1973.  That seems about right because I was at Pearl Alley that day with my first – and best – rock & roll friend of all time, Dave Blackburn, and he moved to Boston sometime later that year (where, by the way, he got to see the original configuration of The Modern Lovers AT A HIGH SCHOOL, WEARING MATCHING CASHMERE SWEATERS, with some youngsters called Aerosmith OPENING the show).  But I digress……

“Blinded By The Light” must have just been ending when we walked into the store, because I remember looking up at the speakers as Bruce started singing, “Well, I stood stone-like at midnight / Suspended in my masquerade / I combed my hair ‘til it was just right / And commanded the night brigade.”  Then the band kicked in at “I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch / I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched” and I was SOLD, son!  

I said – out loud, without meaning to – “WHO IS THIS?” and Dave glanced over at the Now Playing station of the store, then said, “Oh, that’s Bruce Springsteen, he’s one of those New Dylan guys everybody’s writing about.”  (Dave ALWAYS knew more about rock & roll than I did, back then.)  Thus began the Bruce Springsteen chapter of my life of rock & roll.    

I covered the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band live pretty extensively in a Pencilstorm blog called The Perfect Age For Rock & Roll, part two, back in January 2014, you might wanna check that out.  

This 1978 show, however, was a completely different animal from that ’76 outing: gone was any lingering trace of hippie-ism in the E Street Band presentation; gone were the beards, bell-bottoms, wooly Bob Marley hats and multi-hued 3-piece suits on band members.  Everybody – including, most crucially, Springsteen himself – was clean-shaven and dressed in some combination of vests, suit jackets and straight-leg black or blue jeans (except Clarence Clemons, of course, ultra-sharp in a sparkling white suit, befitting of his Big Man status).  Also  gone were any lengthy, meandering jams of the old days.  Even when songs got expanded (“Prove It All Night,” Bruce’s take-back of “Because The Night” from fellow Jersey-ite Patti Smith) those expansions were pounding, driving fever-beat extensions of the tunes, Springsteen’s WAILING lead guitar blowing the songs open, rather than the multi-section The-Band-meets-prog-rock stylings of earlier years.  As much as I loved (and still love, to this day) "Incident On 57th Street" from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, watching Bruce & the band sear through "Candy's Room" on that warm September evening in 1978 was just a whole other level of rock & roll genius entirely.

The band opened with an insane, joyful take on Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” blasted straight into “Badlands” and “Adam Raised A Cane,” didn’t really take a breath until easing into a perfect, swinging version of “Spirit In The Night,” that  served notice that this was a band who could do ANYTHING.  You want rockers?  We’ve got rockers.  You want angry rants between fathers, sons & brothers goin’ all the way back to Cain & Abel?  Yeah, we’ve got those.  You want richly overly-romanticized depictions of a boozy Saturday night excursion to some New Jersey lakeside back in the early 70’s?  Done and DONE, Jack.

Really, in my now 50th year of seeing live rock & roll shows (1965-2015), I have never witnessed a better-paced, better-sequenced set of rock & roll than that night in 1978.  I have never seen a show with the emotional & musical length and BREADTH of that show.  I have never seen a show of that INTENSITY.  I’ve often told anybody who would listen that this was the SECOND greatest rock show I ever saw.  (For a list of the Top Ten, check out The Best of Everything, part one on my old blog.)  The Who in November of 1969 was the only show that topped this Springsteen outing, but The Who accomplished that task by COMING OUT ROCKING, AND THEN ROCKING SOME MORE, AND THEN ROCKING EVEN MORE AFTER THAT, until the Vet’s Memorial crowd I was a member of was basically pummeled into submission by their Sheer Rock & Roll Command.  (Seriously, I went to high school for THREE DAYS after that show not hearing one word clearly.  I thought I was gonna have to learn to lip-read.  I don’t know how Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle & Moon had any hearing left after 1970.)  

Bruce & the guys did essentially ALL of the Darkness On The Edge Town album in the first set that night, with detours over to the first record for “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” (capped by a killer twin-guitar duet call & response coda with Miami Steve Van Zandt), the aforementioned “Spirit In The Night” and ending with truly heartbreaking performances  of “Racing In The Street,” straight into “Thunder Road,” and concluding with “Jungleland,” all from Born To Run.  Really, just that first set would have been enough to be better than 95% of all other rock concerts I’ve attended, and there was another whole set to come, announced simply by Bruce as, “We’re gonna take a 20 minute break and be back to play some more for ya.”

(For those of you scoring at home, there are ample bootlegs available of the Cleveland Agora show from August 9th, 1978 – broadcast live over Cleveland's WMMS – that is essentially the same set-list as the Columbus show I witnessed.  I have a double-CD set of that show made from cassettes I recorded when it was simulcast over Q-FM-96.  I sat mesmerized at the kitchen table of my apartment in the old Lincoln Park West complex off Georgesville Road that hot August night, staring at the radio, barely registering the sky and the room growing dark, scarcely able to believe what I was hearing coming out of that beat-up boombox.  If I could take only one CD-set to a proverbial desert island, THAT would be the one.  The Cleveland Agora show is now also available over live.brucespringsteen.net.  Send away for it, it’s a triple-disc set now and CHEAP at 20 bucks.)

Okay, fuck it, that’s already 1000 words and I’ve barely gotten to the point.  Here’s the point: I could write ANOTHER 2000 words about this show and not do it justice; I could tell you how sometime during this show the mantle of My All-Time Rock & Roll Saviour got passed from Pete Townshend to Bruce Springsteen, where it remains to this day (Keith Moon died two days later, September 7th, 1978, sealing that deal, The Who would NEVER be the same after that); I could tell you how that night Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were the Greatest Bar Band EVER in the Universe, right before they became An Arena Band; I could tell you how Bruce has never sold a song to a commercial, has never cheapened himself to make a buck, has never lost his faith in the Power of Rock & Roll to get through hard times.  (Though, I fully admit, I have at times.)

Let me say this quite simply: I have seen at least one show of every major Bruce Springsteen tour since Born To Run - including the Human Touch/Better Days non-E Street shows and the Seeger Sessions band - right up to last year's High Hopes outings.  Many of those shows have been great, some were magnificent, most have been better than just about anybody else I've witnessed in any bar, club, theater, arena or stadium, but none of them have been as all-consuming, or as life-changing as the 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour.  

Here’s all I can ask you to do: There is a series of videos on YouTube from a show at the Passaic Theater in New Jersey on September 19th, 1978 - exactly two weeks after my beloved Columbus show - that will say more to you than any 50,000 words I could write here on Pencilstorm.  Just watch and enjoy………      

my receipt for the 1978 show (note spelling of Springsteen, nobody knew who Bruce was)

Yeah, you're readin' that right, cats & kittens, in 1978 you could purchase EIGHT Bruce Springsteen tickets for $62.20, including the service charges (a whopping $2.20).  Today the Ticketmaster fees alone for eight tickets would probably set you back more than sixty bucks.

Today's blog entry is dedicated to Jodie Weaver and Chris Clinton, my two best Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band friends.  I've known Jodie since high school, and we met Chris in 1984, when he wound up next to us in an overnight line for tickets to the Born In The U.S.A. tour, at the old Buzzard's Nest Records on Morse Road, where Jim Johnson worked at the time.  I think I still owe Chris upwards of $150 for tickets to Springsteen shows last year in Cincinnati and Columbus, but I do not expect this dedication to go towards repayment of that debt.

Jodie & Chris, I love ya, and thank you for always helping me to remember that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.  (Someday, Chris and I are gonna put our heads together and come up with our list of the Top Five Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band shows we've ever seen.)

Oh hell, let's go for one more stand-alone video from Passaic, 1978 (If I had to explain rock & roll to a being from outer space, I would show them 2:39 to 2:59 of this clip, Bruce & Steven moving up & back from the mics in total bad-ass harmony for verse two of "She's The One.")

Hard Core Devo Live @ the Gateway Theater Reelin' & Rockin' Movie Series This Wednesday - by Ricki C.

I never really had a lot of fan involvement with Devo.  One Friday night in 1976 a couple of my reprobate Service Merchandise buddies & I made a road trip to Akron to catch ‘em at a bar after I read a feature about them in New York Rocker (my rock & roll Bible after the sad, slow demise into irrelevancy that Creem magazine began in 1975 or so).

The Mothersbaugh & Casale brothers were all right that night, but included a synthesizer in the set, and I think our final conclusion was: “They’re kinda art-y.”  “Kinda art-y” was a kiss of death pronouncement in our West Side rocker eyes.  We were guitars ‘n’ drum boys.  

I will say this, though: in our current era of mega-bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones criss-crossing America playing their Greatest Hits to the classic-rock throngs in gynormous arenas & stadiums, I have to admire Devo for making a film of themselves playing their LEAST POPULAR SONGS from 40 years ago.  It's a pretty interesting and impressive concept.  (Although it is still "kinda art-y.")  

You can learn everything you have ever wanted to know about early Devo – before they became, in Colin’s words “just another pop band on MTV playing ‘Workin’ In A Coal Mine’ and wearing red flowerpots on their heads” – at this month’s Reelin’ & Rockin’ at the Gateway presentation of Hard Core Devo Live, this Wednesday, June 17: happy hour at 7 pm, movie to follow at 8 pm.  Be there or be a mongoloid.  (That is a Devo reference, do not send us PC letters at Pencilstorm.) – Ricki C. / June 13th, 2015

It's not gonna come as a surprise to anybody who reads Pencilstorm that Ricki C. is a grouchy, 62-year old who hates synthesizers (and art) with a passion.  That does not mean this Devo movie isn't great.  Give it a chance. - Colin G.

Attempted Suicide Stopped by the Rolling Stones. Listen to Ricki C. Tell the True Story on 614Cast

Hey gang, Colin here. As I've said many times, Ricki C. is my favorite rock n roll storyteller. In my humble opinion, everything he posts on Pencilstorm is pure gold, as good as any rock story you will read in ANY publication. But of all his great writings, I think his essay, "The Bathtub" could be on the short list of greatest rock stories ever told. It originally appeared on his old MySpace page, and in his former blog "Growing Old with Rock n Roll" and then Joe Oestreich made sure it was published in the footnotes/index to his acclaimed Watershed memoir, "Hitless Wonder - A Life in Minor League Rock n Roll". (In fact, just the footnotes to Joe's book are better than Butch Walker's actual books. Seriously, thumb through a copy and prove me wrong.)

Anyway, with the Rolling Stones coming to town, we decided to team up with the very cool and new Six One Four Podcast so Ricki C. could tell the story of "The Bathtub" himself. Please do yourself a favor and give it a listen. I promise you'll be glad you did.

Click Here to listen to Colin and Ricki C. telling the story of "The Bathtub" on the 614Cast. They start at the 27 minute mark after the excellent Eric Davidson interview. 

The Bathtub by Ricki C.

I was 13 years old in October 1965.  Eighth grade just was not working out.  I had been a shy, book-reading child, now hormones were kicking in.  I loved rock & roll but I just knew I was NEVER going to know how to talk to girls.  (This was years before I got a hold of a guitar.)  One really bad Saturday night I decided to kill myself.  I had it all worked out.  I’d seen a movie just that week about a guy getting electrocuted when a radio fell into the bathtub he was in.  (I was a very impressionable child.)

After everybody had left for the evening (my mom and dad were working their second jobs, my sister was on a date, my brother was at the bar) I went around the house and found a radio with a cord long enough to reach the bathtub.  I ran the bath, plugged in the radio, settled into the warm water, said a little prayer for forgiveness, and let the radio drop.  What I hadn't factored in was that although the cord was long enough to reach the tub, I hadn't filled it full enough.  Right when the radio hit the water the plug pulled out.  I got a nasty shock, I was seeing big purple and black blobs in my field of vision, but it didn't kill me.

I lifted the radio out and laid there in the water a few minutes to let my head clear.  I got out and ran some more water in the tub until I was certain I had the right water level for the job at hand.  I plugged the radio back in and what was playing?  "Get Off My Cloud" by The Rolling Stones.  I stood there naked – dripping & chilly, eighth-grade skinny – and listened to the entire song.  Right at that moment I quite literally loved that song more than I loved life itself.  And then a thought came very clearly into my head: "What if the next Rolling Stones single is even BETTER than this one, and I never get to hear it?"

I set the radio down on the sink, got back in the tub, took a bath and went to bed.  If "Danke Schoen" by Wayne Newton or "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton had been playing at the moment I plugged that radio back in I'd be dead now.  Long live The Rolling Stones.  So began a life of rock & roll.  Thanks Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill & Charlie.

© 2005 Ricki C.

The Point Is Playing at Bernie's on Monday. You Need to Get to The Point - by Ricki C.

When Dave Masica first joined Watershed in 1998, I really couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.  “Where did you find this guy?” I asked Colin, marveling at how good a drummer Dave was and how lucky they were to find him to replace Herb Schupp (a noted skins-basher in his own right).  “Oh, Dave was in some band that opened for us in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and when Herb left we called him up.”

I totally believed that story right up until sometime in 2005 when I joined the Watershed road crew and casually asked Dave at breakfast one morning somewhere in the south what band he was in before Watershed, up in Michigan.  “Whaaat?” Dave replied, perplexed, “I was never in a band in Michigan.”  “Colin told me you were in a band from the U.P. that opened for Watershed and they scooped you right into the van after a show.”  “No, that’s total Colin bullshit,” Dave replied, “I was in The Point before Watershed.”  “THAT’S where I know you from,” I said, “I saw The Point a bunch of times.  I always thought you looked familiar.  You guys were GREAT.”

The Point epitomized my central idea of rock & roll: that rock & roll should be Deadly Serious Fun.  All of my favorite rock bands from the very beginning – The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Who, Mott The Hoople, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, The Dictators – were simultaneously intensely serious rockers with an equally killer sense of humor: Deadly Serious Fun.  They didn’t take themselves too seriously, and they rocked like motherfuckers.

The Point – in their 1985-1990 heyday – were that kind of band.  They would romp through their sets at Bernie’s or the Alrosa Villa (and, for that matter, they might have been the ONLY Columbus band to regularly play BOTH of those venues) playing a bizarre mix of originals like “Suzie,” “Big Dead Gay Vampire Monsters,” “Lemmings” and “Men Are Pigs” (their big hit song) with covers that ranged – in a single set – from Deep Purple to Devo to Cheap Trick.  They were the only band I ever saw that played a Broadway show tune (The Beatles’ cover of “‘Til There Was You”) AND Nick Lowe’s “Heart Of The City” IN SUCCESSION and made it work.  They were a killer power trio that could blend power-pop, metal & punk like they were meant to be blended. They were a throwback to an earlier, infinitely more innocent and great time in rock & roll when bands PLAYED SONGS THEY LIKED, no matter who originated them or whether they fit into any kind of “format.”

I must have seen The Point – “Merv,” “Greed” & “Dixon” by (nick)name – 20 times in that five year period and never once SET OUT to see them.  They would just kinda appear from nowhere in front of me when I was out for the night on campus or up north at Alrosa, and they were never once less than white-hot GREAT and hilarious.  But this was no joke band, my friend, those fuckers could PLAY.  (This was roughly the same period of time I would go see Jim Johnson, Mike Parks & Phil Stokes in a band called The Retreads that mined a similar, though marginally more serious, style of Deadly Serious Fun rock & roll.)  

Anyway, I could go on like this all day about The Point, but here’s all you gotta know: I know it’s tough to get your sorry rock & roll asses out of the house on a Monday night to go see a band, but The Point is starting at 8 pm; and campus isn’t far from anywhere in Columbus; and the “Gotham” season finale was last week, so really, what have you got better to do on a Monday evening than have a coupla beers and go see some Deadly Serious Rock & Roll?  C’mon, people, in the words of Ian Hunter: “Just get yourself out on the street.”

Get to The Point. - Ricki C. / May 8th, 2015

The Point will play at Bernie’s Distillery,1896 N. High Street, just across the street from 
the Wexner Center on the O.S.U. campus, at 8 pm on Monday May, 11th, 2015. 
There’s no cover, admission is FREE, so whattya got to complain about?