A quick post of some frames that have given me considerable pains to work with, as they have not endured the many moves I have made, over the decades. In addition, they were taken from the audience – a very “active” audience – which afforded few chances for me to take my time to line up and shoot, as I preferred to. Instead, it was one of those shows that I had to be content to snap a few images, and then get to a safer spot to take in the sounds. My best friend Gary had to twist my arm into going, as I was reluctant to attend such a large show – knowing beforehand, that it was likely to get rowdy. This would be the only time I would see the band perform, although I had been loving their first four albums [and especially the first two], for years, at this point. It was well worth attending, as far as their performance, that night, is concerned.
Gary was very fortunate to have sneaked into a bar/club in downtown Louisville, years before he was “of age [to drink alcohol]”, and got away with it, mostly due to his height, and saw the band perform between the first and second albums. I believe he also attended the outdoor show at Parkway Field, in 1973, joining Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Wet Willie and Savoy Brown…. one of the many times he would “find a way” to see shows, often without a ticket. I would not even attempt to follow his lead, for a number of reasons [but mostly because I was very short, and was still being carded at bars, well into my early 30s – so, that was not ever going to work, for me]. Anyway, I will share a few images that I experimented with, a bit, in order to “salvage” them, for viewing.
NOTE [January 2022]: During the ensuing year, an upgrade in scanning equipment encouraged me to go back and re-evaluate these negatives. They were cleaned, re-scanned, and re-edited, and I will now add the new scans to the old, for a side-by-side comparison for the original post photos, whilst adding more, that “made the grade”. Also, custom prints for purchase are available – see the link at the top of the page for information, or look for the “About” link, for my email contact details. Enjoy!!
The only frame which I could clearly capture the late, great Dusty Hill (aside from that audience member’s hand, which has now been removed).
Since Billy Gibbons was a bit closer to the side of the stage that I could briefly find space to work from, I managed a few shots of him, but almost always with a guitar stand in the way. These two images, I was able to accommodate that problem, with decent results.
As I stated above, this is a “quick” post, since there were so few images to share, at this time, from the ZZ Top show, at Freedom Hall, in Louisville. Once curious point, though, I am not entirely sure of which date this show occurred on, since my calendar notes May 19th, 1977, with Poco opening [and I do have pictures of them, too, but recall seeing them twice, over the years]. And although I recall the stage setup including a giant cactus or two, I do not remember any live steers or bulls on the stage, let alone a giant platform with Texas on it. The bull appeared rather artificial to me, but then, I was paying more attention to the music, ha ha! Any confirmation of the date/tour, from anyone who comes along and views these, is most welcome! For the time-being, I have pegged these to be from the 1980-81 tours, but I could be wrong about that….. so many years and gears have ground down, in the meantime. Perhaps I will add a couple more frames at a later date, but these will have to do, for now…
I was able to locate the date for the “Worldwide Texas Tour“, with Poco opening, on the Setlist.FM website. While not entirely accurate, both bands are listed for this date, but only the set for Poco is detailed, as seen here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/poco/1977/freedom-hall-louisville-ky-1bea4d50.html , and I have yet to find a print advertisement for this date!! At some point, in the future, I will share the photos I also took of Poco.
An edit of Billy Gibbons, which cropped out an audience member’s hands from the frame, as seen in the next set of photos below…
About the only frame that I could manage a clear shot of Frank Beard in…
A shot taken from where I began to watch the show from….
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Also since first posting these photos, about a year ago, Dusty Hill passed away. The band continued touring, but, needless to say, his presence and feel will be most difficult to replace. More on that:
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ZZ Top official site:
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Oh! By the way: you can most definitely count me in the camp that believes the first albums were much better sounding with the original drum mixes….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8R-R-89TiA&list=PL3C4Zaz3G3dP2Ti8FMNA4lJgF5dflE0fQ
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And this is one of my all-time favorites, from the first lp, also the original mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W8d8YIsDkk
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PS: I did take photos of the aforementioned Savoy Brown Band, if you are curious to see them:
https://michaelconen.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/where-were-you-savoy-brown-at-bogarts-in-cincinnati-ohio-september-17-1978/
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Hope you enjoy the pictures, and, as always, constructive criticism [corrections, for example], is welcome.
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NOTE: A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE WATERMARKS ON MY WORK
While many of you who arrive here, to look at these photographs may get turned off to my use of watermarks [thinking they ruin the image], let me explain why I choose to do this.
No one paid for my camera equipment but me. No one paid for the film I used to take these photographs. On occasion, when I free-lanced for a free monthly newsletter, and they published a photo of mine, the payment for each photograph barely paid for the fuel to get my vehicle to the show [when I *did* have a vehicle], and the film I used on that night.
Not too many of my photos were published, at the time, because the artists I chose to capture images of, were not hugely popular then. Hence, the old dictum, “Supply and Demand”; I had the supply, but the demand [pre-Internet], was not there. You can argue the relative merits of the quality of my work, and that is precisely what a blog offers: a venue for discussion.
Back to the watermarks: no one is subsidizing my time to scan and then clean up the images I am presenting here. Start to finish, each negative will take approximately an hour-and-a-half to reach “proof” quality – which is what you will see here. This is my labor of love, and until there is some measurable return on my efforts, what you see is what you get.
michaelconen "where were you?" 