A Long, Long Time Ago: Lou Waxman on Maine’s Lost Rock History

Every once and a while Lou likes to gather with the boys and have a few beers and smoke’em if you got’em and listen to records.  At some point in the evening, Lou will put on Aerosmith’s Live Bootleg LP and wait for the boys to talk about the time they saw Aerosmith in concert in Maine.  It never fails.  Then Lou asks them about all the other concerts they have seen in Bangor and points south.  Seemingly every heavy metal and hair band of the 1980s made it Down East at some point.  Lou has heard all the stories several times, but it never gets old.  Listening to these tall tales Lou has often wondered if there is documentation of all these concerts somewhere.  That would make a terrific book.

Lou walked into the Vogue to return a copy of Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights, which he mistakenly purchased not realizing he had it on CD.  The Thompsons are not Led Zeppelin; Lou does not need them on LP and CD.  With the refund, Lou put a down payment on a book he had been eyeing:  A Long, Long Time Ago:  Major Rock and Roll Concerts in Southern Maine 1955-1977 by Ford S. Reiche.  Lou should have known that such a book existed.  The topic is too interesting to be ignored.

Two things made this book possible:  the completion of the Maine Turnpike in 1955 and the information superhighway.  The Maine Turnpike opened up Southern Maine to all those from away and some of those from away were rock bands and musicians.  It just so happened that the opening of Maine to easy travel coincided with the birth of rock and roll, so from 1955 onwards Maine found itself on the tour schedule of many iconic bands.  The Internet allowed author Reiche to find relics from these concerts in the form of ephemeral documentation from tickets to news articles to posters to photographs, all of which are lovingly displayed in the book along with informative and interesting sidebars on venues, concert promoters, radio stations, record shops, and local bands.  Lou hates to say anything cliché,but the book is a treasure trove.

The book is a goldmine (cliché alert) for the casual music fan but it means even more to hardcore music historians and collectors.  As soon as Lou saw the Beach Boys poster on the cover of the book, he knew he had to contact his fanatical Beach Boy friend.  The information about the Beach Boys concert in Old Orchard Beach in 1963 was known territory but the two-page spread on the June 9, 1965 concert in Portland contained some new nuggets, including a photo of the Boys with concert promoter Bobby Selberg, a Maine music legend, and a complete set list.  I would suspect that historians and collectors of musicians from Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix to Queen will find something of interest in this book.  Not only is it entertaining to flip through, but it is also a valuable and unique historical resource.

Lou’s dedicated readers (Hi, Mom!!) know that he loves live LPs as well as the fact that he stays away from live music in the wild, but there were several concerts in Southern Maine that Lou wishes he could have seen.  They are as follows:

Alan Freed Big Beat Show (May 5, 1958 at the Lewiston Armory):  A Who’s Who of early rock and roll that had all the star power and controversy you would expect.  Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry.  That is quite a show right there, but there were nine other acts including legends like Danny and the Juniors and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.  The controversy happened in Boston, the show before Lewiston, when fights broke out and Freed was arrested for inciting a riot.  This was explosive stuff.  The book has brief descriptions of the show and some ephemeral pieces documenting this seminal event as well.

The Kingsmen (May 24, 1965 at Portland City Hall):  It has become accepted wisdom that young people all across America started bands when they first heard the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.  The more hip will tell you that everyone who bought a copy of the Velvet Underground’s debut album formed a band.  But Lou likes to think that the Kingsmen were the band that launched a thousand bands.  The Kingsmen sounded so dumb and played so poorly and yet still were so successful that you could not be blamed for believing that you could do it better.  The Kingsmen played Maine throughout the mid-to-late 1960s inspiring others to follow suit.  Some of the other local bands that opened for major concerts in Maine, particularly around Lewiston, a hub of local talent, were The Royal Knights, Terry and His Tel-Stars, Dickie and the Ebb Tides, The Id, Liverpool Gas Company, Love Inc and many more.  Catfish were the first Maine band to have a song on the national charts with “Dear Prudence” in the fall of 1975.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience (March 16, 1968 at the Lewiston Armory):  This might be the most important concert to occur in Maine from 1955 to 1977 and beyond.  Given the short duration of the band and the obsessive nature in which every note has been documented, any Jimi Hendrix live performance is a major historical event.  The Experience arrived in Lewiston without some of their equipment and without their opening band The Soft Machine, who were detained in Canada on drug charges.  Local band Terry and the Tel-Stars filled in for the Machine and provided the Experience with instruments.  This is the stuff of barroom stories for the rest of your life.  There is a two-page spread in the book dedicated to the Experience’s show in Lewiston.  Here is the setlist:

Killing Floor

Foxy Lady

Monster Mash

The Wind Cries Mary

Fire

Red House

Hey Joe

Spanish Castle Magic

Manic Depression

Purple Haze

Wild Thing

The Star-Spangled Banner

Lou is not aware that any recording of this concert exists if it did it definitely would have been released by now.  In fact, the only known image of Jimi on stage that night is in the book.  Truly incredible that “arguably the most noteworthy rock concert ever in Maine” is so poorly documented.  Reiche’s book does its best to correct this.

Velvet Underground/J. Geils Band (July 12, 1969 at Portland City Hall):  Two bands with strong Boston ties so it makes sense that they would head a bit north and play Maine.  J. Geils Band did so repeatedly.  Both these bands were a true live experience,but by all accounts, this show was a mess.  The opener,Listening, did not show; J. Geils showed up late, due to missing clothes, and the Velvets with their light show were just too much for the electrical hookup.  The power went out at least twice at the start.  Despite all this, Lou loves live Velvets and J. Geils Band so much that he would have suffered through anything on the off chance that the magic they captured live on wax could be experienced firsthand.

Badfinger/Mungo Jerry/Black Sabbath (November 7, 1970 at UMaine Portland):  All Lou can say is what the fuck?  Who put this bill together?  Lou will have what they were smoking.  Black Sabbath.  Enough said.  But Lou likes himself some Mungo Jerry in the dead of night in the summertime.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (November 15, 1970 at UMaine-Gorham):  Quite a week at UMaine!!! Holy shit.  Apparently, this concert has been recorded and “is all over the internet.”  Here is the setlist:

Paladin Routine

Call Any Vegetable

The Sanzini Brothers

Pound for a Brown

Sleeping in a Jar

Porko the Magnificent

Sharleena

Stage Banter & Preamble

Penis Dimension

The Air

Dog Breath

Mother People

You Didn’t Try to Call Me

King Kong

The Sanzini Brothers

Who Are the Brain Police?

There is nothing quite like live Zappa.  As good as his studio albums are they don’t capture the live dynamic.  Lou’s favorite live Zappa is a rendition of Muffin Man from around 1977 that truly smokes.  It is incredible.  

The book ends in 1977 with the opening of the Cumberland County Civic Center, a larger venue that put Maine in the league of the Boston Garden, Providence Civic Center, and Hartford Civic Center.  No longer merely a small Northern Pond, the big fish promoters from the South came into play.  The local flavor of the scene, with smaller promoters, record stores and venues, changed forever.  It was the end of an era.  What followed was the concert scene as experienced by my buddies.  From the sound of their stories, they deserve a book too!  Put Lou down for a copy.  In the meantime, get a copy of A Long, Long TimeAgo.  Highly Recommended.

 

— Lou Waxman

Suggested Sites and Sounds:

Becoming the Beach Boys:  Obsession in Action:  https://becomingthebeachboys.com/category/becoming-the-beach-boys/

With Jimi Everything Is Documented and For Sale:  https://wcyy.com/hidden-mansion-auburn-maine-jimi-hendrix-real-estate-midcentury/

Black Sabbath in Maine:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAPW__fv_eg&list=RDWAPW__fv_eg&start_radio=1

Zappa in Maine (1970):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upR1ekQKDvc&list=RDupR1ekQKDvc&start_radio=1

Zappa Muffin Man:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGV3yV9q4Q4&list=RDHGV3yV9q4Q4&start_radio=1