Madison Square Garden
I went to my first rock show with a friend, accompanied by his father, after begging our parents for awhile. We watched Suzy Quatro prance in front of screaming fans in her high heeled space suit while my friend’s dad in his business suit looked on, unimpressed.
At some later point in time, I better understood what Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets” was all about, and it forever reminded me of my first rock show. Suzi Quatro did have electric boots, ya know.
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Fireside edition, 2005) calls Grand Funk Railroad the most commercially successful heavy-metal band of that era (the first half of the 70s); the band compiled 11 gold or platinum albums and sold 20 million albums overall, earning its success through extensive touring. Produced by Todd Rundgren, their big hit album “We’re an American Band” had come out the year before this show, with the title track becoming a #1 hit record on AM radio. Rolling Stone‘s summary also notes that in 1971 Grand Funk played in a venue near and dear to me which (by that time) I had been to several times - Shea Stadium. The tickets for that 2 day run supposedly broke the Beatles’ record for ticket sales at Shea.