I spent most of the last two days in my studio chair. I haven’t moved much either reading on some topic or watching a You Tube video on live music gear. I have been writing a lot and working on a podcast recording. I thought I would work in some guitar practice but that didn’t make my schedule in the last day. I have that on the morning agenda.
I wrote a piece on Steve Miller today and I have been listening to a lot of his music in the last two days. In that article I talked about the 1973 “The Joker” cassette. I remember a weekend night where I spent the night with a new friend I had met that went to school with me in Madden, Mississippi at Leake Academy. His name was Jim Walker. He had a brother and a sister. At the time they lived in Philadelphia, Mississippi which was not all that far from my house. His Dad worked for the telephone company and they had this house that had reclaimed grey barn boards on the wall in a way that was very artistic and cool. I have never seen anything like that house in all my travels even now. I remember the nights where we listened to music literally all night. Back then we would stay up most of the night and sleep the morning away. We were listening to Steve Miller’s “The Joker” on cassette that I brought over with me along with some Doobie Brothers and other tapes. I really remember the Steve Miller as I was crazy about it. Jim had a Black Sabbath tape but we didn’t play it much. I just kept listening to ‘Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash” and “The Joker.”
Not long after that time where I had spent several weekends at Jim’s house his Dad announced that they had bought some property less than a half mile from my house in Madden. This was a rural area so you had to cut trees and a road into the forest to build a house. Soon they were living there and we spent even more time together riding in his old red Ford truck we called the “log truck.” It was a pretty rough ride but it had a cool stereo in it. We even carried some younger local girls from school on dates in that thing. I could go on and on with stories from that time but I remember so much music from all of those adventures.
In the Summer of 1975 I was barely 16 years old. I was a huge fan of the Allman Brothers Band having learned about them from my best friend in Greenwood, Mississippi. David was his name and he had a photo of Duane on the wall in his band practice room which was his parents living room! At this point I had the Allman Brothers Fillmore poster on my bedroom wall and it was a dream of mine to go see them perform live. I had been listening to their music for a few years at this point. I was really into southern rock and blues in a big way. If it came out of Capricorn Studios in Macon it was likely on the shelf in my collection. I was listening to WZZQ FM out of Jackson and I heard that the Allman Brothers were headlining a show that featured Wet Willie, The Marshall Tucker Band, and the Charlie Daniels Band in the newly opened New Orleans Super dome. As a 16 year old with no drivers license much less a car I was wondering how I could find my way on a five hour trip to NOLA to see the music I listened to constantly. Being in rural Mississippi there was no chance they would be this close again. This is where Jim came in. We scratched together the $20 to buy two tickets and I can’t even remember where we bought them but I think it was at a record store outlet in Philadelphia..back then they printed them in the store via some crazy copper telephone line machine. How were we getting there? Jim asked his parents if they would take us and they said YES. They had this 1960’s black Mercedes sedan and a pop-up camper. They pulled that camper to New Orleans with us in the back seat. That was a long time ago and honestly some of the details escape me even now but I remember being dropped off at the Greyhound bus station across the street from the Super dome and we were told to be there the next morning at daylight to be picked up for the ride home and that is what we did. We went into the Super dome where then “psychic” Jeane Dixon had predicted that the building would collapse during the concert which was one of the first if not the first show in that building.
When we arrived we saw huge crowds of hippies with long hair and all kinds of sights. I saw people with drugs and things I had only read about in Rolling Stone magazine. The whole scene was a bit surreal as I had never witnessed anything like that. They had these 16 oz cups of Dixie beer for $1 and everyone was drinking them. There were even some people passed out in the floor from what I figured were drug use but the local police would nudge them with a shoe to see if they were still moving. If they moved they would go on to the next situation without bothering them. We had arena passes and we made our way as close to the stage as we could which was actually not a bad location. It seemed that many were there for the party. I was there for the music. Jim was with me.
What a night that was with twelve hours of music from all of the artists I had spent so much time listening to on my record player. It was an incredible experience and one I still feel today as I think about it. I have kept the ticket stub for all these years as I have most of my concert tickets. I have a two inch binder full of tickets but this one is one of the few that makes it to a frame on a shelf in my listening room.
This would have never happened without a friend I met in school and his parents who took the time and expense I might add to travel all that distance for two crazy teenagers. I still thank them today. That is just a few of the memories I have from my friendship with Jim Walker. We had some great adventures. His brother sent me a message very late tonight that he had passed away earlier in the day in Madden. That’s about all I have to write early this morning. I remember the good times and good friends. As I say every day, life is short keep on smiling. Enjoy the day, hug your people, and don’t forget the memories.