We will get fooled again (outrageous concert prices)

Hope I die before I get old, sang Roger Daltrey in the classic Who anthem My Generation 35 summers ago. Only one of the original band's members - the endearingly lunatic drummer Keith Moon - actually managed to pull off that particular feat. When bassist John Entwistle died a couple of weeks ago, he was, like the rest of the baby boom generation's leading edge, pushing 60.

In a gesture that captured the spirit of that generation the band's surviving original members, Daltrey and Pete Townshend, decided to carry on with the concert tour that had been scheduled to start on what turned out to be the day after Entwistle's death. After a 15-minute search for a studio musician to fill the void Entwistle's death had created, the band played on. Daltrey and Townshend explained that John would have wanted it that way.

As a long-time fan of The Who's music, I was rather shocked by what seemed like a callous attitude toward the death of someone who had been such an integral member of the group, not to mention a close companion of the surviving members for almost their entire lives. Then I checked out the ticket prices for The Who's latest tour, and this attitude began to make more sense.

For example, tickets are still available for The Who's Sept. 21 show at Dallas' American Airlines Center. A pair of fourth-row tickets will set you back $1,220, while for the budget-minded, two nosebleed seats at the very top of that 20,000-seat arena go for a mere $230, not including the inevitable "service" charge. Given that they are raking in an aptly termed gross of several million dollars for every concert on their current 40-show tour, even the most sentimental fan should be able to appreciate the sacrifice it would entail for the band's members to observe even the briefest moment of silence in honor of their fallen comrade.

This, apparently, is "what the market will bear," and charging what the market will bear has become a matter of almost religious obligation for aging rock bands that don't wish to suffer an exile on Wall Street. Speaking of which, a pair of good seats to The Rolling Stones' show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre in November go for around $7,000, while general admission tickets cost more than $2,000 each (and no, I'm not making these numbers up).

A cynic might point out that neither of these bands has released a good record since the Carter administration (in fact The Who haven't released new music of any kind in 20 years). A historian might note news stories from the late 1960s, that described complaints from fans about the "outrageous" price The Rolling Stones were charging for concert tickets (the price in question was $7). An economist might marvel at the amazing power of the laws of supply and demand.

Leave all that aside. I was born at the tail end of the baby boom, and I grew up in the 1970s listening to the best of what these bands produced - and the best of what they produced is as good as this kind of music gets. Like a lot of people my age, I will always have a good deal of affection for the young men who made that music. But let's call a spade a spade: the old men those young men eventually became are shameless pigs.

Their once-great talent having departed long ago, they now wallow in the mountains of cash they continue to extract from aging boomers, who apparently will pay absolutely anything in the effort to recapture magic moments from their increasingly distant youth. Things they do look awful cold.

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at campos@colorado.edu

A cynic might point out that neither of these bands has released a good record since the Carter administration

Sad but true. The last great Stones' album was 1980's "Tattoo You." The last great Who album was 1978's "Who Are you" (the mid-1990s re-release of "Live At Leeds" notwithstanding).

I was born at the tail end of the baby boom, and I grew up in the 1970s listening to the best of what these bands produced - and the best of what they produced is as good as this kind of music gets.

Campos is correct. "Exile on Mainstreet" (1971) is the greatest Rock and Roll album ever recorded and "Live At Leeds" (1970) is the greatest live album ever.

I thought "Led Zeppelin II" was the greatest rock album ever made, and The Allman Brothers' "Live at Fillmore East" was the greatest live album.

LOL!

The last live concert I saw was Genesis at the Paramount in Seattle in the late '70's. Oh, I take that back. I saw the B-52's at the Gourge a couple of years ago on a motorcycle trip - but it wasn't very entertaining. The weather and view was spectacular, though.

Screw going to the live concerts of mega-bands. They're not worth what they cost nowadays. Pink floyd's Pulse on video is stupendous. When it comes out on DVD I'll go out in a buying frenzy and pay the $20 to $25 to own it.

There's plenty of good local talent to see for cheap or free. I'd rather put the big money into a nice Line-6 Bass Pod Pro.

'Course, that's just me...

My wife and I don't even go to the movies because we think $9 per ticket is too much for most anything Hollywood puts out these days and we can rent it in two months for $3 from the local video store (although we did see Lord of the Rings in the theater since we're both Tolkien fans).

Let them charge what they want, if people want to waste a couple grand on a two hour concert to pretend they're teenagers again who cares - it's their money.

Man, he's bitter!

I don't think a Stones ticket is worth the paper it's printed on. Their live shows are atrocious, with Mick prancing around, "singing" the lyrics in a way completely unrecognizable from the original.

The Who, on the other hand, was quite possibly the best live band I ever saw (and I've seen plenty). Their first "farewell tour" in 1982 charged around $40 if I'm not mistaken, and it was worth every penny.

I certainly wouldn't be shelling out hundreds of bucks to see them again, but if others will, so be it.

Live at Leads has the GREATEST version of Summertime Blues of all time. Not a who fan, but that is a great album. Not as good as Frampton Comes Alive though (sarcasm).

Mick and Keefe did not produce a decent album for much of the 70s after Exile. Tattoo You in the early 80s was good, but subsequent albums were REALLY BAD (who here remembers "Dirty Work?").

Not true for the Stones, while they stank on ice in the 80s (didn't everyone, very bad decade for music) the 90s saw a serious comeback from the Stones. The latest studio albums (Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon) are great, and the live albums (Stripped, largely from a club warmup tour, and No Security from the Bridges tour) are easily the best live albums the Stones have done (having a long history of so-so live albums for reasons never fully explained).

The Who on the other hand only did two more new albums, everything since then has been rereleases and compilations.

I remember being a bit miffed at having to shell out fifteen bucks for "nosebleed" seats to see the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, Santana, Journey, and the Rolling Stones at Syracuse's Carrier Dome about twenty years ago. However; no one was twisting my arm at the time, and it was a h*ll of a show.

What frosts me isn't what prices are charged, it's that ticket agencies buy up all the available tickets from the venue then multiply them exponentially with only a slim portion of it going to the artists. I can guarantee you that those $7000 ticket fees are not being passed on to the artists. It's the greedy ticket agencies who are nothing but legalized scalpers that swindle the public. As far as I am concerned you can string those guys up!

Venues should sell their tickets at their door or at satellite ticket locations. The diehard fan should be able to see the groups without some ticket agency blackmailing them to get in.

There's plenty of good local talent to see for cheap or free.

Agreed! Most of the bands I see now are in smoky bars or small theaters with tickets going for $10 or less. The band usually hangs around after the show to drink beers with the fans.

Every now and then the band might break small with an obscure video on late-night MTV.

I paid around $100 for fourth row seats at the Starplex in Dallas about 2 years ago to see Steely Dan. I thought that this was too high, but $7000 for seats to see the Rolling Stones?

I paid $12.50 to see the Rolling Stones at the Superdome in New Orleans in 1978, which is 24 years ago. Given a 4% cost of living increase for each year, the tickets should be selling at around $32.00.

What a load. I saw the Who's latest concert at George, Washington and it was incredible. The band has a vibrancy unlike any of its contemporaries. It made it that much sadder that John wasn't there, but it was worth every penny.

LONG LIVE ROCK!!

AHHH! I was at that concert! Drove up from SUNY Oneonta with four others in an old Renault. Cold winter day. I believe it was 1981, the Tattoo You tour. Only time I ever saw the Stones; it was a very, very big deal back then.

Don't remember Journey or Santana, vaguely remember The Outlaws and Molly Hatchet. Fuzzy memories of the Stones as well, as we were most definitely, um, partaking, if you will....I DO remember Keith singing lead on "She's My Little Rock 'n Roll", or whatever that song was called. That's about it.

Odd that he didn't try to refute the claim the "John would have wanted it that way." After all, how would he know otherwise?

Nonetheless, I did find it a bit odd at how nonchalant they went about his death. I think they cancelled one maybe two shows? Entwistle was an integral member of the band --possibly the most accomplished musician in The Who.

If they toured as "Townsend/Daltrey" that would have been one thing, but to try and continue on as "The Who" was, I felt, a bit egotistical.

"...stank on ice in the 80s (didn't everyone, very bad decade for music) "

I completely disagree. Music of the 80's is trashed because the prevalent music (MTV, pop radio) sucked. However, many outstanding bands (of all stripes) produced memorable music during that decade.

The Allman Brothers' "Live at Fillmore East" was the greatest live album.

I almost agree...but with so many great "live" recordings, it's hard to put a 100% on any...Zappas' "LIVE AT ROXY and ELSEWHERE" is superb....JMHO

Michael Hedges' "Live On the Double Planet" is astounding...I bought that disc and swore he was NOT alone, but saw him live, just before he died, at a small club in Mancos, Colorado, and he did it, all by his lonesome...If you like guitar and different styles of playing, highly recommended!

FMCDH

Well the 80s is what gave birth to a real underground music scene, because the frontline of music blew chunks. When the frontline consists of primarily bad Stones, crappy flock of Seagulls "dance music", and Enya there's nothing to do but go underground. There was some pretty good stuff in the 80s, mostly in that funky African beat crowd (not the Paul Simon junk, the real African beat crowd like Talking Heads and Oingo Boingo), but overall it was a pretty crappy decade filled with largely synthetic sterile boring "music".

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