I saw "The Band" at StoneyBrook University on the their first tour. They were very good. I remember Levon Helm switching instruments as did some of the others. Albert Grossman (Dylan's long time manger and theirs too. Dylan woke up one day and fired him when he found how much money, what percentage, he was getting for managing Dylan) was at the soundboard back in the audience looking over the shoulder of whoever was maintaining/mixing the sound. I loved "Music From Big Pink" It was an enormously influential album. It made dudes like Eric Clapton want to change direction completely. Earthy and organic .... Only later did we hear how half of then were shooting smack after a few years of fame.
Saw Hendrix at Anderson theater/Fillmore East. He was super stoned, so stoned he had gay mannerisms, and played the intro to "Sunshine of Your Love" He was king but Cream was up and coming. Was not on the date you mention. I think Buddy Miles was with him by then.
Kooper was great, especially when he played with Dylan and Mike Bloomfield. But that was a few years before then ....in '66-'66.
My favorite concert experience was at a small club in "the valley" in L.A. -- The Palomino...in Feb. of 1987. Taj Mahal was playing, but some unexpected guests showed up.
Taj is the real deal. Both his parents are from Caribbean and IIRC he has a degree from UMass Amherst. He grew up in Western Mass.
I was just sitting at the bar having a few drinks with a buddy (sitting to my left), and I noticed that none other than Bob Dylan was sitting right next to him (to his left). Freaked him out to no end, huge Dylan fan that he was. But he got me back when he pointed out who Dylan was talking to --- George Harrison. So we warily initiated the conversation and ended up rapping with them for about 5 minutes ....both were very pleasant and funny.
Great. Much closer than I ever got to one of the immortals
Then a two young hot blondes approached them and they forgot about us pretty quickly ...lol.
Anyway, John Fogerty also showed up and and the three giants jammed classic rock tunes with Taj and his amazing band (featuring Jesse Ed Davis
American Indian...Dead now but he was on a lot of records. I saw him with Taj way back. Was on some Dylan records
on guitar) till about 2:00 AM. It was an all-time night.
A Dylan-inspired album. They recorded it when they were holed up with Bob in that big pink house in Woodstock, right after Dylan's motocycle accident. Robbie Robertson said that Zimmy got them all to listen to a bunch of early-American folk music during that time. At first they thought it was all a bit "corny," but enventually took to it and incorporated it into their music. It defined their sound.
But as good as Big Pink was, and it was great, their second release - "the Brown Album" - was their true masterpiece. As Robertson said, the songs sounded like they were written in 1869 rather than 1969. I'd probably place it in the top 5 greastest albums ever recorded.