fantastic rain

Nov. 8, 1969


Los Angeles Forum


"After B.B. King's set came World War III.  Or rather Ike and Tina Turner.  In the context of today's show business, Tina Turner must be the most sensational female performer on stage. . . .


She comes on like a hurricane. . . . She dances and twists and shakes and sings and the impact is instant and total. . . .


She did blues, of course, but the number that really wiped out the house was her version of 'Come Together,' the John Lennon song from the Abbey Road album. 


It was a most surprising and effective performance.  Absolutely right. . . . Jagger ought to get a medal for courage in following B.B. King and Tina Turner."


-- excerpts from a review by Ralph Gleason, jazz and pop critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and co-founder of the new Rolling Stone magazine





Gleason, on the right
at left, Bob Dylan


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[Ultimate Classic Rock site] -- "The Rolling Stones went to Alabama in December 1969 and recorded three songs that evoked the country, blues and R & B sound of the region."


-------------- [Keith Richards, Life, excerpt] --------------- Oiled up and running hot, in early December we ended up at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Alabama....There we cut "Wild Horses," "Brown Sugar" and "You Gotta Move."  Three tracks in three days, in that perfect eight-track recording studio.  Muscle Shoals was a great room to work, very unpretentious. ...














__________________________


March 1972


Miami, Florida


Cazart! . . . -------------------- [excerpt, Hunter Thompson,





Fear and Loathing:  On the Campaign Trail '72] --------------- this fantastic rain outside:  a sudden cloudburst, drenching everything.  The sound of rain smacking down on my concrete patio about ten feet away from the typewriter, rain beating down on the surface of the big aqua-lighted pool out there across the lawn . . . rain blowing into the porch and whipping the palm fronds around in the warm night air.


Behind me, on the bed, my waterproof Sony says, "It's 5:28 right now in Miami . . ."  Then Rod Stewart's hoarse screech:  "Mother don't you recognize your son . . . ?"


Beyond the rain I can hear the sea rolling in on the beach.  This atmosphere is getting very high, full of strange memory flashes. . . .


"Mother don't you recognize me now . . . ?"


Wind, rain, surf.  Palm trees leaning in the wind, hard funk/blues on the radio, a flagon of Wild Turkey on the sideboard . . . are those footsteps outside?  High heels running in the rain?


Keep on typing . . . but my mind is not really on it.  I keep expecting to hear the screen door bang open and then turn around to see Sadie Thompson standing behind me...leaning over my shoulder to see what I'm cranking out tonight...perfume around my head . . . and now on the radio:  "Wild Horses . . . We'll ride them some day . . ."





...Wisconsin is the site of the next Democratic primary.  Six serious candidates in this one -- racing around the state in chartered jets, spending Ten Grand a day for the privilege of laying a series of terrible bummers on the natives. --------------- [end excerpt]





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