I Paid Two Dollars to See Alice Cooper in 1969
I was in the ninth grade, it was around 1969, and a ticket cost two dollars.
The concert was Alice Cooper. I had never heard of Alice Cooper, but I figured any singer was worth two dollars, and I assumed she would be good.
Alice Cooper Was Not a Girl
That was the first surprise of the night.
Alice was a man, the show was hard rock, and it was one of the best things I had ever seen. I walked in expecting a girl with a guitar and walked out having watched something I did not know was possible.
That two dollar ticket started ten years of going to every concert I could get to.
Charleston in the Seventies
I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, which nobody would call a music city. But the seventies were the seventies, and the bands came through.
The other great thing about concerts back then was the price. If a ticket cost more than three dollars, it was too expensive. I am not exaggerating for effect. Three dollars was steep.
Over the next decade I went to just about everything I had the chance to.
The List
I put this together for Facebook a long time ago. These are the bands I remember seeing.
- Alice Cooper
- Black Sabbath
- Rolling Stones
- James Brown
- SteppenWolf
- Allman Brothers
- Three Dog Night
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- Crosby, Stills, Nash
- Doobie Brothers
- Beach Boys
- B.B. King
- Edgar Winter
- Charlie Daniel
- Deep Purple
- Jethro Tull
- Alvin Lee & Ten Years After
- Leon Russell
- Yes
- Electric Light Orchestra
- Tina Turner
- Dizzy Gillespie
- Chuck Mangione
- Jimmy Buffett
- Mott The Hoople
- Uriah Heep
- Mountain
- ZZ Top
- Blue Oyster Cult
- Pointer Sisters
- Billy Preston
- Rare Earth
- Foghat
- Cactus
- Marshall Tucker Band
- Ten CC
- Dixie Dreggs
- Free Mountain Standstill
- Savoy Brown
- James Gang
- Poco
- Fleetwood Mac
- Black Oak Arkansa
- Ozark Mountain Daredevils
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer
- Bruce Springsteen
- Golden Earring
- Pure Prairie League
- Ben E. King
- West, Bruce and Laing
- Asleep At The Wheel
- Sly and The Family Stone
- Bloodrock
- Bertha
- Wet Willie
- Tower of Power
- Fabulous Rhinestones
- Fabulous Thunderbirds
- Goose Creek Symphony
- Rory Gallagher
- Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids
- Humble Pie
- Chubby Checkers
- Don McClean
- Michael Murphy
- Dixie Chicks
- The Monkees
- Faces (Rod Stewart)
- Eagles
There are probably a few more I have forgotten. That is what happens when you go to this many shows and then let fifty years go by.
What Have You Seen?
Tell me in the comments. I would like to know whether anyone can beat the two dollar Alice Cooper ticket.
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