Re Hash : Remembering Daze Gone By .

I originally wrote this post after our family's vacation in the Dominican Republic 2005 .





It's very close to a friends 50th. Birthday.
I miss ya buddy !
I wish you were here !

I'm back from vacation and everyone had a great time and I have a lot to say about that , but I was looking at my comments and low and behold there's a comment by P.T. I was floored that Pete Townsend read my Blog and he kind of liked it !? WOW ! I've seen the Who a number of times . In the seventies I'd seen them play Tommy Live and after that at Maple Leaf Gardens four times including the " Farewell Gig " . Twice at the old Ex in Toronto and a couple of more times in Buffalo but my favorite time was in 1975 with my best friend Andy [ I think this was the Who By Numbers Tour ?]. We had obstructed view seats , that's all we could get are hands on , so didn't think we would have great site lines, "but fuck were we wrong "! We sat right next to the stage . We where so close we could see them sweat ! This was The Who at there best. We had just seen The Stones in May and they were great , but the Who were , " KABOOM" , "a fury of angst" ! Watching Daltry whip that mike around , [I dunno how he didn't kill Pete ] constantly pacing , screaming . Moonie going crazy on that drum kit , braking his sticks on almost every beat . Of coarse the show stopper was Townsend masterfully windmilling his arm around his guitar , smashing it down , dancing around , jumping and diving across the stage . The laser lights where fucking amazing , but the best was their finale . They would kick the shit out of everything on stage drums , guitars , mikes , amps ...Everything . The real goof was after destroying the stage the roadies would go nuts trying to reset everything . The Who would always come back for 2 or maybe 3 encores . In Toronto The Who were "Rock Gods" way before they were popular in the U.S. they were hot there and they always repaid their fans in Canada . That night I think they did 4 encores and I remember Andy saying to me it was the greatest concert he had ever seen . He loved the song Behind Blue Eyes and I remember him having the nicest eyes , "Sky Blue" ! I guess it's kind of gay to think about your best friend that way , but I do . Andy died a year later in a tragic car accident . That night almost killed me emotionally . Andy and I were going out to a party that night but I cancelled to go somewhere else . It was two weeks before my 18th. Birthday . "Nice" ! Andy was a person of God , he believed religiously in Christ and he brought God to me . I thank and bless him for that . Andy is my Guardian Angel [this sounds crazy] he sometimes comes to me in my dreams and we talk . I'm now quite a bit older but I still miss him so much it hurts ["I Know Very Gay"] and I'll always remember times of talking all night , acting the fools , and that Who concert .

Da Wallycrawler .