I lift my head to the sky and am thankful I got to participate in the old tradition of standing in line to buys concert tickets that cost 18 dollars. It’s true. I was there.
In late summer 1987 I stood in line at the records store at The Greentree Mall in Clarksville. The event? Pink Floyd, supporting their new album Monetary Lapse of Reason, was playing at Rupp Arena on November 7th. I, along with many others, was aghast when a guy herding up the crowd told us that the concert sold out in fifteen minutes. BUT they were adding a second show on November 8th. I was fortunate enough to procure two seats at Rupp for that concert. The cost? $18.50. At the time, that was the most I had spent on a concert ticket.
In 1990 Don Henley showed up at The Louisville Gardens and charged $18.50. He only sang thirteen songs and that was hogwash. One of them was Desperado.
I stood in line outside The Louisville Gardens in late winter 1993 to buy four tickets to see The Moody Blues play live with an orchestra there. $23 bucks. We sat on the third row and it was pure magic. That was the ninth time for me to see The Moodies and I was getting worried then there would not be many more left. Well, there were many more as late as 2017. In October this year my dear wife, Carrie, and I will be listening to Justin Hayward sing Nights in White Satin one more time at the City Winery in Nashville which is the same town we saw our last Moody Blues concert. The symmetry is all too wary for my ears.
So. Where am I going with this? I guess I want to convey some good old days before I complain about some new old days.
The concert business is out of hand. Ticket prices are way too high. Some groups don’t gouge like others do. But common ticketing practices by monopolizing entities are a shame. Routinely when you log onto a ticket web page to buy concert tickets you will see a disclaimer that says ticket prices may fluctuate at any time. Translation: If you buy yours today and they are not selling well a month from now the price may be drastically lower than what we are going to charge you today! That’s loyalty for you.
ALSO…did you know that some venues charge a higher price for tickets on the aisle? If you buy an aisle seat it may cost you ten bucks more each for two aisle seats. So I guess this means folk who do their homework and know when to buy tickets or want an aisle seat because they have a bladder problem are going to have to pay to pee!
And that 3rd row seat to see The Moody Blues? It would be an Official Platinum seat today and would cost through the nose, the bladder, and the arm pits!
My hat is off to groups like The Goo Goo Dolls whose balcony tickets at their upcoming Louisville Palace show are less than thirty bucks. I know I know…you still get stuck with fees that should be against the law. Big business does not care much about the laws unless it is manipulating them. This is very obvious in 2019.
So when I think of a few problems with the music concert business I so dearly love, I think too about the state of college football and how ticket prices have gone up and attendance numbers have gone down. It is sad to see Bowl Games being played in half empty stadiums. Tickets to many lower-tiered bowl games should be dirt cheap just to help move some soft drinks and give the players a bigger audience. The TV money is taking care of the NCAA as it is.
In 2019 who could blame someone for wanting to stay at home and watch a game on HDTV of 4K or Ultra this or that? Not only do you have a good seat at home, you also don’t have to pay extra to go pee during a commercial.
Carrie and I do have plans to see some college games in person this year. I still love college football and the pageantry of game day. That won’t change.
Another thing that will not change is the fact that I cherish memories of going to Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana for traditional 2 PM kickoffs with no television and no television timeouts. Don Fischer called the game on radio and it was all good. That was a time when we had no more than two national college games to look at you certainly got excited to see them. Seeing college football on TV in the 1970s and into 1980s and beyond meant you were probably going to hear Keith Jackson the ultimate voice of college football call one of the games.
Keith Jackson retired after calling the 2006 Rose Bowl.
I have been fortunate to visit the Rose Bowl on two occasions to watch the last two crosstown rival games between USC and UCLA to be played there in 2016 and 2018.
A collection of photos are in the concourse of The Rose Bowl and this is one of them marking the 2006 game. The last football game Keith Jackson called for ABC is still considered by many to be one of the greatest college football game of all time (Keith Jackson was not one of them). Texas beat USC in a classic. Pictured above is Texas QB Vince Young in that game. Last fall when I walked into The Rose Bowl to kick a couple, the end zone where Vince Young ran in the winning TD is where I walked on to the field. I could hear Keith Jackson. I still can.
I am quite sure Keith Jackson was struggling with his eyesight when he took his headset off the last time and hugged Dan Fouts, his broadcast partner, after that Rose Bowl. He had indicated that before then.
It was also reported that Keith Jackson said he did not want to die in a stadium parking lot.
He didn’t. Keith Jackson died on January 12, 2018 at home in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 89.
Keith Jackson showed up at The Rose Bowl one last time in 2017. The game was between Penn State and USC. I saw both of those teams play that year, USC against UCLA in November and in December I saw Penn State defeat Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game. I watched with great anticipation. This game too was a classic. The final score was 52-49. USC scored 17 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to put it away.
But what looms over my mind as we begin this college football season is an exchange that Keith Jackson had with ABC game announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler. Keith Jackson had been invited into the booth and the once strong tenor was a voice much softer and weaker. Deliberate in speech, Keith Jackson gave a final commentary on the state of the game of college football today.
The smiles all around the booth at this point went away rather quickly when Keith Jackson spoke his mind.
The exchange went like this:
Keith Jackson: One thing that bothers me a little bit and an old timer down in Texas who coached a lot of football games…about the future…and what may be the next major problem and he said very quietly and firmly “Too much coverage”…meaning saturation.
(Keith Jackson was referring to there being too many games on television.)
At this point Chris Fowler is relegated to some defense mechanism laughter…and Kirk Herbstreit, who is obviously very respectful of Keith Jackson says, “Yeah…yeah.”
Keith Jackson: I think he (the old coach) may be right as I see it evolving.
Kirk Herbstriet: Yeah. That’s a good point.
Chris Fowler: Many would probably not argue. On that note we’ll say thank you once again not only for joining us but for what you’ve done over the years, what you’ve meant, and your continued good health at age 88 and Happy New Year to you Keith Jackson, we appreciate it.
Keith Jackson: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
What they did not do was welcome him to come back any time. I will give Herbstreit credit. He looked like he knew who he was talking to.
I am so looking forward to the 2019 College Football Season. You know I am. Last week’s 2019 speaktherights.com College Football Preview is proof of that. I BELIEVE the Indiana Hoosiers are going to win games this year like they have not since 1993.
Still, I will forever miss Keith Jackson. I will miss those 2 PM kickoffs at Indiana. I will rue the day alcohol sales were or are allowed into college football stadiums. I will miss watching Anthony Thompson run over a Northwestern safety coming up to make the tackle who wished he would have not gotten on the bus that morning.
And I will keep…speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson
