The subtitle of Peter Shapiro’s The Music Never Stops is What Putting On 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic. Shapiro chronicles his long career as a rock concert promoter with all of its ups and downs.
It’s not easy to put on a concert of any kind, but rock concerts present special problems. Shapiro takes the reader through the process and writes about concerts where everything went right–like the Rainbow Grateful Dead Concert–to concerts where everything went wrong.
Shapiro’s decades of experience gives him perspectives on the evolution of rock concerts. He writes about the devastating effect the Pandemic had on live concerts–basically shutting them all down. Zoom concerts didn’t work.
If you’re a fan of rock concerts, The Music Never Stops gives you an insiders look at the music industry and the groups and performers who are trying to make a comeback after Covid-19. Are you planning to go to a concert in the next year? GRADE: A
Table of Contents:
1 Rainbows Are Real 1
2 And Miles to Go 6
3 Cold-Calling Kesey 11
4 American Road 16
5 Wetlands Preserved 22
6 Ten Thousand Shows 29
7 A Guest at My Own Party 36
8 Becca & Company 41
9 Seventy-Two Hours 46
10 You Can’t See It If You’re Not There 53
11 MMMBob! 58
12 Black Lily 63
13 Soldier Field: Part 1 68
14 Where Getting into a Jam Is a Good Thing 76
15 The Night Before 86
16 Operation Kinko’s 93
17 Inaugural Blues 100
18 Be the Last Man Standing … or the First to Leave 105
19 The Days Between 109
20 U2 in 3D 115
21 Roxy Music 121
22 Green Apples 129
23 Rock. And Roll. 134
24 Bowlive (So Many Memories I Don’t Remember) 143
25 Nearly Flaming Out and The Roots Redeemed 149
26 Bowl Train 154
27 GoogaMooga 161
28 The Obvious Is Obvious (Until You Miss It) 165
29 The Original Rock Palace 170
30 Choose Your Own Adventure 180
31 Garcia + Weir = POW! 187
32 Viva Las Vegas 193
33 Unbroken Chain 198
34 The Faraway End of the Far Away 205
35 The More I Practice, the Luckier I Get 211
36 Doubling Down 216
37 Attics of My Life 225
38 Formerly Interlocken 241
39 Jam The Vote 251
40 Bobby & Phil 256
41 The Apollo Mission 261
42 The Majority Party 266
43 Easy Rider Live, Baby! 271
44 There’s a Reward 276
45 Madison Square Funk 281
46 Jimmy Fallon’s Almost Dead 286
47 Be in the Stream 294
48 Rescue Squad 305
49 Grateful Mahalo 315
50 Weekends Don’t Happen Every Day 321
Acknowledgments 331
Photo Credits 333
Sounds interesting …
I’ve been to “many” rock concerts, probably not as many as you did, all over the world, but now I’m too old.
Just the idea of standing there for two hours or more makes me shudder.
And don’t even think about having to go to the rest room!
But nobody can take away those memories!
What I also enjoy are movies on concerts – Woodstock of course, Queen in Budapest in the communist 80s etc
Wolf, you have some great concert memories!
I still go to concerts but I wont go to any of the big arenas any more. Which means I will be skipping the next Springsteen show who I have seen about 30 times over the years. But U am seeing Bill Bragg in about two weeks and it is within walking distance which is convenient.
Steve, I know what you mean about Big Arena concerts. The last one we went to was Fleetwood Mac. Love it, but the parking was a nightmare and people kept moving up and down the aisles–very distracting and annoying!
My “favourite”experience there was a Steve Winwood concert in Houston – I accompanied him on a Texas tour, also went to the Space Centre, Galveston etc.
We sat in long rows and after maybe 30 minutes (not an official break) a couple passed trough the row/aisle I was sitting in – in each hand a large plastic cup filled with beer. I was just waiting for them to stumble and pour all that beer onto a poor guy …
I envy you, Lucky Steve!
I’ve seen Bruce only in movies, mainly youtube. What I find really great:
He’s worked together with so many other artists
Probably not—unless it’s a show on the “nostalgia circuit” at one of the local casinos. I’ve seen a lot of great shows in my life, but now standing for long periods of time in a big crowd doesn’t have quite the appeal it once did. I’m afraid that for me big-time concerts have gone the way of high heels: something that was once routine on my life but is now no longer considered part of it.
Deb, one of our favorite concerts was seeing Carole King at the Niagara Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Canada. The venue was comfortable and the audience was polite. And, of course, the music was fabulous!
I envy you too!
Been a fan of Carole for more than 60 years now starting with her hit for the Shirelles “Will you still love me tomorrow”.
Of course I realised that much later when after composing so many hits she started singing herself.
Deb, we rarely stand. At Jones Beach, we always get Seats F 1-2 (in Stadium 1) because there are NO seats in front of them. At Westbury, we get back row seats in the middle where, again, there are no seats in front of you. Only the Beacon can be problematical, but we get aisle seats on the side and at our age, most people don’t stand all that much, other than the ones in front of the stage.
Jeff, Diane was annoyed at the Fleetwood Mac concert when dozens of people stood up in front of us for the entire concert. But, I just watched the overhead giant TV screens which provided High-Definition detail.
George, the worst was a Stevie Nicks/Don Henley concert when all these young girls dressed like Stevie were twirling around the whole concert!
When we go to Madison Square Garden we either sit upstairs or, if we’re on floor level, we try and get seats that are raised so we can see over the standing people. The worst there was the Dixie Chicks (before they became The Chicks), where groups of young women stood all night.
Jeff, friends of our went to a Neil Diamond concert that was so bad they demanded their money back! Not long after this, Diamond announced he was “retiring” from music because of his Parkinson’s disease.
I went to a tiny concert in a tiny venue and enjoyed it although we were pretty close to each other.
Patti, we wear our makes at such events…and sometimes the only ones.
Our last “tiny concert” was in a small club (standing room only) in my hometown Tübingen – at first my wife couldn’t believe it was the real thing.
Johnny Winter, early 2014, just a few weeks before he died in Switzerland.
Fond memories!
Not much of a Grateful Dead fan and, as I get older, not much of a concert-goer.
As I’ve mentioned before here, saw Bowie 3 times, Bruce Springsteen’s The River concert, Janis Joplin at the Coliseum in Madison (I was a senior in high school and my parents were not thrilled about that one), and a few JazzFest concerts – my favorite was Joe Cocker.
If I only had a Star Trek transporter, I’d still go to concerts. I always have a good time but getting there and getting away from there is now aggravation I don’t need.
I did see a Stones concert in IMAX. I’d definitely do that again.
Beth, I’d go the IMAX route to concert going myself!
My first concert was the Beatles first Hollywood Bowl appearance. I went with Danny Husky, son of country singer Ferlin Husky, who lived down the block. That is the highlight, but I’ve seen Cream, Buffalo Springfield, Hermans Hermits with the Turtles, and James Taylor,
Maggie, my first concert was Bob Dylan. Pretty close to your first concert with the Beatles!
Will we go to a rock concert? To quote Lily Tomlin in THE LATE SHOW, “Does The Pope sh!t in the woods?”
So far we have one more concert this year – The Mavericks in three weeks – but might go if Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle do their annual benefit concerts late in the year. (Of course, last year the Earle was immediately sold out as he had Springsteen as a guest.) But we saw 8 other concerts this year – Dion (still great at 83), Santana with Earth, WInd, & Fire, Jackson Browne, The Chicks, Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams, Steely Dan, and the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald – and will probably see about the same number next year, all things being equal.
If we’re talking historically, of course there was The Beatles at Carnegie Hall in February 1964… . Yes, we’ve seen The Dead several times (my brother has seen hundreds of their concerts), and many, many others – B.B. King (first at the Fillmore East in `969), Fleetwood Mac, THe Eagles, Levon Helm, most of the Motown groups, Aretha, Willie Nelson (also with The Highwaymen), Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, Carole King with James Taylor, George Thorogood, Crosby, Stills and Nash (also with Neil Young),Paul Simon (also with Garfunel), Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Bob Seger, Meat Loaf, John FOgerty, Boz Scaggs, the Neville Brothers, ELO, Shania Twain, many others.
As long as they can get themselves to the stage and perform, we can get there and see them.
Jeff, I think you and Jackie hold record on concerts with this group. I wish I’d gone to see more singers and groups when I was younger…and they were touring.
Lots of people seem to forget that Carole King co wrote her songs. She mostly did the music, others did the lyric. As far as concerts go I’ve seem just about everyone I wanted to see except The Beatles and the Velvet Underground (see Lou Reed about 6 times though). I’ve seen everyone from Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Kinks, The Clash, Television, Ramones, Blondie(not very good live), NIN, XTC, The Cure, Roxy Music and on and on.
Steve, that’s an impressive list!
That is just the tip of the iceberg. We used to go to 30 or 40 shows a year from the mid 60’s thru the late 90’s. I can’t count how many times I have seen Dylan, The Who, Elvis Costello, Ian Hunter, Jeff Beck, U2, REM, Wilco. Midnight Oil, Lucinda Williams, Never saw the Doors or Eric Clapton. Only managed to see Tom Waits once. He doesn’t tour a lot. I used to live about 5 minutes away from Pine Knob, the biggest outdoor venue around. And I rarely saw a bad show. Probably the worst was a James Taylor show in the 80’s. Played like he was on Qualudes.
Steve, you’re not the only one who thought James Taylor was “on something” when he performed in concert. Friends of mine said he staggered around like he was drunk. And, he forgot the words to his own songs!
I’ve seen a comparable amount of artists worth mentioning, but everyone seems so focused on rock with a few nods to blues and country. While I took in at least a couple of hundred punk rock shows, a good-sized smattering of mixed music rock concerts, two or three I helped put on (one or two of them primarily put together by my ex, Donna, mostly with Positive Force DC), but also no few jazz, bluegrass, classical, blues, Hawaiian, gogo, reggae, folk and other concerts…I got to meet as well as hear perform, for example, Max Roach, Dave Brubeck, Joe Morello, David Amram, Wynton Marsalis, Urszula Dudziak, Gerry Mulligan and quite a few others, along with being a friendly acquaintance of a number of particularly DC-area punk folks.
Todd, another impressive list of concerts!