The origin behind Rick Nelson’s Garden Party is
well-known. And it's all true. I was there.
My friends and I were high school juniors in 1971 who dug early rock and roll. You had to dig a bit to find it (any pre-Beatles rock back then was seen as passe), but we tuned into Gus Gossert’s Sunday night doo-wop program on
WPIX-FM and bought those budget-priced Oldies But Goodies compilation
LPs.
In June 1971, we attended the "Rock & Roll Spectacular" at Madison Square Garden featuring, among many acts, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Four
Seasons, Jay and the Americans and Little Eva. A follow-up show scheduled for
October 15, 1971, just might be our Woodstock: Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, the
Coasters, Bobby Rydell, the Shirelles, Gary U.S. Bonds and Rick Nelson, billed
as the “special added attraction.”
There's no video of the show that I'm aware of, and a handful of stills taken of Chuck Berry, so I'm relying on my not-so-total-recall from 54 years ago.
We bought tickets from a local record store and somehow scored floor seats a few rows back from the stage set in the middle of the arena, not unlike a boxing ring. It was an older crowd, without a black leather jacket or DA haircut in sight. The rumor was that John Lennon, George Harrison and Bob Dylan (or some combination thereof) would be attending, but that kind of wishful thinking was rampant back then. I remember looking up at the luxury boxes and thinking any one of them might have been watching the concert from that vantage point.
Looking back with the perspective of the present, it was clearly going to be difficult for Nelson and his Stone Canyon Band to win over the audience. He was Hollywood, a nepo baby born of television royalty and whose presence didn't quite jibe with the rest of the bill: grizzled R&B veterans who'd been sharpening their showmanship with non-stop touring since the Eisenhower administration, plus local favorites (the Shirelles from New Jersey and Bobby Rydell – well almost local, Philadelphia).
And just for the record, Nelson was a local son as well, born in Teaneck, New Jersey before his family moved to Los Angeles when he was still a toddler.
But the starting gun for the cascade of booing that evening was the twang of the band's pedal steel guitar. New York City in 1971 was John Shaft, Frank Serpico and Ratso Rizzo. Country music (aka back then as country & western music) was for shit-kickers and Hee Haw episodes. Someone got close to the stage and flashed him a middle finger.
Contrast that reaction to the one for Bobby Rydell. I remember a guy behind me yelling, "Mazel tov, Bobby," something that stuck with me because at the time I didn't know its meaning.
Promoter Richard Nader reassured Nelson afterwards that the booing was directed at the police who were breaking up a fight. Possibly true but it feels like the words of someone trying to smooth things over with his star attraction. Playing anything even remotely country (and covering Honky Tonk Women as Nelson did) was misjudging the venue and the audience.
What Nelson really needed was Kris Kristofferson waiting offstage.
Aside from Nelson, what I remember most was Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, who closed the show, both larger than life. Diddley was a revelation, making prescription eyeglasses cool, getting distorted tones out of that square guitar. Berry duckwalked, swung the guitar between his legs and played a jukebox worth of classic songs. The house lights came up for Johnny B. Goode, everyone standing and singing "Go, Go Johnny Go." Who didn't know those lyrics?
Although not a part of the program that night, one mainstay of the rock
& roll revivals was Chubby Checker. Like Nelson, in 1971 he was also
looking to change his image and recorded an album of self-penned music
called Chequered. It included a song titled Stoned in the
Bathroom.
Predictably, Chequered flopped. A year after the
concert, Garden Party went to #6 and gave Nelson some critical
cachet as a country-rock pioneer. He died on New Year’s Eve, 1985 during the
crash landing of his band’s plane. Chubby Checker has survived several decades
in history’s dustbin and will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
later this year.
As Chuck Berry sang that night, "It goes to show you never can tell."