| Concert Performances: Decautur, Illinois (October 1, 1977) |
LEO [to soundman]:
You gotta kick it a little more, so I know it's there, then put it where you want it.
LEO [to audience]:
Thank you for waiting.
[Leo plays "June Bug"]
[Applause]
LEO [to soundman]:
Well, we're still missing it. Fuck it.
LEO [to audience]:
Might as well enjoy it.
[Leo plays medley of "San Antonio Rose" and "America the Beautiful"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Vaseline Machine Gun"]
[Applause]
LEO [to soundman]:
I really need some direct.
[Leo plays "Range"]
[Applause]
LEO [to soundman]:
Get the other one fixed, will you please?
[Leo plays medley of "Last Steam Engine Train" and "Stealing"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "From the Cradle to the Grave"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Eggtooth"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Power Failure"]
[Applause]
LEO:
This is a song about flight or about... possibly about death. I'm convinced they're one and the same. If you've ever...
[Leo pounds on his electronics. Audience laughs throughout this segment as Leo tries to figure out what's wrong with his sound and gives running commentary.]
LEO:
I was in the Navy. What I will do is plug this into the other one and proceed with a song that's about, more or less about flight. Excuse me...
[Leo throws piece of equipment to back of stage]
LEO [to soundman]:
Wanna drop number 4?
LEO [to audience]:
If you want professionalism, you have to go see Wayne Newton.
LEO [to soundman]:
Can I hear it please?
LEO [to himself]:
What the fuck is going on?
LEO [to audience]:
Pardon me for a minute. I'm going to have another little monologue with myself.
That's sort of... wait a minute. This is sort of limiting, so I should try to...
[Leo bends over to fiddle with equipment]
LEO [to audience]:
You're lucky -- I could be facing the other way and doing this.
[Leo strums and it works]
[Applause and cheers]
LEO [to himself]:
Hot shit.
LEO [to audience]:
Yes! This was inspired by Bobby Sax, a drunk in Minneapolis who had me take him home one night. After driving around for half an hour, he confessed that he didn't remember anymore where he lived. So I let him off, and he went up and knocked on the handiest door, and was allowed into the house. This is out of sympathy for the people who let him in.
[Leo plays "A Sailor's Grave on the Prairie"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Pamela Brown"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Can't Quite Put It Into Words"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Mona Ray"]
[Applause]
LEO [to soundman]:
Might want a little light.
[Leo plays "The Fisherman"]
[Applause]
LEO:
I used to get my grandfather, who was deaf and blind in one eye, to do foolish things for me from time to time. I discovered myself recently doing the same -- not for my kids, really. I'd heard... what this was was a moment of insight where I discovered that he was doing it for himself rather than me. It's like when he told me a joke one night up north, and I laughed and he got very pissed off at me because I laughed at it, but I was supposed to tell him how terrible it was. It's one of those tiny little insights into human nature that aren't worth a damn.
And I was out in that same yard, and I was telling about... with my squirts, who are actually children; they're about four years old -- two of them... and we usually, in the back yard, swing until one of them falls off and goes in and gets me in trouble.
But I was standing out in the yard one day, pushing them around, slapping them around...
[Tape cuts off]
... where all the dog shit is.
[Laughter]
LEO:
So that's what this song's about
[Leo plays "Bean Time"]
[Leo stops in the middle of the song]
LEO:
You should've seen me take off...
[Continues playing "Bean Time"]
[Applause]
LEO [to soundman]:
Now? Humph. For a split second... you just have to...
LEO [to audience]:
I could give you a little Alka-Seltzer for the ear here before I polish this off with whatever I can dream up to polish it off with. This originally came from the pen of Norman Petty, I think. Wait a minute, is it Norman Petty? Yes, it's Norman Petty, which I'm sure you're all delighted to know. He's from Texas.
[Leo starts to play "Wheels"]
LEO:
Oops. Aha! Caught that just in time.
[Leo switches on sound effect]
LEO:
This is supposed to sound a little like an organ being played by a thoroughly ignorant human being.
[Leo plays "Wheels"]
[Applause]
[Leo plays "Easter"]
[Applause]
[Tuning]
[Leo plays "Up Tempo"]
[Applause]
LEO:
Thank you.
[Leo plays "Hear the Wind Howl"]
[Applause]
LEO:
Good night. Thank you.
[Applause. Leo returns for encore]
LEO:
You know, it's a real...
[Tuning]
LEO:
I haven't played this in a long time because I played it too much and drove myself crazy with it, and a lot of audiences, probably. Because my audience never changes a whole lot. They have a... I don't know if you know it or not, but you have a reputation, when I was working in clubs, for being very cheap. You come in and you buy one drink and you sit with it all night long.
Now if you're a Cheech & Chong fan, some of those guys carve a little... get a glass cutter and cut a little ring around... well, anyhow, that's how I got work when I first started out -- everyone knew I was a nice guy. Which is a lie, actually.
At any rate, this is a...
[Tuning]
LEO:
Yeah, here we go.
[Leo plays "The Tennessee Toad"]
[Applause]
[The End]
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