Concert Performances:  Maine (1986)
Down

LEO:

That's another dynamic beginning to one of my sets.  Thank you very much.

[Leo plays "Airproofing"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thanks.  I realize I should open my mouth and say a few words, but I'm ill-prepared at the moment.  I'm gonna play some more, then I'll try to look up again.  [To sound engineer:]   Could I have some more low bottom on this guitar?  Thank you.

[Leo plays "Shortwave" with a lengthy and completely different introduction than the studio recording]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thank you.  I was recently in Columbus, Ohio.  Every now and then one of the nice parts about playing is that people come up, mail you stuff or give you things at a set that they think you might appreciate because it seems to sort of jive with what they see in a tune they might have heard.  In Ohio, a company from Mammoth gave me an honorary RV dealership.  And I'm now -- it's the A-Liner Company of Mammoth .  I have title to and can sell one trailer.  They didn't trust me with anything motorized, but I have a ... so I thought if I was gong to branch out, I'd have my opening for my one trailer and I'd have to play something.

This sounds sort of trailer-like.  I was in Jamaica a few months ago and I don't like to be in the sun so when I'm on the beach it's at night and I stubbed my toe on a rock and wrote this song.  Actually, I wrote the beginning of it about 20 years ago [Leo plays the opening riff to "First To Go"] and immediately rejected it because --   I don't know the whole Godzilla series but I know at some point Godzilla becomes a nice guy [Leo plays the riff again].   I can see that rubber suit.  Gets sort of paternal.  So I didn't touch it for 20 years.  but after hurting myself on this rock.

[Leo plays "First to Go"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thanks.  It's a pop-up trailer, you can sort of see it popping up and down.  It's warm in here, isn't it?  Now let me play something sort of traditional here.   This is a bunch of stuff...well, let me see...this is stolen.  The name of the tune is "Stealing" because what's in it is stolen from a number of tunes that I've listened to over the years and enjoyed, along with a couple of fragments of my own. [Leo starts to play "Last Steam Engine Train/Stealing" medley]  Nope.  I've changed my mind.  This fits a lot better I think.  I'll do that later.  Somebody over there liked the idea but...

[Leo plays "Theme from `Doodles'"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thank you.  Thanks.  This is one of these vocals...there are several of these for me, tunes with lyrics that I have a very hard time admitting to liking.  There's a couple without lyrics that I have a hard time admitting to liking.  The "Blue Tango" is a very big favorite of mine but it seems to repel most other people.  Now this song has, like all of these, a terrific melody at some point and maybe a couple of nice things in the lyrics.  But overall the lyrics are also in this tune repellent, at least to me, and I've just got to admit I like the music enough that I'm willing to take this chance every time I open my mouth with this thing.  Now you'll see what I mean.  It's...this tune has been a hit three times and it was recently recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band not to mention my cover of it a couple of years ago which was kind of aimed at the fact that it had been a hit three times before that.

Anyhow, as a result of that I got to know somebody who knows the author of the tune, who wrote the thing about six months after a divorce that he'd gotten.  He'd been sitting all of this time....he was overwhelmed by his divorce.   Tons of regret flood in on him that he wasn't prepared for, etcetera, etcetera., and he'd spend his time at a restaurant in Los Angeles called Tony and Mario's and bleed all over Tony and Mario.  I'm assuming this, but I mean we could all assume that.  He was there daily with a sort of suicidal look on his face which is just what Tony and Mario wanted in the front room of their restaurant I'm sure.  And in the middle of all of this his ex-wife called him up and said that she'd like to try this again for a little while and he burst into song with this piece of work here.  And I think you'll be able to see from the -- this maybe was written as an apology to Tony and Mario.  I think you can see through from the lyrics especially later on in the tune -- well, pick your spot actually -- why she may have left this guy in the first place.  He really gets...he gets carried away.  You want to kinda lighten these lyrics up but they're already too light, that's the problem.  On the other hand.

[Leo plays the opening riff to "Mona Ray" and then plays "Rings"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thanks.

[Leo plays "Last Steam Engine Train/Stealing" medley]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thank you, thanks a lot.  This is one of my favourite guitar tunes.  It was written by Duane Allman with Dicky Betts I think.  It's written like it belongs on a guitar.  A lot of horn lines on guitar, but not many tunes that sound like this on a guitar.  It wouldn't sound like this on a horn.  It's called "Little Martha" which has always led me to believe -- I keep saying this just in case somebody knows -- it must have been written either for a small child or a tiny pig.  Something unbearably cute.

[Leo plays "Little Martha"]

[Applause]

LEO:

I'd like to play a couple more before I get off and the Roches get up and I'd like to thank [garbled] the airline industry.  Hopefully it'll return but...what shape it'd be.

[Leo plays the beginning to "Echoing Gilewitz"]

[Applause]

LEO:

This is a tune written by Richard Gilewitz.

[Leo plays "Echoing Gilewitz"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thank you.  Thanks a lot.  Hope to see you here next year.

[Leo plays "Cripple Creek"]

[Applause]

LEO:

Thank you very much, it's been a pleasure.  Thank you.

[Audience demands encore]

[Leo plays "Up Tempo"] [The End]


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