by Dennis, Beverly, New Jersey

Growing up in the 60’s I listened to what was normal for a young person in those days. Fall 1967 In high school I was introduced to “underground” music, some of which was long versions of songs I already knew from AM radio. Long versions of Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Steppenwolf and many many other bands were a new way to hear and appreciate these bands. In 1971, I had tickets to see “The Who” in August play their “Who’s Next” album. A friend called to say he had tickets to a July dance concert at the Spectrum featuring Humble Pie headlined by Black Sabbath and some other band called Alice Cooper. Well Humble Pie came out and rocked the crowd with everyone’s favorites. Little did we know what we were in for!

Alice Cooper came out in heavy make up and costume and just blasted away debuting his “Love It To Death” LP. But with props too! It was the beginning of performance shock rock that scared, shocked and delighted the crowd. With his live snake, straight jackets, guilottine, suggestive dancing, raw musicical style and hellish lyrics he just blew the crowd away and had them begging for more. We had no idea what to expect that night and would never have expected what we saw.

Black Sabbath was actually a let down to me after what we had just witnessed. We walked out singing the new anthem of our summer, “I’m Eighteen” which at the precise year, we were. What an impression they made on so many unsuspecting people.