“I have been a gigantic Rolling Stones fan since approximately the Spanish American War.” – Dave Barry
By Rich Lindbloom
I came across the “Father and Sons” photo above one of the booths at Due’s on Ontario Street, in downtown Chicago. While we were waiting for our seats by the bar, my gaze was attracted to the photo like iron to a magnet. Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Mississippi Muddy Waters, (you know you bad when you have a state in front of your name!) and Keith Richards are caught in a black and white on July 8, 1978 at The Quiet Knight. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall.
I’ve never been the hugest Rolling Stones fan – don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them someday. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are the greatest “rock and roll” band ever. How the group could have survived over 52 years of life on the road, and remained together while producing countless hits, is certainly no small feat. (Although even the Rolling Stones have gathered a bit of moss during that time.) I think Lin Bremer might have put it best one day when he did a Bin on “Is it a good idea to use Rock Stars as role models.” Basically Lin noted, “A bunch of young adolescents, driving around in a metal tube from town to town, partying their derriere’s off – what could possibly go wrong?”
The Stones started their journey in 1962! Their early influences were Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley. Obviously, as the photo above indicates, the Stones never did forget those roots. The Stones had played a small gig at Soldiers Field during the afternoon of July 8th, on a hot summer day. As one blogger noted, “It was pretty easy to put two and two together and deduce there was a good probability they would be paying a visit to The Quiet Knight that evening.” Unfortunately, I’ve never been too good at ciphering.
According to the few tidbits of information I was able to dig up on the evening, Muddy was playing his first set when someone from the club stepped to the mic and said, “Anyone who wants to leave would have to do it right now.” Otherwise they would not be letting anyone out for awhile. They didn’t want people running out to notify their friends and create a mob scene. (Obviously, no one had even thought about cell phones yet! Well maybe a geek like Bill Gates.) Willie Dixon and Pine Top Perkins were also performing that evening. While there is no song list available for that night, three gems of Mississippi Muddy Waters were played, Mannish Boy, Long Distance Call and Got My Mojo Working.
As I continued to gaze at the photo a somewhat, disturbing thought crossed my mind; one that might offend die-hard Blackhawk fans. If the truth be known, I would have rather have been in The Quiet Knight that evening than having the Hawks win the Stanley Cup. Think about it for a moment; a chance to see a Blues Legend, or two, crammed on the tiny stage at The Quiet Knight. No flashing lights, special effects or choreographed dancers. Just a group of fair to middling musicians belting it out in in a dark and dank saloon. Go ahead, try to put a price tag on that moment in today’s dollars. It was truly a “Hey bartender” moment! It just doesn’t get any better than that, period. Although there was one time fairly recently at the Aragon Ballroom that I’ll touch base on a little later….
To say the least after this 4-4 slugfest, it was not a Quiet Knight! A few Hawks who have been struggling to get on the scoreboard as of late, “Got their Mojo Working” on Monday against those pesky Predators from Nashville. In his post game interview after being named #1 Star, Bryan Bickell described how he chucked and jived and dangled past all 5 Nashville players, before sliding the puck between Pekka Rinne’s gaping five hole. Unsubstantiated rumors said Bickell hollered out “I own you Rinne,” as he skated by the Predator sieve.
Actually what Bickell really said was, “I parked my big butt in front of the net and banged one home.” (Oh Bickell got a big ol’ butt, oh yeah.)
Due to the catch up nature of the game, Bickell only played 9:42 minutes this game, as Coach Q relied heavily on his top three lines. In fact, when my son saw Bickell out on the ice at the end of the game he asked what he was doing out there. I told him that I noticed Q had played him quite a bit in the third period. To top it off, Bickell noted after the game that his line was due for a change when he noticed “Mannish Boy” Brandon Saad, motoring up the ice with a full head of steam. He joined the rush, fortunately striking pay dirt as Crawford left the ice for the extra attacker. Bickell/Shaw/Saad – yeah I can get down with that line. Get down with your bad selves.
Andrew Shaw scored a lunch pail goal after losing his stick on the Hawks second tally. Fifth Feather at thecommittedindian.com did a great job describing his efforts. “The degree of difficulty on that shot is off the charts. First of all, controlling the puck with your feet is no easy task. Secondly, picking your stick up off the ice can often make you feel like a penguin trying to pick up a spoon.” Yes Blackhawk fans, Chicken Hawk can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time.
Bickell also added an assist on Shaw’s “three yards and a cloud of dust” marker. Sharpie who seemed to play every position but goaltender last night, added an assist on Shaw’s goal. There was a gasp from the female contingent of Hawkdom when Rinne nearly missed decapitating Sharp on a post whistle scrum with his goalies stick. Not a smart play by either player actually.
Kane, Versteeg and Richards dominated throughout the game. They actually could have had a goal or two in the first period if it weren’t for Rinne’s miserly ways. Keith, Versteeg and Richards combined for a tic-tac-toe goal midway through the second period. Richards had his stick cocked and loaded when Versteeg feathered a perfect pass. Although I’m sure I was not the only one holding my breath when Steeger skated by the Nashville blue line in OT, with nothing but ice between him and Crawford. A Predator was in hot pursuit of the Kaner wanna-be. “All’s well that ends well” though, right?
The Hawks would add two more tallies before the period ended, drawing the game to a 3-3 tie. Then Marcus Kruger got caught on the ice during a line change and James Neal added his second goal of the period to take a little air out of the Hawks balloon as the lads headed to the locker rooms.
I’d like to say there was never a doubt in this contest, but truly it was anybody’s game throughout the entertaining third period. Both teams had good scoring chances, as Nashville continued to press the attack. Yes, that is correct, “Nashville continued to press the attack.” For those of us who watched the Barry Trotz coached Predator teams, this is somewhat of an incongruous phenomenon. This Nashville team plays with the pedal to the metal. Neal, Wilson Craig, Forsberg, (I picked this dude up early in our Fantasy League – once again showing my hockey brilliance.), Ribiero – hell even Ollie Jokinen is scary – in more ways that one.
Nashville’s rear end is looking pretty good also. Roman Josi – Shea Weber, Anton Volchenkov/Bartley-Seth Jones and Mattias Ekholm-Ryan Ellis form a pretty formidable defense corp. Any team that has the up and coming Seth Jones on their third defensive pairing is going to be pretty hard to play against. The kid looks so smooth out there. Remember when Weber and Sutter would play 32 minutes per game? (Actually, Weber did play 31:56 last night!)
Two last observations. First, I read one blogger who noted that this comeback was even more special because it was against one of the best goalies in the league. Let’s see, Rinne lets in four and he’s still one of the best in the league. Cor-dawg lets in four and the Hawks bail him out. Will Crow ever get the respect he deserves – or is he always just going to be known as a Hootchie Cootchie Man? (Who’s that sneaking out your back door?) He made multiple saves to keep this contest from sending the fans in Nashville to the corn liquor jar.
Secondly, I don’t exactly agree with Eddy-O’s observation on Nystrom’s hit on Hjalmarsson. Look, I realize after playing 20 season’s in the NHL, in 1031 games, scoring 342 goals and 452 assists – that Eddy-O might know a bit more about the game than me. Olczyk noted Niklas lowered his body at the last moment, setting himself up for the blow to the head. However, from my perspective, he was bracing himself for the hit he knew was coming. At the same time, he poked the puck over to Runblad I believe, in a play that a Norris Trophy type defenseman would make, if they based the award on defensive plays. If he had stood straight up, Nystrom would have knocked him off his feet, sending him flying into the boards. Sorry Eddy, despite your credentials, I’m not going with “It was Hjalmarsson’s fault.”
In closing there is one other Rolling Stones show that I would like to mention. It involves a good friend of mine who I’ll call Franco, to protect his sterling reputation. You may recall Franco was the one I reported a few seasons ago, who saw The Who at the Auditorium in 1971 before the album Who’s Next came out. The Who played the album in its entirety – hard to believe anything could top that. (Maybe the Cowsill’s?) Franco is either lucky or brilliant. Despite knowing him for over 30 years now, I’m not sure which it is.
The Rolling Stones show Franco saw was at the Aragon Ball Room about 7 or 8 years ago. This is about a small of a venue as there is today that you will ever see the Stones performing. Ticket prices were well, well, well outside of my budget. (Think Blackhawk Playoff tickets) When I went to work the next day, I went to Franco’s office to ask how the show turned out. Let’s just say, at this point, Franco could not form complete sentences. At least none that made any sense! I asked him what they played for an encore, and he said “I don’t know, maybe Brown Sugar.” Franco left work early that day as I recall.
I did finally get a list of the extensive songs they played that night. It turns out the Stones played four encores, and Brown Sugar was not one of them!
Other important stuff:
David Rundblad appears to be settling in a bit. Although I think we all get a little queasy when he stick handles near the point instead of dumping it deep!
I noticed Richards, Keith and Ver-rapmiester make some gutsy decisions on zone entries last night. Rather than dump the puck deep, they held up and watched the Pred’s forwards by-pass them. It created a lot of time and space.
It anyone besides RoseLee, my mom ad my sisters are reading this, I’d really like to know if you agree with me attending that Stones show at the Quiet Knight instead of the Hawks winning the Stanley Cup.
Oduya really caught a bad break on the goal that deflected off of him – it seemed to bounce as if it hit a trampoline.
Hoss babie’s clap bomb (my son said that’s the lingo for slap shot now), is still unreal. Another way of putting it, “Hossa Rule’s, Rinne Drools.”
Happy New Year – I’m sure Wild Horses could not drag us away from the TV at noon on Jan 1.
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Rich Lindbloom
