TEN RULES OF THE ROAD I LEARNED AT MY FIRST CONCERT: UPDATED & EXPANDED EDITION - A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT

The perfect holiday gift for the rock & roll fan in your life!

Countless "truth is stranger than fiction" tales, 177 magical concerts, 100 unique bands, 50 years of finding a way to the next show, and 10 Rules Of The Road all add up to 1 ordinary guy's extraordinary love letter to live rock & roll. 

And now, the book with a 4.4 star review on Amazon just got even better - welcome to the updated and expanded 2025 edition of TEN RULES OF THE ROAD I LEARNED AT MY FIRST CONCERT: AN ORDINARY GUY'S LIFETIME OF LIVE ROCK & ROLL!  

The new edition is 550 pages, with over 250 pages of brand new content including:

• updates elements to every section of the book – the rules, the essays, the concert summaries, and the statistics.
• more tales from my 20th century concert adventures that I dredged out of my memory that didn't make the first edition
• details of all the shows I’ve attended since 2021, after the first edition was published, until today
• complete re-writes of Rules #2, #5, #6, #7, # 8 and #10, as well as the Grateful Dead essay, have been almost completely re-written. 
• consolidating the Song Selection essays from three to two but adding more songs to each remaining chapter in the process, doubling the number of tunes covered from 40 to 80. 
• replacing the discarded song essay, with a new one about the relationship between rock & roll and Broadway, a unique pairing that only really came into focus for me in the last year or so. 
• adding numerous new charts/tables to the statistics section
• quadrupling the number of setlists from shows I attended.  
• re-editing the entire book to clean up some areas that either seemed cumbersome or didn’t flow well 
• reformatting the entire book to give it a more professional look and feel. 

It's bigger! It's  better! It's the perfect read for the rock & roll fan in your life!  And the paperback is still only $14.99!  Also available in Kindle and now Hardcover as well!

Read a sample here!   

See the table of contents here!

Read reviews here!

Buy it here!

Derek & The Dominos - 1970-11-05 - Nashville, TN (SBD)

Derek & The Dominos

with Carl Perkins & Johnny Cash

1970-11-05

Johnny Cash Show Taping

Ryman Auditorium

Nashville, TN

Soundboard Recording

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. It's Too Late

02. Got To Get Better In A Little While

03. Matchbox

04. Matchbox

05. Matchbox

06. Blues Power

Taping for show.  Actually aired on January 6, 1971 

Derek & The Dominos- 1970-11-05 - Nashville, TN (SBD) 

1970: On November 5, 1970, 56 years ago today, Derek and The Dominos went into the studio at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to tape a television broadcast. The band, led by Eric Clapton, was in the middle of its only US tour, but took a break to film a segment for the Johnny Cash show. Ironically, the show wouldn’t air on TV until January 1971, when the band was falling apart from drug abuse which caused tension and paranoia among the band members. During the tapings, the band played 3 of its classics, It’s Too Late, Got To Get Better In A Little While and Blues Power. The highlights of the session, however, are the 3 takes on Matchbox, during which Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins joined the Dominos. The last of the 3 takes made the TV broadcast (as did It’s Too Late) and the site of 3 rock legends, Clapton, Cash and Perkins, on stage together, side by side playing guitar, was one for the ages. Download this soundboard recording to hear that historic moment , then check out you-tube where you can find the video!

Dickey Betts - 1974-11-04 - Hempstead, NY (FM)

Dickey Betts 

with Vassar Clements

1974-11-04

Ultrasonic Sound Studios

Hempstead, NY 

FM Broadcast

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Instrumental Info

02. Interview with Dickey Betts

02. Old Joe Clark

04. Interview with Dickey Betts

05. No Hard Times

06. Interview with Dickey Betts

07. Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms

08. Sing Holy To The Lord

09. Foggy Mountain Breakdown

10. Will The Circle Be Unbroken

11. Interview with Dickey Betts

12. Pony Boy

13. Salty Dog

14. Blue Sky

15. Jambalaya

16. I Saw The Light > interview with Vassar Clemenst.

17. Carolina

18. Come Into My Kitchen

19. Long Time Gone

Dickey Betts - 1974-11-04 - Hempstead, NY (FM)

1974 - In September 1974, fresh off the chart topping success of the Allman Brother's album Brothers and Sisters, Dickey Betts released his first solo album entitled Highway Call. The album featured a more country sound, with Betts backed by legendary fiddle player Vassar Clements and acoustic guitarist Jeff Hanna. The disc was a commercial success, climbimg to #19 on the Billboard charts. Just about 2 months after the album's release, on Novemeber 4, 1974, 52 years ago today, Betts, accompanied by Clements, played a live set at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead that featured tracks from the album alongside some Allman Brother's classics.  This FM broadcast captures that show, along with interviews with both Betts and Clements.

Bruce Springsteen - 1976-11-04 - Palladium, New York, NY (FM)

Bruce Springsteen 

& The E Street Band

1976-11-04

The Palladium

New York, NY

FM broadcast

192 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Night

02. Rendezvous

03. Spirit In The Night

04. It'S My Life

05. Thunder Road

06. Mona > She's The One

07. Something In The Night

08. Backstreets

09. Growin' Up

10. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

11. Jungleland

12. Rosalita

13. Baby I Love You

14. Walking In The Rain

15. Be My Baby

16. 4Th Of July Asbury Park (Sandy)

17. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

18. Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen - 1976-11-04 - Palladium, New York, NY (FM) 

1976: On September 15, 1976, the judge in the lawsuit between Springsteen and ex-manager Mike Appel ruled that Bruce was enjoined from any further recording with Columbia Records until the case was resolved. In addition, proceeds from Born To Run were tied up in various accounting disputes, some related to the lawsuit, so Bruce had no source of income. So, he went back out on the roads starting on September 26, for a brief run pf shows, which finished with 6 nights at The Palladium in New York, This FM Broadcast captures the final night of that run, on November 4, 1976, 50 years ago today. And what a finale it was. A pre-show bomb hoax results in Bruce jokingly asking the audience to look under their seats (obviously a far different atmosphere than today's post 9-11 world). Springsteen delivers stunning cover versions of It’s My Life and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. To top it off, Ronnie Spector guests on three of her most famous Ronettes-era hits, all given inspired arrangements by the E Street Band. The lawsuits may have kept Bruce out of the studio, but it was clear he still ruled on stage.

Linda Ronstadt - 1976-11-03 - Los Angeles, CA (FM)

Linda Ronstadt
1976-11-03 
Universal Amphitheatre 
Los Angeles, CA
FM Broadcast
320 kbps
Artwork Included

01. That'll Be The Day 
02. Love Has No Pride 
03. Silver Threads And Golden Needles 
04. Willin' 
05. It Doesn't Matter Anymore 
06. When Will I Be Loved
07. Crazy 
08. Lo Siento Mi Vida 
09. Love Is A Rose 
10. Hasten Down The Wind 
11. Band Intros 
12. You're No Good 
13. Heat Wave 
14. Crowd 
15. Heart Like A Wheel 
16. Crowd 
17. Desperado 
18. Someone To Lay Down Beside Me

Linda Ronstadt - 1976-11-03 - Los Angeles, CA (FM)

1976: In August 1976, Linda Ronstadt released the album Hasten Down The Wind, which became her 3rd straight million selling disc, making her the first female artist in history to accomplish that feat. The album also earned Linda her second of a record 10 Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The album was different from 1974's Heart Like A Wheel and 1975's Prisoner In Disguise in that she chose to showcase new songwriters as opposed to country rock tunes. The title track, for example was written by then up and coming songwriter Warren Zevon. One of the most famous tracks from the album, Someone To Lay Down Beside Me, was composed by the then little known Karla Bonoff. The album received huge critical acclaim, and also spent several weeks in the top 3 on the Billboard charts. Ronstadt went on tour later that year in support of the album, and this soundboard captures her a half century ago today, November 3, 1976, in Los Angeles!

Allman Brothers Band - 1972-11-02 - Hempstead, NY (FM)

Allman Brothers Band
1972-11-02
In Concert #2 
Hofstra University 
Hempstead, NY
TV SBD Recording
320 kbps
Video Below

01. One Way Out 
02. Ramblin Man 
03. Whipping Post 

Allman Brothers Band - 1972-11-02 - Hempstead, NY (FM)

1972: On November 2, 1972, 54 years ago today, the Allman Brothers Band made an appearance on ABC In Concert, as captured in this TV soundboard recording.  The show, which would be broadcast on December 8, would mark the debut of keyboardist Chuck Leavell.  It would also be the last time Berry Oakley wpuld play with the Allmans. Less than 2 weeks after this show was recorded , the Allman's would suffer another loss, Oakley died in motorcylce accident, just blocks from the site of Duane's fatal crash a year earlier.

  

Final Notice - Changes At So Many Roads - Please Read And Save For Future Referene

As you know, we had to introduce a 2 step process to download shows due to some new Google Blogger restrictions.

• The link in the post takes you to Mediafire, where you can download a TXT file that contains the link to the music
• Simply open that TXT file using Notepad, copy the link you find at the top of the page, paste it into your browser, and hit enter.  You'll be taken to mirrored.to, which is the same multi-host platform we have been using for years.  Then choose one of the 12 hosts (I recommend Mediafire, SEND, GoFile or Buzzheavier as the easiest to use) and download the show.

Please only use Notepad to open the TXT File - if you open it with WORD or anything else, you'll get extra \ characters in the mirrored.to link that shouldn't be there. You'll need to delete those \ characters to make the link work.

If you have need any more info about the recent changes to our download process, please download our Welcome document.

I understand the 2 step download process is a bit more cumbersome, but it's either that or the site goes away given the new restrictions coming from Google blogger.  

This will be the last post on this subject for now as I don't want to keep putting attention on it given Google is tightening up its policies. If something changes, we'll post again.

Enjoy the tunz!