Ron Rizzi - Photographer

Rock Me On The Water

My first Rock Concert in New York City was way back in the early sixties at the Brooklyn Fox Theater. It was New York Disc Jockey and Master of Ceremonies Murray The K along with his Swinging Soiree'.

Little Stevie Wonder, the Drifters, Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Miracles, Chiffons, Jan & Dean, Jay and the Americans, Gene Pitney, Martha and the Vandellas, the Searchers, the Duprees, the Ronettes, Gary Lewis and the Playboys and an experience of a lifetime.

My parents loved the music. Growing up in NYC, my Dad had a Big Band orchestra of his own, he played Saxophone and sang. My Mom loved to listen and see the show. They shared that love and brought me to live concerts in Brooklyn to The Fox to see Murray The K's shows.
Me, I was too young to have a sophisticated camera in those days but the memories that were created were a lifetime's worth just being there.

As a teen it was just a subway ride to Greenwich Village and a ticket to Bill Graham's Fillmore East. Tickets then were $3, $4, or $5 for Elton John, The Who, Grateful Dead, Wishbone Ash, Laura Nyro, Jethro Tull, Chambers Brothers, Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly, Led Zepplin, and the Vanilla Fudge.  A part time job and an allowance made it easy to see as many concerts as you possibly could.

My Dad even purchased tickets for me at the Madison Square Garden Box Office to see Jim Morrison and the Doors when my best friends parents wouldn't even let them go to NYC to see them.

Those were the days. The music scene in New York City was a cornucopia of aural delight. That early listening included AM Radio stations WINS, WABC, WMCA, WOR and later the new FM radio frequency in 1967 as it opened up windows and doors in musical taste. It included WNEW-FM, WPLJ, WLIR, WBAB, and WRNW and it introduced us to an incredible world of music. That experience made a mark musically, intellectually and emotionally upon me and later presented itself in gig on my college radio station.

From small beginnings at a carrier current amplitude modulated college radio station came a late night FM radio air shift at an NPR affiliate. When college was complete the journey in commercial FM radio began in Progressive Rock and later became AOR Album Oriented Rock. The dream of a lifetime and a 14 year career in radio broadcasting had included on air DJ, Production, Music and Program Director positions in and around New York at various radio stations and call signs with a large bowl of alphabet soup as we knew it.

Along with the extensive three thousand 33 1/3 LP album collection came many radio interviews with celebrity rock performers and a collection of concert stubs that would fill a gallon pitcher.

Yes, those were the days.