The Nicolette Larson Memorial Concert
Santa Monica, California
Civic Auditorium
Author: Dave DiMartino
Source: Mojo
Date: April 1998
Cast list: (in order of appearance) Whole Cast / Little Feat /
Little Feat with Bonnie Raitt / Bonnie Raitt / The Section / Joe Walsh / Dan Fogelberg /
Michael Ruff / Carole King / Carole King with Sherry Goffin Kondor / Jackson Browne /
Emmylou Harris / Jimmy Buffett / Linda Ronstadt / Crosby Stills & Nash / Whole Cast
SO THE curtains opened and the concert began. And there, spread from
left to right on the stage, they stood - nearly everybody who was anybody during the
1970s. You'd seen fire, you'd seen rain, but you never thought you'd see them again. At
least not up on the same stage at the same time.
Yet there they were - not exactly as spry as they might've been, and
willing to be sampled by Puff Daddy and his ilk if they'd only ask. Names, please? Crosby,
Stills, Nash, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat,
Jimmy Buffett, Joe Walsh, Emmylou Harris, Dan Fogelberg, and The Section - the
instrumental combo featuring bassist Leland Sklar and Larson's drummer husband Russ
Kunkel, who have, it appears, played with everyone but God and his Significant Other.
But it's the song this crew were singing that really tugged at the
heart. Lotta Love. Originally penned by Neil Young, but a large hit for singer Nicolette
Larson, whose unexpected death due to a cerebral oedema sparked off this two-day tribute
concert, a benefit for UCLA's Childrens' Hospital. And seeing this near-complete cast of
'70s California singer-songwriter types, stacked side-by-side singing "It's gonna
take a lotta love", bordered on the absolute surreal. "I never went to my high
school reunion," singer Fogelberg later commented on-stage, "but that's what
this feels like. But in a much better way." Well said, Danno.
An extremely lengthy show followed the Lotta Love singalong, most of it
swiftly paced and nearly all of it scarily familiar. Openers Little Feat, a presence on
Larson's 1978 debut album, chugged out both All That You Dream and Down On The Farm before
being joined by Bonnie Raitt - whose talent, remarkably, continues to bloom. "I
always wanted to be stuck on a desert island with Little Feat," Raitt announced,
guitar slide in hand. "And in the '70's, I guess I was." Following Cold, Cold,
Cold - odd choice of song here, if you get my drift - and a Dixie Chicken enlivened by
Feat drummer Richie Hayward's still remarkable syncopation, Raitt dedicated Love Has No
Pride to Larson and departed.
A Dylan Thomas poem and Street Pizza from The Section, then enter Joe
Walsh, former James Gang/Eagle, hand in a cast ("I hitchhike too hard!"),
significantly singing The Eagles' tune Pretty Maids All In A Row, followed by the
inescapable Rocky Mountain Way. The latter rocked royally and featured well-played guitar
riffs by Waddy Wachtel.
That this was a unique gathering was further affirmed by our witnessing
a set by Dan Fogelberg - something which, to be candid, I thought I might never do again,
how about you? Yet the man who, to give him credit, once very successfully covered The
Hollies' Tell Me To My Face, played with quiet dignity - and nailed the night's essential
weirdness by noting after Part Of The Plan that Walsh, Nash and Kunkel had all played on
the original 1974 hit.
Oddly - for a night focusing largely on the music of Southern
California - the concert's most memorable performance may have been that of Carole King.
Now a grandmother who prefers to step out from behind the piano and belt out a song she's
penned for Celine Dion while coercing wild lead guitar solos from Waddy Wachtel like she
were emulating Pat Benatar, King stunned many. Summoning her daughter Sherry Goffin Kondor
to the front of the stage, Carole sang the first verse of Child Of Mine; by the second
verse Sherry had called her own daughter on-stage and began singing to her. One could feel
the earth move, and hear it only moments later.
Fine performances by Jackson Browne and Emmylou Harris followed, as
well as an entirely serviceable mini-set by American touring phenomenon Jimmy Buffett -
whose Brown Eyed Girl, sadly, failed to measure up to Van Morrison's original performance,
though essentially utilising the same chord structure. But let's not go another moment
without mentioning the utterly superb performance of Linda Ronstadt - in marvellous voice
for Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Blue Bayou and Baby Baby. Ronstadt - godmother of Nicolette
Larson's daughter - closed her show with a moving version of ("my hero") Jimmy
Webb's Adios, received hoots of delight, and was off. Then came Crosby Stills & Nash
with five songs - Nash's newish Half Your Angels the highlight.
And the finale: the entire musical cast singing Carole King's You've
Got A Friend. As King announced mid-song, "It doesn't get any better than this."
True, actually.
