It was revealed this week that Bob Dylan is coming to town for a show on August 28, 2012 at the Covelli Centre. This will not be his first go-around here though. On November 2, 1992, he played an acoustic show at Stambaugh Auditorium. Surprisingly it was a box office bomb as only 1,168 of 2,600 seats sold (I would hope Covelli’s management took that in mind when booking him at the arena). Dylan was supporting the Good as I Been to You album which was released a day after the performance in Youngstown. The 51-year-old played 18 songs in the two hour gig.
WHAT THE SHOW SOUNDED LIKE: A good sounding bootleg of the show was released in 1994 under the title Himself. Unfortunately recent copyright cyberlocker sweeps by the U.S. government have wiped out any places where the show can be downloaded.
Jackie Wilson was a giant in the R&B/soul game when he pulled into town for a show on May 7, 1960 at the Stambaugh Auditorium. An eventual Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Wilson was known for his dynamic stage show and did so with the nickname “Mr. Excitement”. Wilson had four top 10 pop hits in 1960 and was a performer that people like James Brown and Elvis Presley looked up to.
Later that year, Wilson was arrested during in a fan riot on July 17 in New Orleans. It was reported at the time that Wilson was ordered by cops not to mingle with the audience during a performance. When fans attempted to climb on stage, Wilson shoved a police officer who was trying to keep members of the audience off the stage. A violent reaction from those in attendance followed.
James Brown was nearing the height of his powers when he came to Youngstown for two shows on October 27, 1967 at Stambaugh Auditorium. Earlier in 1967, the 34-year-old Brown hit No. 7 on the Billboard chart with “Cold Sweat, Pt. 1”. He’d go on to record two more top 10 hits in 1968 with “I Got That Feelin'” and “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud, Pt. 1”.
While he was most known for dazzling audiences with his spectacular live shows, he was also smack-dab in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement during this tumultuous period in American history. In a little over five months removed from this Youngstown show, Brown would take the stage at the Boston Garden on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in an attempt to calm racial tensions in Boston.
WHAT THE SHOW SOUNDED LIKE:The Live at the Apollo, Volume II album is a safe bet since it was recorded in the summer of 1967.
Buddy Holly and his Crickets were world-wide stars by the time late ’58 rolled around. It wasn’t by accident. Virtually all of the year of 1958 was spent on the road by the band. By the time October 12, 1958 rolled around for two shows at Stambaugh Auditorium, the band had already been to Australia and the United Kingdom as well as just about everywhere that would have them in the United States. It was Holly’s second trip to Youngstown that year. The first came on January 15, but the Everly Brothers were the headliners that time around.
Despite a grueling tour schedule in 1958, Holly needed money by the time 1959 rolled around and agreed to hit the road with the Winter Dance Party also featuring Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Holly played 11 dates on that tour before a plane carrying him, Valens and the Big Bopper went down near Clear Lake, Iowa killing all aboard on February 3, 1959.
Holly was set to play Youngstown for a third time in 13 months on February 13, 1959 as part of the third to last show of the Winter Dance Party. Even though he didn’t make it, the Dance Party did continue until the end of the contracted dates. Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Clanton and Fabian were substituted as the headliners. I tried to find an ad for that show in the Vindicator, but papers from that time frame were not available online. I did some research at the library recently and there was no mention of the Feb. 13 date in the Vindicator. I’m not sure it went off at all.
Richard Penniman (AKA Little Richard) was 45 years old and in his second go-around with the ministry when he visited Youngstown for a pair of gospel music programs on October 8, 1978 at the Stambaugh Auditorium. Hit by ample doses of personal tragedy in the mid ’70s, Little Richard took a step back from rock ‘n’ roll music for the second time in his career (the first coming from 1957 to 1962). His primary function at this juncture in his career was using his celebrity to sell bibles for Memorial Bibles International.
From what I gather from looking through old concert lists and databases, this is the first appearance by Little Richard in Youngstown. Like many acts from his era, there is a strong possibility he could have played in the early ’50s at small clubs in the area. I have yet to locate any proof that he did, however.
Here’s a sample of what Little Richard sounded like in the late ’70s:
Artists associated with Motown and its various labels produced 110 Top 10 hits from 1961 to 1971. On October 26, 1965 at Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown got a full helping of those hits as eventual Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Temptations, Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder strutted into town around the peak of Motown’s hit-making powers.
The Four Tops entered the concert coming off the No. 5 Billboard hit “It’s the Same Old Song”. Earlier in the year, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” was a No. 1 hit. The Temptations hit No. 1 with “My Girl” at the end of 1964 and released a bevy of well-received R&B hit singles throughout the rest of 1965. Martha and the Vandellas were coming off the Top 10 hits “Dancing in the Street” and “Nowhere to Run”. Fifteen year-old Stevie Wonder, who had a No. 1 hit in 1963 with “Fignertips”, was coming into his own and would release the Top 10 hit “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” in November of 1965.
Junior Walker and his All-Stars hit No. 4 on the Billboard charts with “Shotgun” earlier in 1965. Jimi Hendrix played guitar in live performances of the song early in 1965, but he was well on his way to solo stardom by the time October came around. The Marvelettes started off their career with the No. 1 smash “Please Mr. Postman” in 1961, but were in the midst of a bit of a chart slump by the time 1965 rolled around.
In the mid-90s, the city was in a period where there wasn’t much going on in terms of national acts visiting the area. The Tomorrow Club/Youngstown Agora, which delivered the cream of the crop in the ’70s and ’80s, was boarded up and left to rot. The Beeghly Center had gotten away from showcasing rock acts and the Covelli Centre was a pipe dream in some crazy politician’s head. Sure, there were small clubs booking good shows. If you wanted to hear someone who had a few hits on the radio, though, you were out of luck.
Youngstown State University and WNCD 106.1 FM rolled the dice on May 20, 1996 when it brought Seattle’s Candlebox to town for a show at Stambaugh Auditorium. It might have been a few years removed from the band’s peak in 1993/94 (the debut album sold 4 million copies), but this was an honest attempt at putting on a show which appealed to teens and 20-somethings. Stambaugh was several decades removed from putting on rock shows catering to the young at this point, so this was a real departure from the normal non-threatening fare that performed there (and continues to do so this day).
Reviews and first-hand accounts of the show described it as wild and overly enthusiastic. Some in the crowd of 1,925 rushed to the front of the stage when the band went on. There were stage diving attempts and there were also pleas from the band not to trash the joint. The reaction might be described as something of a release because of years of neglect regarding hometown shows. It also might have just be the reaction of wide-eyed high-schoolers and college kids enjoying their first taste of live rock ‘n’ roll. You know, like they did in the same exact place in the 1950s and 60s.
The setlist featured the big hits – including the Top 20 smash “Far Behind” – from the first album and some off the second album Lucy. If memory serves me correctly, no other rock acts at or around their peak has performed at the venue since.
Rock ‘n’ roll fever was in full bloom in Youngstown on October 25, 1956 when a show full of superstars from the era arrived to play what was billed as “The Show of ’56” at the Stambaugh Auditorium. On the top of the bill was Bill Haley and and The Comets along with The Platters. Whoever was designing the advertisement at the time was not using the groups most well-known songs to promote the show. The Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock” was more than 2 years old at this time and more than a year removed from topping the Billboard pop charts. Instead it was “See You Later Alligator” featured in the 1956 film Rock Around The Clock which was used as a hook to draw teens in. The Platters’ hit “Only You” was more than a year old at this point. Here there’s a push for “Magic Touch and “My Prayer”.
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were pushing the Top 10 hit “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” released in April of ’56. Other doo-wop stars on the bill included Clyde McPhatter and The Clovers. Rocker Chuck Berry, back for yet another performance in Youngstown, was fairly low on the bill. His single “Roll Over Beethoven” peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard charts in June.
WHAT THE SHOW SOUNDED LIKE: Here’s The Comets on TV in 1956 performing their signature hit.
Bruce Sprinsteen’s visit to the Stambaugh Auditorium on January 12, 1996 was a pretty big deal not only locally, but nationally. Springsteen was supporting The Ghost of Tom Joad album released on November 21, 1995 on that subdued theater tour. The Stambaugh show was the centerpiece of the tour as he would perform “Youngstown” in front of the people who the song was about. From what I remember, there was plenty of media coverage to go around as critics and journalists from around the country descended on Youngstown to frame Springsteen’s appearance around the wreckage of the long closed steel mills. The above clip was shown on the CBS Evening News. Even to this day, I’m quite surprised that they showed the whole song.
During the visit, city leaders took 46-year-old Springsteen on the tour of the steel mill ruins (including “Jenny”) and he met with people who were a part of the book which inspired the song. Tickets, which were $30, sold out in minutes at the end of December. I don’t remember any advertising for the show, but the promoter didn’t really need any.
Setlist included: Ghost Of Tom Joad, Adam Raised A Cain, Straight Time, Highway 29, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Murder Incorporated, Mansion On The Hill, Sell It And They Will Come, Brothers Under The Bridge, Born In The USA, Dry Lightning, Spare Parts, Youngstown, The Promised Land, Sinaloa Cowboys, The Line, Balboa Park, Across The Border, Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street, This Hard Land, Streets Of Philadelphia, Galveston Bay, No Surrender, My Best Was never Good Enough.
WHAT THE SHOW SOUNDED LIKE: Here’s a link where you’ll able to download the whole concert (click the green button).
October 1967 wasn’t exactly a banner month for Johnny Cash, but he did manage make his way to Youngstown on October 25 for a show at Stambaugh Auditorium. Crippled by drug abuse and craving the hand of lover June Carter, Cash was attempting to right the ship at this point in his life. Carter had threatened to leave “The Johnny Cash Show” in November of that year if he did not seek help for his pill-popping problem. Cash, who in some accounts is said to have weighed around 150 pounds due to his 80 to 120 amphetamine pills-a-day habit, had a few struggles ahead of him before he would marry June in March of 1968.
The show also featured the Statler Brothers and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins. Cash and Carter were riding high on the tails of the duet “Jackson” released in September of that year. It would later win them a Grammy.
WHAT THE SHOW SOUNDED AND LOOKED LIKE: PBS recorded a performance of “The Johnny Cash Show” on September 3, 1967. Here’s “I Walk The Line” from that show.
It was revealed this week that Bob Dylan is coming to town for a show on August 28, 2012 at the Covelli Centre. This will not be his first go-around here though. On November 2, 1992, he played an acoustic show at Stambaugh Auditorium. Surprisingly it was a box office bomb as only 1,168 of 2,600 seats sold (I would hope Covelli’s management took that in mind when booking him at the arena). Dylan was supporting the Good as I Been to You album which was released a day after the performance in Youngstown. The 51-year-old played 18 songs in the two hour gig.
Steel Strings 
