California Jam

Speaking of concerts...where were you in 1974? I was too young to attend but 300,000 fans showed up at the Ontario Motor Speedway, CA for California Jam:

In order of appearance: Rare Earth;Earth, Wind and Fire; the Eagles, with a guest appearance byJackson Browne; Seals and Crofts; Black Oak Arkansas; BlackSabbath; Deep Purple; and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Among the highlights were Deep Purple guitaristRitchie Blackmore lighting his guitar and amplifier ablaze, andEmerson, Lake and Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson playing apiano that was suspended in the air and then spun in circles.

When 1978 rolled around I HAD to go, no matter how much my mom protested. It was a very crazy adventure. I just barely had my driver's liscence but I talked my mom into giving me her car. She clearly did not understand where I was going, or she would have said NO.

I had about 8 people in the car


I'll spare you the details...but I think we sat about 1/2 mile from the stage. We had to hitchhike home because the car we took broke down in the middle of the freeway and we left it there (it seemed like a parking lot at the time so we didn't give it a second thought). Ooops.

The line-up:
Aerosmith, Foreigner, Ted Nugent, Heart, Dave Mason, Santana, Bob Welch, Mahogany Rush and Rubicon.

I remember Heart and Santanta...the rest is a blur, and I never went to another HUGE outdoor concert again. My sister went to a few...mabye I'll have her write a story.