Out of the Blue (Part III)

The Concert
Okay now, I’ve given you clues. Back on May 30th I mentioned that (eventually) I’d be talking about an Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) concert at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles (actually it’s in Inglewood, which is a L.A. suburb nobody really wants to talk about). This is that show. The funny thing is, when I originally decided I wanted to talk about this, it was with the emphasis on the concert, not the date. Who am I kidding? There’s no way I actually cared as much about the concert as I did about the person I was with that night.

Should’a Taken My Ginko
However I need to digress for a paragraph or three here to illustrate “what a drag it is getting’ old.” I need to confess that the years have been screwin’ with my mind just a bit as I’ve tried to recall some of the date-related details in developing this story. When I first began writing, I just knew the album ELO was promoting in this concert was “Face The Music.” Wrong. That album was released in 1975. So, scratching my head, I looked up ELO’s discography to see the dates of the albums they released in the 70s. I saw that “Out of the Blue” was the only LP they released in 1977, when I’m positive this first date with Gabrielle occurred, so I figured that must have been it. But in trying to come up with a possible date of the concert, I realized that something was amiss. I discovered that the tour for “Out of the Blue” was at least 9 months after the period in which I dated Gabrielle. I was confused (and don’t even go there with the Alzheimer’s jokes). After much more searching, I discovered from where my confusion arose.

ELO was extremely prolific during the 70s, averaging an album release per year from 1971 to 1979. Their 1976 album, “A New World Record” was released in December of ‘76 and had a very short concert tour, ending in April ’77* so that the band could begin work recording “Out of the Blue,” which was released in November ’77. The concert we attended was in April ’77, so obviously the album it was supporting was in fact, “A New World Record.”

*Note: If you've read this before and are wondering why the date is now "April," score one for Internet research! I finally found a verifyable chronology for the tour!

(I feel so much better now, don't you?)

What difference does it make? Well, as you’ve noticed, “Out of the Blue” is the title I chose for this story. And to you rock aficionados out there who picked up on the correlation, well dingdingdingding! Give your fine self twenty bonus points!

But my rapidly-depleating acetylcholine aside, “Out of the Blue” was an appropriate theme for this experience on a number of fronts. Although it didn’t turn out to be the name of the album the band was promoting at that time, it would still be a pretty good metaphor for my emotional state several months later (when that tour actually did start), trying to recover from the relationship. And, come to think of it, in regard to that particular date, I’d have to say that it was also a pretty apt description of the color of my nether region by the time the night was over (nyuk nyuk nyuk...).

Yes, Gabrielle was a tease; certainly not of the Machiavellian variety (like some bloggers I’ve read about (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge*), but a tease nonetheless.

But I digress...

Next: The Concert (continued)