Van Morrison and the Halloween road trip to Boston

Somewhere in the first hour of the ride, I asked him, "What do you think of Nashville Skyline?", “Fuck Johnny Cash!" Silence.

Decades ago right about this time on this day which also was a Friday and also obviously Halloween, I found myself seated in the back seat of a rather large Oldsmobile departing the land of the Basement Tapes for the city of Boston.  It was my first trip to Boston.  I was on my way to my second and third (since there were two shows) concerts by The Band. 

Driving the Oldsmobile was a sax player and riding shotgun a flute player.  I had the window seat on the driver's side and sitting at the other window seat was my friend Dave Gershen, a singer in a local band and sitting between was a guy (Van Morrison) who'd had a few hits with some Irish band about 4 years before and a top ten hit on his own 2 years before.  He was the opening act.

It was my first time seeing him play on a stage.  I'd only met him a couple of days before, playing drums with my brother's band in the living room of the house the band lived in.

I'm still not sure how I got to go on this particular trip, but I wasn't about to say no.  The night before I was given a quickie crash course on how to deal with former teenage rock and roll stars from Belfast who happened to be crazed geniuses.  "Say this, don't say that.  Even better, don't say anything at all and pretend you're invisible."

Somewhere in the first hour of the ride, I asked him, "What do you think of Nashville Skyline?", “Fuck Johnny Cash!"  Silence.  "I'm into John Lee Hooker and Lead Belly and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee."

After that he sort of lightened up. Every once in a while he'd sort of nudge me as of the whole thing was a private joke.

We arrived in Boston and parked on the street about a block from the Boston Symphony.  Before we'd even parked he was saying, "Let's find the package store." 

We started walking down the street and it being Halloween, some guy came ambling down the street in a huge bear costume. 

The singer jumped about six feet sideways.  We found the package store and went backstage at the Boston Symphony.  The guys from The Band were already there.