Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
In the summer of 1974, I was a 24 year old taxi driver in Hyannis, Mass. At that time there was an auditorium in the next town of South Yarmouth called The Cape Cod Coliseum. It was originally built for a minor league hockey team, but they also held rock concerts there.
One warm summer night around 1 AM, my dispatcher called on my two-way radio and told me to go to The Coliseum, obviously to pick up a party that had called for a cab. When I arrived, three long-haired guys with British accents climbed into the back of my Checker cab. They were Emerson, Lake and Palmer who had just finished playing their gig and wanted to go back to their hotel in Hyannis.
I immediately recognized Keith Emerson, as I had one of their albums at home and had always admired his talent on keyboards. Not wanting to come across as awestruck, I asked what seemed to me to be a reasonable question: “How was the audience tonight?”
Apparently, they found this to be a stupid and ridiculous question, as they immediately fell into hysterical and derisive laughter. I understood that they were stoned, and that was fine, but they didn’t have to be so mean. They really acted like jerks and I completely lost respect for them.
This post was submitted by Marc DeLorenzo.
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