Hello friends. This is my first post in the Music for life community. I wanted to write about something important for me, and at the same time, related to music.
It happened on March 26th, 2016. Rolling Stones, the legendary band was giving a concert in Havana for free. It was the first-ever concert in Cuba, and the rock legends remain the biggest act to ever grace the stage of Ciudad Deportiva.
Half a million people assisted to the free concert, whether they knew about Rolling Stones or they were rock fans, everybody felt the call of that powerful name.
I was there and I had tickets for the front line at the concert, just behind public figures and politicians. My friends and I arrived at the stadium at 7 h before the starting hour. We just sat there, taking pictures and listening to the good rock vibrating in the stadium as a prequel of what was coming.
If you don't know, in my country(Cuba), the rock was forbidden music during the '60s-'80s. People listened to the Beatles and Rolling Stones hidden in their small cassettes.
Sadly, my generation mostly inherited reggaeton and very few knew about good rock music. The concert was announced one week before. I was already listening to all Rolling Stones music over and over, so I could enjoy the concert.
When Mick Jagger appeared in the scenario, the entire set was on fire. People didn't know the songs, but it didn't matter. Music is a universal language and certainly “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, the opening song, was enough to make everyone hum and sing.
I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at my ma in the driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumping Jack Flash
When Mick Jagger appeared in the scenario, the entire set was on fire. People didn't know the songs, but it didn't matter. Music is a universal language and certainly “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, the opening song, was enough to make everyone hum and sing.
I was hyped, thrilled, dunno how to describe the sound of electric guitar, drums, and the voice of Mick Jagger resonating in Ciudad Deportiva Stadium. Of course, Mick Jagger tried to pronounce a few words in Spanish, enough to fire again the scenario. I still can hear him.
"Hola Habana, buenas noches mi gente de Cuba" (Hello Havana, good evening to my people of Cuba"
At the rhythm of "Miss You" and the catchy chorus we all danced and jumped. This was one of those songs you listen and you just spend the entire day humming.
I've been holding out so long
I've been sleeping all alone
Lord I miss you
They finished with the most famous song Satisfaction and I literally started crying because I had that song in the top 10 of rock song I always dreamt to hear live. You know when you are listening to something really good and you imagine yourself singing out loud in a concert or being part of a video clip lol.
The scenography was absolutely awesome too. I mean, look at the stage.
After that day, I really believed I could attend concerts of my favorite rock bands like AC/DC, Metallica, SOAD, Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Hope someday I could experience live music from those monsters.
Pictures were taken from my cellphone and different websites as
https://www.kolotv.com/
https://www.independentespanol.com/
WOW, that must have been an amazing experience you got! Especially since the genre, the band songs are not well known, but the crowd reaction like 'crazy' to the performance.
You write: half a million people were involved. Like 500.000 people? That must have been the biggest of the biggest concert ever in the whole world? Or did I misunderstand something?
Am curious about how you guys got access to the 'forbidden' music, the cassettes? Illegal import by local people having eg family over in the US? Or US people try to make some money by music trafficking?
Must have been crazy times back then.
It was incredible. We had to walk 3 km back home because streets around were closed to vehicles. I read in Wikipedia that there were 500k people. The concert was made in a Sport Stadium because no theater or building had enough capacity. Besides it was for free. I can tell you it was crowded.
Well, I'm 24 but my parents and oldest friends told me about it. Illegal importing and illegal radiofrequencies were the only way to get access to rock music. Now it's very common, still we lost the golden age of rock.
The beauty of music is: Much is recorded so the Golden Age of Rock will never be lost 😉
This post gives you a point for the initial distribution of our tribe's token. 🎶