1970 rollin' in sight

Writer Steven Rosen takes us back to June 13, 1970: His article, Pop Goes Cincinnati, marks the recent 40th anniversary of the famous Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival which was nationally televised, and included a crowd surfing, peanut butter shmearing Iggy Pop fronting the Stooges. Truly ahead of his time, this little act of breaking the fourth wall would go on to become rock legend...right up there with Ozzy's bat-biting antics, and Jim Morrison's crotch-bearing myth. Other bands that appeared that day included Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Traffic, Bob Seger, Mott The Hoople, Ten Years After, Bloodrock, and Brownsville Station.

"Forty years ago this Sunday, Iggy Pop — 23-year-old front man of The Stooges, a defiantly loud and grungy Detroit band — created Rock & Roll mythology at the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival.

Bare-chested, singing “T.V. Eye,” he scrambled from the outdoor stage at the home of the Cincinnati Reds, Crosley Field, and went into the crowd, climbing atop the shoulders of frenzied fans to stand above them, like Jesus on water, held up by their sea of hands as he pointed outward. The image, captured on video and still photography (above), has become iconic." Continued here.