Re: Robert vs the Audience

["S R.-Weiser" <s_dweisr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:48 PM 3/13/98 -0600, Jean Lorrah wrote:

>If it's the time I'm thinking of, it's not an abrupt American "Shut up!"
>but a frustrated British "ShAArrr-uh-up."  Almost more of a question than
>a command.
>
>I've heard a number of different shows in which Robert sounds like a
>substitute teacher who has lost control of the classroom.  Jean
>
Dear Jean,
The early shows in particular up through May 1970, were a bit out of
control, because they were so full of enthusiastic celebration. Zeppelin
stirred up people's libidos at the base level, and when one makes that kind
of an appeal to people who are not necessarily expecting to get "blown
away," it's not easy to get 10,000 people upwards to remain docile.
Zeppelin had the crowds so turned on they forgot themselves. I don't think
that they expected that kind of a totally all out response from audiences
and the security forces were basically fairly minimal. They relied upon
local county and state police. In the earlier days there were no real
separate security companies. The stages did not have a security wall
separating the performers from the crowd. The stages were no more than
about four to four and a half feet off of the floor.
Classrooms have what anywhere from 15 to 35 students at a time, or in a
lecture hall, maybe 250 to 500? Hmm, let's see the difference between a
ratio of 1 to 14,000 is a little different than a ratio of 1 to 25. I think
that Robert did far better than a substitute teacher would have in any
event. To go from a crowd of eleven or twelve the night that Jimmy met him
to crowds in the 13,000 to 19,000 range in a less than a year is phenomenal!
Could you have driven a crowd wild with your sensuality and then controlled
one that size all by yourself when you were twenty-one years old? 
Methinks thou dost protest a bit much, professor.
Sincerely,
Shar