Whatever ambitions a musician may have, there are few achievements more meaningful than headlining Madison Square Garden. “Musicians accomplish what they set out to accomplish their whole life when they set foot on this stage,” says Hank Ratner, the Garden’s president and CEO. “Bands say that when they played the Garden, that’s when they made it. It’s so special, and so unique to New York.”
On Nov. 1, when the Garden reopens after a massive renovation, the venue will unveil “Garden 366,” a wrap-around photo exhibit on the sixth-floor concourse featuring exclusive shots of events from each day of the calendar year throughout the Garden’s history.
Several of these will be on display this Thursday at 11 a.m. at Madison Square Park, on the spot where the first two Garden arenas (there have been four) sat from 1879-1925. Here are five of Madison Square Garden’s greatest musical moments.
The Rolling Stones’ first MSG concert: Nov. 27, 1969
It was the Stones’ first arena tour, their first tour since Brian Jones left and subsequently died, and the first tour to hint at what true legends of rock they would become. Not even Janis Joplin joining openers Ike and Tina Turner could eclipse Mick Jagger preening and teasing the Garden crowd in a manner that one reviewer compared to “a stoned flamenco dancer.” With songs culled mostly from “Beggars Banquet” and “Let It Bleed,” Jagger exuded rock-star mystique. He showed those who paid the top ticket price of $8 why, as he had declared at the pre-show press conference, his days of getting no sexual satisfaction had reached their end.
Concert for Bangladesh: Aug. 1, 1971
Before Live Aid, No Nukes and the now semi-regular occurrence of the megastar-filled benefit concert, there was George Harrison’s effort to raise money for Bangladeshis suffering from natural disasters and war. For his first official concert since The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, Harrison assembled an all-star lineup including good friends Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar and Ringo Starr; raised almost a quarter of a million dollars for his cause and established a model for rock benefits that remains in place.
Arcade Fire: Aug. 4, 2010
For all their hipster-attired suburbia-baiting, Arcade Fire stunned many by filling the Garden for not one, but two sold-out nights, and then showing that these gods of indie rock were really a top-flight arena act all along. At the end of the show, band members waded out into the crowd, close enough for fans to touch. Madison Square Garden had ushered yet another act into the pantheon of legends.
Bruce Springsteen’s first headlining MSG show: Aug. 21, 1978
The first time Bruce Springsteen played the Garden, opening for Chicago in 1973, the combination of bad sound and apathetic fans left him so agitated that he ran offstage and cried. Five years later, his first show there as headliner, he said, became “the most important night of my life.” A bootleg of the concert was titled “History Is Made at Night.”
Concert for New York City: Oct. 20, 2001
Organized to honor the first responders of 9/11, the all-star show wound up energizing the entire city in the process. Legends such as Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Billy Joel (and many more) turned up to heal New York. But the undisputed highlight was The Who. The sight of firefighters joyously singing along to the band’s powerful takes on “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” left nary a dry eye in the house.