cd318,
Yes. Between his 1st and 2nd LP. He was a scrawny, skinny kid then. And Parsons, that was between his two LPs of course, he was dead a mere 5 months or so later. I sat in the front row at that and most of the other shows, which as you would know if you were ever there was almost literally sitting in the lap of the artists. A friend was a waitress downstairs and she would get me in early and for free through the back. I met Debbie Harry through her, as Ms Harry was a waitress there before Blondie, but of course back then she was just Debbie and I didn't get to know her well. I eventually saw her again though with Blondie, also saw Bowie, Talking Heads, Dave van Ronk, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper (with a "C"). I missed Phil Ochs :-(
I miss those days. Micky Ruskin was a special guy, Max's was a special place, upstairs and downstairs. I think Micky died of lung cancer at a very young age, maybe 50. Mickey helped artists in need. I think I paid for only half of what I ever ate and drank there, as I myself was a struggling artist at the time and he would just wave the tab. It was no wonder he was broke all the time, but he did built up quite a collection of 60s artwork by chamberlain, Marden, Warhol, Poons, Andre, Weiner etc because they would run up these huge tabs and then just pay him with an artwork. They would be worth a fortune these days. The walls were like an art gallery.
The Bottom Line had superb acoustics, maybe the best of any club that I have heard. Miles set itself was great, but as you can imagine he was horrible. It was the Agartha period: great music but in hindsight it was also a glimpse of the beginning of the end.
