A few thoughts on inflation and the dollar....
While procuring seats for the Rolling Stones tour-ending concert in Vegas, scheduled this Saturday, I reflected on my long history of being a Stones fan, and what that means in economic terms. Here's a history of my attendance at live Stones shows:
June, 1975: Baton Rouge, LA, LSU assembly center (capacity, about 13,000)...Stones play the US for the first time in 3 years, in support of the "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" album. Ron Wood had just joined the band, Gerald Ford was president. It was the opening show of the tour. A memorable prop was a giant inflatable dong that projected out of the stage during the song "Star, Star". Back up band was New Awlins own funky Meters. Very memorable night, er, well it might have been had we not gotten our hands on some fine Afghani hash earlier in the week. Tickets were approximately $22/per.
June, 1978: Atlanta, GA, Fox Theatre, capacity 3500, so definitely "hedonically improved" over the '75 show, especially in the acoustically awesome confines of the Fox...touring in support of "Some Girls". Jimmy Carter was president, oil was somewhere around 30 bucks a barrel. The memorable part of this show was the battle to get tickets. Sales were announced abruptly over the radio, and in a mad dash 2 friends and I drove down to the sales location, prepared to spend the night. Luckily, they gave out vouchers for places in line, and it wasn't necessary. The show was awesome, Keith Richards in particular in support of the bands last good studio album. Back-up band was Patty Smith. Most memorable moment was some guy trading his car for tickets! Yes, sweet Virginia, there WERE bubbles in the '70's!<G>
February 8, 2003: MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas (capacity around 14,000 or so): Fast forwarding 25 years, Stones are playing their tour finale' show at the MGM grand. Undoubtedly will be a great one, the recent HBO concerts pretty well describe what the current tour's set lists have been like. After scouring the scalpers offerings (in the range of $900-$1000/seat for lower deck seating, and up to two THOUSAND/seat for floor seats), Patron used that mighty tool of disintermediation, FleaBay to score seats for "only" $380/per. No doubt a great show is in my future, but the SAME clownbucks that bought tickets in a SIMILAR sized arena in '75, will buy 6.3% of a ticket 28 years later (with the band *probably* not quite as sharp, if with a better set list, although there's the added thrill of possibly see Keith keel over dead of a coronary during the solo in "Can You Hear Me Knocking"....whoops, that was the case in '75, too, only then it woulda been a heroin OD!). So, lessee, that calculates to an RSCI (Rolling Stone Consumer Index) ANNUALIZED increase of 10.4%! Yikes! Double-digit inflation lives! (or else I'm just the "greater fool", take yer pick!<G>
As Neil Y put it, Hey, Hey, My, My, Rock and Roll Will Never Die!<G> (And at these prices, even if it did, someone would have it cryonically preserved)!<G> |
