Re:Chas's Music Column - Bumber December Issue W/E 15th, 22nd & 29thr

Chasplaya
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Sun Nov 02, 2014 1:40 pm

Django Inflamed…Dion Disturbed…Ozzy Outraged

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of October 27

Django Reinhardt Dion Ozzy Osbourne

1928: A candle starts a fire in a gypsy caravan in France…the left hand of 18-year-old guitarist Django Reinhardt is badly burned, rendering two fingers useless…with his right leg also injured, Django is bedridden for 18 months and uses the time to rebuild his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately becomes recognized as one of the greatest guitarists in any genre…

1952: St. Louis R&B pianist Johnnie Johnson hires a young guitarist by the name of Chuck Berry who will keep his day gig as a hairdresser for the next three years while playing out at night…the combination of Berry’s blues licks infused with rockabilly and country influences and Johnson’s rollicking barrelhouse piano will prove a winning combination that’ll move millions of records to become one of the first crossover acts as the pair stakes out the new musical territory called rock ‘n’ roll…

1956: R&B singer Clarence Henry’s “Ain’t Got No Home” is released on Argo Records... because he croaks like a frog on the record, he is nicknamed “Frogman” and for the rest of his career he’ll be known as Clarence “Frogman” Henry…

1957: Elvis is warned prior to a show at L.A.’s Pan Pacific Auditorium that he may be prosecuted for lewd behavior if he shakes his hips during his performance…members of the LAPD’s vice squad film the show but apparently give The King a little wiggle room since no charges are filed…

1960: Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me”...both songs climb high on the pop charts, to number 10 and number 4 respectively, and will prove to have long legs, spawning countless covers over the years…

1961: A customer tries to buy a German-released Beatles single, “My Bonnie,” at the NEMS record shop in Liverpool…the store’s manager, Brian Epstein, says he’ll look into getting it…the rest, as they say, is history…

1964: 31-year-old Salvatore Phillip Bono marries 18-year-old Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere…they’ll perform as Caesar and Cleo for a time, but won’t strike chart gold until they become Sonny and Cher…this same week, American pop star Dion stalks off the set of the British teen TV show Ready, Steady Go when he grows irritated with the audience dancing around him…ironically, the song he’s singing is “Donna the Prima Donna”…

1967: Iggy and the Stooges play their first gig at a halloween party…their three-chord mayhem will become the template for the punk music movement that’s still years away…

1968: George Harrison’s soundtrack album, Wonderwall Music, is released in Britain as the first record on the newly created Apple Records label…a mashup of mostly instrumental Western and Eastern sounds, the record is an early harbinger of the world music movement that won’t show up for another couple of decades…commenting on the soundtrack’s Western elements in the 1980s, Harrison dismisses them as "loads of horrible mellotron stuff and a police siren"…

1970: Jim Morrison of The Doors gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates during a show in Miami...Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas marries actor Dennis Hopper...they divorce eight days later, proving wrong those who said the marriage wouldn’t last a week…

1971: Twenty-four year-old Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia snuffing out the life of one of rock’s great guitarists…

1974: To launch their new Swan Song record label and celebrate Halloween, Led Zeppelin throws a bash in the Chislehurst Caves in Surrey, England…women dressed in nuns’ habits serve booze, a nude woman reclines in a coffin swimming in jelly and nude male wrestlers tussle…on hand are fellow Swan Song artists Maggie Bell, The Pretty Things and Bad Company…

1975: As a measure of what a big deal he has become, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek following the release of his monster LP Born to Run…this same week, Queen releases “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single...with three and-a-half minutes being the usual limit to the length of a single, the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker have to convince executives at EMI to release the six minute recording without any edits...the single will top the UK chart for nine weeks and go to #2 in the U.S....it will to #1 again in the UK in 1991 after lead singer Freddie Mercury’s death from AIDS-related bronchopneumonia…

1977: A Belgian travel agency files suit against The Sex Pistols charging the punk band with ripping off an image from one of its brochures for the sleeve of the single “Holidays in the Sun”…

1980: T-Rex co-founder Steve Peregrine-Took dies when he chokes on a cocktail cherry after a night of morphine and magic mushroom consumption…this week also marks The Boss’s first No. 1 album when The River tops the Billboard LP chart…

1984: At a Berkeley, California show, the Grateful Dead designate an area for fans to record bootlegs…also this week, Marvin Gaye Sr. receives a five year sentence for manslaughter after fatally shooting his son…

1986: The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill that will become the first rap LP to reach #1 on the pop album chart…

1989: The Squeeze inaugurate the long running MTV Unplugged show when they tape their performance in New York…

1990: Michael Waite of British reggae band Musical Youth is sent to prison for four years over his involvement in a robbery…meanwhile, Axl Rose is released on $10,000 bail after allegedly bashing a bottle on a neighbor’s head after the neighbor called the cops over loud music coming from the GNR frontman’s abode…and also this week, at a show in Seattle, Billy Idol dumps 600 dead fish in Faith No More’s dressing room…the band retaliates by strolling onstage nude during Idols’ set…

1991: Three members of Pink Floyd are injured in a Mexican auto race when their car plunges down a 230-foot embankment near San Luis Potosi… guitarist Steve O'Rourke suffers a broken leg, David Gilmour receives blows to the head, and drummer Nick Mason, though injured, continues the race …

1995: Business manager Yolanda Saldivar is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena...she murdered the singer upon being confronted about embezzled funds…

1996: The Stone Roses call it quits…singer Ian Brown says, “having spent the last ten years in the filthiest business in the universe, it's a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses”…also this week, Slash announces he’s parting company with Guns N’ Roses saying he and frontman Axl Rose have only been polite with each other twice over the past two years…

1997: R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry announces his retirement from the band…he plans to take up farming…he’s occasionally joined his old bandmates since for reunion shows…

1998: Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer sues former bandmate Ken Kinneally who played with the guitarist in the pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharaohs … Setzer charges that Kinneally licensed 1978 studio tracks without his consent that turned up on the Collectibles Records LP Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharaohs…in this same litigation-heavy week, three former members of the S.F. punk outfit The Dead Kennedys sue former leader Jello Biafra charging he diverted money due them…

1999: Korn debuts a new single, “Falling Away From Me,” on the season premiere of South Park...the boys in the band also lend their voices and likenesses to the episode…also this week, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, the surviving members of The Who, reunite for the first time in two years for a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand...KISS, Tony Bennett, and the Dixie Chicks also are on the bill…

2002: Hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead his Jamaica, Queens recording studio...police pursue many leads and theories as to motive: unpaid drug bills, rival rappers, armed robbery, insurance scams, a rivalry with Murder, Inc. over 50 Cent, and more...the crime remains unsolved to this day…

2004: An arrest warrant is issued for Motley Crue singer Vince Neil after he allegedly knocked a sound man unconscious at Gilley’s nightclub…this same week R. Kelly is bounced off a tour with Jay-Z after Hova says he was doused in pepper spray by a member of Kelly’s entourage…

2005: In a Las Vegas auction, the white suit worn by John Lennon on the cover of Abbey Road goes for $118,000…an Austin Princess hearse that appeared in the “Imagine” video fetches an additional $150,000…

2006: Kurt Cobain passes Elvis on the Forbes magazine list of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities”...it’s estimated that the Nirvana frontman raked in $50 million over the past year...a substantial part of that sum results from licensing Nirvana songs for movies and TV...asked what criteria is used to decide on such licensing, Courtney Love’s manager Peter Asher says, “We’re interested in cool scripts that make use of what the songs mean...No rock bands, no suicides, nobody that’s trying to make any kind of Nirvana story.”...also this week, nearly four decades after his death, Jimi Hendrix graces the featured artists page of Verizon Mobile’s ringtone site allowing countless Jimi fans to blast “Purple Haze” via their cell phones…

2007: Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney snares 36 Ozzy Osbourne fans wanted for various infractions in a sting...the Ozzheads were offered free tickets to Osbourne’s show in Fargo, ND only to be popped when they showed up at the venue...Ozzy is not amused saying, “Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests. It’s insulting to me and to my audience, and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.”...

2009: Rosanne Cash releases her new album, The List, revealing that the collection of cover songs is based on a list of 100 classic American songs created by her father, Johnny Cash, aboard his tour bus in 1972 … Rosanne recalls the moment her father handed her the list saying,”This is your education.”…also this week, a decade after his retirement, country star Garth Brooks announces he’ll be holding down a five-year residency at the Wynn Casino in Vegas starting in December…the venue is an intimate 1,500-seat theater that’ll feature the star singing his hits accompanied only by his acoustic guitar…

2011: Promoters of a Metallica concert in Delhi, India are arrested on fraud charges after they pull the plug on the show following the collapse of a security barrier then fail to refund about 25,000 ticket holders’ money…

2013: The family of deceased soul man Marvin Gaye files suit against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke charging the pair lifted elements of Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up” in creating their mega-hit “Blurred Lines”…to bolster their claim, the family cites magazine interviews in which Thicke acknowledged connections between his song and Gaye’s…the single is also attacked by social critics for being misogynistic and seeming to promote rape…

This Week’s Hatches

October 27: session drummer Gary Chester (1927), Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1933), session guitarist Kermit Chandler (1945), Steve Miller Band keyboardist Byron Allred (1949), E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent (1949), Judas Priest guitarist Ken Downing (1951), guitarist Peter Todd of The Thompson Twins (1953), Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon (1958), Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver vocalist Scott Weiland (1967), singer Kelly Osbourne (1984)

October 28: jazz singer Cleo Laine (1927), southern rock musician Charlie Daniels (1936), singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1936), British blues-rock legend Graham Bond (1937), Hank Marvin of The Shadows (1941), Wayne Fontana of The Mindbenders (1945), guitarist Rickie Reynolds of Black Oak Arkansas (1948), Telma “Dawn” Hopkins of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1948), songwriter and producer Desmond Child (1953), drummer Stephen Morris of New Order and Joy Division (1957), Blow Monkeys singer and guitarist William Reid (1958), Neville Henry of The Blow Monkeys (1959), Italian musician and singer-songwriter Eros Ramazzotti (1963), singer-songwriter Ben Harper (1969), country star Brad Paisley (1972), singer-songwriter Justin Guarini (1978)

October 29: songwriter Vivian Ellis (1903), jazz arranger/composer Neal Hefti (1922), Denny Laine of The Moody Blues and Wings (1944), Mickey Gallagher of Frampton's Camel (1945), Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green (1946), Rob Van Leeuwen of Shocking Blue (1946), keyboardist Roger O'Donnell of The Cure (1955), Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot (1955), Randy Jackson of the Jackson 5 (1961), Einar Orn Benediktsson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Peter Timmins of The Cowboy Junkies (1965), Douglas “SA” Vincent Martinez of 311 (1969), Toby Smith of Jamiroquai (1970), Chris Baio of Vampire Weekend (1984)

October 30: singer The Big Bopper J.P. Richardson (1930), bebop trumpeter Clifford Brown (1930), Sun Records rockabilly artist Ray Smith (1934), Grace Slick born Grace Wing (1939), Motown songwriter and singer Eddie Holland (1939), drummer Chris Slade of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1946), Timothy Schmit of The Eagles and Poco (1947), bassist David Green of Air Supply (1949), Otis Williams of the Temptations (1949), Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna (1960), guitarist Jerry De Borg of Jesus Jones (1963), Gavin Rossdale of Bush (1967), Canadian rapper Snow born Darrin O'Brien (1969), Eels bassist Tommy Walter (1970)

October 31: western singer Dale Evans (1912), tenor saxman Illinois Jacquet (1922), singer-songwriter Tom Paxton (1937), Argent guitarist Russ Ballard (1947), Bernard Edwards of Chic (1952), South African singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg (1953), U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. (1961), The Smiths and Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr (1963), Colm O'Ciosoig of My Bloody Valentine (1964), singer Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow (1965), Adam Horovitz a.k.a. King Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys (1966), Vanilla Ice born Robert Van Winkle (1967), Linn Berggren of Ace Of Base (1970), bassist Charles Moniz of Avril Lavigne's band (1980), guitarist Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance (1981)

November 1: blues singer Sippie Wallace (1898), Peacock Records owner Don Robey (1903), bassist Ric(k) Grech of Traffic and Blind Faith (1946), Fleetwood Mac guitarist and songwriter Bob Weston (1947), Canadian musician and producer David Foster (1949), Dan Peek of America (1950), Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang (1951), singer Lyle Lovett (1957), guitarist Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen (1963), Willie D of The Geto Boys (1966), Stereolab singer Mary Hanson (1966), LaTavia Roberson of Destiny's Child (1978)

November 2: jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan (1908), guitarist Bruce Welch of The Shadows (1941), Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1944), singer-songwriter J.D. Souther (1945), Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (1947), British R&B singer Maxine Nightingale (1949), drummer Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (1957), Matt Sorum of Cult, Guns N' Roses, and Velvet Revolver (1960), pop and country singer-songwriter k.d. lang born Kathryn Dawn Lang (1961), Bobby Dall of Poison (1963), Reginald Arvizu of Korn (1969), John Hampson of Nine Days (1971), Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla (1975), hip-hop star Nelly born Cornell Haynes Jr. (1978)

This Week’s Dispatches

October 27: Steve Peregrine-Took of T-Rex (1980), rockabilly Donnie Owens (1994), guitarist Robert White of the Motown Funk Brothers house band (1994), innovative producer and engineer Tom Dowd (2002), Lou Reed (2013)

October 28: R&B reedman Earl Bostic (1965), jazz arranger Oliver Nelson (1975), flashy R&B singer Billy Wright (1991), R&B keyboard player and singer Jon Thomas (1995), country singer Porter Waggoner (2007)

October 29: Duane Allman (1971), Orleans and Meat Loaf drummer Wells Kelly (1984), bandleader Woody Herman (1987), saxophonist Henry Berthold “Spike” Robinson (2001), Canadian singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell (2009)

October 30: swing sax player Chu Berry 1941), UK blues and R&B singer Jo-Ann Kelly (1990), TV host and musician Steve Allen (2000), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (2002), Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke (2003), crooner Robert Goulet (2007), former Ramones manager Linda Stein (2007), producer and saxophonist Mike Terry (2008), harmonica virtuoso and longtime Steve Miller sideman Norton Buffalo (2009)

October 31: Spanky And Our Gang guitarist Malcolm Hale (1968), music theater producer Joseph Papp (1991), record label mogul Lester Sill (1994), Bayside drummer John Holohan (2005), Brazilian drummer Antonio Luiz Alves de Souza (2009)

November 1: pioneer Delta blues singer Tommy Johnson (1956), blues singer Sippie Wallace (1986), Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight (2004), Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (2008), hip-hop record executive Shakir Stewart (2008), Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black (2008)

November 2: genial bluesman Mississippi John Hurt (1966), Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat (1990), songwriter Mort Shuman (1991), Sammy Kaye Band vocalist and songwriter Wandra Merrell (1994)


Chasplaya
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Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:52 pm

Louis Louis Probed…Lennon Ribs Royals…Willie Stripped…Fiona Rambles On

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of November 3

The Kingsmen John Lennon Wille Nelson Fiona Apple


1955: Recording in Nashville, The Everly Brothers cut four tracks in a mere 22 minutes with friend Chet Atkins behind the glass…they’ll subsequently score a short-lived deal with Columbia Records that evaporates after their first single tanks…

1956: The Nat King Cole Show debuts on NBC making the smoky-voiced pianist and singer the first black performer to host his own TV show…

1957: Sun Records releases Jerry Lee Lewis’ rambunctious “Great Balls of Fire”…the rockabilly piano man will go on to sell more than five million copies around the world…

1960: In an odd bit of synchronicity, country singer Johnny (“Battle of New Orleans”) Horton dies in an auto wreck after playing a gig at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas, the same venue that hosted Hank Williams’ final date...Horton’s widow had once been Mrs. Williams…

1961: After catching The Beatles playing a lunchtime gig at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, record shop owner Brian Epstein signs the Fab Four to a management contract…

1963: “Louie Louie” is released by the Kingsmen...one of the most-covered songs of all time, it is charged that the slurred lyrics are obscene...the song is banned on some radio stations, especially in Indiana where Governor Matthew Welch determines that the ditty is definitely dirty...even the FBI gets caught up in the controversy though the Bureau ultimately wraps up a 31-month investigation inconclusively stating that they’re “unable to interpret any of the wording in the record”…also this week, The Beatles are headliners at The Royal Variety Show in London with Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother in attendance…not one to be awed by royalty, John Lennon tells the crowd, “In the cheaper seats you clap your hands. The rest of you, just rattle your jewelry”…

1965: The Fillmore opens in San Francisco with The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane headlining…the auditorium will become ground zero for psychedelic rock…

1967: The movie How I Won the War starring John Lennon opens in the US...it is the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle…also this week, Rolling Stone magazine hits the newsstands for the first time…the debut issue has a cover shot of Lennon in an army uniform and includes a free roach clip inside…

1969: the Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together charts as the group’s 12th and final #1 hit…the song, originally intended as a Junior Walker single, was cut by Diana Ross singing over backing tracks by by Maxine and Julia Waters…unhappy with the lead vocal, producer-songwriter Johnny Bristol harmonizes and adds ad libs to Ross's track that are accidentally recorded…his contributions remain audible in the released 45…

1970: Bob Dylan records “George Jackson,” a tribute to the black militant leader killed in a California prison shootout…

1971: Led Zeppelin releases their fourth album that has no official name and is variously referred to as the runes album, ZoSo and Led Zeppelin IV…meanwhile, at the end of an Elvis concert in Minneapolis, while trying to cool down the crowd that’s demanding another encore, announcer Al Dvorin utters the immortal words: “Elvis has left the building”…

1972: Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular paycheck when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry…

1974: Bachman Turner Overdrive’s single “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” with its distinctive stuttering vocal rises to the top of the Billboard pop chart…the vocal, intended as joke to be shared only with frontman Randy Bachman’s brother who has a stutter was never replaced as originally planned…the band’s label loves the gag version and it will turn out to be the band’s only No. 1 hit…also this week, Ted Nugent wins a squirrel shooting contest by plugging one at 150 yards…over the three-day event Nugent dispatches a total of 27 critters…

1977: The manager of the Virgin record store in Nottingham, England is arrested for displaying a poster advertising the new punk album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols is deemed indecent by the local cops …meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz documenting The Band’s last concert opens to rave reviews in New York…

1978: Donna Summer’s cover of “MacArthur Park” becomes the #1 pop hit...a decade earlier actor Richard Harris had taken his bombastic reading of the Jimmy Webb tune noted for its incomprehensible lyrics to #2…

1979: The hook-laden single “Pop Muzik” appropriately enough becomes the No. 1 pop music single this week…

1982: Soft Cell sets a UK chart record with its hit “Tainted Love” that enjoys a 43-week run on the Top 100 chart…originally recorded in 1965 by Gloria Jones with a Motown-flavored arrangement, the song’s been covered many times since, including Marilyn Mansons sinister 2001 version…

1983: RCA records coughs up $30 million to sign Latino boy band Menudo…

1985: The theme from the TV show Miami Vice rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100...the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 on the album chart where it will reside for 11 weeks beating the former TV-theme record-holder, The Music from Peter Gunn…

1986: Willie Nelson plays a corrupt cop in a guest appearance on TV’s Miami Vice…

1988: Kylie Minogue’s cover of the Carole King song “The Locomotion” reaches the No. 3 spot on the singles chart making it the first song to reach the Top 5 with three different versions, each scoring a hit in a different decade…the original version by Little Eva did the trick in 1962 while Grand Funk Railroad’s cover went gold in 1974…

1989: Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, who had a #1 hit in 1966 with “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” dies in Tennessee of brain injuries suffered in 1988 after being shot in the head while riding in a Guatemalan cab…Sadler had been a medic in the Special Forces celebrated in the song…he later worked as an actor, ran a Nashville bar, and wrote dozens of military adventure novels…Sadler also was a soldier of fortune and was arrested in 1978 and 1981 over shootings…in 1984 he settled in Guatemala where he often gave locals medical care and established a trust fund for Vietnamese orphans…

1990: The Righteous Brothers blue-eyed soul classic “Unchained Melody” gets a second run on the pop charts 25 years after its original 1965 release when the rave-up ballad is used on the soundtrack to the movie Ghost…the song as sung by Todd Duncan was originally used on the soundtrack to a little-seen prison flick called Unchained…among the most popular ballads of all time, it’s been covered hundreds of times in dozens of languages…also this week, the Internal Revenue Service seizes Willie Nelson’s bank accounts and real estate to help cover his $32 million tax bill…many of his assets are purchased at auction by Willie’s friends and fans who donate or rent his stuff back to him at very friendly rates…his lawyer will get the bill reduced to $16 million and Willie will put out an LP, The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? with proceeds earmarked for Uncle Sam…the IRS finally settles with Nelson for an undisclosed sum in 1993…

1991: Blues, soul, rock, and country are all well represented when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Bobby “Blue” Bland, Booker T & The MGs, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, The Isley Brothers, The Yardbirds, and Sam and Dave…meanwhile, guitarist Izzy Stradlin announces he’s leaving Guns N’ Roses saying his decision is a combination of issues with frontman Axl Rose and a reluctance to hang with his hard-partying bandmates while pursuing his new sober lifestyle…

1992: Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin sign a $39 million publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music…this same week Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” reaches the end of the #1 road when it makes its 13th and final appearance in the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top slot…also this week, Axl Rose is convicted of property damage in the wake of a Guns N’ Roses show in Missouri...he gets two years probation and is ordered to pay $50,000 in fines…

1993: Pearl Jam sets a record with its LP Vs. by selling 950,378 copies in a single week…

1995: Hootie and the Blowfish and Bob Dylan reach an out-of-court settlement over the band’s unauthorized use of Dylan’s lyrics in their song, “Only Want To Be With You”…also this week, The Wizard of Oz in Concert is performed at the Lincoln Center in New York...the cast includes Jewel as Dorothy, Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, and Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man…

1998: Little Jimmy Dickens’ appearance at the Grand Ole Opry marks his 50th year as a member of the cast...the diminutive singer is best-remembered for his 1965 hit, “May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose”…Rick James suffers a stroke when a blood vessel in his neck ruptures during a head-banging performance in Denver…

1999: As a follow-up to her tersely titled debut album, Tidal, Fiona Apple releases her sophomore effort with the improbably lengthy title, When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He’ll Win The Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters The Ring There’s Nobody To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is The Greatest Of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where To Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right...yeah, right...whatever…

2004: Eric Clapton is made a commander of the Order of the British Empire in a Buckingham Palace ceremony…

2005: Mike Love of the Beach Boys files suit against his cousin Brian Wilson claiming that a British promotion for Wilson’s 2004 album Smile that gave away 2.6 million Beach Boys compilation discs cut into the band’s sales...this marks the seventh time that Beach Boys have sued one another...this same week, Madonna notches her 36th Top Ten single with "Hung Up," tying Elvis Presley as the act with the most Top Ten hits...The Beatles have 34...the song is is also her 47th Top 40 single—the most for any female artist…

2006: Former Orleans singer and guitarist John Hall is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 19th New York congressional district...at his celebration party he skips playing his signature tune “Still the One” in favor of Steve Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot”...

2007: The Eagles’ first studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden, debuts at No. 1 with sales of 710,000 copies, this despite it only being available at Walmart and the band’s website...also this week, Garth Brooks passes Elvis to become the second-best-selling artist of all time with 123 million albums shipped...he has a way to catch The Beatles however, who hold the record with 170 million discs…

2008: Van Morrison reprises his critically revered 1968 LP Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl supported by a full string section as well as Richard Davis on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar who both performed on the original studio release …

2009: Morrissey abruptly ends a show in Liverpool after being hit in the eye by a plastic beer bottle…he wishes the crowd a good night and departs the stage…

2010: Neil Young’s hybrid-powered vintage Lincoln causes a fire in his California memorabilia warehouse…fire crews are able to save about 70 percent of the warehouse's contents, including other cars and music equipment…

This Week’s Hatches

November 3: film composer John Barry (1933), Brian Poole of The Tremeloes (1941), acoustic guitar virtuoso Bert Jansch (1943), Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper (1946), Scottish singer and actress Marie McDonald Lawrie AKA Lulu (1948), Adam Ant born Stuart Goddard (1954), Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson (1973)

November 4: Harry Elson of The Friends Of Distinction (1938), blues and roots musician Delbert McClinton (1940), Mike Smith of Amen Corner (1947), multi-instrumentalist and producer Dan Hartman (1951), Squeeze singer/guitarist Chris Difford (1954), pianist Yanni born Yiannis Hrysomallis (1954), Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (1957), Puff Daddy born Sean Combs (1969)

November 5: cowboy singer Roy Rogers (1911), seminal blues and R&B musician Ike Turner (1931), Art Garfunkel (1941), Pablo Gomez of Los Bravos (1943), disco singer Loleatta Holloway (1946), Gram Parson of The Byrds (1946), Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits (1947), Don McDougall of Guess Who (1948), Orioles singer Tommy Gaither (1950), Rob Fisher of Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher (1956), Helen O'Hara of Dexy's Midnight Runners (1956), Mike Score of A Flock Of Seagulls (1957), Air Supply guitarist David Moyse (1957), Canadian pop singer Bryan Adams (1959), Wilco drummer Ken Coomer (1959), David Bryson of Counting Crows (1961), singer-actress Andrea McArdle (1963), Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood (1971), singer-songwriter Ryan Adams (1974), Kevin Jonas of the Jonas Brothers (1987)

November 6: saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax (1814), march composer and sousaphone inventor John Philip Sousa (1854), composer Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), composer Gus Kahn (1886), bandleader and arranger Ray Conniff (1916), Joseph Pope of The Tams (1933), Texas country singer Guy Clark (1941), versatile Texas rocker Doug Sahm (1942), Glenn Frey of The Eagles (1948), Steppenwolf bassist John Rushton Moreve (1948), Goth rocker Rozz Williams of Christian Death (1961), Dio guitarist Craig Goldy (1961), Corey Glover of Living Colour (1964), shred guitarist Paul Gilbert of Racer X and Mr. Big (1966), New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia (1972), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

November 7: John Jordan of of The Four Vagabonds (1913), trumpeter Al Hirt (1922), opera diva Joan Sutherland (1926), Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary (1937), pop and R&B singer Dee Clark 1938), Joe Gilbert of singing duo Joe and Eddie (1940), pop and rock singer Johnny Rivers (1942), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell (1943), songwriter and founding member of Quicksilver Messenger Service Dino Valenti (1943), Roy Wood of The Move and ELO (1946), Cutting Crew guitarist Kevin MacMichael (1951), producer and remixer Jellybean Benitez (1957), Tommy Thayer of Kiss (1960), Liam O Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers (1964), Russell Barrett of Chapterhouse (1968), Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck (1971), singer-songwriter Lorde born Ella Yelich-O'Connor (1996)

November 8: pop singer Patti Page (1927), jazz vocalist Chris Connor (1927), pop and R&B producer Bert Burns (1929), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), sax player Rodney Slater of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (1944), The Turtles drummer Don Murray (1945), pop singer Minnie Riperton (1947), blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter Bonnie Raitt (1949), Gerald Alston of The Manhattans (1951), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), session drummer Ricky Lawson (1954), former guitarist for The Cure Porl AKA Pearl Thompson (1957), singer/actor Leif Garrett (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968), Gareth “Rat” Pring of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin (1970)

November 9: bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of CCR (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult (1948), Marshall Tucker Band bassist Tommy Caldwell (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad “Scarface” Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), Jamaican R&B and reggae singer-songwriter Diana King (1970), blues and roots-music singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), Uncle Kracker born Matthew Shafer (1974), Sisqó of R&B group Dru Hill (1977)

This Week’s Dispatches

November 3: jazz sax player Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1983), electronic instrument inventor Leon Theremin (1993), blues harmonica player William Clarke (1996), skiffle bandleader Lonnie Donegan (2002), string arranger Robert Kirby (2009), Cory "Flattus Maximus" Smoot of Gwar (2011)

November 4: Ivory "Deek" Watson of The Ink Spots (1969), Ronnie Goodson of The Hi-Lites (1980), MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith (1994), ex Shonen Knife drummer Mana “China” Nishiura (2005), jazz percussionist Milt Holland (2005)

November 5: piano magician Art Tatum (1956), country singer Johnny Horton (1960), slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk born Robert Lee McCollum (1967), bandleader Guy Lombardo (1977), Bobby Nunn of The Coasters (1986), Barry Sadler (1989),violinist Vladimir Horowitz (1989), jazz pianist Bobby Scott (1990), saxophonist Eddie Harris (1996), Billy Guy of The Coasters (2002), Robert Lee “Bobby” Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers (2003), king of surf guitar Link Wray born Frederick Lincoln Wray, Jr. (2005)

November 6: novelty record producer Dickie Goodman (1989), Epic Soundtracks AKA Kevin Godfrey of Swell Maps (1997), leader of the doo-wopping Meadowlarks (1998), jazz pianist Pete Jolly (2004), Western swing pioneer Hank Thompson (2007)

November 7: Carter Cornelius of Cornelius Brothers with Sister Rose (1991), session bassist Jimmy Jones (1995), jazz drummer Vernel Fournier (2000), rockabilly and pop singer Ralph Joseph "Jody" Reynolds (2008)

November 8: blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968), R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), brilliant New Orleans R&B pianist James Booker (1983), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), Tommy Comeaux of BeauSoleil (1997), roots blues revivalist Lonnie Pitchford (1998), trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Motown exec Gwen Gordy Fuqua (1999), rapper Heavy D (2011)

November 9: Badfinger bassist Tom Evans (1983), singer Miriam Makeba (2008), Major Harris of The Delfonics (2012)


Chasplaya
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Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:14 pm

Janis Jailed…Stewart Censored & Sued…John Backs John

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of November 10

Janis Joplin Rod Stewart Elton John John Lennon


1877: Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker…

1954: Bill Haley and His Comets’ top ten hit “Shake Rattle and Roll” serves notice that rock ‘n’ roll is here…it’s telling that Haley has reinvented himself…his band, formerly named The Saddlemen, have left their country roots in the dust as they becomes the most celebrated rockabillies on the planet…

1955: Elvis Presley is named Most Promising Country & Western Artist in Billboard’s annual poll of disc jockeys…this same week songwriter Mae Axton plays Elvis a demo of her new, definitely non-country song, “Heartbreak Hotel”…it’ll become The King’s first major pop hita couple of months later…

1958: Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke are both injured in an Arkansas auto wreck that kills their chauffeur…

1959: Johnny & The Moondogs fail to make the final elimination round in Manchester for British television’s TV Star Search…because the band lacks money to cover a hotel room for the night, they hightail it back to Liverpool before the final vote is taken…it’s the next day before the lads who will later morph into The Beatles learn that they failed to move the needle on the “clapometer” far enough…

1960: The Shirelles release “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with songwriter Carole King on drums…also this week, Patsy Cline waxes the classic country weeper "I Fall to Pieces" …

1961: "Crazy" hits the country charts for Patsy Cline…it will become her signature song…

1964: Britain’s Decca Records releases The Rolling Stones single, “Little Red Rooster”…written by bassist and producer Willie Dixon and recorded by the Stones at the legendary Chess Records studio in Chicago, has the distinction of being the only blues tune to top the UK pop chart…

1965: Promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become Fillmore East for the lordly sum of $60…his first show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead…this same week the Airplane signs with RCA Records for a then unprecedented $25,000…they will later come to regret not signing with a more hip label…and meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the former Toby Tyler now known as Marc Bolan makes his first appearance on British TV’s Ready Steady Go…his glory days as T. Rex frontman lie in the future…

1966: A made-for-TV pop band hits #1 with their debut album, The Monkees...to be fair, the band includes a couple of actual musicians—Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork...some serious songwriting talent is also hired to write their tunes, namely Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, Bobby Hart, and Tommy Boyce...Leon Russell even produces some of their subsequent records…

1967: The Beatles film three different promos for their new single “Hello Goodbye”…wearing both their Sgt. Peppers uniforms and Carnaby Street fashions…The Fab Four frolic on camera doing the twist and generally acting silly…because of a musician’s union ban on lip-syncing, the clips won’t make it to British TV…

1968: UK book and record chain WH Smith refuses to display the Hendrix Electric Ladyland album because of the photo of a bevy of nude women on its sleeve…later editions feature a blurred headshot of Hendrix instead…

1969: Janis Joplin is arrested in her dressing room at a concert in Tampa for cussing at cops...earlier, in the auditorium, when a policeman using a bullhorn orders fans to sit down, she tells him “Don’t @#&* with these people. Hey mister, what are you so uptight about? Did you buy a five-dollar ticket?”...she is similarly potty-mouthed addressing police backstage when they insist that SHE tell the audience to sit down...Joplin gets out on a $500 bond… charges of using “vulgar and indecent language” are eventually dropped…

1972: Riding his motorcycle in Macon, Georgia, Allman Brothers bass man Berry Oakley crashes into the side of a city bus only three blocks from where Duane met his demise in a motorcycle accident the previous year...Oakley refuses treatment at the scene and goes home only to die of a brain hemorrhage later that night after being rushed to a hospital…

1973: Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., son of the Killer, meets his demise on a rural highway near Hernando, Mississippi...at 19, he's developed some chops on the drums and has just played on TV's Midnight Special with his dad's band...it's the second time Lewis has lost a son, 11 years earlier his only other son drowned in the family swimming pool…

1974: While Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore plays a concert in San Francisco, someone impersonating the smokin' guitar man smashes up a borrowed Porsche in Iowa City…also this week, John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” lodges in the #1 pop chart slot…Elton John contributes piano, organ, and backing vocals to the single…John had cut a deal with Lennon that if the song went to No. 1, the ex-Beatle would play live with him at a future concert—a deal Lennon kept…

1976: Rod Stewart’s single “Tonight’s The Night” takes the top spot on the pop chart…the song features sultry whispering by Stewart’s girlfriend, actress Britt Ekland…some stations refuse to play it since the lyrics refer to the seduction of a virgin…

1978: Queen plays Madison Square Garden...during their hit number "Fat Bottomed Girls," they are accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles…

1981: The U.S. pop chart experiences an Aussie invasion this week when Olivia Newton-John, Little River Band, Air Supply, and Rick Springfield all register hit singles…

1984: Madonna’s album Like a Virgin comes out, leaving listeners wondering in what way she is…

1987: Sly Stone turns up an hour late for an L.A. comeback concert and is promptly arrested for failing to pay child support…meanwhile, Dire Straits set a UK album sales record with their Money for Nothing LP…they move more than five million discs at home while also scoring four top 40 singles with “Money for Nothing,“ “So Far Away,“ “Walk of Life,“ “Brothers in Arms“ and “Your Latest Trick“…

1988: Whitney Houston's debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold...only Boston has ever matched this performance with a debut LP…also this week, Steve Love, former Beach Boys manager and brother of lead singer Mike Love, gets five years probation for embezzling nearly a million bucks from the group…

1990: A woman sues Rod Stewart claiming a soccer ball he booted into the crowd during a concert damaged a tendon in her middle finger making sex with her husband painful…Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood suffers two broken legs when he is hit by a passing car…Wood’s vehicle has broken down on the busy M4 motorway near Marlborough and he is trying to wave traffic past…also this week, German producer Frank Farian reveals that Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, collectively known as Milli Vanilli, never sang on their debut record, "Girl You Know It's True"...the producer goes on to say the duo lip-synced during personal appearances...eventually Milli Vanilli will give back their Grammys and lapse into obscurity…

1991: More than a thousand fans at a New Kids On the Block concert in Berlin receive first aid after the Kids drive em into a frenzy…

1997: Versatile session guitarist Teddy Tedesco succumbs to lung cancer…he’s widely considered one the most-recorded axemen in history having played on countless records with everybody from The Beach Boys to Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Zappa…

1998: Motley Crue fans have cause for celebration when S'Crue, a store stuffed with Crue-related merch, opens on West LA's trendy Melrose Boulevard…

2000: As the growing impact of the Internet on the music business continues to grow, record retailer HMV says it will not stock The Offspring’s new single because the band is offering it as a free download at its website…this same week Michael Abram, the man who a year earlier broke into George Harrison’s home and stabbed Harrison before being subdued by the ex-Beatle and his wife, is found guilty by reason of insanity and ordered confined to a mental hospital for an indefinite stay…

2002: Texas billionaire David Bonderman gets the Rolling Stones to play his 60th birthday party in Las Vegas…he coughs up $7 million for the privilege…

2004: Bill Wyman, the 68 year-old former Rolling Stones bassman, announces he will retire from touring with the Rhythm Kings, his current band...also this week, Apple introduces a special black U2 version of the iPod with the band members’ names laser-etched on the case...the unit is launched with an ad featuring the band performing its new single “Vertigo”...it’s the first time in U2’s 25-year career that it has licensed music for commercial purposes...and finally this week, rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard dies of a lethal combination of cocaine and a prescription painkiller at RZA’s New York studio…

2006: The website Wolfgang’s Vault makes more than 300 vintage rock concerts featuring acts such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Led Zep available via streaming audio...they are part of a huge archive of soundboard recordings made by the late rock promoter Bill Graham...however, some of the featured acts are reported to be considering legal action claiming that the site does not have the right to the stream the shows…meanwhile in other legal developments this week, former Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher appears in a British court claiming that his distinctive organ work played an important role in the success of the smash hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and that he is due a payday...there is no word as to whether J.S. Bach whose melody was appropriated for the song will also be getting in line for payment...a month later the judge awards Fisher a 40% share in the copyright and says he’s entitled to royalties going back to 2005 when he filed suit...this decision is then overturned in 2008 when another judge rule’s Fisher’s claim came too late and restores full publishing rights to Procol Harum frontman Gary Brooker…Bach is still cut out of the deal…

2007: Guitar Hero III does more than $115 million in sales its first week out...this same week The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hosts a tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis with Chrissie Hynde, Wanda Jackson. Kris Kristofferson, and others covering The Killer’s songs...Lewis’ cousin, the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, turns in a bluesy rendition of the hymn “Precious Lord Take My Hand” after delivering an emotional speech about learning to play piano on the same instrument as his cousin...uncharacteristically Lewis plays a serious and haunting version of “Over the Rainbow”...

2008: In the wake of their monster album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends selling a gazillion copies worldwide, Coldplay are named the hottest selling act at the World Music Awards in Monaco…

2009: Six decades of six-string greats gather at the American Music Masters Tribute Concert honoring Les Paul …Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye neatly summarizes Paul’s contributions: “Before Les, guitars were only amplified. Les made them truly electric.”…during his acceptance speech Paul quips, “Everybody thought I was a guitar until I played here tonight.”…

2011: A sign John Lennon created for his 1969 bed-in war protest with Yoko in Montreal bearing the words “Bed Peace” goes for $155,600 at a Christie’s auction…

2012: The original collage created for the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band brings in $87,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in London…

This Week’s Hatches

November 10: singer-songwriter Bonny "Mack" Rice (1935), eccentric British rocker Screaming Lord Sutch (1940), pop singer Kyu Sakamoto (1941), singer-songwriter Dave Loggins (1947), country singer-songwriter Donna Fargo (1947), Glen Buxton of the Alice Cooper band (1947), Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1948), Ronnie Hammond of The Atlanta Rhythm Section (1950), Mario Cipollina of Huey Lewis and The News (1954), Simply Red drummer Chris Joyce (1957), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), Steve Mackey of Pulp (1966), Massive Attack’s Andrew Vowles (1967), West Coast rapper Warren G (1970), guitarist Daren Jay "DJ" Ashba (1972), Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins (1975), hip-hop artist Eve (Jihan Jeffers-Cooper) (1978), Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell (1978), Silverchair bassist Chris Joannou (1979)

November 11: jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1920), jazz pianist Mose Allison (1923), R&B singer Lavern Baker (1929), New Orleans session sax man David Lastie (1934), Opal Courtney Jr. of The Spaniels (1936), Tornadoes keyboardist Roger Lavern (1938), The Youngbloods' frontman Jesse Colin Young (1944), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), guitarist Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Chip Hawkins of The Tremeloes (1946), Pat Daugherty of Black Oak Arkansas (1947), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), singer-songwriter and guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956), Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens (1957), Tony Gad of Aswad (1957), The Libertines drummer Gary Powell (1969), LeToya Luckett formerly of Destiny's Child (1980), Don Addrisi of The Addrisi Brothers (1984),

November 12: country bluesman Bukka White (1906), singer Jo Stafford (1920), songwriter Bob Crewe (1930), songwriter Mort Shuman (1936), Ruby Nash Curtis of Ruby & The Romantics (1939), singer Brian Hyland (1943), organist Booker T. Jones of Booker T and The MGs (1944), Neil Young (1945), soul and funk musician Arthur Tavares (1946), Donald Roeser AKA Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult (1947), Wings guitarist Laurence Juber (1952), Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate (1948), Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken (1953), Leslie McKeown of The Bay City Rollers (1955), David Ellefson of Megadeth (1964), folk-rocker Vic Chesnutt (1964), singer Tevin Campbell (1976), hip-hop singer Omarion AKA Omari Grandberry (1984)

November 13: jazz pianist and bandleader Bennie Moten (1894), Hi Records chief John Novarese (1923), R&B singer Justine "Baby" Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1941), gospel and soul singer Odia Coates (1941), soul singer Timmy Thomas (1943), guitarist Roger Steen of The Tubes (1949), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964), Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture (1979)

November 14: composer Aaron Copland (1900), EMI chief Sir Joseph Lockwood (1904), pop singer Johnny Desmond (1919), composer Joonas Kokkonen (1920), Chicago harp player Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), Sherri Payne of The Supremes (1944), accordionist Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1953), bassist Alec Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joseph “Run” Simmons of Run-DMC (1966), Brian Yale of Matchbox Twenty (1968), drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182 (1975), singer Adina Howard (1975)

November 15: elevator-music maestro Mantovani (1905), Ike Turner’s pianist Clayton Love (1927), soul singer Joe Hinton (1929), pop singer Petula Clark (1932), R&B singer Clyde McPhatter (1932), record producer and blues scholar Pete Welding (1935), R&B singer Little Willie John born William J. Woods (1937), record producer/pianist Jim Dickinson (1941), bassist Rick Kemp of Steeleye Span (1941), Frida of ABBA (1945), Steve Fossen of Heart (1949), Bizarros drummer Rick Garberson (1950), Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun (1952), singer Alexander O'Neal (1953), Tony Thompson of Chic (1954), jazz and fusion guitarist Kevin Eubanks (1957), Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins (1957), keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz of Rammstein (1966), Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (1968), Chad Kroeger of Nickelback (1974)

November 16: “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy (1873), jazz musician and A&R man Jesse Stone (1901), Atlantic Records producer and co-founder Herb Abramson (1916), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), Greenwich Village folkie Bob Gibson (1931), Howlin’ Wolf band guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), James Brown band guitarist Troy Seals (1938), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), Winfred “Blue” Lovett of The Manhattans (1942), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1943), singer Patti Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1949), guitarist and composer Will Ackerman (1949), bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield of The Stone Roses (1962), jazz singer Diana Krall (1964), Velvet Revolver guitarist David Kushner (1965), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)

This Week’s Dispatches

November 10: blues singer Ida Cox (1967), pop singer Ronnie Dyson (1990), jazz singer Carmen McRae (1994), session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), Motown house band keyboardist Johnny Griffith (2002), R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006)

November 11: Patrick “Paddy” Clancy of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (1998), Beau Brummels drummer John Peterson (2007)

November 12: Cause and Effect keyboardist Sean Rowley (1992), blues fingerpicker and Robert Plant cohort Rainer Ptacek (1997), jazz pianist and Sting sideman Kenny Kirkland (1998), Chic drummer Tony Thompson (2003), Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell (2008), drummer-singer-songwriter Doyle Bramhall (2011)

November 13: drummer Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. (1973), drummer Ronnie Bond of the The Troggs (1992), jazz and R&B keyboardist Bill Doggett (1996), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), Russell Jones AKA Ol’ Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan (2004),

November 14: country bluesman Rube Lacey (1969), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984), singer Dallas Taylor of The Danderliers (1986), keyboardist John Cascella of the John Mellencamp band (1992), fiddler Martin Fay of The Chieftains (2012)

November 15: disco producer Jacques Morali (1991) composer-arranger Saul Chaplin (1997)

November 16: music journalist/publisher Mike Leadbitter (1974), soul singer O.V. Wright (1980), Tavares drummer Francis A. Donia (1984), vocalist Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), gospel singer J.D. Sumner (1998), Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps guitarist Grady Owen (1999), British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000)


Chasplaya
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Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:39 pm

Bo Banned…Rotten Vindicated…Democracy Delivered

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of November 17

Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Bo Diddley


1954: The first pocket-sized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is mass-marketed for $49.95...that’s about $430 adjusted for inflation…

1955: Bo Diddley makes his first—and last—appearance on TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show…after the host hears Bo riffing on Tennessee Ernie Ford’s hit “Sixteen Tons” backstage during rehearsals, he tells the Chess Records star he wants him to play it on the show…Bo agrees, but when he sees a set list backstage reading, “Bo Diddley—Sixteen Tons” he assumes he’s supposed to play his eponymous hit followed by Sullivan’s request…the host throws a hissy fit and bans Bo from future shows…but the die is cast—Diddley’s performance, considered by many to be the first rock ‘n’ roll to hit national TV, will get teens dancing and musicians everywhere imitating that infectious shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits-beat for generations to come…also this week, RCA buys Elvis’s contract from Sun Records for $35,000—not a bad deal in retrospect…

1957: Elvis drops in at the mansion of Tennessee governor Frank Clement, and after a little coaxing starts vocalizing along with fellow guests, the Prisonaires, a quartet of Tennessee State Prison inmates who recently enjoyed an R&B chart hit with their “Just Walking in the Rain”...lead Prisonaires singer Johnny Bragg and Elvis know each other from Sun Studios sessions...the party doesn’t break up until the wee hours…

1960: "Stay" by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs holds down the #1 slot on the Billboard Pop Chart ..it’s notable for being the shortest top pop single in the rock era running a mere one minute and 37 seconds...a number of covers will later reach the chart including Jackson Browne's 1978 rendition...also this week, U.S. patent #2,960,900 is granted to Fender for the “offset waist” design of its Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars...Gibson’s introduction of the Firebird with its asymmetrical reverse body shape touches off a dispute between the two guitar makers...avoiding a court battle, Gibson will redesign the Firebird in 1965 with a non-reverse body style…

1965: Bob Dylan marries Sara Lownds but holds off telling just about everybody until February 1966…the Blonde On Blonde song “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” is one of many songs Mr. D will write about Sara—the title obliquely refers to her name…in 1977 Sara Dylan files for divorce and custody of their five children…

1966: The queens of Detroit, The Supremes, perform at the Royal Variety Show in London while Queen Elizabeth looks on...their elegant beaded gowns will become a prime attraction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 30 years later…

1967: Following a show at England’s Sheffield City Hall that features The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a stunned reviewer for the Sheffield Star writes, “Like an electrified golliwog, Jimi Hendrix threw himself into a live-wire act that featured his intricate guitar interpretation. Quite an Experience”…apparently in 1967, the term “golliwog,” referring to a black-faced ragdoll, doesn’t carry the racist connotation it does today…

1972: Danny Whitten, guitarist in Crazy Horse, Neil Young's backup band, dies of a heroin overdose…Whitten provided a perfect foil for Young, trading licks with him on the extended guitar jams on long-form rockers like "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand"...Whitten's OD will loom large in Young's dark album Tonight's The Night, especially in the song "Needle and the Damage Done"...

1973: After ingesting large quantities of brandy and animal tranquilizers, Who drummer Keith Moon collapses onstage at San Francisco’s Cow Palace…Pete Townshend asks the crowd, "Can anybody play the drums? I mean somebody good”…Who fan 19-year-old Scot Halpin answers the call, and after being given a shot of brandy to calm his nerves, acquits himself quite nicely on the remaining three songs of the set…

1974: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, is released by Genesis…the double LP concept album will be the band’s last to include Peter Gabriel who goes on to a big solo career…

1976: Jerry Lee Lewis is busted for drunk driving after plunging his Rolls Royce into a ditch at 9 am...The Killer’s on a roll when he’s arrested the next day at Graceland where he’s brandishing a Derringer while insisting on seeing Elvis…this same week Richard Hell and the Voidoids make their live performance debut at New York punk club CBGB…a big influence on The Sex Pistols, Hell’s spiked hair and cut-up, drawn-on clothes will soon be mimicked by punks worldwide…

1979: Chuck Berry is released from the slammer following a four-month stay on tax evasion charges…

1980: Don Henley of The Eagles is arrested after paramedics are called to treat a nude 16-year-old girl suffering from the effects of illicit drugs at his Los Angeles home…he is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of an array of drugs…he’ll get two year’s probation and a $2,000 fine…

1983: Badfinger musician and songwriter Tom Evans hangs himself from a willow tree in his garden…according to family, he was depressed by legal wrangling over Badfinger business matters and haunted by the suicide of bandmate Pete Ham…

1987: Adopting the guise of a country-rock band called The Dalton Brothers, U2 opens for themselves at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum...U2 developed the collective alter ego during the third leg of the Joshua Tree tour...the Daltons consist of Betty Dalton (Adam Clayton), Luke Dalton (Edge), Alton Dalton (Bono), and Duke Dalton (Larry Mullen, Jr.)...wearing wigs, sunglasses, and C&W-style clothing, they play just a few songs and go unrecognized by most fans…

1990: In the wake of revelations that they had lip-synced their way to fame, the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli is ordered to return their Grammy award... "singer" Fabrice Morvan unrepentantly claims, "We can sing as good as any other pop star in the Top Ten."...David Crosby cracks up his Harley suffering a broken shoulder, leg and ankle…

1992: Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, two former members of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers are awarded nearly $4 million in payment of overdue royalties on their doo-wop classic hit “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” …

1993: Nirvana tapes an MTV Unplugged session in one take...the show is aired, warts and all, one month later…

1994: David Crosby gets a glistening, fresh liver…

1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen's 13th album, is released...the title refers to a character in John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, about the 1930s Dust Bowl migration…

1997: Rapper Coolio and his appropriately named backup band 40 Thevz are arrested in Boblingen, Germany on charges of assaulting a boutique clerk and ripping off $2,000 worth of apparel...also this week, ex-Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten appears on Judge Judy when a drummer sues him for $5,000 in lost wages and claims Rotten hit him ..Johnny maintains the guy quit days before the tour was to begin...Judy rules for Johnny…

1998: Discount chain Kmart launches it MusicFavorites.com website offering 100,000 songs for download...despite its early entry into the electronic commerce arena, the site soon is eclipsed by competitors…

1999: Doug Sahm, who led the The Sir Douglas Quintet in the 1960s and was fluent in many American musical forms including Texas blues, Tex-Mex, rock, cajun, and Western swing, dies in Taos, NM at 58…late in his career the singer and guitarist was a member of the critically acclaimed Tex-Mex supergroup The Texas Tornados…also this week, pop singer Jewel pulls the plug on her planned Anchorage New Year's Eve show citing concerns over possible Y2K problems ... word has it, however, that the cancellation is due to weak ticket sales...only 1,000 of the 8,000 available seats have been sold…and finally this same week, country star Patty Loveless rides a train across Appalachia distributing 15 tons of Christmas gifts to poor families in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia…

2001: Stones frontman Mick Jagger’s solo LP gets an underwhelming reception…Goddess in the Doorway moves 954 copies on its day of release…

2003: Producer and gun nut Phil Spector is charged with the murder of Hollywood starlet Lana Clarkson…this same week country singer-songwriter Don Gibson dies of natural causes…the author of many memorable ballads, his “I Can’t Stop Loving You” got him to #8 on the country chart in 1958, but it was Ray Charles’ soulful reading in 1961 that reached #1…the song has been covered hundreds of times by everybody from Frank Sinatra to Roy Orbison…

2004: After shooting the video for “All Because of You” on a rolling flatbed truck, U2 jams at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge to the delight of a crowd estimated at more than 3,000…

2005: A show by former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown is halted after 20 minutes when the dancefloor of the Carling Academy in Newcastle begins to sag alarmingly…it’s later determined that the floor joists had become unsprung…

2006: Peter Gabriel is named The Man of Peace for 2006 by a foundation headed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...former winners include Bob Geldof and Cat Stevens…this same week Eddie Van Halen fires original Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony replacing him with Eddie’s 15-year-old son Wolfgang...talking up his progeny’s skills, Van Halen says, “This kid is f***ing dangerous. If I excel at the speed of sound, he excels at the speed of light.”...

2007: MTV Arabia begins broadcasting across the Middle East with a mix of regional and Western artists as well as cleaned-up versions of shows such as Punk’d and Pimp My Ride...this same week Danny Federici, longtime keyboardist with the E Street Band, leaves Bruce Springsteen’s tour in progress to receive treatment for melanoma...and finally this same week, The Red Hot Chili Peppers file suit against Showtime claiming that the cable network’s use of the name Californication—also the title of the Chili’s 1999 album—was a misuse of the band’s intellectual property…

2008: Up-and-coming rapper Rico Wright takes "keeping it real" a bit too far when he boasts about shooting Chad Blue on a song that lands him in prison for 20 years…the victim helps prosecutors put Wright behind bars after hearing the CD on which Wright raps, “Chad Blue knows how I shoot."…this same week, still bearing a grudge against bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker says in a Rhythm magazine interview that there will be no more Cream reunions, complaining Bruce played too loudly at reunion concerts at Madison Square Garden in 2005...and finally this week, the long-awaited Guns N’ Roses LP, Chinese Democracy is at last released…with sessions dating back to mid 1990s, costs estimated at $13 million and numerous personnel changes along the way, the album gets decent reviews but sales don’t meet expectations…

2012: Record Collector magazine publishes a list of the world’s rarest records…topping the list is a pre-Beatles acetate of the Quarrymen’s demo of “That’ll Be The Day” with an estimated value of $320,000…

This Week’s Hatches...

November 17: Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot (1938), necro-rocker Jimmy Cross (1939), Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons (1942), Gene Clark of The Byrds (1944), Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre (1946), Nazz and Utopia vocalist Robert Antoni (1947), Jim Babjak of The Smithereens (1957), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1959), singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley (1966), Ronald Devoe of Bell, Biv Devoe (1967), Isaac Hanson of Hanson (1980), Sarah Harding of Girls Aloud (1981)

November 18: conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899), Cuban musician Compay Segundo (1907), singer, actress, and comedienne Imogene Coca (1908), Midnighters frontman Hank Ballard (1923), The Royaltones guitarist Bob Sanderson (1935), jazz trumpeter Don Cherry (1936), The Tokens frontman Hank Medress (1938), drummer Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions (1949), The Rumour frontman Graham Parker (1950), Whitesnake bassist Rudy Sarzo (1950), English singer John Parr (1954), Charles Williams of KC and the Sunshine Band (1954), Echo and The Bunnymen keyboardist Jake Brockman (1955), Michael Ramos of The BoDeans (1958), country singer-songwriter Laura Lynch (1958), pop singer Kim Wilde (1960), Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett (1962), singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (1969), hip-hop star Fabolous (1979)

November 19: gospel singer-songwriter J.D. Sumner (1914), Motown pianist Joe Hunter (1927), Motown guitarist Robert White (1936), singer Ray Collins of The Mothers of Invention (1937), English singer-songwriter Geoff Goddard (1937), Pete Moore of The Miracles (1939), Split Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner (1941), Blood, Sweat & Tear piano and sax man Fred Lipsius (1943), Paul Revere & The Raiders drummer Joe Correro, Jr. (1946), drummer Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver (1960), Peach and Blur bassist Justin Chancellor (1971), Tamika Scott of Xscape (1975)

November 20: musician and comedian Dick Smothers (1939), Tony Butala of The Lettermen (1940), singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum (1942), rock guitar maestro Duane Allman (1946), Ray Stiles of Mud (1946), George Grantham of Poco (1947), rock guitarist Joe Walsh (1946), Steve Ferguson of NRBQ (1949), Jim Brown of UB40 (1957), Todd Nance of Widespread Panic (1962), session bassist Gail Ann Dorsey (1962), Mike “D” Diamond of The Beastie Boys (1965), Senen Reyes AKA Sen Dog of Cypress Hill (1965), songwriter and musician Kevin Gilbert (1966), Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest (1970), Davey Havok AKA David Marchand of AFI (1975), Kimberly Walsh of Girls Aloud (1981), Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill (1986)

November 21: tenor sax innovator Coleman Hawkins (1904), manager, composer, and producer Buck Ram (1907), West Coast pianist Lloyd Glenn (1909), blues singer and sax player Big John Greer (1923), New Orleans musician Dr. John born Malcolm John Rebennack (1940), Lonnie Jordan of War (1948), Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin (1948), singer Livingston Taylor (1950), Peter Koppes of The Church (1955), Squirrel Nut Zippers trumpeter Stacy Guess (1964), The Sugarcubes frontwoman and actress Bjork Gudmundsdottir (1965), The Sugarcubes keyboardist Margret Ornolfsdottir (1967), bassist Alex James of Blur (1968), drummer Teenage Fanclub drummer Francis MacDonald (1970), Pretty Lou of Lost Boyz (1972), Kelsi Osborn of SHeDAISY (1984)

November 22: composer and pianist Hoagy Carmichael (1899), composer and conductor Benjamin Britten (1913), Rod Price of Foghat (1940), Elvis sound-alike Terry Stafford (1941), Trashmen drummer Steve Wahrer (1941), Jamie Troy of The Classics (1942), drummer Floyd Sneed of Three Dog Night (1943), reggae bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett (1946), Steve Van Zandt of The E Street Band (1950), bassist Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads (1950), piano prodigy and sound designer Craig Hundley (1954), Jason Ringenberg of of Jason & the Scorchers (1958), singer James Morrison aka Jim Bob of Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine (1960), Rasa Don of Arrested Development (1968), Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O (1978)

November 23: big band singer Ruth Etting (1896), Chicago blues producer and bassist Al Smith (1923), British rocker Johnny Kidd (1939), soul singer Betty Everett (1939), singer Rockin’ Robin Roberts of The Wailers (1940), The Hombres drummer John Hunter (1941), Alan Paul of Manhattan Transfer (1948), keyboardist-vocalist Bruce Hornsby (1954), Miley Cyrus (1992)

This Week’s Dispatches...

November 17: Jethro Tull bassist John Glasscock (1979), co-founder of Modern Records Jules Bihari (1984), music journalist, record producer, and label owner Pete Welding (1995), soul singer Arthur Conley (2002), country singer-songwriter Don Gibson (2003), R&B singer Ruth Brown (2006), Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs (2008)

November 18: Memphis bluesman Junior Parker (1971), Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten (1972), jazz singer Terri King (1977), jazz pianist and composer Lennie Tristano (1978), Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs drummer Doug Roberts (1981), jazz session drummer Freddie Waits (1989), flamboyant zoot-suited swing bandleader Cab Calloway (1994), Lindisfarne singer and guitarist Alan Hull (1995), all-around musician Doug Sahm (1999), composer and arranger Michael Kamen (2003), jazz pianist Cy Coleman (2004), singer-songwriter Jim Ford (2007)

November 19: Claude Feaster of The Chords (1975), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1983), songwriter Bobby Russell (1992), bassist Greg Ridley of Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie (2003), producer Terry Melcher (2004)

November 20: parody singer Alan Sherman (1973), Chess and Vee-Jay Records session drummer Earl Phillips (1990), New York Times rock critic and blues producer Robert Palmer (1997), ska sax man Roland Alphonso (1998), singer-songwriter Chris Whitley (2005), washtub bass and jug player Fritz Richmond (2005)

November 21: British new wave guitarist Matthew Ashman (1995), Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (1995), blues guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr. (2006)

November 22: June Abbit AKA Joe Abbit, Sr of The “5” Royales (1995), Michael Hutchence of INXS (1997), MC Breed (2008), songwriter Alan Gordon (2009). jazz drummer Paul Motian (2011)

November 23: Badfinger bassist Tom Evans (1983), “King of Country Music” Roy Acuff (1992), songwriter Tommy Boyce (1994), Motown sax star Junior Walker (1995), jazz saxophonist Art Porter (1996), singer O.C. Smith (2001), We Five founder and Billy Joel producer Michael Stewart (2002), jazz singer Anita O’Day (2006), Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers (2008)


Lavallee
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Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:54 pm

Thanks Chas

Marc


Chasplaya
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Sat Nov 29, 2014 3:45 pm

Adios Freddie, Eric & George…Bowie Bests Beatles

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of November 24


1925: The Grand Ole Opry broadcasts for the first time on WSM, Nashville…heard throughout the South, the show will provide inspiration for generations of country and bluegrass stars to come…

1951: C.L. “Leo” Fender is granted patent t# 2,573,254 by the U.S. Patent Office for his design of a “combination bridge and pickup assembly for stringed instruments” —more commonly known as the Telecaster bridge plate that houses a single-coil pickup and a three-saddle bridge…

1955: Johnny Cash makes his first appearance on the country chart with “Cry! Cry! Cry!,” which will reach #14…giant crossover hits like “I Walk the Line” are just down the road…

1958: The Crests’ "16 Candles" is released...the doo-wop group is notable for being among the first integrated acts with two black and two white singers…

1961: blues growler Howlin’ Wolf arrives in London as part of a lineup of American blues musicians who take Britain, and later, the continent by storm...a series of annual American Folk Blues Festivals follow leading to a generation of Brits such as Clapton, Page, Watts, and Richards becoming blues devotees who during the mid-‘60s introduce white America to its own roots-music heritage…

1964: Willie Nelson makes his Grand Ole Opry debut…this same week, cashing in on the death-themed song trend, The Shangri-Las, a quartet of Queens teens with a tough-girl attitude score big when their melodramatic single “Leader of the Pack” rises to the top of the pop chart…

1965: High-end London department store Harrods is closed to the public while The Beatles do a spot of holiday shopping…

1966: The Temptations’ "(I Know) I’m Losing You" enters the R&B chart and swiftly rises to the top slot...the tune will chart three more times with covers by Rare Earth, Rod Stewart and Uptown Girls…

1968: The supergroup Cream, plagued by animosity between drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, plays two farewell concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall…recalling the shows, Baker says, "It wasn't a good gig...Cream was better than that...We knew it was all over. We knew we were just finishing it off, getting it over with."…

1969: John Lennon returns his MBE to Queen Elizabeth in protest of British foreign policy…also this week, AT&T backs out as a sponsor of Simon and Garfunkel’s TV special when it learns the duo plans to air clips of Robert Kennedy’s funeral and Vietnam War footage…

1970: Free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler is found dead in New York’s East River...rumors circulate that he was murdered though the consensus seems to point to a suicide…George Harrison’s triple LP All Things Must Pass is released…it will be certified 6X platinum making it the biggest seller by a solo Beatle… this same week Bob Dylan releases his LP, New Morning, that includes the song “If Not for You” covered by Harrison on his album…it will also be the title track on Olivia Newton John’s 1971 debut album…

1971: Following the death of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, the surviving members tell Rolling Stone that the band will continue...it officially disbands two years later…

1974: Introspective British singer-songwriter Nick Drake ODs on anti-depressants…his reputation will mushroom after his death…when a 2000 Volkswagen ad features the title song from his Pink Moon LP, the late singer moves more records within a month than he did in the preceding three decades…

1976: The Band bids adieu to its fans at San Francisco’s Winterland with a star-studded show that includes their former bosses Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan as well as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, The Staple Singers, Dr. John, Eric Clapton, and many more...Martin Scorsese is on hand to film the proceedings resulting in the movie, The Last Waltz, widely regarded as among best rock movies ever...in 2002 it’s reissued as a DVD with gloriously remixed 5.1 sound and lots of additional performances...one of the extras is an extended jam with Morrison, Clapton, Wood, et al, during which the motors in Scorsese’s cinema cameras melted down as they were not designed for continuous shooting...the final part of the jam is an audio-only affair…speaking of tech issues, also this week Kevin Godley and Lol Creme quit the band 10cc to work on the “Gizmo,” an early attempt at creating a guitar synth…the temperamental device, also known as the Gizmotron, attaches to a guitar’s bridge, is difficult to use and takes a lot of chops…Jimmy Page will famously use it on Led Zeppelin’s In through the Out Door…

1981: A Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers Thanksgiving show at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida is canceled when only 10,000 of 60,000 seats are sold...apparently turkeys are a bigger draw that day…

1982: Michael Jackson’s Thriller is released…an enticing brew of R&B, pop, rock and funk that effortlessly crosses racial and musical lines, it’ll go on to move more than 65 million copies setting a worldwide sales record never equaled before or since…seven singles from the album are released, every one scoring as a Top Ten pop chart hit…

1985: Pre-bad Bobby Brown announces he is leaving New Edition to begin a solo career…

1988: A cassette copy of Pink Floyd’s LP, Delicate Sound of Thunder, is sent into orbit aboard Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 7 making the band the first to be played in space…

1991: Rock loses two of its more flamboyant personalities on the same day when Queen frontman Freddie Mercury succumbs to AIDS and Kiss drummer Eric Carr dies of a rare form of cancer that afflicted his heart…Mercury has publicly acknowledged he was HIV-positive just a day before his death…this same week, displeased when he’s asked to perform “Smells Like Teen Spirit” using a pre-recorded backing track on the BBC's Top of the Pops, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain retaliates by singing an octave lower in a weird takeoff on The Smith’s vocalist, Morrissey…

1992: Whitney Houston’s single “I Will Always Love You,” written by Dolly Parton and featured on The Bodyguard soundtrack, begins a record-setting 14-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart…

1994: Boyz II Men’s "I’ll Make Love to You" registers its 14th and final week on the Billboard singles chart tying Whitney Houston’s "I Will Always Love You"...Houston’s tune had displaced the earlier record-holder, Boyz II Men’s "End of the Road ...continuing this pattern of Houston/Boyz chart domination, "On Bended Knee" by the Boyz usurps "I’ll Make Love to You" in the No. 1 slot…

1996: In tribute to Freddie Mercury, a 10-foot statue overlooking Lake Geneva is unveiled in Montreux, Switzerland…

1997: Garth Brooks’ much-delayed seventh album, Sevens, is finally released...it sets a record the next day by placing 12 of its 14 tracks in the Hot Country 100 Singles and Tracks chart, eclipsing the former record of eight tracks, also set by Brooks with his album Fresh Horses…

1998: Craig Marks, an editor for Spin magazine, tells police that he was roughed up by Marilyn Manson’s bodyguards at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York...Marks says he was initially invited backstage to talk to Manson but things turned sinister when, according to Marks, the shock rocker warned him, "You know I can kill you, your family and everyone you know"…

1999: Influential indie rockers Pavement reach the end of the road when leader Steve Malkmus announces the band’s demise during a gig at London’s Brixton academy…across town at the Royal Albert Hall, Elton John catches flak from the Boy Scouts after he performs the song “It’s a Sin” while six male dancers strip off their scout uniforms…

2000: When music mag NME asks leading rockers to name their biggest influence, David Bowie edges out The Beatles and Radiohead…

2001: Beatles fans all over the world mourn the loss of George Harrison to lung cancer…

2003: Former convict James Carter dies…in 1959 he was recorded at Mississippi State Penitentiary by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax singing "Po Lazarus," a work song about a man hunted down and shot by a 44-toting sheriff…in 20001 the song is included in the soundtrack for the film O Brother Where Art Thou?…following an exhaustive search by record producer T-Bone Burnett, Carter is located in 2002 living in Chicago and presented with a check for $20,000 and a platinum album…he is later flown to the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles where he is feted and the album wins five awards…a happy coda to a troubled life…also this week, The Concert for George, a tribute to George Harrison, takes place at Royal Albert Hall in London...the star-studded lineup includes Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, and many more…

2004: Craig Nicholls, vocalist with The Vines is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism...the singer had been notorious for his bizarre behavior...also this week, a group of former British school kids who sang on Pink Floyd's 1979 classic "Another Brick In The Wall" file a claim for unpaid royalties…their vocals became an anthem for school kids everywhere with the chorus "We don't need no education"…

2005: Multimillionaire David Brooks rents New York’s Rainbow Rooms to celebrate daughter Elizabeth’s bat mitzvah…a lineup of her favorite artists is on hand including 50 Cent, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Stevie Nicks…50 Cent, who earns $500,000 for his bit, salutes the girl with impromptu lyrics: "Go shorty, it's your bat mitzvah, we gonna party like it's your bat mitzvah"…the shindig is estimated to have cost daddy $10 million…

2006: The Eagles of Death Metal are summarily canned onstage by Axl Rose after playing the first of 15 planned opening sets on Guns N’ Roses’ North American tour...following the Eagles set, Rose asks the crowd, “How’d you like the Pigeons of Sh*t Metal? Don’t worry, that’s the last show they’re playing with us.”...responding to the firing, Eagles leader Jesse Hughes reflects, “When [Axl] goes off his meds, [he’s] not Paxil Rose anymore.”...

2007: Wildfires in Malibu torch Flea’s $4.8 million mansion...the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist had rented out the home to producer Butch Walker who lost everything including a collection of vintage studio gear...Axl Rose’s home is spared when the GNR frontman mans a hose to wet down his roof…

2008: The Chinese communist party takes a dim view of the New Guns N’ Roses LP, Chinese Democracy, calling it a “venomous attack” on the country…the LP’s title track hasn’t been released in China because it refers to the banned Falun Gong spiritual group…this same week Atlantic Records became the first major label to report its digital sales had outsold the sale of physical CDs…

2010: An Amherst, Massachusetts restaurant falls victim to a nasty prank when someone wearing a fake backstage pass and claiming to be with Bob Dylan’s entourage orders 178 pizzas…Antonio’s is left holding the pies when nobody shows up to claim them…

2012: Following a 2011 announcement that he is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Glen Campbell mounts a Goodbye Tour with three of his kids in his backing band…his last show is performed in Napa, California on November 30…

This Week’s Hatches

November 24: ragtime pianist and composer Scott Joplin (1868), jazz pianist Teddy Wilson (1912), early Beatle Pete Best (1941), Booker T and the MGs bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn (1941), singer/actor Billy Connolly (1942), Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band (1943), session keyboardist Richard Tee (1943), ‘70s singer and organist Lee Michaels (1945), Bev Bevan of The Move and ELO (1946), Budgie guitarist Tony Bourge (1948), drummer Clem Burke of Blondie (1955), Chris Hayes of Huey Lewis & The News (1957), pop singer Amy Grant (1959), guitarist John Squire of Stone Roses (1962), Godsmack guitarist Tony Rombola (1964), Chad Taylor of Live (1970)

November 25: Chicago blues pianist Eddie Boyd (1914), soul singer Percy Sledge (1940), singer Bob Lind (1942), R&B singer Stacy Lattisaw (1966), guitarist Rodney Sheppard of Sugar Ray (1967), Lighthouse Family singer Tunde Baiyewu (1968)

November 26: Atlantic Records co-founder Nesuhi Ertegun (1917), crooner Robert Goulet (1929), R&B singer Tina Turner born Anna Mae Bullock (1938), Alan Henderson of Them (1944), Jean Terrell of The Supremes (1944), John McVie of Fleetwood Mac (1945), Martin Lee of Brotherhood of Man (1949), Matchbox Twenty’s Adam Gaynor (1963), Wilco bassist John Stirratt (1967), Flaming Lips guitarist Ron Jones (1970), The Fray drummer Ben Wysocki (1984), Lil Fizz of B2K (1985), UK singer-songwriter Rita Ora (1990)

November 27: respected Booker T. and the MGs drummer Al Jackson Jr. (1935), electric guitar titan Jimi Hendrix (1942), country/pop singer-songwriter Eddie Rabbitt (1944), versatile trumpeter Randy Brecker (1945), guitarist Charlie Burchill of Simple Minds (1959), Raybeez AKA Raymond Barbieri of Warzone (1961), Charlie Benante of Anthrax (1962), drummer Mike Bordin of Faith No More (1962), Fiachna O'Braonain of Hothouse Flowers (1965), Supertramp sax man Dave Winthrop (1944), Skoob of Das EFX (1970), speed rapper Twista AKA Tung Twista, born Carl Terrell Mitchell (1973)

November 28: Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. (1929), singer Bruce Channel (1940), singer-songwriter Randy Newman (1943), Gary Troxel of The Fleetwoods (1939), singer R.B. Greaves (1943), Beeb Birtles of The Little River Band (1948) Late Night Show bandleader Paul Shaffer (1949), keyboardist Hugh McKenna of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (1949), guitarist Jennifer Batten (1957), Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron (1962), Nine Inch Nails/Ministry drummer Jeff Ward (1962), En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson (1968), Apl.de.Ap of Black Eyed Peas (1974), Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend (1983)

November 29: jazz composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn (1915), country picker extraordinaire Merle Travis (1917), British bluesman John Mayall (1933), trumpeter and bandleader Chuck Mangione (1940), Dennis Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas (1941), keyboardist Felix Cavaliere of The Young Rascals (1943), drummer and co-founder of the Steve Miller Band Tim Davis (1943), guitarist Ronnie Montrose (1947), Barry Goudreau of Boston (1949), Michael Dempsey of The Cure (1958), Steve Scott of Bleach (1963), Wallace Buchanan of Jamiroquai (1965), Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block (1968), Boo Radleys guitarist Martin Carr (1968), rapper The Game born Jayceon Taylor (1979)

November 30: cellist Pablo Casals (1876), Chicago slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk (1909), folk-blues guitarist Brownie McGhee (1915), parody singer Alan Sherman (1924), DJ and perpetual teenager Dick Clark (1929), Noel “Paul” Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary (1937), Memphis soul singer Luther Ingram (1937), Earl “Speedo” Carroll of The Cadillacs (1937), Ray Thomas of The Moody Blues (1941), bassist Leo Lyons of Ten Years After (1943), Rob Grill of The Grassroots (1944), Roger Glover of Deep Purple (1945), drummer Cozy Powell born Colin Flooks of the Jeff Beck Group (1947), Garry Tallent of The E Street Band (1949), British singer Terry Reid (1949), Kenneth K.K. Downing of Judas Priest (1951), guitarist Shuggie Otis (1953), multi-instrumentalist David Sancious (1953), The Little River Band's George McArdle (1954), Brit rocker Billy Idol (1955), June Pointer of The Pointer Sisters (1956), Richard Barbieri of Japan (1957), guitarist John Ashton of The Psychedelic Furs (1957), pop singer Stacey Q (1958), Simon LeBon of Duran Duran (1958), Jalil of Whodini (1963), Paul Wheeler of Icehouse (1965), Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver (1967), British R&B singer Des'ree (1968), Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket (1970), Disturbed bassist John Moyer (1973), country singer Mindy McCready (1975), pop singer Clay Aiken (1978)

This Week’s Dispatches

November 24: Chicago sax man J.T. Brown (1969), R&B singer Big Joe Turner (1985), Kiss drummer Eric Carr (1991), Freddie Mercury (1991), “Master of the Telecaster” bluesman Albert Collins (1993), Melanie Thornton of La Bouche (2001), Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert (2007) tour drummer Michael Lee (2008)

November 25: singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1974), lead singer Steve Gilpin of Mi-Sex (1991) dance pop artist Wildchild born Roger McKenzie (1995), underappreciated blues guitarist/singer Fenton Robinson (1997), French chanteuse Barbara (1997), record exec Artie Mogull (2004), Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow (2007), Columbia Records producer Don DeVito (2011)

November 26: bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1956), R&B and jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1958), The Shadows bassist John Rostill (1973), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1990), record producer David Briggs (1995), prison singer James Carter (2003), James Tapp AKA Soulja Slim (2003), bluesman/pianist Robert “H-Bomb” Ferguson (2006)

November 27: bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1973), R&B singer Barbara Acklin (1998), R&B singer and songwriter Joe Jones (2005), Al Alberts of The Four Aces (2009). folksinger-songwriter-musicologist Bess Lomax Hawes (2009), legendary R&B guitarist and guitar method author Mickey Baker (2012)

November 28: rockabilly Ray Smith (1979), blues guitarist Wayne “Duster” Bennett (1992), Steppenwolf drummer Jerry Edmonton (1993), lyricist Kal Mann (2001), big band arranger and composer Ralph Burns (2001), bluesman Dave "Snaker" Ray of Koerner, Ray & Glover (2002)

November 29: composer Giacomo Puccini (1922), drummer David "Butch" McDade of The Amazing Rhythm Aces (1998), early Hendrix associate and bandleader Curtis Knight (1999), George Harrison (2001)

November 30: country singer David Houston (1993), ukulele-playing pop peculiarity Tiny Tim born Herbert Khaury (1996), jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd (1999), multi-instrumentalist and singer Don “Sugarcane” Harris


Chasplaya
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Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:26 pm

Pistols Provoked…Hova Gets Heavy…Brother Ray Busted & Honored

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of December 1

Sex Pistols Jay-Z Ray Charles

1877: The prototype for world’s first recording and playback machine is completed...designed by Thomas Edison, the phonograph is first used to play the inventor’s recitation of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”...12 years later the first commercial recordings go on sale…

1929: EMI Group purchases a nine-bedroom house in St. John’s Wood, London for £16,500 to build new recording studios...the address for what will be officially called EMI Studios is 3 Abbey Road…

1932: Richard Wayne Penniman is born in Macon, Georgia…two decades later he will make a huge rock 'n' roll splash as Little Richard, a mightily pompadoured, sexually ambiguous piano player belting out a series of hits that gets teens shaking tail feathers from coast to coast…he will influence countless rockers, notably among them Paul McCartney, with a wild vocal style that includes his trademark "wooo" …over the years he will vacillate between the sacred and the profane, sometimes forsaking rock 'n' roll for the ministry before falling back on the Devil’s music…

1956: An impromptu jam results when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins converge on Sun Records Studios in Memphis…studio time originally booked for Perkins to record with his brothers turns into a party when the others show up…captured on tape, they jam on country, gospel, and rockabilly tunes...due to contractual snags, the tapes remain unreleased until 1981 when Charly Records in England puts out an LP with session highlights crediting it to The Million Dollar Quartet—a name coined by a Memphis newsman who covered the original get-together…

1957: The Ed Sullivan Show hosts the national TV debuts of two giants: Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly…

1960: Paul McCartney and early Beatles drummer Pete Best are arrested for burning a condom (some accounts refer to a rag or tapestry) they’ve pinned to a wall in their makeshift lodgings in Munich’s Bambi movie theater…there’s little damage apart from a scorch mark, but the boys are booted out of Germany the next day…

1961: The Beatles agree to have Brian Epstein manage them after the record store manager commits to getting them better-paying, more prestigious gigs beyond Liverpool…he promises the lads they’ll never have to play for less than £15 again, except for ongoing Cavern Club lunchtime shows, for which he’ll get their fee doubled to £10…

1963: The cheery single, “Dominique,” by The Singing Nun is at the top of the pop chart…laughably, it’ll grab a Grammy for the year’s best gospel song…

1964: The Rolling Stones nail their second UK No. 1 single with “Little Red Rooster”…their cover of the Howlin’ Wolf classic was cut at Chess Records in Chicago—home to the biggest urban blues artists of the day…

1965: The infamous blue flame strikes Keith Richards down on a stage in Sacramento when his guitar touches an ungrounded mic...the indestructible Stone is on his feet and performing again within seven minutes…this same week The Byrds find themselves ruling the pop chart with “Turn! Turn! Turn!”…the song, penned by Pete Seeger, incorporates verses from Ecclesiastes…

1966: After being convicted for pot and heroin possession, Ray Charles receives a five-year suspended sentence and is ordered to pay a $10,000 fine…

1967: Hank Snow's son, pop singer Jimmie Rodgers, cracks up his car and is found with a fractured skull...he will survive, but his career is over…this same week Otis Redding cuts his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay…the talented soul singer won’t be around to enjoy his success as he will die in a plane crash just three days later…Redding had planned to record his vocals again to replace the whistling that gives the released version much of its character…

1968: Elvis’ “comeback” TV special—titled simply Elvis airs on NBC…manager Colonel Tom Parker wants Elvis to do the usual cornball Christmas special, but Elvis, who can see his musical legacy slipping away, wants fans to know he can still rock…he delivers big time, leather suited and sweating up a storm on a small stage in front of adoring fans, Elvis shows everyone he’s still the…well, you know…this same week Graham Nash quits the Hollies...three days later he announces the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash…and finally, this week in London, a release party is thrown to celebrate The Rolling Stones’ new LP, Beggar’s Banquet…the high point of the party is a massive food fight in which many custard pies are flung…

1969: The infamous Altamont Speedway free concert is held near San Francisco with The Rolling Stones headlining ...drawing about 300,000, a stunningly unwise decision to have the Hells Angels provide security, sketchy last-minute planning, and bad acid are complicit in several deaths and a scary vibe…Altamont, as chronicled in the documentary, Gimme Shelter, released exactly a year later, is now considered the death-knell of the hippie peace-love-and-dope era…

1970: A gold record goes to Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Stephen Stills for Supersession, an album they put together out of an extended studio jam…

1971: The Montreux Casino in Geneva, Switzerland, catches fire during a show by the Mothers of Invention, inspiring Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" …the proto-metal band watches the fire from their hotel across Lake Geneva, hence the song's title…its crunching four-note riff, harmonized in parallel fourths by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, becomes one of the most cherished figures in all of rock riffdom with garage rockers everywhere laying it down endlessly…

1972: Carly Simon releases "You're So Vain," a song which has the whole country wondering exactly who is so insufferably vain…candidates for the post include recent Carly conquests Mick Jagger (who sang on the record), Cat Stevens, Kris Kristofferson, and Warren Beatty……in 2003, Simon promises to tell the highest bidder at a charity auction who the song is really about, but only if the winner keeps it confidential…NBC exec Dick Ebersol wins with a $50,000 bid and he's not talking…

1973: The Who and friends trash a hotel suite to the tune of $6,000 in damages and spend a night in the pokey for their troubles...John Entwistle later writes a song about the occasion, "Cell Block Number Seven"…

1975: Paul Simon enjoys his first solo trip to the top of the album chart with his Still Crazy After All These Years…

1976: The Sex Pistols appear on British TV’s Today show…goaded by the host, Bill Grundy, the Pistols get seriously potty-mouthed helping to cement their reputation while largely destroying the host’s career…the interview clip continues to get lots of YouTube clicks to this day…also this week, during a London photo shoot for the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, a 40-foot helium-filled pig breaks loose from its moorings and floats up to an estimated 18,000 feet before descending in Kent where it crashes into a barn scaring some cows…meanwhile in Kingston Jamaica, Bob Marley and the Wailers are rehearsing at Marley's house when seven gunmen appear and shower the house with a hail of gunfire...Marley, wife Rita and manager Don Taylor are all hit, but miraculously nobody is severely injured...the band plays a gig two nights later…

1978: Ian Dury—the hot new British new wave star—releases "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick," which will sell two million copies worldwide and hit number one in the UK without ever charting in the U.S.…

1979: Eleven fans are trampled to death at a Who show in Cincinnati when the crowd surges forward to claim unreserved seats…meanwhile in London, U2 plays to a “crowd” of nine at The Hope and Anchor…mis-advertised as “The U2’s,” the band pulls the plug after The Edge snaps a string…

1980: After management tells Prince he can’t perform in spandex pants without underwear, The Purple One retaliates by opening the first night of his Dirty Mind Tour in Buffalo, New York wearing bikini briefs, high-heeled boots, leggings and a voluminous trench coat…

1983: Neil Young is sued by his label, Geffen Records…according to the company, his latest music is “not commercial in nature and musically uncharacteristic of his previous albums”…this comes on the heels of Young’s poorly received Trans—Young’s dalliance with electronic music—and Everybody’s Rockin’—a foray into rockabilly…Young countersues arguing his contract grants him total artistic freedom…the case is ultimately settled with Geffen apologizing…

1993: Revered rock weirdo, musical wizard, and spokesman for lyrical freedom, Frank Zappa, meets his demise from pancreatic cancer at 53…also this week, over the protests of his bandmates, Axl Rose includes a cover of “Look At Your Game, Girl” written by Charles Manson on the new GNR album The Spaghetti Incident?...the song, which does not appear on the LP’s track listing, follows the last listed track and concludes with Axl saying “thanks Chas”…

1997: Sax blowhard Kenny G., who is already the world’s best-selling instrumentalist sets a new record by blowing a single note (E-flat) for 45 minutes and 47 seconds at a New York record store…he uses a technique called circular breathing to pull off the stunt…

1999: Jay-Z is arrested for stabbing record exec Lance Rivera at a New York club…Hova suspects Rivera of being behind bootlegs of his album Vol. 3…Life and Times of S Carter…he will plead guilty and receive three year’s probation…reflecting on the incident in his 2010 book, Decoded, Jay-Z writes, “There was no reason to put my life on the line, and the lives of everyone who depends on me, because of a momentary loss of control…I vowed to never allow myself to be in a situation like that again”…

2002: Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher gets his front teeth kicked out in a struggle with cops at his Munich hotel…

2004: Marianne Faithfull cancels the remaining 12 dates of a European tour following her onstage collapse in Milan...also this week, singer-songwriter and artist Kevin Coyne dies in Germany at age 60 from complications of lung fibrosis...in 1971 Coyne was offered and declined the job of replacing the deceased Jim Morrison as The Doors’ lead singer citing his aversion to leather pants…

2005: Queen Elizabeth presents Queen guitarist Brian May with a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) award…also this week in an unlikely coupling, Mary J. Blige’s new album Reminisce features the hip-hopper singing a duet with U2’s Bono…

2006: The handwritten lyrics for The Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” fetch $192,000 at auction in New York...Christies also gets $168,000 for a former Hendrix Strat while a collection of memorabilia belonging to former Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo garners $116,640...in other auction news this week, America’s Oldest Teenager, Dick Clark, puts up a lifetime’s worth of memorabilia for auction... the huge collection includes the mouth harp Dylan blew in The Last Waltz, a beaded white glove worn by Michael Jackson, and the mic Clark used when his American Bandstand TV show launched in 1956…

2007: Ray Charles Plaza in Albany, Georgia, his home town, is opened and features a revolving bronze statue of the late soul man at the piano while his music plays on a permanent speaker system…

2012: Decked out in suits and bowties, surviving Led Zeppelin members Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page are given given Kennedy Center honors for their contributions to American culture and the arts…President Obama gets a laugh when he reveals, "I lost my virginity to the first two minutes of 'Stairway to Heaven' and spent the next 11 minutes of it apologizing."…

2013: Spotify reveals that it pays artists on average $.007 per play while also saying it’s paid out over $1 billion since its 2008 launch…

This Week’s Hatches

December 1: British crooner Matt Monro (1930), R&B singer Lou Rawls (1933), soul singer Billy Paul (1934), drummer Sandy Nelson (1938), Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult (1944), Doors drummer John Densmore (1944), singer Bette Midler (1945), singer Gilbert O’Sullivan (1946), singer Julee Cruise (1956), jazz/fusion/metal guitarist Chris Poland (1957), Japan's Steve Jansen (1959), singer/guitarist Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper) of Thee Headcoats (1959), 3 Doors Down drummer Greg Upchurch (1971), keyboardist Isaiah Randolph "Ikey" Owens (1975), Brad Delson of Linkin Park (1977)

December 2: microgroove LP inventor Dr. Peter Goldmark (1906), Tom McGuinness of Manfred Mann (1941), The Association drummer/singer Ted Bluechel Jr. (1942), Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle born Nicholas Dingley (1960), singer-songwriter and producer Joe Henry (1960), Def Leppard's Rick Savage (1960), Belizean musician Andy Palacio (1960), singer Nelly Furtado (1978), Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase (1978), Britney Spears (1981), Aussie bassist Tal Wilkenfeld (1986)

December 3: Nashville DJ William “Hoss” Allen (1922), pop crooner Andy Williams (1927), Capitol Records producer Nik Venet (1936), folksinger Ralph McTell (1944), Ozzy Osbourne (1948), "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow of Commander Cody (1948) Starship singer Mickey Thomas (1949), Molly Hatchet's Duane Roland (1952), bassist Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters (1968), R&B singer Montell Jordan (1968), New Zealand singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield (1979)

December 4: film singer Deanna Durbin (1921), jazz drummer Denis Charles (1933), KC blues guitarist Larry Davis (1936), pop singer Freddy Cannon (1939), Bob Mosley of Moby Grape (1942), bassist Chris Hillman of The Byrds (1944), Beach Boy Dennis Wilson (1944), Terry Woods of The Pogues (1947), New Jersey rocker Southside Johnny born John Lyon (1948), Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1951), Bob Griffin of The BoDeans (1959), Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge (1962), rapper and hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, born Shawn Corey Carter (1969), British folksinger Kate Rusby (1973)

December 5: blues master Sonny Boy Williamson II Born Aleck Ford Miller AKA Rice Miller (1899), bari sax man Alvin “Red” Tyler (1925), jazz bassist Art Davis (1934), singer-songwriter J.J. Cale (1938), Eduardo Delgado of ? & The Mysterians (1945), singer-songwriter Jim Messina (1947), Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown (1947), pop singer-songwriter Andy Kim (1952), Great White's Jack Russell (1960), Johnny Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls (1965), R&B singer Keri Lynn Hinson (1982)

December 6: Broadway lyricist Ira Gershwin (1896), Hugo Peretti of the Hugo and Luigi pop and R&B production team (1916), jazz pianist and bandleader Dave Brubeck (1920), Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five (1943), Motown writer-producer Willie Hutch (1944), Miroslav Vitous of Weather Report (1947), Joe X. Dube of Looking Glass (1950), brilliant bassist Jaco Pastorius (1951), The Jam's Rick Buckler (1955), Peter Buck of R.E.M. (1956), guitar whiz Randy Rhoads (1956), drummer Dave Lovering of The Pixies (1961), Ben Watt of Everything But the Girl (1962), Flaming Lips drummer Steven Drozd (1969), Ace of Base keyboardist Ulf Ekberg (1970)

December 7: singer-songwriter Harry Chapin (1942), singer-songwriter Tom Waits (1949), percussionist Carlos Vega (1956), Tim Butler of The Psychedelic Furs (1958), Barbara Weathers of Atlantic Starr (1963), Oasis guitarist Gem Archer(1966), All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (1974), singer Aaron Carter (1987)

This Week’s Dispatches

December 1: bluegrass guitarist Carter Stanley (1966), West Side Chicago blues guitar monster Magic Sam (1969), Black Sabbath singer Ray Gillen (1993), songwriter Irving Gordon (1996), jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli (1997), Caravan drummer Richard Coughlin (2013)

December 2: blues pianist Mercy Dee Walton (1962), folksinger David Blue (1982), New Orleans R&B singer Lee Dorsey (1982), composer Aaron Copland (1990), singer Valorie Jones of The Jones Girls (2001), jazz pianist Mal Waldron (2002), Joe Strummer of The Clash (2002), Shocking Blue singer Mariska Veres (2006), folk music legend Odetta (2008), songwriter-music publisher Aaron Schroeder (2009), reggae singer Junior Murvin (2013)

December 3: composer Hoyt Curtin (2000), Nashville session guitarist Grady Martin (2001), Whisky A Go Go club owner Elmer Valentine (2008)

December 4: Deep Purple singer Tommy Bolin (1976), Frank Zappa (1993), Wall of Voodoo drummer Joe Nanini (2000), Texas rapper Pimp C, born Chad Butler (2007), percussionist Carlos “Patato” Valdéz, (2007), Liam Clancy of The Clancy Brothers (2009), blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin (2011)

December 5: multi-instrumentalist jazz behemoth Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1977), New Orleans session sax man David Lastie (1987), Doug Hopkins of the Gin Blossoms (1993), sax man Bob Berg (2002), composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (2007), jazz pianist Dave Brubeck (2012)

December 6: big-voiced folk-blues singer Lead Belly born Huddie William Ledbetter (1949), Roy Orbison (1988), Memphis bassist Busta “Cherry” Jones (1995), singer-songwriter Dobie Gray (2011), drummer Ed Cassidy of Spirit (2012), Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton (2012)

December 7: Germs singer Darby Crash (1980), New Riders of the Purple Sage bassist David Torbert (1982), Richard Taylor of The Manhattans (1987), R&B/pop singer Dee Clark (1990), songwriter Carol Gourley (1997), composer John Addison (1998), British jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker (1999), country singer Jerry Scoggins (2004),Classics IV lead singer Dennis Yost (2008)


Chasplaya
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Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:01 pm

Otis Redding and John Lennon Lost…Dead Disbanded

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of December 8

Otis Redding John Lennon Grateful Dead


1952: “Stormy Weather” by The Five Sharps is released...it will become one of the rarest of doo-wop records with only three 78 rpm copies known to exist...at auction the record is worth an estimated $20,000...the group was paid off in sodas and hot dogs for their recording fee…

1957: Jerry Lee Lewis weds Myra Gale Brown...she is his third wife, his third cousin and 13 years old…the media furor that follows puts a serious kink in The Killer’s career…also this week, Al Priddy, a disc jockey at station KEX in Portland, Oregon, is fired for playing Elvis Presley's version of "White Christmas...station manager Mel Bailey, who canned the DJ by phone says, "it is not in the good taste we ascribe to Christmas music. Presley gives it a rhythm and blues interpretation. It doesn't seem to me to be in keeping with the intent of the song.”…

1960: Gregg Allman turns 13 and gets a guitar for his birthday...14 year-old brother Duane eclipses him quickly on that instrument while Greg excels at organ and vocals...they'll play together in the Kings, the Allman Joys, and Hourglass before they rule the southern rock universe with the Allman Brothers Band, which they'll form in 1969…

1962: Bill Wyman, wielding his homemade bass, plays his first gig with The Rollin’ Stones (as they were then billing themselves)…

1964: John Coltrane records "A Love Supreme" with his quartet…his modal playing on the recording is considered a benchmark in modern jazz…also this week, Sam Cooke is shot and beaten to death by a motel manager in Los Angeles ... Cooke was apparently running amok wearing only a sport coat and shoes ... he was chasing a young woman who had fled his room with his clothes after he had assaulted her...in his pursuit Cooke breaks open the door to the manager’s office resulting in her shooting him three times and then beating the singer for good measure...he is dead when police arrive…

1965: Bill Graham promotes his first concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium as a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe… Graham will later take over all shows at the venue and the Fillmore will become a mecca for psychedelic bands and their patchouli-scented fans...this same week, Ray Charles charts his 44th song when “Crying Time” enters the Hot 100…the country-inflected song proves Brother Ray has huge crossover power…

1966: A chunk of classic garage psychedelia, “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by The Electric Prunes is released…

1967: Soul music great Otis Redding is killed when his tour plane crashes into the frigid waters of Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin...the “Love Man” is 26 and at the height of his career...killed with Redding are his pilot, valet and four members of his backup band...trumpeter Ben Cauley, a non-swimmer, miraculously survives by clinging to a seat cushion for 20 minutes until a police boat arrives to rescue him…the scheduled warm-up band for Redding’s show that evening is a group called The Grim Reaper... also this week, within a month of Byrds leader Jim McGuinn firing David Crosby, drummer Michael Clarke quits...this happens about two years after another Clark—that is Gene Clark—quits the band on account of his aversion to flying...a big liability for a Byrd…

1968: The Rolling Stones film Rock & Roll Circus in front of a live audience in London...guests include The Who, Marianne Faithfull, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and temporary rock supergroup Dirty Mac, consisting of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards...the rock-concert extravaganza originally intended for broadcast as a television special will not see release until 1996…

1969: Jimi Hendrix takes the stand in the Toronto Supreme Court at his trial for possession of hashish and heroin...Hendrix testifies that he has smoked pot four times and hashish five times, taken LSD five times, and sniffed cocaine twice but says he has outgrown drugs...the jury finds him not guilty after eight hours of deliberation…

1970: After 26 Top 40 single hits, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles finally make it to the top of the chart with “Tears of a Clown”…

1971: Frank Zappa is pushed off the stage at the Rainbow Theatre in London... he gets the shove from the jealous boyfriend of an ardent young fan...Frank suffers a broken leg, broken ankle, fractured skull, and crushed larynx, but it’s the damage to his spine that keeps him in a wheelchair for most of the year…

1974: John Lennon and Ronald Reagan are the celebrity guests on ABC’s Monday Night Football...off camera the former California governor and future president schools the former Beatle on the finer points of the game…

1977: Saturday Night Fever premieres in New York...the movie will spread the disco craze across the country. and the soundtrack album will become one of the biggest sellers of all time…

1980: The world is stunned when John Lennon is shot to death in New York City on the street outside his apartment…

1984 Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle AKA Nick Dingley dies when the Pantera he’s riding in plows into two other cars…at the wheel is Motley Crue’s Vince Neil who is later convicted of vehicular manslaughter…Neil is sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years probation, and 200 hours community service…in a separate civil case, he’s ordered to pay a total of $2.6 million to the estate of Dingley as well as two others who were injured in the wreck…he will leave Motley Crue in 1992 to become a race car driver, rejoining the band in 1997…

1985: Keyboardist Ian Stewart dies of a heart attack…known as”The Sixth Stone,” he was an original member of The Rolling Stones predating Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman…when Andrew Loog Oldham became the band’s manager he felt Stewart lacked the right look and he thus became the band’s road manager and sometimes keyboardist…a devoted blues fan, he refused to play piano on “Wild Horses” on account of the song’s non-blues chord structure…

1986: Glum-rock outfit The Smiths play their final date just four years after they began playing clubs around the UK…their last appearance is at the Artists Against Apartheid show at London's Brixton Academy…originally booked for November, the show was pushed back a month after guitarist Johnny Marr was involved in a near-fatal car wreck…

1988: A poll of U.S. listeners reveals that in order of preference, their favorite artists for providing accompaniment to sex are: Neil Diamond, Beethoven and Luther Vandross…there’s no word from Barry White on this obviously rigged result…

1991: Rita Marley is finally awarded Bob Marley’s contested estate after years of legal wrangling...as a result of the verdict Marley’s son Ziggy names his daughter Justice…

1995: The surviving members of The Grateful Dead disband in the wake of Jerry Garcia’s death the previous August…

1998: Under the Freedom of Information Act, the F.B.I. makes public its huge file on Frank Sinatra…the 1,300 pages contain old rumors about his ties to organized crime, details about a youthful arrest for seduction and adultery and new information about how he escaped military duty in World War II due to a perforated eardrum and mental instability…

1999: Rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s second posthumous album, Born Again, sells nearly half a million copies in its first week ... it bumps Celine Dion out of the top spot …

2000: Metallica sues Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and Guerlain, Inc. for trademark infringement...the three companies are producing and selling a perfume branded Metallica…

2003: Ozzy Osbourne is crushed under the all-terrain vehicle he is riding at his country estate in Buckinghamshire, England...the accident puts him in the hospital for nearly a month recovering from injuries that include a fractured left collar bone, eight fractured ribs, and crushed neck vertebrae...he awakes from a coma-like condition with no sense of smell or taste, convinced he has been in a bomb blast in Wales while touring with his band…

2004: Damageplan and ex-Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell is shot to death at a Columbus, Ohio nightclub when a deranged former Marine runs onstage and shoots Dimebag...the shooter then kills a roadie and two fans...a hostage situation is ended when a cop shoots the assailant, killing him…also this week, Tupac Shakur’s eighth posthumous album, Loyal to the Game, is released...at the time of his death in 1995 the rapper had sold a total of 5.9 million records; by 2004 that number had grown to over 35 million units...his estate had also spun off a line of urban apparel, a biography, a poetry collection, two authorized documentaries on DVDs...and at the end of 2004 a VHI biographical documentary and a Broadway musical are also in the works…

2006: Daredevil Evel Knievel files suit against Kanye West charging trademark infringement over the rapper’s “Touch the Sky” video in which West, using the alter-ego “Evel Kanyevel,” attempts to jump a canyon on a motorcycle...apparently not a West fan, Knievel terms the video, “...the most worthless piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life.”...

2007: In the wake of his departure from Interscope, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor launches the website remix.nin.com where fans can mash up songs from the NIN catalog and post their creations online...also this week, Led Zep reunites for a one-off show at London’s O2 arena as a part of a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun who died a year earlier...the two-hour set includes many of the band’s biggest hits and represents Zep’s first full-length show since drummer John Bonham died in 1980...filling in on drums is John’s son, Jason who acquitted himself well...rumors swirl about a reunion tour…

2010: In an ironic twist of fate, the handwritten lyrics to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” are snapped up at auction by a hedge fund manager for $422,500…

2012: A stash of love letters sent by Mick Jagger in 1969 to singer Marsha Hunt fetch £187,250 at auction…Hunt is commonly thought to be the inspiration for the Stones song “Brown Sugar”…

2013: The Stratocaster played by Bob Dylan during his controversial electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival brings in $965,000 at auction…this same week, Metallica plays a set at an Argentine Antarctic base making the band the first to play a gig on all seven continents…

This Week’s Hatches

December 8: composer Jean Sibelius (1865), singer, dancer and actor Sammy Davis Jr. (1925), master of the B3 Jimmy Smith (1928), soul singer Jerry Butler (1939), flautist James Galway (1939), The Hollies' Bobby Elliott (1942), Doors frontman Jim Morrison (1942), Bread drummer Mike Botts (1944), Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers (1947), musician and producer Dan Hartman (1951), Warren Cuccurullo of Duran Duran (1956), Phil Collen of Def Leppard (1957), singer Paul Rutherford of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1959), guitarist Marty Friedman of Megadeth (1962), guitarist Greg Howe (1963), Sinead O'Connor (1966), Bushwick Bill of The Geto Boys (1966), Ryan Newell of Sister Hazel (1972), Slipknot singer Corey Taylor (1973)

December 9: jazz and R&B trumpeter Donald Byrd (1932), blues harp master and singer Junior Wells (1932), Sam Strain of The O'Jays (1941), bassist Rick Danko of The Band (1943), Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (1944), Shirley Brickley of The Orlons (1944), The Commodores' Walter Orange (1946), frontwoman Candy Givens of Zephyr (1946), singer Joan Armatrading (1950), Dire Straits guitarist Jack Sonni (1954), Randy Murray of BTO (1955), teen idol Donny Osmond (1957), Crowded House's Nick Seymour (1958), The Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan (1970), Geoff Barrow of Portishead (1971), Green Day's Tre Cool (1972), rapper Canibus born Germaine Williams (1974), Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme (1978)

December 10: Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones (1926), Ralph Tavares of Tavares (1948), Dinosaur Jr guitarist J(oseph) Mascis (1965), Timothy Christian Riley of Tony! Toni! Tone! (1966), Scot Alexander of Dishwalla (1971), Meg White of The White Stripes (1974)

December 11: Latin American music star Carlos Gardel (1890), Latin bandleader Perez Prado (1916), yodeling Slim Clark (1917), blues singer Big Mama Thornton (1926), Texas R&B guitarist and vocalist Buddy Ace (1936), jazz pianist McCoy Tyner (1938), David Gates of Bread (1940), pop singer J. Frank Wilson (1941), singer Brenda Lee (1944), keyboardist Philip 'Spike' Edney (1951), Jermaine Jackson (1954), Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens (1958), Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx born Frank Feranna Jr. (1958), touring Stones bassist Darryl “Munch” Jones (1951), Justin Currie of Del Amitri (1964), Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance born Zachary James Baker (1981)

December 12: crooner Frank Sinatra (1915), jazz and blues singer Joe Williams (1918), Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (1923), jazz guitarist Jim Hall (1930), pop singer Connie Francis (1938), singer Dionne Warwick (1941), Tim Hauser of Manhattan Transfer (1941), Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers (1943), saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. (1943), MC5 singer Rob Tyner (1944), Clive Bunker of Jethro Tull (1946), Martin Stone of Savoy Brown (1946), George Brown of Kool & The Gang (1949), Chris Stein of Blondie (1950), Dan Baird of The Georgia Satellites (1953), Cy Curnin of The Fixx (1957), singer and drummer Sheila E. (Escovedo) (1958), Eric Schenkman of Spin Doctors (1963), Grant Young of Soul Asylum (1964), Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson (1966), Nick Dimichino of Nine Days (1967), Danny Boy of House Of Pain (1968), The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins (1976), Dino Meneghin of The Calling (1977)

December 13: R&B vocalist and guitarist Wayne “Duster” Bennett (1932), blues drummer Robert Covington (1941), guitar ace Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1948), Ted Nugent (1948), Randy Owen of Alabama (1949), Television's Tom Verlaine (1949), singer-songwriter Steve Forbert (1954), country star John Anderson (1954), Berton Averre of The Knack (1954), NIN bassist Daniel Patrick (1970), Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy (1974), Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 (1975), Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee (1981), Taylor Swift (1989)

December 14: bandleader Spike Jones (1911), rockabilly and country star Charlie ‘“The Silver Fox” Rich (1932), Warren Ryanes of The Monotones (1937), Don Addrisi of The Addrisi Brothers (1938), producer and songwriter Gary Usher (1938), Alice Cooper guitarist and songwriter Dick Wagner (1942), rock writer Lester Bangs (1948), bassist Cliff Williams of AC/DC (1949), German rocker Tamara Danz (1952), The Waterboys' Mike Scott (1958), Peter Stacy of The Pogues (1958), Marilyn Manson bassist Tim Skold (1966), Brian Dalrymple of Soul For Real (1975)

This Week’s Dispatches

December 8: bassist Gary Thain of Uriah Heep (1975), John Lennon (1980), blues harp master “Big” Walter Horton (1980), country and pop singer Marty Robbins (1982), respected blues guitarist Hollywood Fats born Michael Mann (1986), Herbert “Toubo” Rhoad of The Persuasions (1988), Howlin’ Wolf drummer Willie Williams (1988), jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton (1991), father of the bossa nova Antonio Carlos Jobim (1994), Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzales (2003)

December 9: Sonny Til of The Orioles (1981), Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle born born Nicholas Dingley (1984), Patti Donahue of The Waitresses (1996), Mary Hansen of Stereolab (2002), Bread drummer Mike Botts (2005), Merseybeat drummer Fred Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers (2006)

December 10: Otis Redding (1967), drummer Matthew Kelly, lead guitarist Jimmy King, tenor saxophonist Phalon Jones, organistRonnie Caldwell and drummer Carl Cunningham of The Bar-Kays, Otis Redding’s backup band (1967), Bill Harris of the Clovers (1988), Darren Robinson AKA The Human Beat Box (1995), country singer Faron Young (1996), Jake Carey of The Flamingos (1997), lyricist Buddy Feyne (1998), Rick Danko of The Band (1999), Delta bluesman “Philadelphia” Jerry Ricks (2007), jazz guitarist Jim Hall (2013)

December 11: soul, gospel and pop singing icon Sam Cooke (1964), Lynn Strait of Snot (1998)

December 12: Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones (1985), king of zydeco accordion Clifton Chenier (1987), blues and rock innovator Ike Turner (2007), Indian musician and composer Ravi Shankar (2012)

December 13: children’s songs composer Larry Troxel (1998), Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin’ Spoonful (2002), Nils guitarist Alex Soria (2004) bluesman “Homesick” James Williamson (2006), Yvonne King Burch of the King Sisters (2009)

December 14: jazz and blues singer Dinah Washington (1963), Pattie Santos of It’s a Beautiful Day (1989), Kurt Winter of Guess Who? (1997), jazz trumpeter Conte Candoli (2001), Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun (2006)


Chasplaya
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Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:40 pm

Elvis Drafted…Harrison Booted…Beach Boys Enlightened

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of December 15

Elvis Presley George Harrison Beach Boys


1944: A plane carrying popular swing bandleader Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel...the fate of the aircraft and its passengers remains a mystery…this same week Hank Williams get hitched at a gas station to Audrey Sheppard…the marriage will result in the birth of future star Hank Williams Jr. before dissolving in 1952…

1955: Carl Perkins writes "Blue Suede Shoes" and records the song less than 48 hours later...Elvis covers the tune in January 1956…Carl’s version hits #1 on the country chart and #2 on the R&B and pop charts while the rockabilly star languishes in a hospital recovering from serious injuries resulting from a car wreck…Elvis’s version will get to #20 on the pop chart…

1957: Elvis Presley’s rocketing career is handed a setback when he receives greetings from the Memphis draft board…

1960: German authorities deport 17-year old George Harrison as he’s too young to perform with the Beatles in the raucous Hamburg nightclubs that hosted the band in its early days…this same week, Elvis Presley is inducted into the Los Angeles Indian Tribal Council...the ceremony coincides with the opening of his movie Flaming Star in which the rocker plays a half breed…

1961: EMI passes on The Beatles...the British label has second thoughts later on and signs the lads from Liverpool…this same week The Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” goes to the top of the pop chart…the song has a curious history with its melody having first been recorded in 1939 by South African artist Solomon Linda as “Mbube,” the Zulu word for lion…after several cover versions and the song’s appearance on The Lion King soundtrack, a story in Rolling Stone reveals that Linda died in poverty while the song has earned an estimated $15 million…his estate sues to have the song’s rights revert back to his family…a settlement is later reached with the publisher of the English-language version…

1963: James Carroll on WWDC in Washington DC is the first U.S. radio DJ to play a Beatles record after receiving a copy of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from his stewardess girlfriend…audience response leads to the station spinning the platter hourly…Capitol Records is yet to release the record in the U.S. and considers filing suit, but in the end releases the single early…

1967: The Beach Boys are given transcendental meditation instruction by the guru to the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi…also this week, Grateful Dead soundman and pharmacist to the Love Generation, Owsley Stanley, is busted with 750,000 doses of LSD…this same week Joan Baez is sentenced to a 45-day stretch in jail for her part in an anti-war demonstration…

1969: The Supremes log their final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show...the trio sings "Someday We’ll Be Together" as their TV swan song…

1977: The Sex Pistols are denied U.S. visas on account of their checkered pasts two days before the band is to appear on Saturday Night Live…

1979: Marking the only time the band will enjoy a UK No. 1 hit, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” manages that feat…

1988: James Brown draws a prison sentence of six years for fleeing cops and other charges during an interstate car chase...he is paroled in February 1991…

1992: Blues guitarist Albert King dies of a heart attack… known for his stinging, trebly licks and preference for a Gibson Flying V, he exerted a strong influence on such heavyweights as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix…

1996: Crooner Tony Bennett has just arrived at the White House for a holiday dinner with the Clintons when he suffers an erupted hernia and is rushed to a hospital where he undergoes emergency surgery…

1997: Activists including Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal protest in front of the Time Warner building in New York...they are objecting to the Prodigy song, "Smack My Bitch Up"…

1998: A court finds that songwriter Andrew Lloyd Webber did not plagiarize a liturgical writer’s song in composing the theme for his smash musical The Phantom of the Opera…this same week two of Charlie Daniels’ backup players demonstrate extraordinary work ethics when they schedule surgeries to coincide with their boss’s appointment for knee surgery...all three go under the knife on the same day in the same hospital in order to minimize show cancellations...bassist Jerry Charlie Hayward has a tonsillectomy while drummer Jack Gavin has shoulder surgery…

1999: In announcing that he’ll run for mayor of London, former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren enumerates the novel planks of his political platform: legalize boozing in public libraries, legalize pot, legalize all-night pubs, and, last but not least, install brothels outside the houses of Parliament...he drops out of the race a couple of months later…this same week Goo Goo Dolls nearly bite the big one when the military transport they’re flying in skids off a runway in Sicily damaging its landing gear and wing, obliging the Goo Goos to beat a hasty retreat via an emergency chute…

2000: The British music journal Melody Maker prints its final issue after continuous publication since 1926…also this week, English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl is killed by a speeding powerboat while scuba diving in Mexico…spotting the oncoming boat that had entered a swimmers-only area, MacColl is able to push her son Jamie out its path as the boat strikes and kills her…a lengthy campaign for justice ensues when it becomes apparent that the wealthy boat owner has paid a fall-guy employee to take the blame…

2001: Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh receives an honorary doctoral degree in music from Kent State University…

2004: Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles sue the Applebee’s restaurant chain for modifying the lyrics of their song “Happy Together”…in their court pleadings the pair complain that in an ad, the words "Imagine me and you, I do/I think about you day and night, it's only right" became "Imagine steak and shrimp, or shrimp and steak/Imagine both of these on just one plate"…arguing their reputation was compromised, the pair says the lyrics were modified "from those of a sweet love song to a crass paean to shrimp and steak combination plates"…

2005: Singer Nellie McKay is dropped by Columbia Records following a protracted squabble over her sophomore release...she wants to release a 23-track version of the album while the label wants to pare it down to 16 songs...referring to her breakup with the label she invokes fellow Columbia artist Bob Dylan’s lyric: “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more” ...this same week Microsoft and MTV announce they are joining forces to launch Urge, a new online music store intended to compete with Apple’s iTunes...the service will not be compatible with iPods...anybody had the Urge lately?…

2006: The Complete Motown Singles - Vol. 6: 1966 is released...included are two tracks cut by The Mynah Birds, an unsung R&B outfit with the unlikely combination of Rick James on vocals and future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer providing backing...the tunes were originally shelved following James’ bust for going AWOL from the navy…also this week, Paul McCartney leaves EMI records after a 45-year run…in announcing his new deal with Starbucks’ Hear Music label, Macca confides that he dreaded going to see the execs at his old label…

2007: Willie Nelson appears in an anti-dogfighting TV spot...the ad runs just as Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick is about to be sentenced on dogfighting-related charges...Willie also appears this same month on the cover of High Times magazine fondling a hank of his favorite herb...this just eight months after Willie was busted for pot possession in Louisiana…

2009: Citing a need to head in a different musical direction, guitarist John Frusciante quits The Red Hot Chili Peppers…

2012: Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason along with store manager Rob Wilson come to the rescue of Foote’s, the legendary London music shop where Mason bought his first drum kit…the store was on the verge of shutting down before the pair bought it…this same week South Korean musician Psy’s “Gangnam Style” records a record-setting one billion views on YouTube…

2013: The year has been a big one for female acts with artists like Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Haim, Rihanna, Lorde, and many more women dominating the charts…

This Week’s Hatches


December 15: Nashville stage wear tailor Nudie Cohn (1902), music journalist, producer and talent scout John Hammond (1910), pivotal rock ‘n’ roll DJ Alan Freed (1922), country singer-songwriter Ernie Ashworth (1928), Memphis horns sax player James Mitchell (1931), ‘50s R&B balladeer Jesse Belvin (1933), Johnny Moore of The Drifters (1934), Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes (1939), Dave Clark of the Dave Clark 5 (1942), Carmen Appice of Vanilla Fudge (1946), singer Harry Ray of the Moments and Ray, Goodman & Brown (1946), Paul Simonon of The Clash(1955), Tim Reynolds of The Dave Matthews Band (1957), Kasabian guitarist Sergio Pizzorno (1980)

December 16: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770), pianist, arranger, and producer Ernie Freeman (1922), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1929), Tony Hicks of The Hollies (1943), guitarist John Abercrombie (1944), Benny Andersson of ABBA (1946), Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top (1949), guitarist Robben Ford (1951), Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon (1968), 1971), Michael McCary of Boyz II Men (1971)

December 17: Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler (1894), UK teen idol Tommy Steele (1936), Art Neville of The Neville Brothers (1938), Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations (1939), brilliant New Orleans R&B pianist James Booker (1939), blues harp player and singer Paul Butterfield (1942), soul singer/songwriter Sam Dees (1945), Steely Dan drummer Jimmy Hodder (1947), Bad Company's Paul Rodgers(1949), Carlton Barrett of The Wailers (1950), Mike Mills of R.E.M. (1958), Bob Stinson of The Replacements (1959), Sarah Dallin of Bananarama (1961), Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock of Sugar Ray (1972), Paramore guitarist Taylor York (1989)

December 18: master luthier Antonio Stradivari (1737), bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1897), West Coast blues guitar player Pee Wee Crayton (1914), ex-Beatles and Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein (1931), Animals bassist and Hendrix manager Chas Chandler (1938), Sam Andrews of the Janis Joplin band (1941), Keith Richards (1943), Be-Bop Deluxe guitarist Bill Nelson (1948), Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo (1950), Martha Johnson of Martha And The Muffins (1950), Elliot Easton of The Cars (1953), Scorpions guitarist Ulrich Roth AKA Uli Jon Roth (1954), rapper DMX AKA Earl Simmons (1970), DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (1972), Christina Aguilera (1980)

December 19: French singer Edith Piaf (1914), R&B singer and sax man Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (1917), New Orleans piano great Professor Longhair AKA Henry Roeland (Roy) Byrd (1918), folk singer Phil Ochs (1940), Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White (1941), Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee (1944), The Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky (1944), John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1945), Doug Johnson of Loverboy (1957), bassist Tracy Pew of The Birthday Party (1957), Kajagoogoo's Limahl (1958), Mercury Nelson of The Force MDs (1964), Kevin Shepard of Zoo Story (1968)

December 20: fiery blues guitarist Auburn “Pat” Hare (1930), Blood, Sweat and Tears drummer Bobby Colomby (1944), Peter Criss of Kiss (1947), The Easybeats' Stevie Wright (1948), Elton John keyboardist Guy Babylon (1956), British singer Billy Bragg (1957), Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes (1966), singer Joanna Levesque AKA JoJo (1990)

December 21: blues pianist Peetie Wheatstraw born William Bunch (1902), country musician and songwriter Freddie Hart (1926), soul-jazz sax player Hank Crawford (1934), Frank Zappa (1940), Ray Hildebrand of Paul & Paula (1940), R&B singer Carla Thomas (1942), guitarist Albert Lee (1943), Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys (1946), flamenco guitar master Paco De Lucía (1947), The Rumour's Martin Belmont (1948), singer-songwriter Nick Gilder (1951), soul singer Betty Wright (1951), Nashville singer-songwriter Lee Roy Parnell (1956), Emmett Murphy of Dinosaur Jr (1964), Patrick Murphy of The Lemonheads (1964), Gabby Glaser of Luscious Jackson (1965), Brett Scallions of Fuel (1971)

This Week’s Dispatches


December 15: jazz pioneer Thomas “Fats” Waller (1943), bandleader Glenn Miller (1944), R&B singer and sax man Jackie Brenston (1979), Will Shatter of Flipper (1987), record exec and manager Nat Tarnopol (1987), soul singer Rufus Thomas (2001), Betty Blowtorch bassist/singer Bianca “Butthole” Halstead (2001), folk guitarist Davey Graham (2008)

December 16: androgynous disco star Sylvester (James) (1988), singer Nicolette Larson (1997), Stuart Adamson of Big Country (2001), country singer Gary Stewart (2003), singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg (2007)

December 17: raucous electric slide guitarist Theodore"Hound Dog" Taylor (1975), Delta bluesman Big Joe Williams (1982), Pilot keyboardist Billy Lyall (1989), Irish singer Ruby Murray (1996), saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. (1999), producer Andy Wiswell (1999), singing cowboy Rex Allen Sr.(1999), opera diva Martha Moedl (2001), producer Joel Dorn (2007), iconoclastic musician Don Van Vliet AKA Captain Beefheart (2010)

December 18: influential bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson (1929), George “Smitty” Smith of The Manhattans (1970), New Colony Six bassist Lee Kummel (1978), James Brown guitarist Jimmy “Chank” Nolen (1983), reggae singer and Bob Marley mentor Joe Higgs (1999), Memphis Horns sax man James Mitchell (2000), English singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward (2001), percussionist Ralph McDonald (2011)

December 19: Byrds drummer Michael Clarke (1992), Sony founder Masaru Ibuka (1997), Muddy Waters sideman Jimmy Rogers (1997), Roebuck “Pops” Staples of The Staples Singers (2000), 10,000 Maniacs guitarist Robert Buck (2000)

December 20: Charlie Burse of The Memphis Jug Band (1965), singer Bobby Darin (1973), Julian Lennon band drummer Micky Hammerhead (1990), country singer Hank Snow (1999), bluesman Son Seals (2004), Denis “Denny” Payton of The Dave Clark Five (2006), Mexican-American music star Lydia Mendoza (2007), Big Brother and The Holding Company guitarist James Gurley (2009), UK producer David Richards (2013)

December 21: blues pianist Peetie Wheatstraw born William Bunch (1941), original No Doubt vocalist John Spence (1987), Cockney Rebel bassist Paul Jeffreys (1988), blues guitar great Albert King (1992), Be-Bop Deluxe bassist Charlie Tumahai (1995), trumpeter Johnny Coles (1997), British country and pop singer Karl Denver (1998), Iron Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman (2011)


Berry’s Badnesses…Sixx Kickstarted…Mayer Bum Rushed

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of December 22

Chuck Berry Nikki Sixx John Mayer

1918: German composer Franz Gruber writes the music for "Silent Night"...it’s performed for the first time the next day—Christmas Day—at Oberndorf, Austria in the Church of St. Nikolaus…

1934: Future gospel and soul singer McKinley Mitchell is born this Christmas Day…prophetically, his final album will be titled I Won’t Be Back No More…

1942: Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” tops the Billboard pop chart…the song is re-released during ensuing holiday seasons and nails the top spot again in 1945 and 1947, ultimately becoming one of the biggest singles ever…

1954: R&B star Johnny Ace is backstage at a Houston concert toying with a revolver…when he points the pistol at his head claiming to know which chamber holds the single bullet in the weapon, he irrevocably proves himself wrong…

1956: Elvis shines as the most successful chart star of the year, with 17 hits...poor Pat Boone—the runner up—has had a mere five Billboard-charting hits…

1958: Ooh-wee baby…Frankie Ford’s rocking “Sea Cruise” is released this week and will eventually rise to #3 on the pop chart and become a staple of the Crescent City R&B sound…the tune, originally recorded by Huey “Piano” Smith with Bobby Marchan on vocals, is re-recorded with Ford dubbing his singing over the original version’s backing track…thanks to his gritty reading of the song, most listeners assume Ford is black…in reality he’s a pompadoured white boy who could easily play the role of a teen idol…

1959: Chuck Berry is arrested for transporting a minor across state lines for an immoral purpose...he had invited a young Native American woman he met in El Paso to come work as a hat check girl at his Club Bandstand in Missouri...the young woman is fired two weeks later and hustles a few days at a local hotel before calling police for help getting back home...the call leads to Berry's trial, the guilty verdict is later overturned because the judge made racist remarks…this same week, an 18-year-old Richard Starkey gets his first drum kit as a Christmas present...the kit will take him far…

1962: British band The Tornadoes score a #1 Billboard hit with their instrumental “Telstar” named for the first communications satellite…UK studio wizard Joe Meek wrote and recorded the tune that features the distinctive electronic sounds of a clavioline—a forerunner to analog synths…Meek is sued for plagiarism by a French composer claiming the Brit lifted the song from a film score he’d written—due to the suit, Meek receives no royalties…the case is finally decided in Meek’s favor in 1967, three weeks after his suicide…

1963: The Rolling Stones appear on the U.K. television show Ready, Steady, Go! performing “I Wanna Be Your Man” a song written for them by Lennon and McCartney…

1964: On a flight from L.A. to Houston Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a mental collapse and gives up touring…he is replaced onstage by studio musician Glen Campbell…this same week, showing a distinct lack of Christmas spirit, a gang of George Harrison girl fans thrash Patti Boyd, George's girlfriend, for having what they all want…not to be left out of the assault on seasonal cheer, The Rolling Stones place a tongue-in-cheek seasons-greeting ad in the New Musical Express that reads “Best wishes to starving hairdressers and their families”…

1965: The Beatles’ new LP Rubber Soul goes gold after just two weeks on sale…

1967: The Beatles’ new film Magical Mystery Tour, which writer Tom Wolfe will later claim was inspired by the travels of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, premieres on BBC-TV...it creates plenty of mystery in its own right when audiences try to figure out what the Liverpudlian novice filmmakers could possibly have been thinking…

1968: Playing their first-ever U.S. show, Led Zeppelin opens for Vanilla Fudge and Spirit in Denver…tickets at the Denver Auditorium run five bucks a pop…

1969: Capping a meteoric rise in rockdom, Led Zeppelin II nails the top position on the US album chart and will go on to move more than five million copies…Elton John and Bernie Taupin join forces to form one of the most successful songwriting teams of the 20th century…

1970: Joni Mitchell strikes gold for the first time with her album Ladies of the Canyon…

1971: George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” rules the pop singles chart…originally recorded by Beatles cohort Billy Preston, the copyright owners of The Chiffons ‘60s hit “He’s So Fine” will sue Harrison claiming plagiarism…a court will find that the ex-Beatle did indeed subconsciously copy the oldie, despite Harrison maintaining the melody was inspired by the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ version of the public domain gospel song “Oh Happy Day”…

1972: Local residents raise hell about all the noise coming from a Manfred Mann concert in Miami...authorities pull the plug mid-concert and the crowd goes berserk...destruction ensues…

1973: Just two weeks before his band's release of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Tom Johnson of the Doobie Brothers goes down for pot possession…

1974: John Lennon’s single “#9 Dream” hits the U.S. pop chart…it will coincidentally top out at the #9 position…this same week, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell take to the streets of Los Angeles singing Christmas carols…

1975: A whacked-out fan levels a loaded .44 at super-hunter Ted Nugent, but is brought down without incident by a combined force of security guards and fans…

1976: Proving that they scored big when they got Joe Walsh on board, the Eagles touch platinum with Hotel California…

1977: Singer-songwriter Cat Stevens becomes a Muslim and changes his name to Yusuf Islam…

1978: The Who's drummer throne, recently and tragically vacated by Keith Moon, is amply filled by Kenny Jones…also this week, Rod Stewart releases "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"...apparently someone does because the song will hit No. 1…

1980: Stiff Records puts out the gag album, The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan…the record consists of 40 minutes of silence…

1983: Dennis Wilson, the only real surfer among the Beach Boys, drowns after diving from the deck of a friend's boat in Marina Del Rey, California…an autopsy reveals the singer-drummer has a blood-alcohol level of 0.26…Wilson had blown his fortune and was near destitute at the time of his death, the victim of serious drug and alcohol problems…he is given an official Coast Guard funeral and burial at sea despite never having served…

1987: Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx is revived with two shots of adrenaline after being pronounced dead from a heroin OD…he springs back to life, flees the ambulance he’s being hauled in and gets a ride home where he promptly shoots up and passes out…the episode will inspire the Crüe’s anthem “Kickstart My Heart”…

1989: A former cook in the restaurant owned by Chuck Berry takes her erstwhile boss to court for allegedly placing a camera in the women’s bathroom…

1991: Greg Allman makes his acting debut as a drug lord in the movie Rush…this same week James Brown sues the producers of the movie The Commitments claiming one of its characters is modeled too closely on Mr. Dynamite…he’ll lose the case…

1992: Harry Connick Jr. is busted at JFK Airport trying to smuggle a 9mm pistol onto a plane…also this week, Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel dies of liver failure…influenced by Jimi Hendrix, his blazing 10-minute guitar solo on “Maggot Brain” is revered by psychedelic guitarists…

2003: Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent’s debut LP, more than meets the album’s stated objective by becoming the biggest-selling record of the year going 6X platinum…

2004: When singer-songwriter John Mayer shows up for his Pennsylvania high school’s Hall of Fame ceremonies he winds up in the principal's office…citing security concerns, school officials stall the recording star until the ceremony is under way, then walk him to his car…”It was hurtful,” Mayer says…

2005: Former Bee Gee Barry Gibb buys the former home of the late Johnny and June Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee...the sale price isn’t announced, but the property had been on the market for $2.5 million…this same week, the body of former family-band member Barry Cowsill is found on a wharf in New Orleans...it is believed that he died during Hurricane Katrina…and finally this week, Google reports Janet Jackson was the most-searched name of the year following her wardrobe slip-up at the 2004 Super Bowl…

2006: The Hardest Working Man in Show Business is felled by pneumonia on Christmas morning in an Atlanta hospital...three days later, thousands line the streets of Harlem as James Brown’s funeral procession files past the Apollo Theatre, the scene of many triumphant Brown appearances and the venue where he recorded his still-venerated live album in 1962…

2008: The Guardian.Com reports that according to a study, of the 13 million songs available for sale on the internet in the past year, more than 10 million failed to find a single buyer…also this week, a casette recording of Lloyd Price’s song “Just Because,” made in 1973 by a drunk John Lennon and riddled with raunchily revised lyrics goes for $30,000 at auction…

This Week’s Hatches

December 22: composer Giacomo Puccini (1858), Texas bluesman T.D. Bell AKA Little T-Bone (1922), R&B guitarist and singer Alvin “Shine” Robinson (1935), Big Brother and the Holding Company guitarist James Gurley (1939), Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew (1941), The Animals drummer Barry Jenkins (1944), Maurice and Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees (1949), Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen (1954), guitar ace John Patitucci (1959), Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers (1967)

December 23: country singer Harold Dorman (1924), jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker (1929), R&B singer Esther Phillips (1935), British rocker Johnny KIdd (1935), Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen (1940), Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites (1940), folksinger Tim Hardin (1941), Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy (1941), Harry Shearer AKA Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap (1943), Spooky Tooth's Luther Grosvenor AKA Ariel Bender (1949), prog rock guitarist Adrian Belew (1949), Iron Maiden's Dave Murray (1958), Will Sin of The Shamen (1960), singer Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (1966), Montsho Eshe of Arrested Development (1974)

December 24: songwriter Harry Warren (1893), New Orleans R&B titan Dave Bartholomew (1920), R&B singer Lee Dorsey (1924), MGM Records president and self-appointed drug czar Mike Curb (1944), Lemmy AKA Ian Kilmister of Motorhead (1945), Jan Akkerman of Focus (1946), bassist Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (1951), Human League's Ian Burden (1955), Mary Ramsey of 10,000 Maniacs (1963), Latino pop star Ricky Martin (1970)

December 25: blues pioneer Tampa Red (1900), bandleader/singer/dancer Cab Calloway (1907), jazz and R&B guitarist Oscar Moore (1912), R&B singer Chris Kenner (1929), gospel/soul singer McKinley Mitchell (1934), O'Kelly Isley of The Isley Brothers (1937), Trevor Lucas of Fotheringay and Fairport Convention (1943), Canned Heat guitarist Henry Vestine (1944), bassist Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1945), Jimmy Buffett (1946), country singer Barbara Mandrell (1946), UB40's Robin Campbell (1954) singer Annie Lennox (1954), The Pogues' Shane MacGowan (1957), singer Alannah Myles (1958), Noel Hogan of The Cranberries (1971), pop singer Dido (1972), Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese (1972)

December 26: pianist and TV personality Steve Allen (1921), Leonard “Chick” Carbo of The Spiders (1927), Abdul "Duke" Fakir of The Four Tops (1935), legendary producer and weirdo Phil Spector (1940), Henning Schmitz of Kraftwerk (1956), drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica (1963), J. Yuenger of White Zombie (1967), Peter Klett of Candlebox (1969), Daughtry frontman Chris Daughtry (1979)

December 27: singer/actress Marlene Dietrich (1901), pianist Oscar Levant (1906), rockabilly guitarist Scotty Moore (1931), John “Buddy” Bailey of The Clovers (1931), Les McGuire of Gerry and the Pacemakers (1941), Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues (1941), Kinks bassist Pete Quaife (1943), Mick Jones of Foreigner (1944), singer Marianne Faithfull (1946), singer Tracy Nelson of Mother Earth (1946), Larry Byrom of Steppenwolf (1948), drummer Terry Bozzio of Missing Persons (1950), David Knopfler of Dire Straits (1952), singer Karla Bonoff (1952), singer Hayley Williams of Paramore (1988)

December 28: jazz pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903), Roebuck "Pops" Staples of The Staples Singers (1914), bandleader/drummer/producer and R&B innovator Johnny Otis (1921), rockabilly bassist Dorsey Burnette (1932), Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers (1938), Edgar Winter (1946), Alex Chilton of Big Star and The Box Tops (1950), French pianist Richard Clayderman (1953), neo-soul singer-songwriter John Legend (1978)

This Week’s Dispatches


December 22: “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey (1939), Rockin’ Robin Roberts of The Wailers (1967), Dennis Boon of The Minutemen (1985), jazz drummer Beaver Harris (1991), Lawrence Berk, founder of Berklee College of Music (1995), truck drivin’ country singer Dave Dudley (2003), songwriter Dennis Linde (2006), raw soul singer Marva Whitney (2012)

December 23: Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel (1992), guitarist Dan Hamilton (1994), singer/songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), British jazz musician and club owner Ronnie Scott (1996), Carl Hogan of The Valentines (1997), Jackie Landry of The Chantels (1997), composer and classical guitarist John Duarte (2004), jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (2007), songwriter Clint Ballard Jr. (2008), Rigor Mortis and Ministry guitarist Mike Scaccia (2012), session drummer Ricky Lawson (2013)

December 24: film composer Bernard Herrmann (1975), Doobie Brother percussionist Bobby LaKind (1992), R&B singer/guitarist Buddy Ace AKA the Root Doctor (1994), Nick Massi of The Four Seasons (2000), singer Ray Collins of of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention (2012)

December 25: rockabilly bassist Clayton Perkins (1973), blues guitarist Eddie Taylor (1981), Eugene “Bird” Daughtry of The Intruders (1994), crooner/actor Dean Martin (1995), Bryan MacLean of Love (1998), jazz and R&B singer Damita Jo (1998) jazz guitarist Derek Bailey (2005), “Mr. Dynamite” James Brown (2006), singer Eartha KItt (2008), blues singer-guitarist Robert Ward (2008), folk-rocker Vic Chesnutt (2009)

December 26: The “5” Royales guitarist/singer Lowman Pauling (1973), soul great Curtis Mayfield (1999), rock photographer Herb Ritts (2002), cymbal maker Armand Zildjian (2002), soul singer Fontella Bass (2012)

December 27: rockabilly/country singer Bob Luman (1978), songwriter/pianist Hoagy Carmichael (1981), Bob Kuban and the In Men vocalist Walter Scott (1983), record mogul Ewart G. Abner (1997), legendary country, rock and jazz guitarist Hank Garland (2004), Delaney Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (2008), soul singer Teena Marie (2010)

December 28: monster blues guitarist Freddie King (1976), Chris Bell of The Box Tops (1978), Avenged Sevenfold drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan (2009)


Hank’s Last Ride…Fats Walks…Virgins Seized…Vedder Vindicated

Historic Events that Rocked Music—The Week of December 29

Hank Williams Fats Domino Two Virgins Eddie Vedder


1926: The debut issue of Melody Maker hits British newsstands with coverage of dance bands, a ukulele feature and a story on sight reading…in 2000 the magazine will be absorbed by rival New Music Express…along the way it will become one of pop and rock’s most widely read publications…

1936: Billboard magazine, which began publishing news about circuses in 1894, publishes the first record sales chart...jazz violinist Joe Venuti’s “Stop! Look! Listen!” is the first record to occupy the #1 slot…

1950: Sam Phillips opens the Memphis recording facility that will later become Sun Studio...considered by many to be the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll, the studio will be the site of sessions by Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf and dozens of other rock, country and blues luminaries…

1953: Country legend Hank Williams dies in the back seat of his Cadillac en route to a New Year’s day show in Canton, Ohio… his death at age 29 comes from a heart attack brought on by a lethal mix of alcohol, chloral hydrate and morphine…Williams’ funeral in Montgomery, Alabama draws 25,000 mourners…his legacy of recordings and songs place him in the first rank of country performers…

1956: Elvis Presley is on top of the music world with a record-setting 10 singles on the Top 100 chart…

1957: Fats Domino records the crossover hit “I’m Walkin” in New Orleans...the song will chart on both the pop and R&B charts, at #4 and #1 respectively…there’s something about Fats and the act of walking…he’ll also score big hits with 1959’s “I Want to Walk You Home” and “Walking to New Orleans” in 1960… also this week, Joe Louis, the former heavyweight boxing champ, appears on TV’s The Steve Allen Show to introduce Solomon Burke who sings “You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide,” a song written by Louis…

1960: Johnny Cash plays the first of many shows he will perform at San Quentin Prison…in the audience is a convict by the name of Merle Haggard who will credit the concert with helping him turn his life around…after Haggard is released he dedicates his life to music instead of crime…

1961: At a New Year’s Eve Ritchie Valens memorial concert in Long Beach, California, the Beach Boys play for the first time under that name...they previously had been known as Kenny and the Cadets, The Pendletons and Carl and the Passions…

1962: Singer Brenda Lee has a narrow escape from the flames, dashing into her burning Nashville home in an attempt to rescue her poodle Cee Cee...Lee is slightly injured but Cee Cee dies from smoke inhalation and the home is destroyed…

1964: British singer Cleo Sylvestre covers the 1958 Teddy Bears’ hit “To Know Him is to Love Him”...though the record sinks without a trace at the time, it has come to be highly collectible in recent years...the backing band is an unruly outfit called The Rolling Stones…

1965: Fender Guitars is bought by CBS for $13 million…used pre-CBS guitars, basses and amps begin commanding bigger prices as players see quality deteriorate under the conglomerate’s ownership…while goofing around in the studio the Beach Boys cut a raucous, practically acapella version of “Barbara Ann,” a hit for the Regents in 1961...oddly enough, the lead vocal is sung by Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean alongside Brian Wilson...the song was also covered in November, 1966 by The Who with Keith Moon contributing a rare lead vocal…during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, a parody of the song called “Bomb Iran” enjoys momentary success…

1967: The Doors’ self-titled debut album nails the #2 spot on the album chart while its most notable song “Light My Fire” sits atop the singles chart...in a mere eight months the band will issue its follow-up smash LP, Strange Days…

1968: Marking a change in the way fans listen to and buy their music, Billboard reports that for the first time LP sales exceed singles…reflecting that change, many FM rock stations are playing whole album sides at a time…also this week, a shipment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s album Two Virgins is seized by authorities in New Jersey because the jacket sports a photo of the pair in the buff showing everything…

1970: Elvis drops in on FBI headquarters and during a private tour offers his services as an undercover agent…

1971: The Beatles officially break up when Paul McCartney files in the London High Court for dissolution of the The Beatles Co. partnership…this same week, Fab Four fans are encouraged to binge-listen when Radio Luxembourg plays seven straight hours of Beatles songs, predating the era of Netflix-style binge-viewing by four decades…

1973: Pink Floyd finishes recording Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road in London…begun as a musical piece, “Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics,” with first live performance nearly a year earlier in Brighton, U.K., the LP will become one of rock’s biggest sellers ever…

1974: “Time in a Bottle” goes gold...it is Jim Croce’s second gold record in a row since his death in a plane crash months earlier...other posthumous Top Ten singles will will follow including "Operator," "I Got a Name," "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” and "Workin' At The Car Wash Blues"…this same week Bob Dylan hits the road with The Band on a 37-city US tour…his first shows in seven years are a hot ticket with more than five million fans competing for 660,000 available seats…

1975: Elton John’s cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” goes to the top of the US pop chart…the single includes John Lennon on guitar…

1977: The Roxy opens on this first day of the year in London’s Covent Garden with The Clash as headliners…this despite a general club boycott of punk acts...it will soon be the the leading venue for fans and bands with torn tees, safety pins and grungy green teeth…

1978: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band plays Cleveland on New Year’s Eve…the frontman gets his cheek torn open when someone throws a firecracker at the stage…

1980: Following a third stroke, Amos Milburn dies…the West Coast bluesman who was largely responsible for transforming jump blues into R&B had a rollicking boogie-woogie piano style and cut many popular instrumentals such as “Chicken Shack Boogie” …he’s remembered for a string of good-time party songs involving drinking, most notably, “Bad, Bad Whiskey” and “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer”…

1982: Steve Van Zandt marries Maureen Santora in Asbury Park, New Jersey...Bruce Springsteen is the best man, and Percy Sledge and Little Richard sing a duet of “When a Man Loves a Woman” at the reception…

1984: Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his left arm in an auto accident in England but keeps his place in the band...after recovering he adapts his kit and keeps on rockin’…

1985: TV actor and teen pop star Ricky Nelson, who enjoyed a series of 1950s and early 1960s hits, perishes in a plane crash along with five members of his Stone Canyon Band …the DC 3 aircraft, which had been purchased from Jerry Lee Lewis, had a history of problems with a gasoline-fueled heater that may have caused the smoke-inhalation fatalities…both pilots survived by escaping through cockpit windows after crash landing…

1987: Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…she’s the first woman to be honored…

1990: Miami radio station WKRL debuts it new all-Zep-all-the-time format with “Stairway to Heaven” being played for 24 straight hours…that’ll put a bustle in your hedgerow…

1991: Ted Nugent supplies a Salvation Army soup kitchen in Detroit with 200 pounds of venison…his gift includes Ted’s holiday season sentiment: “I kill it, you grill it” …

1992: When Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” enters the charts it marks the twenty-third straight year in which he enjoys a Top 40 hit, a record only equaled by Elvis…

1997: Spirit guitarist Randy California is drowned in Hawaii while successfully helping his son escape a rip tide…

1999: George Harrison and wife Olivia manage to subdue an intruder who has invaded their home...Harrison is stabbed several times in the process but will recover…

2000: Country music legend Kitty Wells, along with her husband Johnny Wright, perform a farewell show before a capacity crowd at Nashville’s Nightlife Club...Wells is 81, Wright 86...in the house are such Nashville notables as Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith and Marty Stuart…

2003: Meat Puppets bass player Cris Kirkwood gets into a beef with a security guard over a parking spot at a Phoenix post office…during the tussle, Kirkwood grabs the guard’s baton and beats him…the guard shoots Kirkwood in the back leading to a hospital stay followed by a prison stretch during which he’s able to kick a longstanding heroin habit…

2004: Ray Davies of The Kinks is shot in the thigh after he gives chase to a pair of muggers who snatched his female companion’s purse while they strolled on a quiet New Orleans street...some media report on the story with the headline “You Really Shot Me”...also this week, Quantegy, the last U.S. company to make magnetic recording tape, shuts down operations...in the wake of the announcement, eBay lists a sudden spate of tape offerings...panicky producers start hoarding the stuff…

2005: Reissue labels have a field day when European copyrights expire on a number of classic pop and rock-and-roll songs recorded in 1954 and earlier…titles include Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", and "Only You" by The Platters...also this week, despite selling millions of records and touring the world as the leader of Everclear, Art Alexakis files for bankruptcy citing over $3 million in tax and credit card debt…

2006: Kid Rock gets to play DJ at Jet in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve...commenting on the gig, he chortles, “It was $200,000 to act crazy and go out of my f***ing mind.”...

2008: Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is sued for his cover of the band Indio’s “Hard Sun” for the Into the Wild soundtrack…songwriter Gordon Peterson says that because Vedder changed some of the lyrics, he “eroded” the integrity of the composition…in 2010 a judge will rule that given Vedder’s very minor changes, Peterson is tripping…

2009: In the final hours of 2009, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell announces on Twitter that the band will reunite after more than a ten-year split…

2010: Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer confirms he’s officially joined Red Hot Chili Peppers…

2011: Chuck Berry collapses mid-show at a Chicago concert…about an hour into a show that’s clearly faltering, Berry falls on a keyboard…after seemingly having recovered backstage he unsuccessfully attempts to revive the show, apologizes to fans and leaves the stage with a hint of his signature “duck walk”…

This Week’s Hatches

December 29: flautist/singer Ray Thomas of The Moody Blues (1942), The Band bassist and singer Rick Danko (1942), singer Marianne Faithfull (1946), Whitesnake drummer Cozy Powell (1947), singer Yvonne Elliman (1951), Neil Giraldo of the Pat Benatar band (1955), Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain (1961), Happy Mondays guitarist Mark Day (1961), Alex Gifford of Propellerheads (1963), The Offspring singer/guitarist Bryan Holland (1966)

December 30: rock innovator Bo Diddley born Otha Ellis Bates (1928), session picker Red Rhodes (1930), pop/country singer Skeeter Davis born Mary Frances Penick (1931), singer-songwriter John Hartford (1937), Noel “Paul” Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary (1937), singer Del Shannon born Charles Weedon Westover (1939), Mountain bassist and Cream producer Felix Pappalardi (1939), Kenny Pentifallo of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (1940), Michael Nesmith of The Monkees (1942), guitarist Robert Quine (1942), Davy Jones of the Monkees (1945), singer-songwriter and poet Patti Smith (1946), Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker (1946), Jeff Lynne of ELO and The Traveling Wilburys (1947), producer Bruce Fairbairn (1949), Jay Kay of Jamiroquai (1969), drummer Jon Theodore of The Mars Volta and Queens of the Stone Age (1973), R&B singer Tyrese Gibson (1978), singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding (1986)

December 31: composer Jule Styne (1905), bandleader and label owner Jerry Blaine (1910), folk singer Odetta Holmes (1930), guitarist Andy Summers of The Police (1942), singer-songwriter John Denver born John Deutschendorf (1943), Pete Quaife of The Kinks (1943), Burton Cummings of The Guess Who (1947), disco diva Donna Summer born LaDonna Gaines (1948), bassist Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith (1951), George Thorogood (1952), guitarist Michael Hedges (1953), Paul Westerberg of The Replacements (1960), Scott Ian of Anthrax (1963), Joe McIntyre of New Kids on the Block (1972), Korean entertainer Psy born Park Jae-sang (1977), My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar (1979)

January 1: country blues guitarist Frank Stokes (1888), bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900), jazz bassist Al McKibbon (1919), Country Joe McDonald (1942), Mott the Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher (1950), songwriter Diane Warren (1956), Furious Five DJ Grandmaster Flash born Joseph Saddler (1958), R&B singer Shareefa, born Shareefah Faradah Cooper (1984), British songwriter/producer/musician Shahid Khan AKA Naughty Boy (1985)

January 2: rumbling baritone jazz and R&B crooner Arthur Prysock (1929), country singer/songwriter Roger Miller (1936), keyboards man Chick Churchill of Ten Years After (1949), Parliament/Funkadelic singer/guitarist Glenn Goins (1954), Douglas Robb of Hoobastank (1975), Little Drummer Boy of Immature (1981)

January 3: Beatles producer George Martin (1923), Chess Records singer/guitarist Danny Overbea (1926), pianist Carl McVoy (1931), musician/arranger/producer Van Dyke Parks (1941), Stephen Stills (1945), Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (1946), Teenage Fanclub singer/guitarist Raymond McGinley (1964), Detroit jazz reed player James Carter (1969), Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk (1975), Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold (1980)

January 4: British band manager Don Arden (1926), musician/singer/actor Nino Tempo (1932), jazz/fusion guitarist John McLaughlin (1942), songwriter Brandon Chase (1943), Stax soul singer Arthur Conley (1946), Aussie rocker Doc Neeson of The Angels (1947), session musician and singer-songwriter Brian Ray (1955), Bernard Sumner of New Order (1956), Wilco guitarist Nels Cline (1956), country singer Patty Loveless (1956), R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe (1960), Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins (1962), singer Till Lindemann of Rammstein (1962), David Glasper of Breathe (1965), Beth Gibbons of Portishead (1965), Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan (1965), country music artist Deana Carter (1966), The Used bassist Jeff Howard (1979)

This Week’s Dispatches

December 29: bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1952), folk singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (1980), Elvis proponent Marion Keisker of Sun Studios (1989), French singer-songwriter Mireille (1996), conductor Takashi Asahina (2001) jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (2008), soul singer Bobby Purify born Robert Lee Dickey (2011)

December 30: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1952), Broadway composer Richard Rodgers (1979), Richard Blandon of The Dubs (1991), lyricist Mack David (1993), The Ohio Players horn player Clarence G. Satchell (1995), Johnny Moore of The Drifters (1998), bandleader/clarinetist Artie Shaw (2004), bluesman "Weepin'" Willie Robinson (2007)

December 31: R&B songwriter/producer Bert Berns (1967), bluesman Robert Pete Williams (1980), singer Ricky Nelson and his backup band, bass guitarist Patrick Woodward, drummer Rick Intveld, keyboardist Andy Chapin, guitarist Bobby Neal, and road manager/soundman Donald Clark Russell (1985), Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1997), guitarist Eddie Shaver (2000), Cutting Crew guitarist Kevin MacMichael (2002), manager Gerry Tolman (2005), House of Freaks guitarist Bryan Harvey (2006)

January 1: country legend Hank Williams (1953), bluesman Ed Bell (1960), honky-tonk piano player and songwriter Moon Mullican (1967), British blues pioneer Alexis Korner (1984), R&B producer/manager/songwriter Buck Ram (1991), singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt (1997), Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves (2007), pop/jazz singer Patti Page (2013)

January 2: cowboy singer Tex Ritter (1974), R&B singer Larry Williams (1980), David Lynch of The Platters (1981), Randy California of Spirit (1997), Capitol Records producer Nik Venet (1998), bachelor-pad music icon (Juan Garcia) Esquivel (2002), jazz cornetist Nat Adderley (2000), singer Robert “Squirrel” Lester of The Chi-Lites (2010), Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt of Iron Butterfly (2012)

January 3: Beatles roadie Mal Evans (1973), West Coast bluesman Amos Milburn (1980), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1981), pianist Carl McVoy (1992), Fleetwood Mac guitarist and songwriter Bob Weston (2012), Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers (2013)

January 4: Thin Lizzy bassist/singer Phil Lynott (1986), balladeer John Gary (1998), Moody Blues producer Tony Clarke (2010), singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty (2011)


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