Discounting Crows ... Crowe’s Countdown ... Elton Meltdown ...
Week In Review
September 8, 2011
1958, the first stereo records and phonographs hit the marketplace . . . demo LPs simulating planes taking off and the sound of ping-pong balls caroming between the left and right speakers are all the rage . . .
1960, Nancy Sinatra weds pop singer Tommy Sands . . . in five years the Sands run out on the dissolving marriage . . . Nancy dons her boots and walks . . . the FCC bans payola, the pervasive practice of record companies making payments to radio DJs to spin their releases . . . the practice resurges four decades later and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer collects hefty fines from all the major labels for engaging in the pay-to-play game . . .
1963, first record companies forced their artists to cash in on The Twist craze, then the surf music boom . . . and now Muddy Waters is recording Muddy Waters: Folk Singer for Chess Records at Tel Mar Studios in Chicago . . . helping Muddy connect with his folkier side are Buddy Guy on second acoustic guitar, Clifton James on drums, and Chess stalwart Willie Dixon on bass . . . a folk album in name only, the tunes are mostly written by Muddy and/or Willie and include unplugged blues classics like “Good Morning Little School Girl” . . . in 1968, Chess will subject Muddy to recording a “psychedelic” album with funk session men and wah-wah pedals . . . Electric Mud features Muddy essaying his way through The Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend The Night Together” . . . how about that for acknowledging your roots? . . . what’s next? . . . Otis Redding recording “Satisfaction?” . . .
1964, Rod Stewart cuts his first single—the blues chestnut “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” . . . a pair of enterprising Beatles fans pack themselves into a carton marked “Beatles Fan Mail” and have it delivered to the Baltimore Civic Center where the Fab Four are appearing . . . their plot is foiled when the girls are discovered by guards checking deliveries . . .
1965, an ad in Variety announces auditions for the new TV show The Monkees . . . would-be Monkees who fail to make the cut include Stephen Stills, Danny Hutton later of Three Dog Night, songwriter Paul Williams, and Charles Manson . . . interesting how different people deal with disappointment . . .
1968, Roy Orbison’s home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, burns down while he’s touring England . . . his two eldest sons die in the fire . . .
1969, during Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s set at the Big Sur Festival a yahoo in the crowd heckles the band for being rich rock stars . . . Stills, wearing a flamboyant fur coat, leaps off the stage, chases the heckler down, and administers a pounding while from the stage Crosby pleads for “Peace and love, peace and love” . . . Stills gets back onstage and reflects, “Y’know, we think about what that guy was saying, and we look at these coats and these pretty guitars and fancy cars and say, ‘Wow man, what am I doin’?’” . . . apparently, Still’s water runs deep . . .
1970, from the One-Hit Wonders Department: the good timey, washboard and jug band sound of Mungo Jerry reaches #3 on the U.S. pop charts with their debut single “In The Summertime" . . . Mungomania briefly takes hold of the U.K. as the band shuffles its way to 10 top singles . . . but the U.S. quickly tires of the shtick . . . singer Ray Dorset finally calls it quits later in the ’70s . . .
1978, The Grateful Dead do a three-night stand at the Son Et Lumiere Theater in Giza, Egypt with the Great Pyramids as a backdrop . . . proving that eventually, what happens in Egypt winds up in Vegas . . .
1981, Pink Floyd begins production on the film version of The Wall . . .
1984, the burgeoning MTV network holds its first Video Music Awards ceremony at New York's Radio City Music Hall . . . the show is co-hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd and honors the top music videos of the year . . . winners are awarded Moon Man trophies that depict an astronaut with an American flag, one of the network's earliest icons . . .
1991, in a publicity stunt, Alice Cooper sells copies of his new album Hey Stoopid in New York’s Times Square for 99 cents a pop . . . smart . . .
1995, Paul McCartney's hand-written lyrics to the Beatles' classic "Getting Better" sell for a cool quarter-million dollars at a Sotheby's auction . . .
1996, Wal-Mart refuses to carry Sheryl Crow’s second album because the song “Love is a Good Thing” includes the lyrics, "Watch out sister/Watch out brother/Watch our children as they kill each other/With a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores" . . . rumors that Wal-Mart employees started a band called Discounting Crows are unfounded . . .
1999, record mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs is ordered to attend an anger management class after being convicted of attacking the president of Interscope Records, Steve Stoute . . . lucky for Stoute the Puff man doesn’t shop at Wal-Mart . . .
2000, the soundtrack for Almost Famous is released . . . it’s notable for including four vintage Led Zeppelin tracks—a first for any soundtrack . . . Robert Plant and Jimmy Page agree to the tunes’ inclusion after falling in love with Cameron Crowe’s filmed semi-autobiographical remembrance of a teenaged rock journalist in the ’70s . . . however, Page/Plant don’t allow Crowe to use “Stairway to Heaven” for a scene in the theatrical release . . . in the subsequent director’s cut DVD version, Crowe shows the deleted scene and instructs viewers to cue up their CDs of “Stairway” and wait for the onscreen countdown to press play so the scene can be experienced the way Crowe intended it, as the actors respond to the lyrics and musical changes in the song . . .
2003, The Pixies announce that band members have buried the hatchet and will embark on a reunion tour in 2004 . . . the Pixies dust the competition, going on to huge success in the face of a lackluster touring season . . .
2004, a jet-lagged Elton John, set upon by Taiwanese paparazzi, has a hissy fit calling them “rude, vile pigs!” . . .
2005, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, versatile blues, cajun, jazz, and R&B guitarist, vocalist, and fiddler, dies in Baton Rouge at his brother’s house after leaving his home in Slidell, LA, due to Hurricane Katrina . . . Britney Spears gives birth to a baby boy by Cesarean section at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California, with her backup dancer and beau Kevin Federline by her side . . . Sony BMG and EMI manage to further alienate music buyers by incorporating copy-protection software that’s incompatible with the iPod, the world’s most popular MP3 player . . . some of the releases affected are by artists such as The Dave Matthews Band, Switchfoot, and Foo Fighters . . .
2006, Paul McCartney agrees to donate $3 million to Adopt-a-Minefield after having backed out of playing a benefit for the charity hosted by his estranged wife Heather Mills . . . apparently, Pat Benetar was right, love is a battlefield . . . after being found guilty of tax evasion, the IRS orders Ron Isley to pay $3.1 million in delinquent taxes and sentences him to 37 months in prison . . . the 65-year-old Isley, who is rebounding from kidney cancer and a stroke, will probably do his time in a federal prison hospital . . . Linda Ronstadt cancels the balance of her 2006 tour schedule after undergoing surgery for an unspecified condition . . . a documentary about Kurt Cobain is debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival . . . titled Kurt Cobain: About a Son, the film is based on more than 25 hours of audio interviews with the Nirvana frontman recorded for a biography that was scratched following Cobain’s suicide in 1994 . . . filmmaker AJ Schnack edited down the tapes in which the troubled Cobain recalls his childhood, domestic troubles, and the downside of fame, matching them up with newly-created stills of places significant to Cobain . . . Athens, Georgia, music fans get an unexpected thrill when R.E.M. shows up unannounced at a fundraiser at the 40 Watt Club . . . drummer Bill Berry, who split the band in 1997 to become a gentleman farmer, decides that being a rude rocker is more fun and rejoins his bandmates to rip through a set of faves . . .
2009, Kanye West apologizes for interrupting Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards . . . despite the apology on his blog, West still writes, "Beyonce's video was the best of this decade!!! I'm Still Happy for Taylor!!!!" . . . it seems he isn't the only one with this sentiment . . . Beyonce actually does win the video of the year for Single Ladies and promptly invites Swift to join her on stage during her acceptance speech . . . Swift says afterwards, "I thought I couldn't love Beyonce more, and then tonight happened." . . . while Beyonce and Taylor Swift put on a show of solidarity, West is booed off the stage and subsequently asked to leave the show . . . numerous attendees tweet their disapproval during the awards: Katy Perry tweets "F*** Kanye, it's like you stepped on a kitten," while Pink writes, "Kanye West is the biggest piece of shit on earth. Quote Me." . . . this isn’t the first time West has rushed the stage at an awards ceremony to protest an award's recipient . . . during the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006, the rapper lost it after Justice v Simian's We Are Your Friends scooped best video instead of West’s Touch the Sky . . .
Arrivals
September 8: composer Antonin Dvorak (1841), "The Singing Brakeman" Jimmie Rodgers (1897), Patsy Cline born Virginia Patterson Hensley (1932), soul sermonizer Joe Tex (1933), Dante Drowty of Dante & The Evergreens (1941), Brian Cole of The Association (1942), Cathy Jean Giordano of “Please Love Me Forever” fame (1945), Kelly Groucutt of E.L.O. (1945), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of The Grateful Dead (1945), Atlanta Rhythm Section's Dean Daughtry (1946), Benjamin Orr of The Cars (1947), David Steele of Fine Young Cannibals (1960), singer-songwriter Aimee Mann (1960), singer-songwriter Pink (1979)
September 9: Modern Records co-founder Jules Bihari (1913), Jacob Carey of The Flamingos (1926), jazz drummer Elvin Jones (1927), soul singer Otis Redding (1941), R&B/soul singer Inez Foxx (1942), Iron Butterfly's Doug Ingle (1945), Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics (1952)
September 10: R&B shouter and early influence on rock & roll, Roy Brown (1925), vibist Roy Ayers (1940), Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night (1942), singer-virtuoso guitarist-composer Jose Feliciano (1945), Don Powell of Slade (1946), Barriemore Barlow of Jethro Tull (1949), Aerosmith's Joe Perry (1950), Johnny Fingers of Boomtown Rats (1956), Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama (1958), Cracker's Dave Lowrey (1960), Bush drummer Robin Goodridge (1966), rapper Big Daddy Kane, born Antonio Monterio Hardy (1968)
September 11: tenor saxman Bobby Fields (1928), Bernie Dwyer of Freddie And The Dreamers (1940), Mickey Hart (1943), fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke (1945), Tommy Shaw of STYX (1953), Jon Moss of Culture Club (1957), bassist Victor Wooten (1964), Moby born Richard Melville Hall (1965), singer-composer-bandleader-pianist-actor Harry Connick, Jr. (1967), Ludacris (1977)
September 12: singer-actor Maurice Chevalier (1888), blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander (1900), country vocalist George Jones (1931), Warren Corbin of The Cleftones (1939), folk-blues singer Maria Muldaur, born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato (1943), suave soulman Barry White (1944), Gerry Beckley of America (1952), Rush drummer Neil Peart (1952), Barry Andrews of
XTC (1956), Larry LaLonde of Primus (1968)
September 13: swing saxophonist Chu Berry (1908), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1911), blues singer-pianist Charles Brown, who influenced Ray Charles (1922), Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (1922), Mel "The Velvet Fog" Torme (1925), Joseph “Mr. Google Eyes” August, New Orleans R&B hitmaker (1931), Dave Quincy of Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1939), Gene Page, producer-arranger for Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, and Whitney Houston (1940), David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears, born David Henry Thomsett (1941), Randy Jones of The Village People (1952), producer Don Was (1952), Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Metallica (1961), Steve Perkins of Jane's Addiction (1967), singer-songwriter Fiona Apple (1977)
September 14: composer Johann Michael Haydn, younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn (1737), country DJ-songwriter Mae Boren Axton (wrote “Heartbreak Hotel”), mother of country star Hoyt Axton (1914), Archibald, born Leon T. Gross, influential New Orleans pianist (1916), influential Cuban bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez (1918), Peter Cetera of Chicago (1944), Pete Agnew, bass player for Nazareth (1946), MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith (1948), Steve Gaines, guitarist with Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Paul Kossoff, guitarist with Free (1950), Barry Cowsill, drummer-bassist for The Cowsills (1954), Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (1955), A-Ha vocalist Morten Harket (1959), Everclear's Craig Montoya (1970), Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis (1971)
Departures
September 8: songwriter Dick Heard (1998), Beatle publicist Derek Taylor (1997), Jack Vigliatura and Bill White of For Squirrels (1995), rapper Cowboy AKA Keith Wiggins of The Furious Five (1989)
September 9: singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti (1998), bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe (1996), Sandra Tilley of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1981)
September 10: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (2005), zydeco accordionist Beau Jocque (1999)
September 11: Raybeez AKA Raymond Barbieri of Warzone (1997), Peter Tosh (1987)
September 12: Nashville session drummer Kenny Buttrey (2004), Johnny Cash (2003), jazz tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine (2000), Abba producer Stig "Stikkan" Anderson (1997)
September 13: gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur (1996), R&B singer-songwriter Titus Turner (1984), Helen Humes, jazz chantreuse noted for her little-girl voice (1981), Conductor Leopold Stokowski (1977)
September 14: New Orleans R&B singer Johnny Adams (1998), blues singer Walter “Furry” Lewis of “John Henry” fame (1981)
Re:Chas's Music Column - Bumber December Issue W/E 15th, 22nd & 29thr
Runaways Nicked … Dylan Bores Pope … Adler Settled and Sentenced …
Week In Review
1953, in what will later be considered the golden age of vocal groups, seven of the R&B chart's Top 10 positions are occupied by doo-wop acts including The Orioles, The Clovers, The Five Royales, The Royals, The Spaniels, The Dominoes, and The Coronets …
1954, Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips secures his place in rock 'n' roll history when he spins a test pressing of Elvis Presley's "That's All Right" on radio station WHBQ … it's the first time an Elvis record hits the airwaves …
1956, Elvis Presley's much-anticipated single "Love Me Tender" notches a music biz first when advance orders for the record top one million …
1958, while crossing the Atlantic on his way to a couple of years of army service in Germany, Elvis is asked to put together a talent show and ends up playing piano in the impromptu band he organizes …
1962, The Springfields are the first British vocal act to score a U.S. Top 20 hit with their single "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"… their lead singer is Mary O'Brien who will later sustain a major solo career using the stage name Dusty Springfield …
1963, "She Loves You" is played on the radio by influential DJ Murray "The K" Kaufman on WINS in New York … it is the first time a Beatles song is played on U.S. airwaves … Murray later becomes a staunch Beatles advocate and supporter, helping them to break into New York and America …
1966, The Yardbirds, with lead guitarists Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, embark upon a British tour with The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner … Blues Breakers John Mayall with Eric Clapton peaks at Number Six in the British LP charts … it is bested by other LPs that will go on to achieve classic status: Revolver, Pet Sounds, and Blonde on Blonde …
1975, soul man Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack in mid-performance at the Latin Casino in Camden, N.J. … the singer, dubbed "Mr. Excitement," falls off the stage and strikes his head on the concrete floor, causing permanent brain damage … he lapses into a coma and spends the rest of his life hospitalized until death overtakes him in 1984 … the soul group The Spinners donate $60,000 for his medical care but much of that money is consumed in lawyer's fees due to relatives tussling over control of Wilson's estate … the singer will be laid to rest in an unmarked grave … the Wilson family is haunted by tragedy … son Jackie Jr. was killed in 1970 during a burglary, daughter Sandra will die of a heart attack in 1977, and daughter Jacqueline will be shot to death in a 1987 drive-by shooting …
1976, British bobbies take The Runaways into custody following the disappearance of a hair dryer from a hotel room ...
1980, David Bowie makes his Broadway debut playing the title character in The Elephant Man …
1982, the first compact discs and players hit the market in Japan … a joint venture between Sony and Philips, the CD will become a dominant musical format within five years …
1988, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" becomes the first a capella song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 … the single will also land George Bush the elder in hot water when he uses it in his presidential campaign without permission … in 2008, Billboard listed the tune in its top ten One Hit Wonders from the last 50 years … McFerrin, a classically trained musician and conductor, later expresses reservations about the single, saying "It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible." …
1991, Garth Brooks' album Ropin' the Wind debuts at number one on the Billboard Pop chart … it is the first country album to do so …
1993, former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler settles his lawsuit with his former band and its managers for $2.5 million just before the case goes to the jury, this despite having signed an agreement in 1990 giving up his partnership interest in the band … during the trial guitarist Slash had testified that Adler had signed the agreement while he was "strung out" … Adler had been booted from the band when he couldn't kick his heroin habit … five years to the day later, Adler is back in court, this time for sentencing on charges of having beaten two women he dated as well as violating probation on an earlier domestic case … he gets 150 days jail time …
1996, Smashing Pumpkins get off to a delayed tour start … the band needed extra time to integrate former Filter drummer Matt Walker and former Frogs' keyboardist Dennis Flemion … the pair replace former keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin who died three months earlier from a heroin OD and drummer Jimmie Chamberlin who was canned following a drug possession bust … leader Billie Corgan will later acknowledge the replacements were a bad idea that hurt the band's music and reputation … in 1999 a rehabilitated Chamberlin will rejoin the Pumpkins …
1997, wearing a white cowboy hat, Bob Dylan performs his "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in Bologna, Italy, with an apparently bored John Paul II looking on … the Audio Engineering Society unveils the new DVD Audio format in New York …
1999, Diana Ross is taken into custody at London's Heathrow airport after a tussle with a female security officer … she is later cautioned and released …
2002, Mike Batt of The Planets settles a lawsuit filed by the John Cage Trust for "an undisclosed six-figure sum" … at issue is one minute of silence on the band's latest CD Classical Graffitti … the avant-garde composer's estate had claimed Batt plagiarized Cage's 1952 composition "4'33"—which was completely silent—when he credited his piece "A One Minute Silence" to "Batt/Cage" …
2004, Cat Stevens is kicked out of the United States after a jet bound for Washington from London is diverted to unload him … the former pop singer now known as Yusuf Islam, born Stephen Georgiou, enjoyed a string of hits in the 1960s and 70s, including "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken" … he released two songs, including a rerecording of "Peace Train," to express his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq … officials say he was refused entry under the Immigration and Naturalization Act "based on national security grounds" . . .
2006, U2 and Green Day join forces by performing at New Orleans' Superdome at the Saints' first game in the arena since Hurricane Katrina shredded the venue more than a year earlier … broadcast on ESPN, the game draws 15 million viewers, the second-highest audience ever for a cable broadcast …
2007, Van Halen kicks off its first reunion tour since 1984 in Charlotte, North Carolina, with David Lee Roth aboard … the band rips through a best-of set list with Eddie Van Halen and Roth bouncing off each other without a hint of the bad blood that has existed between the pair for decades … amazon.com launches its MP3 music download site … it's expected that Amazon's variable pricing scheme will put pressure on iTunes to adopt a similar strategy … it's reported that director Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary about George Harrison amd will have the cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the late Beatle's widow, Olivia ... in September of 2011, it is announced the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World would be broadcast on the BBC later in the year …
2008, in a real turnabout Metallica fans ask the veteran heavy metalists to turn it down … in recording the band's latest album, Death Magnetic, the sound was cranked and compressed so severely that the CD is riddled with distortion … 11,000 fans sign an online petition asking the band to remix and reissue the album … Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks implores Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder to write a song in support of the team's World Series aspirations … Vedder's "All The Way" is the result, but the Cubbies still fail to make the Series … London's Victoria and Albert Museum spends £51,000 at auction to acquire the original artwork for the Stones' tongue logo … artist John Pasche received £50 for creating the logo in 1970 …
Arrivals:
September 22: Mike Patto, leader and vocalist for '70s Brit rock band Patto (1942)
September 23: R&B and jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1905), Marion Keisker, assistant to Sun Records' Sam Phillips who urged him to record Elvis (1917), blues guitarist-harpist Joe Hill Louis (1921), jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (1926), jazz bassist Jimmy Woode (1928), Wally Whyton, leader of the British skiffle band The Vipers (1929), musical genius Ray Charles (1930), blues guitarist Fenton Robinson (1935), blues, rock, and jazz guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939), singer-songwriter Charlie Fox (1939), folk rocker Tim Rose (1940), British one-man blues band Duster Bennett (1943), songwriter-producer-session pianist Don Grolnick (1947), Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf (1947), John Baker Saunders, bassist for Seattle band Mad Season (1954)
September 24: gospel, blues, and doo-wop singer Allen Bunn (1924), Carl Feaster of The Chords (1930), actor and singer-songwriter Anthony Newley (1931), Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1933), James "Shep" Sheppard of Shep & The Limelites (1935), session reed player Steve Douglas (1938), Barbara Allbut of The Angels (1940), Phyllis Allbut of The Angels (1942), Linda McCartney (1942), Gerry Marsden of Gerry And The Pacemakers (1942), Cedric Dent of Take 6 (1962), Marty Cintron of No Mercy (1971)
September 25: Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906), Erik Darling of The Rooftop Singers (1933), bluesman Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes (1936), Ian Tyson of folk duo Ian and Sylvia (1933), Joseph Russell of The Persuasions (1939), Wade Flemons of Earth, Wind and Fire (1940), co-founder of Love, Bryan MacLean (1946), Italian rocker Zucchero (1955), actor and hip-hop artist Will Smith (1968), Diana Ortiz of Dream (1985)
September 26: George Gershwin (1898), New Orleans guitarist Rene Hall (1912), country singer Marty Robbins (1925), George Chambers of The Chambers Brothers (1931), Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music (1945), country singer Lynn Anderson (1947), Olivia Newton-John (1948), Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos (1954), Craig Chaquico of Jefferson Starship (1954), country vocalist Carlene Carter (1955), Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl (1962), Cindy Herron of En Vogue (1965), Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon (1967), Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men (1972), pop and R&B singer Christina Milian (1981)
September 27: bluesman "Mighty" Joe Young (1927), producer Don Nix (1941), Randy Bachman of BTO (1943), Meat Loaf aka Marvin Lee Aday (1947), Greg Ham of Men At Work (1953), reggae bassist Robbie Shakespeare (1953), teen throb Shaun Cassidy (1958), Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind (1964), Mark Calderon of Color Me Badd (1970), Avril Lavigne (1984)
September 28: Ed Sullivan (1902), bluesman Houston Stackhouse (1910), country singer Tommy Collins (1930), gospel singer Joseph Hutchinson (1931), Chicago blues songstress Koko Taylor (1935), soul singer and former Drifter Ben E. King (1938), bassist Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf (1943), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1955), George Lynch of Dokken (1955), Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins (1959), pop singer Jennifer Rush (1960), teen popster Hilary Duff (1987)
Departures:
September 22: big band singer Connie Haines (2008)
September 23: blues harmonica player-vocalist-songwriter Gary Primich (2007), Etta Baker, Piedmont blues guitarist prominent in the folk revival of the 1960s (2006), Mississippi blues singer-guitarist Houston Stackhouse (1980), Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh (1974) RIP my friend
September 24: folk rocker Tim Rose (2002)
September 25: Jamie Lyons of The Music Explosion (2006), British folk singer-songwriter Matthew Jay (2003), Steve Canaday of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (1999), Led Zeppelin's hard-hitting drummer John Bonham (1980)
September 26: virtuoso guitarist Shawn Lane (2003), eclectic British vocalist Robert Palmer (2003), songwriter Carl Sigman (2000), jazz diva Betty Carter (1998), pianist and writer Arnold Shaw (1989), blues guitarist Auburn "Pat" Hare (1980), "Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith (1937)
September 27: rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison (2003), D.O.A. drummer Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery (1994), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1979)
September 28: DJ Scott Muni (2004), country star Bob Gibson (1996), Marcels baritone singer Allen Johnson (1995), jazz titan Miles Davis (1991), Rory Storm born Alan Caldwell (1972), DJ Dewey Phillips (1968), bandleader Lucky Millinder (1966)
Week In Review
1953, in what will later be considered the golden age of vocal groups, seven of the R&B chart's Top 10 positions are occupied by doo-wop acts including The Orioles, The Clovers, The Five Royales, The Royals, The Spaniels, The Dominoes, and The Coronets …
1954, Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips secures his place in rock 'n' roll history when he spins a test pressing of Elvis Presley's "That's All Right" on radio station WHBQ … it's the first time an Elvis record hits the airwaves …
1956, Elvis Presley's much-anticipated single "Love Me Tender" notches a music biz first when advance orders for the record top one million …
1958, while crossing the Atlantic on his way to a couple of years of army service in Germany, Elvis is asked to put together a talent show and ends up playing piano in the impromptu band he organizes …
1962, The Springfields are the first British vocal act to score a U.S. Top 20 hit with their single "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"… their lead singer is Mary O'Brien who will later sustain a major solo career using the stage name Dusty Springfield …
1963, "She Loves You" is played on the radio by influential DJ Murray "The K" Kaufman on WINS in New York … it is the first time a Beatles song is played on U.S. airwaves … Murray later becomes a staunch Beatles advocate and supporter, helping them to break into New York and America …
1966, The Yardbirds, with lead guitarists Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, embark upon a British tour with The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner … Blues Breakers John Mayall with Eric Clapton peaks at Number Six in the British LP charts … it is bested by other LPs that will go on to achieve classic status: Revolver, Pet Sounds, and Blonde on Blonde …
1975, soul man Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack in mid-performance at the Latin Casino in Camden, N.J. … the singer, dubbed "Mr. Excitement," falls off the stage and strikes his head on the concrete floor, causing permanent brain damage … he lapses into a coma and spends the rest of his life hospitalized until death overtakes him in 1984 … the soul group The Spinners donate $60,000 for his medical care but much of that money is consumed in lawyer's fees due to relatives tussling over control of Wilson's estate … the singer will be laid to rest in an unmarked grave … the Wilson family is haunted by tragedy … son Jackie Jr. was killed in 1970 during a burglary, daughter Sandra will die of a heart attack in 1977, and daughter Jacqueline will be shot to death in a 1987 drive-by shooting …
1976, British bobbies take The Runaways into custody following the disappearance of a hair dryer from a hotel room ...
1980, David Bowie makes his Broadway debut playing the title character in The Elephant Man …
1982, the first compact discs and players hit the market in Japan … a joint venture between Sony and Philips, the CD will become a dominant musical format within five years …
1988, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" becomes the first a capella song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 … the single will also land George Bush the elder in hot water when he uses it in his presidential campaign without permission … in 2008, Billboard listed the tune in its top ten One Hit Wonders from the last 50 years … McFerrin, a classically trained musician and conductor, later expresses reservations about the single, saying "It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible." …
1991, Garth Brooks' album Ropin' the Wind debuts at number one on the Billboard Pop chart … it is the first country album to do so …
1993, former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler settles his lawsuit with his former band and its managers for $2.5 million just before the case goes to the jury, this despite having signed an agreement in 1990 giving up his partnership interest in the band … during the trial guitarist Slash had testified that Adler had signed the agreement while he was "strung out" … Adler had been booted from the band when he couldn't kick his heroin habit … five years to the day later, Adler is back in court, this time for sentencing on charges of having beaten two women he dated as well as violating probation on an earlier domestic case … he gets 150 days jail time …
1996, Smashing Pumpkins get off to a delayed tour start … the band needed extra time to integrate former Filter drummer Matt Walker and former Frogs' keyboardist Dennis Flemion … the pair replace former keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin who died three months earlier from a heroin OD and drummer Jimmie Chamberlin who was canned following a drug possession bust … leader Billie Corgan will later acknowledge the replacements were a bad idea that hurt the band's music and reputation … in 1999 a rehabilitated Chamberlin will rejoin the Pumpkins …
1997, wearing a white cowboy hat, Bob Dylan performs his "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in Bologna, Italy, with an apparently bored John Paul II looking on … the Audio Engineering Society unveils the new DVD Audio format in New York …
1999, Diana Ross is taken into custody at London's Heathrow airport after a tussle with a female security officer … she is later cautioned and released …
2002, Mike Batt of The Planets settles a lawsuit filed by the John Cage Trust for "an undisclosed six-figure sum" … at issue is one minute of silence on the band's latest CD Classical Graffitti … the avant-garde composer's estate had claimed Batt plagiarized Cage's 1952 composition "4'33"—which was completely silent—when he credited his piece "A One Minute Silence" to "Batt/Cage" …
2004, Cat Stevens is kicked out of the United States after a jet bound for Washington from London is diverted to unload him … the former pop singer now known as Yusuf Islam, born Stephen Georgiou, enjoyed a string of hits in the 1960s and 70s, including "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken" … he released two songs, including a rerecording of "Peace Train," to express his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq … officials say he was refused entry under the Immigration and Naturalization Act "based on national security grounds" . . .
2006, U2 and Green Day join forces by performing at New Orleans' Superdome at the Saints' first game in the arena since Hurricane Katrina shredded the venue more than a year earlier … broadcast on ESPN, the game draws 15 million viewers, the second-highest audience ever for a cable broadcast …
2007, Van Halen kicks off its first reunion tour since 1984 in Charlotte, North Carolina, with David Lee Roth aboard … the band rips through a best-of set list with Eddie Van Halen and Roth bouncing off each other without a hint of the bad blood that has existed between the pair for decades … amazon.com launches its MP3 music download site … it's expected that Amazon's variable pricing scheme will put pressure on iTunes to adopt a similar strategy … it's reported that director Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary about George Harrison amd will have the cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the late Beatle's widow, Olivia ... in September of 2011, it is announced the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World would be broadcast on the BBC later in the year …
2008, in a real turnabout Metallica fans ask the veteran heavy metalists to turn it down … in recording the band's latest album, Death Magnetic, the sound was cranked and compressed so severely that the CD is riddled with distortion … 11,000 fans sign an online petition asking the band to remix and reissue the album … Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks implores Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder to write a song in support of the team's World Series aspirations … Vedder's "All The Way" is the result, but the Cubbies still fail to make the Series … London's Victoria and Albert Museum spends £51,000 at auction to acquire the original artwork for the Stones' tongue logo … artist John Pasche received £50 for creating the logo in 1970 …
Arrivals:
September 22: Mike Patto, leader and vocalist for '70s Brit rock band Patto (1942)
September 23: R&B and jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1905), Marion Keisker, assistant to Sun Records' Sam Phillips who urged him to record Elvis (1917), blues guitarist-harpist Joe Hill Louis (1921), jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (1926), jazz bassist Jimmy Woode (1928), Wally Whyton, leader of the British skiffle band The Vipers (1929), musical genius Ray Charles (1930), blues guitarist Fenton Robinson (1935), blues, rock, and jazz guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939), singer-songwriter Charlie Fox (1939), folk rocker Tim Rose (1940), British one-man blues band Duster Bennett (1943), songwriter-producer-session pianist Don Grolnick (1947), Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf (1947), John Baker Saunders, bassist for Seattle band Mad Season (1954)
September 24: gospel, blues, and doo-wop singer Allen Bunn (1924), Carl Feaster of The Chords (1930), actor and singer-songwriter Anthony Newley (1931), Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1933), James "Shep" Sheppard of Shep & The Limelites (1935), session reed player Steve Douglas (1938), Barbara Allbut of The Angels (1940), Phyllis Allbut of The Angels (1942), Linda McCartney (1942), Gerry Marsden of Gerry And The Pacemakers (1942), Cedric Dent of Take 6 (1962), Marty Cintron of No Mercy (1971)
September 25: Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906), Erik Darling of The Rooftop Singers (1933), bluesman Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes (1936), Ian Tyson of folk duo Ian and Sylvia (1933), Joseph Russell of The Persuasions (1939), Wade Flemons of Earth, Wind and Fire (1940), co-founder of Love, Bryan MacLean (1946), Italian rocker Zucchero (1955), actor and hip-hop artist Will Smith (1968), Diana Ortiz of Dream (1985)
September 26: George Gershwin (1898), New Orleans guitarist Rene Hall (1912), country singer Marty Robbins (1925), George Chambers of The Chambers Brothers (1931), Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music (1945), country singer Lynn Anderson (1947), Olivia Newton-John (1948), Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos (1954), Craig Chaquico of Jefferson Starship (1954), country vocalist Carlene Carter (1955), Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl (1962), Cindy Herron of En Vogue (1965), Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon (1967), Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men (1972), pop and R&B singer Christina Milian (1981)
September 27: bluesman "Mighty" Joe Young (1927), producer Don Nix (1941), Randy Bachman of BTO (1943), Meat Loaf aka Marvin Lee Aday (1947), Greg Ham of Men At Work (1953), reggae bassist Robbie Shakespeare (1953), teen throb Shaun Cassidy (1958), Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind (1964), Mark Calderon of Color Me Badd (1970), Avril Lavigne (1984)
September 28: Ed Sullivan (1902), bluesman Houston Stackhouse (1910), country singer Tommy Collins (1930), gospel singer Joseph Hutchinson (1931), Chicago blues songstress Koko Taylor (1935), soul singer and former Drifter Ben E. King (1938), bassist Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf (1943), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1955), George Lynch of Dokken (1955), Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins (1959), pop singer Jennifer Rush (1960), teen popster Hilary Duff (1987)
Departures:
September 22: big band singer Connie Haines (2008)
September 23: blues harmonica player-vocalist-songwriter Gary Primich (2007), Etta Baker, Piedmont blues guitarist prominent in the folk revival of the 1960s (2006), Mississippi blues singer-guitarist Houston Stackhouse (1980), Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh (1974) RIP my friend
September 24: folk rocker Tim Rose (2002)
September 25: Jamie Lyons of The Music Explosion (2006), British folk singer-songwriter Matthew Jay (2003), Steve Canaday of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (1999), Led Zeppelin's hard-hitting drummer John Bonham (1980)
September 26: virtuoso guitarist Shawn Lane (2003), eclectic British vocalist Robert Palmer (2003), songwriter Carl Sigman (2000), jazz diva Betty Carter (1998), pianist and writer Arnold Shaw (1989), blues guitarist Auburn "Pat" Hare (1980), "Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith (1937)
September 27: rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison (2003), D.O.A. drummer Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery (1994), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1979)
September 28: DJ Scott Muni (2004), country star Bob Gibson (1996), Marcels baritone singer Allen Johnson (1995), jazz titan Miles Davis (1991), Rory Storm born Alan Caldwell (1972), DJ Dewey Phillips (1968), bandleader Lucky Millinder (1966)
Jimi jams ... Jerry Lee opens fire ... Sinead tears it up ...
Week In Review
September 29, 2011
1945, Elvis Presley makes his first-ever public appearance in a talent contest at the Mississippi Alabama Dairy Show singing “Old Shep.” Elvis is 10 years old at the time and comes in second …
1963, The New Vic in London is the site of the first night of a 30-date U.K. tour that features the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Mickie Most, and The Flintstones …
1965, John Coltrane releases the volcanic Live in Seattle double LP … with players including McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Donald Garrett, and a ferocious performance from Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax, the album charts the outer frontiers of Coltrane’s explorations into atonal music …
1967, Jimi Hendrix makes his stage debut in the U.K. when he jams onstage with Cream during their gig at London Polytechnic …
1969, The Beatles Abbey Road album goes to No. 1 on the U.K. chart. The final studio recording from the group includes two George Harrison songs—“Something” and “Here Comes The Sun” plus “Come Together,” “Sun King,” and “Golden Slumbers.” The cover allegedly provides clues relating to the ‘Paul Is Dead’ phenomenon: Paul is barefoot and the car number plate ‘LMW 281F’ supposedly referred to the fact that McCartney would be 28 years old if he was still alive. ‘LMW’ was said to stand for ‘Linda McCartney Weeps.’ The four Beatles allegedly represent; the priest (John, dressed in white), the undertaker (Ringo in a black suit), the corpse (Paul, in a suit but barefoot), and the gravedigger (George, in jeans and a denim work shirt) …
1973, Grand Funk tops the U.S. singles charts with “We’re An American Band” …
1974, police are called to a Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blue Öyster Cult concert after a fight erupts between two sound engineers. The Skynyrd roadie claims that the sound has been deliberately turned off during the band’s set …
1976, at his own birthday celebration singer Jerry Lee Lewis fires off some rounds through an office door and accidentally shoots his bass player Norman Owens in the chest. Owens survives but sues Lewis …
1983, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler ascends to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with the Jim Steinman written and produced track “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.” She becomes the only Welsh artist to score a U.S. No. 1. …
1986, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather is attacked while walking down Park Avenue in New York City about 11 p.m. … he is knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly by a mentally unstable citizen who asks over and over, "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" … his assailant is William Tager, a diagnosed psychotic who suspected the media of beaming hostile messages to him, and wanted Rather to tell him the frequency being used for the nefarious plot … nearly 10 years later R.E.M. will write a song loosely based on the event titled "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" …
1992, Sinead O'Connor puts a serious crimp in her career when she appears on Saturday Night Live … after singing an acapella version of Bob Marley's "War" in which she inserts a verse about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, the Irish singer tears up a photo of the Pope and says, "Fight the real enemy" … the following week, guest host Joe Pesci holds up the photo, taped back together … during Madonna's next SNL appearance, she holds up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco, saying, "Fight the real enemy" … nowadays, when Comedy Central airs the original episode, the incident is replaced with O'Connor holding up a picture of a black child taken from a rehearsal tape …
1998, Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, and composer Philip Glass appear in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. The concert, in front of a crowd of 4,000, is in honor of the memory of poet Allen Ginsberg and raises funds for the Tibetan Buddhist organization Jewel Heart …
1999, 59-year old Welsh chart veteran Tom Jones does something he hasn’t done in 25 years: he goes No. 1 on the U.K. album chart with Reload, which features Jones accompanied by Robbie Williams, Stereophonics, Barenaked Ladies, the Pretenders, Natalie Imbruglia, and many others …
2001, Earth Wind and Fire announce that Viagra will sponsor their forthcoming 30th anniversary American tour …
2005, Sir Bob Geldof is awarded the freedom of his native Dublin after the City Council votes to provide the accolade in honor of his campaign against world poverty and debt alleviation in Africa …
Arrivals:
September 29: Gene Autry (1907), Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty (1942), singer-songwriter Tommy Boyce (1944), Mark Farner of Grand Funk (1948), Mike Pinera of Iron Butterfly (1948), Suzzy Roche of The Roches (1956), Les Claypool of Primus (1963), Barry D of Jesus Jones (1965), Brad Smith of Blind Melon (1968)
September 30: jazz drummer Buddy Rich (1917), New Orleans soul man Chris Kenner (1929), soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston (1933), crooner Johnny Mathis (1935), soul singer Z.Z. Hill (1935), Frankie Lymon (1942), Dewey Martin of Buffalo Springfield (1942), producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), Marilyn McCoo of The 5th Dimension (1943), Sylvia Peterson of The Chiffons (1946), Mark Bolan of T. Rex (1947), R&B singer Patrice Rushen (1954), singer-songwriter Basia (1956), Trey Anastasio of Phish (1964), Robby Takac of The Goo Goo Dolls (1964)
October 1: piano maestro Vladimir Horowitz (1904), Texas bluesman Albert Collins (1932), Julie Andrews (1935), Capitols singer-drummer Samuel George (1942), saxophonist Jerry Martini of Sly & the Family Stone (1943), Herbert Rhoad of The Persuasions (1944), Barbara Paritt of The Toys (1944), R&B singer-songwriter Donnie Hathaway (1945), bassist-vocalist Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash (1947), Tubes singer Jane Dornacker (1947), Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour (1959), Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra (1968), Xscape's LaTocha Scott (1974)
October 2: Ron Griffiths of Badfinger (1942), singer-songwriter Don McLean (1945), Michael Rutherford of Genesis (1950), Sting, born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (1951), The Diamonds' David Somerville (1953), Phillip Oakey of Human League (1955), soul singer Freddie Jackson (1956), singer-songwriter Robbie Nevil (1960), Siggi Baldursson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Claude McKnight of Take 6 (1962), Sean McDonald, singer and guitarist with Surgery (1965), Bud Gaugh of Sublime (1967), teen pop singer Tiffany (1971), Richard Hell of the Voidoids and Dim Stars, born Richard Myers (1949)
October 3: American rock-and-roller Eddie Cochran, who co-wrote "Summertime Blues" (1938), Chubby Checker, born Ernest Evans, who popularized the dance The Twist (1941), Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac (1948), Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954), Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee (1961), Gwen Stefani (1969), Kevin Richardson of Backstreet Boys (1971), soul and R&B singer India.Arie (1975), Ashlee Simpson (1984)
October 4: Leon Thomas, jazz vocalist who worked with Pharoah Sanders and Santana (1937), Marlena Easley of The Orlons (1944), bassist Jim Fielder of Blood, Sweat & Tears, The Mothers of Invention, and Buffalo Springfield (1947), blues singer-guitarist-songwriter Keb' Mo', born Kevin Moore (1951), Barbara K. MacDonald of Timbuk 3 (1958), Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys (1959), singer-songwriter Jon Secada (1961), Lena Katina of t.A.T.u. (1984)
October 5: blues musician George "Little Hat" Jones (1899), guitarist-singer-dancer Abi Ofarim (1939), Richard Street of The Temptations (1942), Steve Miller (1943), Richard Kermode, keyboardist who worked with Janis Joplin and Santana (1946), Brian Johnson of AC/DC (1947), seminal country rocker B.W. Stevenson (1949), Bob Geldof (1951), Paul Thomas of Good Charlotte (1980)
Departures:
September 29: Algerian singer Cheb Hasni (1994)
September 30: songwriter-psychologist Jacques Levy (2004), Texas rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Dawson (2003), disco-era songwriter Paul Jabara (1992), pop singer Mary Ford (1977)
October 1: Moonglows singer Prentiss Barnes (2006), Richard Avedon (2004), bassist Bruce Palmer of Buffalo Springfield (2004), Booker T. & The MGs drummer Al Jackson Jr. (1975)
October 2: "The Singing Cowboy" Gene Autry (1998), Evelyn Young, Memphis sax player who appeared on early B.B. King records (1990), New Orleans R&B and jazz pianist Pleasant "Cousin Joe" Joseph (1989)
October 3: Darryl DeLoach, original lead vocalist with Iron Butterfly (2002), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (2000), blues singer Victoria Spivey (1976), blues master Skip James, whose blues classics were covered by rockers including Cream and Canned Heat (1969), American folk icon Woody Guthrie (1967)
October 4: bebop trumpeter Art Farmer (1998), country fiddler Jerry Rivers (1996), guitarist Danny Gatton (1994), 1950s R&B singer Varetta Dillard (1993), J. Frank Wilson, lead vocalist of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (1991), Ray Stephens, singer with The Village People (1990), Atlanta DJ Zenas "Daddy" Sears (1988), Jimmy Springs, drummer and singer for The Red Caps (1987), Janis Joplin (1970)
October 5: The Temptations' Eddie Kendricks (1992)
Week In Review
September 29, 2011
1945, Elvis Presley makes his first-ever public appearance in a talent contest at the Mississippi Alabama Dairy Show singing “Old Shep.” Elvis is 10 years old at the time and comes in second …
1963, The New Vic in London is the site of the first night of a 30-date U.K. tour that features the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Mickie Most, and The Flintstones …
1965, John Coltrane releases the volcanic Live in Seattle double LP … with players including McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Donald Garrett, and a ferocious performance from Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax, the album charts the outer frontiers of Coltrane’s explorations into atonal music …
1967, Jimi Hendrix makes his stage debut in the U.K. when he jams onstage with Cream during their gig at London Polytechnic …
1969, The Beatles Abbey Road album goes to No. 1 on the U.K. chart. The final studio recording from the group includes two George Harrison songs—“Something” and “Here Comes The Sun” plus “Come Together,” “Sun King,” and “Golden Slumbers.” The cover allegedly provides clues relating to the ‘Paul Is Dead’ phenomenon: Paul is barefoot and the car number plate ‘LMW 281F’ supposedly referred to the fact that McCartney would be 28 years old if he was still alive. ‘LMW’ was said to stand for ‘Linda McCartney Weeps.’ The four Beatles allegedly represent; the priest (John, dressed in white), the undertaker (Ringo in a black suit), the corpse (Paul, in a suit but barefoot), and the gravedigger (George, in jeans and a denim work shirt) …
1973, Grand Funk tops the U.S. singles charts with “We’re An American Band” …
1974, police are called to a Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blue Öyster Cult concert after a fight erupts between two sound engineers. The Skynyrd roadie claims that the sound has been deliberately turned off during the band’s set …
1976, at his own birthday celebration singer Jerry Lee Lewis fires off some rounds through an office door and accidentally shoots his bass player Norman Owens in the chest. Owens survives but sues Lewis …
1983, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler ascends to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with the Jim Steinman written and produced track “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.” She becomes the only Welsh artist to score a U.S. No. 1. …
1986, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather is attacked while walking down Park Avenue in New York City about 11 p.m. … he is knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly by a mentally unstable citizen who asks over and over, "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" … his assailant is William Tager, a diagnosed psychotic who suspected the media of beaming hostile messages to him, and wanted Rather to tell him the frequency being used for the nefarious plot … nearly 10 years later R.E.M. will write a song loosely based on the event titled "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" …
1992, Sinead O'Connor puts a serious crimp in her career when she appears on Saturday Night Live … after singing an acapella version of Bob Marley's "War" in which she inserts a verse about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, the Irish singer tears up a photo of the Pope and says, "Fight the real enemy" … the following week, guest host Joe Pesci holds up the photo, taped back together … during Madonna's next SNL appearance, she holds up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco, saying, "Fight the real enemy" … nowadays, when Comedy Central airs the original episode, the incident is replaced with O'Connor holding up a picture of a black child taken from a rehearsal tape …
1998, Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, and composer Philip Glass appear in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. The concert, in front of a crowd of 4,000, is in honor of the memory of poet Allen Ginsberg and raises funds for the Tibetan Buddhist organization Jewel Heart …
1999, 59-year old Welsh chart veteran Tom Jones does something he hasn’t done in 25 years: he goes No. 1 on the U.K. album chart with Reload, which features Jones accompanied by Robbie Williams, Stereophonics, Barenaked Ladies, the Pretenders, Natalie Imbruglia, and many others …
2001, Earth Wind and Fire announce that Viagra will sponsor their forthcoming 30th anniversary American tour …
2005, Sir Bob Geldof is awarded the freedom of his native Dublin after the City Council votes to provide the accolade in honor of his campaign against world poverty and debt alleviation in Africa …
Arrivals:
September 29: Gene Autry (1907), Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty (1942), singer-songwriter Tommy Boyce (1944), Mark Farner of Grand Funk (1948), Mike Pinera of Iron Butterfly (1948), Suzzy Roche of The Roches (1956), Les Claypool of Primus (1963), Barry D of Jesus Jones (1965), Brad Smith of Blind Melon (1968)
September 30: jazz drummer Buddy Rich (1917), New Orleans soul man Chris Kenner (1929), soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston (1933), crooner Johnny Mathis (1935), soul singer Z.Z. Hill (1935), Frankie Lymon (1942), Dewey Martin of Buffalo Springfield (1942), producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), Marilyn McCoo of The 5th Dimension (1943), Sylvia Peterson of The Chiffons (1946), Mark Bolan of T. Rex (1947), R&B singer Patrice Rushen (1954), singer-songwriter Basia (1956), Trey Anastasio of Phish (1964), Robby Takac of The Goo Goo Dolls (1964)
October 1: piano maestro Vladimir Horowitz (1904), Texas bluesman Albert Collins (1932), Julie Andrews (1935), Capitols singer-drummer Samuel George (1942), saxophonist Jerry Martini of Sly & the Family Stone (1943), Herbert Rhoad of The Persuasions (1944), Barbara Paritt of The Toys (1944), R&B singer-songwriter Donnie Hathaway (1945), bassist-vocalist Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash (1947), Tubes singer Jane Dornacker (1947), Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour (1959), Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra (1968), Xscape's LaTocha Scott (1974)
October 2: Ron Griffiths of Badfinger (1942), singer-songwriter Don McLean (1945), Michael Rutherford of Genesis (1950), Sting, born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (1951), The Diamonds' David Somerville (1953), Phillip Oakey of Human League (1955), soul singer Freddie Jackson (1956), singer-songwriter Robbie Nevil (1960), Siggi Baldursson of The Sugarcubes (1962), Claude McKnight of Take 6 (1962), Sean McDonald, singer and guitarist with Surgery (1965), Bud Gaugh of Sublime (1967), teen pop singer Tiffany (1971), Richard Hell of the Voidoids and Dim Stars, born Richard Myers (1949)
October 3: American rock-and-roller Eddie Cochran, who co-wrote "Summertime Blues" (1938), Chubby Checker, born Ernest Evans, who popularized the dance The Twist (1941), Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac (1948), Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954), Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee (1961), Gwen Stefani (1969), Kevin Richardson of Backstreet Boys (1971), soul and R&B singer India.Arie (1975), Ashlee Simpson (1984)
October 4: Leon Thomas, jazz vocalist who worked with Pharoah Sanders and Santana (1937), Marlena Easley of The Orlons (1944), bassist Jim Fielder of Blood, Sweat & Tears, The Mothers of Invention, and Buffalo Springfield (1947), blues singer-guitarist-songwriter Keb' Mo', born Kevin Moore (1951), Barbara K. MacDonald of Timbuk 3 (1958), Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys (1959), singer-songwriter Jon Secada (1961), Lena Katina of t.A.T.u. (1984)
October 5: blues musician George "Little Hat" Jones (1899), guitarist-singer-dancer Abi Ofarim (1939), Richard Street of The Temptations (1942), Steve Miller (1943), Richard Kermode, keyboardist who worked with Janis Joplin and Santana (1946), Brian Johnson of AC/DC (1947), seminal country rocker B.W. Stevenson (1949), Bob Geldof (1951), Paul Thomas of Good Charlotte (1980)
Departures:
September 29: Algerian singer Cheb Hasni (1994)
September 30: songwriter-psychologist Jacques Levy (2004), Texas rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Dawson (2003), disco-era songwriter Paul Jabara (1992), pop singer Mary Ford (1977)
October 1: Moonglows singer Prentiss Barnes (2006), Richard Avedon (2004), bassist Bruce Palmer of Buffalo Springfield (2004), Booker T. & The MGs drummer Al Jackson Jr. (1975)
October 2: "The Singing Cowboy" Gene Autry (1998), Evelyn Young, Memphis sax player who appeared on early B.B. King records (1990), New Orleans R&B and jazz pianist Pleasant "Cousin Joe" Joseph (1989)
October 3: Darryl DeLoach, original lead vocalist with Iron Butterfly (2002), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (2000), blues singer Victoria Spivey (1976), blues master Skip James, whose blues classics were covered by rockers including Cream and Canned Heat (1969), American folk icon Woody Guthrie (1967)
October 4: bebop trumpeter Art Farmer (1998), country fiddler Jerry Rivers (1996), guitarist Danny Gatton (1994), 1950s R&B singer Varetta Dillard (1993), J. Frank Wilson, lead vocalist of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (1991), Ray Stephens, singer with The Village People (1990), Atlanta DJ Zenas "Daddy" Sears (1988), Jimmy Springs, drummer and singer for The Red Caps (1987), Janis Joplin (1970)
October 5: The Temptations' Eddie Kendricks (1992)
Lennon invents the mop top ... Crosby flies the Byrds' coop ... Aerosmith Gets Bombed ...
Week In Review
October 6, 2011
1929, from a studio in New York City, Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in performance for the first radio program broadcast over a network …
1957, rock-and-roll wildman Jerry Lee Lewis records "Great Balls of Fire" … in Sydney, Australia, another wildman, Little Richard, announces his intention to give up rock-and-roll and "live for the Lord" … he flies to Los Angeles the following day and is baptized as a Seventh Day Adventist … the erstwhile piano pounder and shouter will abide by his decision for five years before resuming his musical career …
1958, Eddie Cochran records the rockabilly anthem "C'mon Everybody" … the Sex Pistols will also enjoy a hit with their cover in 1979 …
1959, Bobby Darin becomes the youngest to ever headline at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas … he displaces the prior record-holder Johnny Mathis who headlined when he was 23 … Darin is 22 …
1960, Tommy Roe & The Satins release "Sheila" on Judd Records … the single will prove a flop … a revised version will be released two years later by Tommy Roe alone on ABC-Paramount and will streak to the top of the chart, the first of over 20 hits for the artist … just a little reminder to stay in the game …
1961, the Beatle haircut is born when Paul and John are celebrating John's 21st birthday in Paris … they meet up with Jurgen Vollmer, a friend from Hamburg who wears his hair brushed forward in a cut popular with French teens … Paul and John like the style and have Jurgen give them haircuts in their hotel room … the rest is sartorial history …
1962, Little Richard and Sam Cooke begin a European tour in Doncaster, England … playing keyboards on the tour is a 16-year-old Billy Preston and the M.C. is Gene Vincent of "Be-Bop-A-Lula" fame, who wasn't allowed to perform because his work permit had expired … for later concerts it is oddly decided by authorities that Vincent will be allowed to sing, but only in front of the stage, not on it …
1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its first-ever gig at a concert in Paris supporting French pop start Johnny Halliday … the Experience played a 15-minute set of "Hey Joe" (soon to be their first single), "Killing Floor," and soul standards "Land of a Thousand Dances," "Respect," and "Have Mercy" …
1967, David Crosby is bounced from The Byrds by leader Roger McGuinn after months of acrimony … Crosby complained that some of his songs the band recorded weren't being released or, if they were, promoted properly including "Triad," a song promoting a relationship between two men and a woman … McGuinn called it a "freak-out orgy tune"… Crosby took the song to the Jefferson Airplane who will release their version in 1968's Crown of Creation … although recorded by The Byrds it was not released until 1987 …
1968, Fleetwood Mac are at CBS Studios in central London … the Sunday session begins with a recording of guitarist/leader Peter Green's instrumental "Albatross" … the tune is reminiscent of Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" but features twin guitar harmonies by Green and Danny Kirwan over a gently loping bassline by John McVie, with Mick Fleetwood playing tom-toms with mallets … the recording is a huge international hit and influences John Lennon in writing "Sun King" for The Beatles Abbey Road album … years later, Green still plays the tune in concert …
1969, blues giant Muddy Waters is severely injured in a car crash in which three others are killed …
1970, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber opens on Broadway to mixed reviews, harsh criticism from Webber, and condemnation from some religious groups … the show will close in 1973 after 711 performances …
1973, Elvis and Priscilla Presley head to Splitsville after six years of hip-shakin' matrimony …
1976, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are injured during an Aerosmith concert in Philadelphia when a fan throws a cherry bomb onto the stage … The Sex Pistols enter Landsdowne Studios in London with producer Dave Goodman and engineer Hugh Padgham to attempt to record their debut single "Anarchy In The U.K." … unhappy with the results they try again a week later at Wessex Studios with Chris Thomas producing and Bill Price engineering … a key to the recording is Thomas layering Steve Jones' guitar parts to create a roaring wall of sound …
1980, Bob Marley collapses in New York while preparing for a tour … he is diagnosed with cancer and will die seven months later …
1987, the three members of ZZ Top book their seats on the first passenger flight to the moon … at press time, they are still awaiting their confirmations …
1990, members of the British alt-rock band The Stone Roses are fined $5,100 each after being convicted of trashing their former record company's offices …
1996, former Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlin pleads guilty to disorderly conduct … the charges are related to fellow band member Jonathan Melvoin's death from a heroin overdose …
2001, U2 launches the third leg of its Elevation tour with a South Bend, Indiana, concert, inviting the world to see and hear it for free … the performance is webcast and accessible to U.S. fans on U2.com …
2004, five Vote for Change concerts are mounted on the same night in Florida, considered a state up for grabs in the 2004 presidential election … Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman, and John Fogerty perform in Orlando where Chapman sings a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" … the lineup in Gainesville is Dave Matthews, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, and Jurassic 5 … in Kissimmee, Pearl Jam and Death Cab for Cutie do their bit to try and unseat the incumbent … Bonnie Raitt, Keb' Mo', and Sheryl Crow perform in Jacksonville, where the three sing a show-closing rendition of the Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" … meanwhile in Clearwater, the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor hit the stage … Taylor describes himself as a "big old yellow-dog Democrat" and reveals that his songs "Line 'Em Up" and "Slap Leather" were composed to celebrate the end of the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively … the following night, John Mellencamp and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds perform in Chicago in support of the John Kerry candidacy … Howard Stern tells his 12 million listeners that in 2006 he will move over to Sirius Satellite Radio … six stations fired the breast-fixated broadcaster from their rosters after Clear Channel Broadcasting was hit with $495,000 in FCC fines … though Clear Channel president John Hogan admitted that Stern hadn't committed any recent sins, the company decided to drop him anyway … reportedly the decision was based on Stern's lifetime fascination with biology … his "lectures" on applied female anatomy in particular … Stern fires back saying, "As soon as I came out against Bush, that's when my rights to free speech were taken away. It had nothing to do with indecency." …
2005, Marilyn Manson announces he's working on a line of perfumes and cosmetics … a recently discovered live recording of the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane debuts in the #2 spot on the Billboard jazz chart … the tape of the 1957 Carnegie Hall performance was discovered in a dusty Library of Congress archive the previous January by a researcher … Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe is treated in Casper, Wyoming, for second-degree burns after sparks from a pyrotechnic display during a show burn his arms and face …
2006, a victim of plummeting record sales, record retailer Tower Records is liquidated … 3,000 employees in 20 states lose their jobs … Elton John is joined by, among others, Elvis Costello, Moby, Liv Tyler, and Neil Young in a fundraiser for his AIDS charity … Young wows the crowd with an acoustic set that includes a duet with John on "Your Song" … Weird Al Yankovic scores his first Top Ten hit with "White & Nerdy" … after a 30-year hiatus, proto punk band The Stooges hit a Chicago studio to cut a new record … Weezer files suit against Miller Brewing Co. after the beer monolith airs ads that include images of ticket stubs for its shows along with those of Audioslave, Devo, and Incubus … Incubus also filed suit in 2005 charging misappropriation of its name … the Weezer action seeks millions in damages for "dilution of the value of the Weezer name and good will" … Grace Slick is on hand to help California Guvernator Arnold Schwarzenegger christen the first of a new fleet of Virgin Airlines planes with the moniker "Jefferson Airplane" … while the pair do the champagne thing, "White Rabbit" plays … commenting on the the name choice, Slick observes dryly that, "The Grateful Dead would've been a bad name so they picked us." …
2007, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor announces that he is no longer under contract with Interscope Records, allowing him to be able to distribute any future Nine Inch Nails and solo work in whatever form he desires … he also expresses his belief that being free from contract will enable him to have more direct contact with his fanbase and get his material to them in a more efficient and cost-effective manner … this is bad news for the record industry coming on the heels of Radiohead going indie with its web-only distribution of In Rainbows and Madonna's split with Warner to cut a deal with Live Nation that covers both concert and record business …
2008, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is badly injured when he falls off a stage in Iowa City … Ritchie Blackmore marries longtime live-in musical partner Candice Night at the Castle on the Hudson in England … they have been recording and performing as Blackmore's Night since 1997 … Eminem releases his memoir The Way I Am … in it the rapper reveals that his blonde hair was the result of an Ecstacy trip and that his 2003 song "Superman" was the outcome of a romance with Mariah Carey … Robert Plant squashes rumors of a Led Zep reunion tour when he posts a statement on his website saying, "It's both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its ugly head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move on." … apparently this word hasn't reached Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham who have been reported to be continuing rehearsals without Plant at the mic …
2010, Slash launches Slasher Films to produce horror films rooted in the style of '70s and '80s thrillers … says Slash of the new endeavor, "… creating films that take you back to the days where horror movies actually scared the hell out of you is something I've always wanted to do." …
Arrivals:
October 6: Cliff White, session guitarist with Sam Cooke (1921), Walter Kimble, sax player with Fats Domino (1946), Millie Small of "My Boy Lollipop" fame (1948), Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon (1951), David Hidalgo of Los Lobos (1954), singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet (1964), Tommy Stinson of The Replacements (1966)
October 7: banjo player-singer-songwriter-comedian "Uncle" Dave Macon (1870), Martin Murray of The Honeycombs (1941), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1943), Kevin Godley of 10cc (1945), David Hope of Kansas (1949), John Mellencamp (1951), Tico Torres of Bon Jovi (1953), singer-songwriter Toni Braxton (1968), Radiohead's Thom Yorke (1968), Leeroy Thornhill of Prodigy (1969)
October 8: composer Toru Takemitsu (1930), Doc Green, baritone with The Drifters (1934), Tornados guitarist George Bellamy (1940), Redbone drummer Butch Rillera (1945), Ray Royer of Procol Harum (1945), Toni Wilson of Hot Chocolate (1947), Johnny Ramone born John Cummings (1948), Hamish Stewart of Average White Band (1949), Robert "Kool" Bell of Kool & The Gang (1950), Cliff Adams of Kool & The Gang (1952), roots blues revivalist Lonnie Pitchford (1955), Steve Perry of Cherry Poppin' Daddies (1963), C.J. Ramone, aka Christopher James Ward of the Ramones (1965), R&B singer Teddy Riley (1967)
October 9: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle of The Who (1944), Jackson Browne (1948), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (1949), P. J. Harvey (1969), Sean Ono Lennon (1975)
October 10: composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813), Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer-songwriter-pianist, best known for his hit recording "Since I Met You, Baby" (1914), inventive pianist-composer Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917), "The Big Bopper" born Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. (1932), country singer Dottie West (1932), soul singer O.V. Wright (1939), singer-songwriter John Prine (1946), Edward Freche of the Neville Brothers band (1947), singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Midge Ure (1953), David Lee Roth (1955), Tanya Tucker (1958), singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl (1959), Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet (1961), Mike Malinin of Goo Goo Dolls (1967), Michael Bivens of Bel Biv Devoe (1968), Nine Days drummer Vinnie Tattanelli (1972), pop and R&B singer Mya Harrison (1979)
October 11: hard-hitting jazz drummer Art Blakey (1919), bluesman Little Willie Littlefield (1931), jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941), Gary Mallaber of The Steve Miller Band (1946), blue-eyed soul singer Daryl Hall (1949), Andrew Woolfolk of Earth, Wind & Fire (1950), Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham (1957), Scott Johnson of The Gin Blossoms (1962), MC Lyte (1971)
October 12: composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872), Guitar Gabriel AKA Robert Lewis Jones (1925), Sam Moore of soul duo Sam and Dave (1935), Luciano Pavarotti (1935), Melvin Franklin of The Temptations (1942), Status Quo guitarist and vocalist Rick Parfitt (1948), Irish singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy (1948), Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (1955), Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould (1960), Garfield Bright of Shai (1969), Dixie Chicks fiddle player Martie McGuire (1969)
Departures:
October 6: Portuguese fado singer Amalia Rodriguez (1999), raspy-voiced Texas rockabilly singer "Groovey" Joe Poovey (1998), arranger-composer-orchestra leader Nelson Riddle (1985), Johnny O'Keefe, Australia's first rock star (1978)
October 7: NRBQ guitarist Steve Ferguson (2009), British rocker Johnny Kidd (1966), blues singer Overton Amos Lemons aka Smiley Lewis (1966), American tenor and movie star Mario Lanza (1959)
October 8: singer-songwriter Nicky James (2007), Nat "King" Cole Trio guitarist Oscar Moore (1991), country singer Harold Dorman (1988), Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps (1988), Dr. Demento favorite Jimmy Cross (1978)
October 9: founder of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson (1999), New Orleans R&B artist Joseph "Mr. Google Eyes" August (1992), Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1978), R&B and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1973), R&B sax honker Earl Bostic (1965)
October 10: Darren Robinson, 400-pound member of The Fat Boys known as The Human Beat Box (1995), Lenny Peters of British pop duo Peters and Lee (1992)
October 11: reggae star Alton Ellis (2008), composer Neal Hefti (2008), Werner von Trapp, member of the singing family (2007), BBC star and pop singer Andy Stewart (1993), Edith Piaf (1963)
October 12: Blue Cheer bassist-vocalist Dickie Peterson (2009), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (2009), songwriter Baker Knight (2005), bluesman Frank Frost (1999), John Denver (1997), Ricky Wilson of the B-52's (1985), rockabilly pioneer Gene Vincent (1971)
Week In Review
October 6, 2011
1929, from a studio in New York City, Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in performance for the first radio program broadcast over a network …
1957, rock-and-roll wildman Jerry Lee Lewis records "Great Balls of Fire" … in Sydney, Australia, another wildman, Little Richard, announces his intention to give up rock-and-roll and "live for the Lord" … he flies to Los Angeles the following day and is baptized as a Seventh Day Adventist … the erstwhile piano pounder and shouter will abide by his decision for five years before resuming his musical career …
1958, Eddie Cochran records the rockabilly anthem "C'mon Everybody" … the Sex Pistols will also enjoy a hit with their cover in 1979 …
1959, Bobby Darin becomes the youngest to ever headline at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas … he displaces the prior record-holder Johnny Mathis who headlined when he was 23 … Darin is 22 …
1960, Tommy Roe & The Satins release "Sheila" on Judd Records … the single will prove a flop … a revised version will be released two years later by Tommy Roe alone on ABC-Paramount and will streak to the top of the chart, the first of over 20 hits for the artist … just a little reminder to stay in the game …
1961, the Beatle haircut is born when Paul and John are celebrating John's 21st birthday in Paris … they meet up with Jurgen Vollmer, a friend from Hamburg who wears his hair brushed forward in a cut popular with French teens … Paul and John like the style and have Jurgen give them haircuts in their hotel room … the rest is sartorial history …
1962, Little Richard and Sam Cooke begin a European tour in Doncaster, England … playing keyboards on the tour is a 16-year-old Billy Preston and the M.C. is Gene Vincent of "Be-Bop-A-Lula" fame, who wasn't allowed to perform because his work permit had expired … for later concerts it is oddly decided by authorities that Vincent will be allowed to sing, but only in front of the stage, not on it …
1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its first-ever gig at a concert in Paris supporting French pop start Johnny Halliday … the Experience played a 15-minute set of "Hey Joe" (soon to be their first single), "Killing Floor," and soul standards "Land of a Thousand Dances," "Respect," and "Have Mercy" …
1967, David Crosby is bounced from The Byrds by leader Roger McGuinn after months of acrimony … Crosby complained that some of his songs the band recorded weren't being released or, if they were, promoted properly including "Triad," a song promoting a relationship between two men and a woman … McGuinn called it a "freak-out orgy tune"… Crosby took the song to the Jefferson Airplane who will release their version in 1968's Crown of Creation … although recorded by The Byrds it was not released until 1987 …
1968, Fleetwood Mac are at CBS Studios in central London … the Sunday session begins with a recording of guitarist/leader Peter Green's instrumental "Albatross" … the tune is reminiscent of Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" but features twin guitar harmonies by Green and Danny Kirwan over a gently loping bassline by John McVie, with Mick Fleetwood playing tom-toms with mallets … the recording is a huge international hit and influences John Lennon in writing "Sun King" for The Beatles Abbey Road album … years later, Green still plays the tune in concert …
1969, blues giant Muddy Waters is severely injured in a car crash in which three others are killed …
1970, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber opens on Broadway to mixed reviews, harsh criticism from Webber, and condemnation from some religious groups … the show will close in 1973 after 711 performances …
1973, Elvis and Priscilla Presley head to Splitsville after six years of hip-shakin' matrimony …
1976, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are injured during an Aerosmith concert in Philadelphia when a fan throws a cherry bomb onto the stage … The Sex Pistols enter Landsdowne Studios in London with producer Dave Goodman and engineer Hugh Padgham to attempt to record their debut single "Anarchy In The U.K." … unhappy with the results they try again a week later at Wessex Studios with Chris Thomas producing and Bill Price engineering … a key to the recording is Thomas layering Steve Jones' guitar parts to create a roaring wall of sound …
1980, Bob Marley collapses in New York while preparing for a tour … he is diagnosed with cancer and will die seven months later …
1987, the three members of ZZ Top book their seats on the first passenger flight to the moon … at press time, they are still awaiting their confirmations …
1990, members of the British alt-rock band The Stone Roses are fined $5,100 each after being convicted of trashing their former record company's offices …
1996, former Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlin pleads guilty to disorderly conduct … the charges are related to fellow band member Jonathan Melvoin's death from a heroin overdose …
2001, U2 launches the third leg of its Elevation tour with a South Bend, Indiana, concert, inviting the world to see and hear it for free … the performance is webcast and accessible to U.S. fans on U2.com …
2004, five Vote for Change concerts are mounted on the same night in Florida, considered a state up for grabs in the 2004 presidential election … Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman, and John Fogerty perform in Orlando where Chapman sings a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" … the lineup in Gainesville is Dave Matthews, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, and Jurassic 5 … in Kissimmee, Pearl Jam and Death Cab for Cutie do their bit to try and unseat the incumbent … Bonnie Raitt, Keb' Mo', and Sheryl Crow perform in Jacksonville, where the three sing a show-closing rendition of the Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" … meanwhile in Clearwater, the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor hit the stage … Taylor describes himself as a "big old yellow-dog Democrat" and reveals that his songs "Line 'Em Up" and "Slap Leather" were composed to celebrate the end of the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively … the following night, John Mellencamp and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds perform in Chicago in support of the John Kerry candidacy … Howard Stern tells his 12 million listeners that in 2006 he will move over to Sirius Satellite Radio … six stations fired the breast-fixated broadcaster from their rosters after Clear Channel Broadcasting was hit with $495,000 in FCC fines … though Clear Channel president John Hogan admitted that Stern hadn't committed any recent sins, the company decided to drop him anyway … reportedly the decision was based on Stern's lifetime fascination with biology … his "lectures" on applied female anatomy in particular … Stern fires back saying, "As soon as I came out against Bush, that's when my rights to free speech were taken away. It had nothing to do with indecency." …
2005, Marilyn Manson announces he's working on a line of perfumes and cosmetics … a recently discovered live recording of the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane debuts in the #2 spot on the Billboard jazz chart … the tape of the 1957 Carnegie Hall performance was discovered in a dusty Library of Congress archive the previous January by a researcher … Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe is treated in Casper, Wyoming, for second-degree burns after sparks from a pyrotechnic display during a show burn his arms and face …
2006, a victim of plummeting record sales, record retailer Tower Records is liquidated … 3,000 employees in 20 states lose their jobs … Elton John is joined by, among others, Elvis Costello, Moby, Liv Tyler, and Neil Young in a fundraiser for his AIDS charity … Young wows the crowd with an acoustic set that includes a duet with John on "Your Song" … Weird Al Yankovic scores his first Top Ten hit with "White & Nerdy" … after a 30-year hiatus, proto punk band The Stooges hit a Chicago studio to cut a new record … Weezer files suit against Miller Brewing Co. after the beer monolith airs ads that include images of ticket stubs for its shows along with those of Audioslave, Devo, and Incubus … Incubus also filed suit in 2005 charging misappropriation of its name … the Weezer action seeks millions in damages for "dilution of the value of the Weezer name and good will" … Grace Slick is on hand to help California Guvernator Arnold Schwarzenegger christen the first of a new fleet of Virgin Airlines planes with the moniker "Jefferson Airplane" … while the pair do the champagne thing, "White Rabbit" plays … commenting on the the name choice, Slick observes dryly that, "The Grateful Dead would've been a bad name so they picked us." …
2007, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor announces that he is no longer under contract with Interscope Records, allowing him to be able to distribute any future Nine Inch Nails and solo work in whatever form he desires … he also expresses his belief that being free from contract will enable him to have more direct contact with his fanbase and get his material to them in a more efficient and cost-effective manner … this is bad news for the record industry coming on the heels of Radiohead going indie with its web-only distribution of In Rainbows and Madonna's split with Warner to cut a deal with Live Nation that covers both concert and record business …
2008, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is badly injured when he falls off a stage in Iowa City … Ritchie Blackmore marries longtime live-in musical partner Candice Night at the Castle on the Hudson in England … they have been recording and performing as Blackmore's Night since 1997 … Eminem releases his memoir The Way I Am … in it the rapper reveals that his blonde hair was the result of an Ecstacy trip and that his 2003 song "Superman" was the outcome of a romance with Mariah Carey … Robert Plant squashes rumors of a Led Zep reunion tour when he posts a statement on his website saying, "It's both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its ugly head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move on." … apparently this word hasn't reached Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham who have been reported to be continuing rehearsals without Plant at the mic …
2010, Slash launches Slasher Films to produce horror films rooted in the style of '70s and '80s thrillers … says Slash of the new endeavor, "… creating films that take you back to the days where horror movies actually scared the hell out of you is something I've always wanted to do." …
Arrivals:
October 6: Cliff White, session guitarist with Sam Cooke (1921), Walter Kimble, sax player with Fats Domino (1946), Millie Small of "My Boy Lollipop" fame (1948), Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon (1951), David Hidalgo of Los Lobos (1954), singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet (1964), Tommy Stinson of The Replacements (1966)
October 7: banjo player-singer-songwriter-comedian "Uncle" Dave Macon (1870), Martin Murray of The Honeycombs (1941), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1943), Kevin Godley of 10cc (1945), David Hope of Kansas (1949), John Mellencamp (1951), Tico Torres of Bon Jovi (1953), singer-songwriter Toni Braxton (1968), Radiohead's Thom Yorke (1968), Leeroy Thornhill of Prodigy (1969)
October 8: composer Toru Takemitsu (1930), Doc Green, baritone with The Drifters (1934), Tornados guitarist George Bellamy (1940), Redbone drummer Butch Rillera (1945), Ray Royer of Procol Harum (1945), Toni Wilson of Hot Chocolate (1947), Johnny Ramone born John Cummings (1948), Hamish Stewart of Average White Band (1949), Robert "Kool" Bell of Kool & The Gang (1950), Cliff Adams of Kool & The Gang (1952), roots blues revivalist Lonnie Pitchford (1955), Steve Perry of Cherry Poppin' Daddies (1963), C.J. Ramone, aka Christopher James Ward of the Ramones (1965), R&B singer Teddy Riley (1967)
October 9: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle of The Who (1944), Jackson Browne (1948), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (1949), P. J. Harvey (1969), Sean Ono Lennon (1975)
October 10: composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813), Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer-songwriter-pianist, best known for his hit recording "Since I Met You, Baby" (1914), inventive pianist-composer Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917), "The Big Bopper" born Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. (1932), country singer Dottie West (1932), soul singer O.V. Wright (1939), singer-songwriter John Prine (1946), Edward Freche of the Neville Brothers band (1947), singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Midge Ure (1953), David Lee Roth (1955), Tanya Tucker (1958), singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl (1959), Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet (1961), Mike Malinin of Goo Goo Dolls (1967), Michael Bivens of Bel Biv Devoe (1968), Nine Days drummer Vinnie Tattanelli (1972), pop and R&B singer Mya Harrison (1979)
October 11: hard-hitting jazz drummer Art Blakey (1919), bluesman Little Willie Littlefield (1931), jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941), Gary Mallaber of The Steve Miller Band (1946), blue-eyed soul singer Daryl Hall (1949), Andrew Woolfolk of Earth, Wind & Fire (1950), Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham (1957), Scott Johnson of The Gin Blossoms (1962), MC Lyte (1971)
October 12: composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872), Guitar Gabriel AKA Robert Lewis Jones (1925), Sam Moore of soul duo Sam and Dave (1935), Luciano Pavarotti (1935), Melvin Franklin of The Temptations (1942), Status Quo guitarist and vocalist Rick Parfitt (1948), Irish singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy (1948), Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (1955), Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould (1960), Garfield Bright of Shai (1969), Dixie Chicks fiddle player Martie McGuire (1969)
Departures:
October 6: Portuguese fado singer Amalia Rodriguez (1999), raspy-voiced Texas rockabilly singer "Groovey" Joe Poovey (1998), arranger-composer-orchestra leader Nelson Riddle (1985), Johnny O'Keefe, Australia's first rock star (1978)
October 7: NRBQ guitarist Steve Ferguson (2009), British rocker Johnny Kidd (1966), blues singer Overton Amos Lemons aka Smiley Lewis (1966), American tenor and movie star Mario Lanza (1959)
October 8: singer-songwriter Nicky James (2007), Nat "King" Cole Trio guitarist Oscar Moore (1991), country singer Harold Dorman (1988), Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps (1988), Dr. Demento favorite Jimmy Cross (1978)
October 9: founder of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson (1999), New Orleans R&B artist Joseph "Mr. Google Eyes" August (1992), Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1978), R&B and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1973), R&B sax honker Earl Bostic (1965)
October 10: Darren Robinson, 400-pound member of The Fat Boys known as The Human Beat Box (1995), Lenny Peters of British pop duo Peters and Lee (1992)
October 11: reggae star Alton Ellis (2008), composer Neal Hefti (2008), Werner von Trapp, member of the singing family (2007), BBC star and pop singer Andy Stewart (1993), Edith Piaf (1963)
October 12: Blue Cheer bassist-vocalist Dickie Peterson (2009), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (2009), songwriter Baker Knight (2005), bluesman Frank Frost (1999), John Denver (1997), Ricky Wilson of the B-52's (1985), rockabilly pioneer Gene Vincent (1971)
Infidelity tops the charts ... 6 minutes of glory for Queen ... The Who hit Vegas ...
Week In Review
October 27, 2011
1928, a candle starts a fire at 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 that time as therapy to rebuild his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately one of the best guitarists of any genre …
1936, country singer Hank Snow records for the first time … the songs are "Lonesome Blue Yodel" and "Prisoned Cowboy"…
1956, Elvis makes his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show … meanwhile, R&B singer Clarence Henry's "Ain't Got No Home" is released on the Argo label … because he sings like a frog on the record, for the rest of his career he will be known as Clarence "Frogman" Henry …
1960, Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, "Spanish Harlem" and "Stand by Me"… the songs will climb to number 10 and number 4 respectively on the pop chart, and "Stand by Me" will prove to have long legs …
1964, "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison turns gold … it’s his ninth and last Top Ten single … this same week, The Supremes release “Come See About Me”…
1965, The Who release "My Generation" as a single …
1970, Jim Morrison gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates in Miami … in other news, 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 …
1972, Philly soul singer Billy Paul gets on the soul charts with “Me and Mrs. Jones” … the song will hold the top position for three weeks and will become a soul classic …
1975, Queen releases "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single … with three and-a-half minutes being the standard limit to the length of a single, the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker have to convince EMI executives to release the six-minute recording without any edits … the single tops the U.K. chart for nine weeks and goes to number two in the U.S. … it will go to #1 again in the U.K. in 1991 after lead singer Freddie Mercury's AIDS-related death … meanwhile, justifying his title of The Boss, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek …
1983, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon becomes the longest-listed album ever on the Billboard chart–491 continuous weeks …
1986, The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill, which will become the first rap album to reach number one on the album chart …
1988, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain smashes his guitar onstage for the first time at the Evergreen State Dorm Room Party in Olympia, Washington …
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 for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena … she murdered the singer upon being confronted about embezzled funds … that same week, Gloria Estefan performs for Pope John II as part of the celebration of the pontiff's 50 years in the priesthood … she is the sole pop act invited to the event …
1998, Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer sues former bandmate Ken Kinneally who played with the guitarist in the pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharoahs … Setzer charges that Kinneally licensed 1978 studio tracks without his consent that turned up on the Collectibles Records LP Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharoahs … other courtroom news this week, three former members of the S.F. punk outfit the Dead Kennedys sue former leader Jello Biafra charging he diverted money due to the plaintiffs for his own use …
1999, 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 … simultaneously, Tina Turner announces plans for her final stadium concert tour …
2002, hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead in 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 …
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 ... in other news, the absinthe flows like wine as Marilyn Manson opens his new Hollywood art gallery Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art … on display is a painting of Adolf Hitler with breasts and a flaccid male member ...
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." …
2008, producer Phil Spector's retrial on charges of murdering actress Lana Clarkson convenes … his first trial ended with a hung jury …
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." … meanwhile, Classic Rock Awards Honor Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow for the warts-and-all documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil … accepting the DVD/film of the year award Steve says "I'm a guy who's worked my whole life for this, and it's the most rewarding moment I've ever had." …
Arrivals:
October 27: Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1933), session guitarist Kermit Chandler (1945)
October 28: good 'ol boy Charlie Daniels (1936), singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1936), blues-rock saxist-organist Graham Bond (1937), Hank Marvin of The Shadows (1941), singer Wayne Fontana (1945), Rickie Reynolds of Black Oak Arkansas (1948), Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1948), Stephen Morris of New Order (1957), William Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain (1958), Ben Harper (1969), American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini (1978)
October 29: composer Vivian Ellis (1904), jazz arranger-composer Neal Hefti (1922), The Big Bopper J.P. Richardson (1930), Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Wings (1944), Mickey Gallagher of Frampton's Camel (1945), Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac (1946), 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)
October 30: trumpeter Clifford Brown (1930), rockabilly star Ray Smith (1934), Grace Slick born Grace Wing (1939), Otis Williams of the Temptations (1941), Timothy Schmit of Poco and The Eagles (1947), Jim Messina (1947), David Green of Air Supply (1949), Gavin Rossdale of Bush (1967)
October 31: Dale Evans (1912), Bernard Edwards of Chic (1952), South African rocker Johnny Clegg (1953), U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. (1961), 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)
November 1: blues songstress Sippie Wallace (1898), Peacock Records founder Don Robey (1903), Barry "Ballad of Green Berets" Sadler (1940), Rick Grech, bass player for Blind Faith and Traffic (1946), Dan Peek of America (1950), Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang (1951), Lyle Lovett (1957), Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen (1963), Willie D of The Geto Boys (1966), LaTavia Roberson of Destiny's Child (1981)
November 2: trumpet legend Bunny Berigan (1908), Keith Emerson (1944), J.D. Souther (1945), Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (1947), Maxine Nightingale (1952), Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (1957), Matt Sorum of Cult, Guns N' Roses, and Velvet Revolver (1960), k.d. lang born Katherine Dawn Lang (1961), Bobby Dall of Poison (1963), Reginald Arvizu of Korn (1969), John Hampson of Nine Days (1971), Nelly (1978)
Departures:
October 27: producer Tom Dowd (2002), rockabilly artist Donnie Owens (1994), T-Rex founding member Steve Peregrine-Took (1980)
October 28: country star Porter Wagoner (2007), R&B keyboard man Jon Thomas who sang "It's Hurtin' Me" (1995), R&B singer Billy Wright (1991), jazz arranger Oliver Nelson (1975), R&B reedman Earl Bostic (1965)
October 29: saxophonist Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson (2001), jazz bandleader Woody Herman (1987), King Harvest drummer Wells Kelly (1984), guitar master Duane Allman (1971)
October 30: crooner Robert Goulet (2007), Ramones co-manager Linda Stein (2007), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (2002), TV host and musician Steve Allen (2000), hard swingin' sax man Chu Berry (1941)
October 31: John Holohan, drummer for Bayside (2005), record exec Lester Sill (1994), A Chorus Line producer Joseph Papp (1991), guitarist Malcolm Hale of Spanky and Our Gang (1968)
November 1: Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight (2004), classic blues singer and pianist Sippie Wallace (1986), pioneer Delta blues singer Tommy Johnson (1956)
November 2: Sammy Kaye Band singer Wandra Merrell (1994), Mississippi John Hurt (1966)
Week In Review
October 27, 2011
1928, a candle starts a fire at 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 that time as therapy to rebuild his guitar chops so that by the mid-1930s he is a master of swing guitar and ultimately one of the best guitarists of any genre …
1936, country singer Hank Snow records for the first time … the songs are "Lonesome Blue Yodel" and "Prisoned Cowboy"…
1956, Elvis makes his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show … meanwhile, R&B singer Clarence Henry's "Ain't Got No Home" is released on the Argo label … because he sings like a frog on the record, for the rest of his career he will be known as Clarence "Frogman" Henry …
1960, Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, "Spanish Harlem" and "Stand by Me"… the songs will climb to number 10 and number 4 respectively on the pop chart, and "Stand by Me" will prove to have long legs …
1964, "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison turns gold … it’s his ninth and last Top Ten single … this same week, The Supremes release “Come See About Me”…
1965, The Who release "My Generation" as a single …
1970, Jim Morrison gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates in Miami … in other news, 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 …
1972, Philly soul singer Billy Paul gets on the soul charts with “Me and Mrs. Jones” … the song will hold the top position for three weeks and will become a soul classic …
1975, Queen releases "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single … with three and-a-half minutes being the standard limit to the length of a single, the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker have to convince EMI executives to release the six-minute recording without any edits … the single tops the U.K. chart for nine weeks and goes to number two in the U.S. … it will go to #1 again in the U.K. in 1991 after lead singer Freddie Mercury's AIDS-related death … meanwhile, justifying his title of The Boss, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek …
1983, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon becomes the longest-listed album ever on the Billboard chart–491 continuous weeks …
1986, The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill, which will become the first rap album to reach number one on the album chart …
1988, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain smashes his guitar onstage for the first time at the Evergreen State Dorm Room Party in Olympia, Washington …
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 for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena … she murdered the singer upon being confronted about embezzled funds … that same week, Gloria Estefan performs for Pope John II as part of the celebration of the pontiff's 50 years in the priesthood … she is the sole pop act invited to the event …
1998, Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer sues former bandmate Ken Kinneally who played with the guitarist in the pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharoahs … Setzer charges that Kinneally licensed 1978 studio tracks without his consent that turned up on the Collectibles Records LP Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharoahs … other courtroom news this week, three former members of the S.F. punk outfit the Dead Kennedys sue former leader Jello Biafra charging he diverted money due to the plaintiffs for his own use …
1999, 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 … simultaneously, Tina Turner announces plans for her final stadium concert tour …
2002, hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead in 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 …
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 ... in other news, the absinthe flows like wine as Marilyn Manson opens his new Hollywood art gallery Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art … on display is a painting of Adolf Hitler with breasts and a flaccid male member ...
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." …
2008, producer Phil Spector's retrial on charges of murdering actress Lana Clarkson convenes … his first trial ended with a hung jury …
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." … meanwhile, Classic Rock Awards Honor Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow for the warts-and-all documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil … accepting the DVD/film of the year award Steve says "I'm a guy who's worked my whole life for this, and it's the most rewarding moment I've ever had." …
Arrivals:
October 27: Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (1933), session guitarist Kermit Chandler (1945)
October 28: good 'ol boy Charlie Daniels (1936), singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1936), blues-rock saxist-organist Graham Bond (1937), Hank Marvin of The Shadows (1941), singer Wayne Fontana (1945), Rickie Reynolds of Black Oak Arkansas (1948), Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1948), Stephen Morris of New Order (1957), William Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain (1958), Ben Harper (1969), American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini (1978)
October 29: composer Vivian Ellis (1904), jazz arranger-composer Neal Hefti (1922), The Big Bopper J.P. Richardson (1930), Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Wings (1944), Mickey Gallagher of Frampton's Camel (1945), Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac (1946), 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)
October 30: trumpeter Clifford Brown (1930), rockabilly star Ray Smith (1934), Grace Slick born Grace Wing (1939), Otis Williams of the Temptations (1941), Timothy Schmit of Poco and The Eagles (1947), Jim Messina (1947), David Green of Air Supply (1949), Gavin Rossdale of Bush (1967)
October 31: Dale Evans (1912), Bernard Edwards of Chic (1952), South African rocker Johnny Clegg (1953), U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. (1961), 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)
November 1: blues songstress Sippie Wallace (1898), Peacock Records founder Don Robey (1903), Barry "Ballad of Green Berets" Sadler (1940), Rick Grech, bass player for Blind Faith and Traffic (1946), Dan Peek of America (1950), Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang (1951), Lyle Lovett (1957), Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen (1963), Willie D of The Geto Boys (1966), LaTavia Roberson of Destiny's Child (1981)
November 2: trumpet legend Bunny Berigan (1908), Keith Emerson (1944), J.D. Souther (1945), Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (1947), Maxine Nightingale (1952), Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (1957), Matt Sorum of Cult, Guns N' Roses, and Velvet Revolver (1960), k.d. lang born Katherine Dawn Lang (1961), Bobby Dall of Poison (1963), Reginald Arvizu of Korn (1969), John Hampson of Nine Days (1971), Nelly (1978)
Departures:
October 27: producer Tom Dowd (2002), rockabilly artist Donnie Owens (1994), T-Rex founding member Steve Peregrine-Took (1980)
October 28: country star Porter Wagoner (2007), R&B keyboard man Jon Thomas who sang "It's Hurtin' Me" (1995), R&B singer Billy Wright (1991), jazz arranger Oliver Nelson (1975), R&B reedman Earl Bostic (1965)
October 29: saxophonist Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson (2001), jazz bandleader Woody Herman (1987), King Harvest drummer Wells Kelly (1984), guitar master Duane Allman (1971)
October 30: crooner Robert Goulet (2007), Ramones co-manager Linda Stein (2007), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (2002), TV host and musician Steve Allen (2000), hard swingin' sax man Chu Berry (1941)
October 31: John Holohan, drummer for Bayside (2005), record exec Lester Sill (1994), A Chorus Line producer Joseph Papp (1991), guitarist Malcolm Hale of Spanky and Our Gang (1968)
November 1: Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight (2004), classic blues singer and pianist Sippie Wallace (1986), pioneer Delta blues singer Tommy Johnson (1956)
November 2: Sammy Kaye Band singer Wandra Merrell (1994), Mississippi John Hurt (1966)
Syd Zips It ... Wiz Rocks It ... Neil's Wheels Flame On ...
Week In Review
November 3, 2011
1958, Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke are both injured in an Arkansas auto wreck that kills their chauffeur …
1960, Greg 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 …
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 its 31-month investigation, including playing the record at various speeds, inconclusively stating that they are “unable to interpret any of the wording in the record” … in 2003, 754 guitarists play a 10-minute rendition of the song at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington … the event is thought to be the world’s largest jam session … in 2004, Rolling Stone would rank “Louie Louie” #55 in the list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as voted on by musicians and critics …
1964, The Nashville Teens become One Hit Wonders in the U.S. by reaching #14 with “Tobacco Road” … the follow-up single “Google Eyes” by the same songwriter, John D. Loudermilk, goes nowhere …
1965, promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become Fillmore East for a lordly $60 … his first rock show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead … at the Longshoreman’s Hall, the Family Dog present “A Tribute to Ming the Merciless” featuring The Mothers and The Charlatans …
1966, The Monkees first single “The Last Train To Clarksville” hits #1 on the U.S. charts replacing “96 Tears” by ? & the Mysterians … in London, John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an art gallery previewing her “Unfinished Paintings and Objects” . . .
1967, the movie How I Won the War featuring John Lennon in an acting role, opens in the U.S. ….it is the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle … Lennon in costume as a soldier from the movie is featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine that hits the newstands for the first time … Pink Floyd appear on The Pat Boone Show in the U.S …. singer-guitarist and erstwhile band leader Syd Barrett refuses to answer interview questions from the host and does not even try to lip-synch to the pre-recorded track for the single “See Emily Play” … the following day, he repeats his non-performance in front of the cameras for Dick Clark’s American Bandstand …
1968, Cream perform their last U.S. concert at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence …
1969, The Rolling Stones gross a record-breaking $260,000 for two shows for 36,000 fans at the L.A. Forum …
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” (a name actually used by Jimmy Page) …
1972, Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular salary when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry …
1977, The Jam release their second album in the U.K., This Is The Modern World … many record shops there pull the Sex Pistols album cover Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols from their front window claiming it is indecent because of the word “bollocks” … Virgin Records boss Richard Branson says his shops will continue to display the album in their windows …
1978, The Clash release their second album Give ’Em Enough Rope … 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 … unlike “Louie Louie” with unintelligible lyrics, in 1996 readers of Dave Berry’s syndicated newspaper column voted “MacArthur Park” the Worst Song of All Time …
1980, The Human League split up with synth players Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware leaving … vocalist Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright keep the name going … The B-52s new single “Strobe Light” is from their album Wild Planet …
1981, Depeche Mode releases their first album Speak and Spell containing the singles “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “Dreaming Of Me” …
1985, the theme from the TV show Miami Vice composed and recorded by former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboard player Jan Hammer, rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100 … the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 in 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 Miami Vice …
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 …
1992, 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 … 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 to community groups …
1995, Michael Jackson’s ATV Music catalog and Sony Corp. merge to form the world’s third biggest music publishing company worth an estimated $300 million … among the goodies Jackson brings to the table are a raft of classic Beatles tunes … 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 …
1996, Michael Jackson announces that he and friend Debbie Rowe are expecting a child … the King of Pop denies tabloid reports that the baby had been conceived using artificial insemination and that Rowe was paid to bear the child …
1998, Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby “Blue” Bland are honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Blues Foundation … Little Jimmy Dickens’ appearance at the Grand Ole Opry marks his 50th year as a member of the cast … Dickens is best-remembered for his 1965 hit, “May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose” … Rick James has a stroke when a blood vessel in his neck ruptures during a head-banging performance in Denver …
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 compilations discs cut into the band’s sales … this marks the seventh time that Beach Boys have sued one another … despite all the litigation and unpleasantness, in July 2010 Al Jardine announces the surviving original members of the Beach Boys: Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, Jardine, and early member David Marks will reunite for at least one reunion show in 2011 … Mike Love reacts by saying there were no specific plans but states "I've had a few conversations recently with my cousin Brian about doing some musical projects together … in the fall we'll get more focused on it" … Madonna notches her 36th Top Ten single with "Hung Up," tying her with Elvis Presley as the act with the most Top Ten hits … The Beatles have 34 … the song is also her 47th Top Forty single—at this point, the most for any female artist …
2006, Yoko Ono observes John Lennon’s 66th birthday in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she dedicates the site of a planned Imagine Peace Tower, a beam of light 100 feet high that will shine around the clock … Nelly Furtado makes a cameo appearance on the Portuguese soap Floribella …
2007, The Eagles’ first studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden debuts at number one with sales of 710,000 copies, this despite its only being available at Wal-Mart stores and the band’s website … the Rock and 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” … 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 ... Garth Brooks passes Elvis to become the second-best-selling artist of all time with 123 million albums shipped ... however, he has a long way to go to catch The Beatles, who hold the record with 170 million discs...
2008, Van Morrison reprises his 1968 critically revered LP Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl, supported by a full string section as well as performers on the original studio release—Richard Davis on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar … A man accused of illegally posting songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by the rock band Guns N' Roses has agreed to plead guilty …
2009, Apple Corps and EMI Music announced an upcoming release of the entire Beatles' catalog digitally in MP3 and FLAC formats … the tracks won't be available in iTunes, or any other online store in fact, but only on 30,000 limited-edition, apple-shaped USB sticks …
2010, Neil Young’s hybrid Lincoln causes a fire in his California memorabilia warehouse … Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part of his LincVolt project to create the world's most efficient full-size vehicle … fire crews were able to save about 70 percent of the warehouse's contents, including other cars and music equipment belonging to Young …
Arrivals:
November 3: Brian Poole of The Tremeloes (1941), Marie McDonald Lawrie a.k.a. Lulu (1948), Adam Ant born Stuart Leslie Goddard (1954)
November 4: Four Vagabonds singer John Jordan (1913), Delbert McClinton (1940), Squeeze singer-guitarist Chris Difford (1954), James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist for the Pretenders (1956), Sean John “Puff Daddy” Combs (1969)
November 5: Roy Rogers born Leonard Slye (1911), blues and R&B innovator Ike Turner (1931), Art Garfunkel (1941), Gram Parsons (1946), Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits (1947), Don McDougall of Guess Who (1948), Mike Score of A Flock Of Seagulls (1957), Bryan Adams (1959), David Bryson of Counting Crows (1961), singer-actress Andrea McArdle (1963), Jon Greenwood of Radiohead (1971), Ryan Adams (1974)
November 6: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (1814), John Philip Sousa, inventor of the sousaphone (1854), composer-pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), musician, songwriter, lyricist Gus Kahn, born Gustav Gerson Kahn, who penned songs such as "It Had To Be You" and "Dream a Little Dream Of Me" (1886), ragtime pianist and composer Ole Olsen born John Sigvard Olsen, of the vaudeville act Olsen and Johnson, who hit the big time with the Broadway show and movie Hellzapoppin (1892), musician-arranger Ray Conniff, who founded The Ray Conniff Singers (1927), Joseph Pope, lead singer of The Tams (1933), singer P.J. Proby (1938), Guy Clark (1941), Glenn Frey of The Eagles (1948), Corey Glover of Living Colour (1964)
November 7: New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt (1922), Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary (1937), soul singer Dee Clark, whose biggest single was "Raindrops" (1938), Johnny Rivers, rock-and-roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, born John Henry Ramistella (1942), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell born Roberta Joan Anderson (1943), Liam O Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers (1964), Russell Barrett of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 8: Bert Burns, R&B producer of The Drifters and Van Morrison (1929), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1945), Roy Wood of The Move and ELO (1946), Minnie Riperton, singer-songwriter noted for her five-and-a-half octave vocal range (1947), blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt (1949), Gerald Alston, lead singer of The Manhattans (1951), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), singer-actor-teen idol Leif Garrett born Leif Per Nervik (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 9: big band leader Tommy Dorsey (1905), bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult (1948), Tommy Caldwell, bassist for the Marshall Tucker Band (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad "Scarface" Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), singer-songwriter Diana King (1970), Susan Tedeschi, blues and roots-music singer and guitarist married to Derek Trucks (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), rock-country-rap musician Uncle Kracker born Matthew Shafer (1974), Sisqó, lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, born Mark Althavean Andrews (1978)
Departures:
November 3: Robert Kirby, string arranger for Nick Drake and Elton John (2009), singer Art Wood (2006), Lonnie Donegan (2002), blues harmonica player William Clarke (1996), songwriter Mort Shuman (1991)
November 4: Shonen Knife drummer Mana "China" Nishiura (2005), jazz drummer Vernel Fournier (2000), Hi-Lites singer Ronnie Goodson (1980)
November 5: Link Wray (2005), Robert Lee "Bobby" Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers (2003), saxophonist Eddie Harris (1996), jazz pianist Bobby Scott of The Coasters (1990), Barry Sadler (1989), Vladimir Horowitz (1989), Bobby Nunn (1986), Guy Lombardo (1977), Robert "Nighthawk" McCollum (1967), Johnny Horton (1960), piano magician Art Tatum (1956), Orioles singer Tommy Gaither (1950)
November 6: Hank Thompson, Texas honky-tonk and Western swing pioneer (2007), George Osmond, patriarch of the singing Osmond Family (2007), jazz pianist Pete Jolly (2004), Don Julian, leader of The Meadowlarks (1998), novelty artist Dickie Goodman (1989), New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia (1972)
November 7: rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds (2008), Jimmy Jones, studio bassist who worked with Wilson Pickett (1995), Carter Cornelius, leader of The Cornelius Brothers with Sister Rose (1991)
November 8: trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Dr. Tommy Comeaux of Beausoleil, voted best Cajun guitarist (1997), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), R&B pianist James Booker (1983), R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), pioneering blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968)
November 9: English movie composer Stanley Myers (1993), Egon Wellesz, composer-teacher-musicologist and student of Arnold Schoenberg (1974), Swedish jazz composer Jan Johansson (1968), composer Frederick Preston Search (1957), Broadway and film composer Sigmund Romberg, best known for "Lover Come Back to Me" performed by Billie Holliday (1951), Mannheim composer Carl Philipp Stamitz, son of famous composer Johann Stamitz (1801)
Week In Review
November 3, 2011
1958, Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke are both injured in an Arkansas auto wreck that kills their chauffeur …
1960, Greg 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 …
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 its 31-month investigation, including playing the record at various speeds, inconclusively stating that they are “unable to interpret any of the wording in the record” … in 2003, 754 guitarists play a 10-minute rendition of the song at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington … the event is thought to be the world’s largest jam session … in 2004, Rolling Stone would rank “Louie Louie” #55 in the list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as voted on by musicians and critics …
1964, The Nashville Teens become One Hit Wonders in the U.S. by reaching #14 with “Tobacco Road” … the follow-up single “Google Eyes” by the same songwriter, John D. Loudermilk, goes nowhere …
1965, promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become Fillmore East for a lordly $60 … his first rock show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead … at the Longshoreman’s Hall, the Family Dog present “A Tribute to Ming the Merciless” featuring The Mothers and The Charlatans …
1966, The Monkees first single “The Last Train To Clarksville” hits #1 on the U.S. charts replacing “96 Tears” by ? & the Mysterians … in London, John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an art gallery previewing her “Unfinished Paintings and Objects” . . .
1967, the movie How I Won the War featuring John Lennon in an acting role, opens in the U.S. ….it is the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle … Lennon in costume as a soldier from the movie is featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine that hits the newstands for the first time … Pink Floyd appear on The Pat Boone Show in the U.S …. singer-guitarist and erstwhile band leader Syd Barrett refuses to answer interview questions from the host and does not even try to lip-synch to the pre-recorded track for the single “See Emily Play” … the following day, he repeats his non-performance in front of the cameras for Dick Clark’s American Bandstand …
1968, Cream perform their last U.S. concert at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence …
1969, The Rolling Stones gross a record-breaking $260,000 for two shows for 36,000 fans at the L.A. Forum …
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” (a name actually used by Jimmy Page) …
1972, Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular salary when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry …
1977, The Jam release their second album in the U.K., This Is The Modern World … many record shops there pull the Sex Pistols album cover Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols from their front window claiming it is indecent because of the word “bollocks” … Virgin Records boss Richard Branson says his shops will continue to display the album in their windows …
1978, The Clash release their second album Give ’Em Enough Rope … 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 … unlike “Louie Louie” with unintelligible lyrics, in 1996 readers of Dave Berry’s syndicated newspaper column voted “MacArthur Park” the Worst Song of All Time …
1980, The Human League split up with synth players Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware leaving … vocalist Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright keep the name going … The B-52s new single “Strobe Light” is from their album Wild Planet …
1981, Depeche Mode releases their first album Speak and Spell containing the singles “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “Dreaming Of Me” …
1985, the theme from the TV show Miami Vice composed and recorded by former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboard player Jan Hammer, rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100 … the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 in 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 Miami Vice …
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 …
1992, 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 … 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 to community groups …
1995, Michael Jackson’s ATV Music catalog and Sony Corp. merge to form the world’s third biggest music publishing company worth an estimated $300 million … among the goodies Jackson brings to the table are a raft of classic Beatles tunes … 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 …
1996, Michael Jackson announces that he and friend Debbie Rowe are expecting a child … the King of Pop denies tabloid reports that the baby had been conceived using artificial insemination and that Rowe was paid to bear the child …
1998, Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby “Blue” Bland are honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Blues Foundation … Little Jimmy Dickens’ appearance at the Grand Ole Opry marks his 50th year as a member of the cast … Dickens is best-remembered for his 1965 hit, “May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose” … Rick James has a stroke when a blood vessel in his neck ruptures during a head-banging performance in Denver …
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 compilations discs cut into the band’s sales … this marks the seventh time that Beach Boys have sued one another … despite all the litigation and unpleasantness, in July 2010 Al Jardine announces the surviving original members of the Beach Boys: Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, Jardine, and early member David Marks will reunite for at least one reunion show in 2011 … Mike Love reacts by saying there were no specific plans but states "I've had a few conversations recently with my cousin Brian about doing some musical projects together … in the fall we'll get more focused on it" … Madonna notches her 36th Top Ten single with "Hung Up," tying her with Elvis Presley as the act with the most Top Ten hits … The Beatles have 34 … the song is also her 47th Top Forty single—at this point, the most for any female artist …
2006, Yoko Ono observes John Lennon’s 66th birthday in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she dedicates the site of a planned Imagine Peace Tower, a beam of light 100 feet high that will shine around the clock … Nelly Furtado makes a cameo appearance on the Portuguese soap Floribella …
2007, The Eagles’ first studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden debuts at number one with sales of 710,000 copies, this despite its only being available at Wal-Mart stores and the band’s website … the Rock and 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” … 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 ... Garth Brooks passes Elvis to become the second-best-selling artist of all time with 123 million albums shipped ... however, he has a long way to go to catch The Beatles, who hold the record with 170 million discs...
2008, Van Morrison reprises his 1968 critically revered LP Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl, supported by a full string section as well as performers on the original studio release—Richard Davis on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar … A man accused of illegally posting songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by the rock band Guns N' Roses has agreed to plead guilty …
2009, Apple Corps and EMI Music announced an upcoming release of the entire Beatles' catalog digitally in MP3 and FLAC formats … the tracks won't be available in iTunes, or any other online store in fact, but only on 30,000 limited-edition, apple-shaped USB sticks …
2010, Neil Young’s hybrid Lincoln causes a fire in his California memorabilia warehouse … Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part of his LincVolt project to create the world's most efficient full-size vehicle … fire crews were able to save about 70 percent of the warehouse's contents, including other cars and music equipment belonging to Young …
Arrivals:
November 3: Brian Poole of The Tremeloes (1941), Marie McDonald Lawrie a.k.a. Lulu (1948), Adam Ant born Stuart Leslie Goddard (1954)
November 4: Four Vagabonds singer John Jordan (1913), Delbert McClinton (1940), Squeeze singer-guitarist Chris Difford (1954), James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist for the Pretenders (1956), Sean John “Puff Daddy” Combs (1969)
November 5: Roy Rogers born Leonard Slye (1911), blues and R&B innovator Ike Turner (1931), Art Garfunkel (1941), Gram Parsons (1946), Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits (1947), Don McDougall of Guess Who (1948), Mike Score of A Flock Of Seagulls (1957), Bryan Adams (1959), David Bryson of Counting Crows (1961), singer-actress Andrea McArdle (1963), Jon Greenwood of Radiohead (1971), Ryan Adams (1974)
November 6: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (1814), John Philip Sousa, inventor of the sousaphone (1854), composer-pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), musician, songwriter, lyricist Gus Kahn, born Gustav Gerson Kahn, who penned songs such as "It Had To Be You" and "Dream a Little Dream Of Me" (1886), ragtime pianist and composer Ole Olsen born John Sigvard Olsen, of the vaudeville act Olsen and Johnson, who hit the big time with the Broadway show and movie Hellzapoppin (1892), musician-arranger Ray Conniff, who founded The Ray Conniff Singers (1927), Joseph Pope, lead singer of The Tams (1933), singer P.J. Proby (1938), Guy Clark (1941), Glenn Frey of The Eagles (1948), Corey Glover of Living Colour (1964)
November 7: New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt (1922), Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary (1937), soul singer Dee Clark, whose biggest single was "Raindrops" (1938), Johnny Rivers, rock-and-roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, born John Henry Ramistella (1942), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell born Roberta Joan Anderson (1943), Liam O Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers (1964), Russell Barrett of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 8: Bert Burns, R&B producer of The Drifters and Van Morrison (1929), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1945), Roy Wood of The Move and ELO (1946), Minnie Riperton, singer-songwriter noted for her five-and-a-half octave vocal range (1947), blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt (1949), Gerald Alston, lead singer of The Manhattans (1951), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), singer-actor-teen idol Leif Garrett born Leif Per Nervik (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968)
November 9: big band leader Tommy Dorsey (1905), bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult (1948), Tommy Caldwell, bassist for the Marshall Tucker Band (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad "Scarface" Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), singer-songwriter Diana King (1970), Susan Tedeschi, blues and roots-music singer and guitarist married to Derek Trucks (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), rock-country-rap musician Uncle Kracker born Matthew Shafer (1974), Sisqó, lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, born Mark Althavean Andrews (1978)
Departures:
November 3: Robert Kirby, string arranger for Nick Drake and Elton John (2009), singer Art Wood (2006), Lonnie Donegan (2002), blues harmonica player William Clarke (1996), songwriter Mort Shuman (1991)
November 4: Shonen Knife drummer Mana "China" Nishiura (2005), jazz drummer Vernel Fournier (2000), Hi-Lites singer Ronnie Goodson (1980)
November 5: Link Wray (2005), Robert Lee "Bobby" Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers (2003), saxophonist Eddie Harris (1996), jazz pianist Bobby Scott of The Coasters (1990), Barry Sadler (1989), Vladimir Horowitz (1989), Bobby Nunn (1986), Guy Lombardo (1977), Robert "Nighthawk" McCollum (1967), Johnny Horton (1960), piano magician Art Tatum (1956), Orioles singer Tommy Gaither (1950)
November 6: Hank Thompson, Texas honky-tonk and Western swing pioneer (2007), George Osmond, patriarch of the singing Osmond Family (2007), jazz pianist Pete Jolly (2004), Don Julian, leader of The Meadowlarks (1998), novelty artist Dickie Goodman (1989), New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia (1972)
November 7: rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds (2008), Jimmy Jones, studio bassist who worked with Wilson Pickett (1995), Carter Cornelius, leader of The Cornelius Brothers with Sister Rose (1991)
November 8: trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Dr. Tommy Comeaux of Beausoleil, voted best Cajun guitarist (1997), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), R&B pianist James Booker (1983), R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), pioneering blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968)
November 9: English movie composer Stanley Myers (1993), Egon Wellesz, composer-teacher-musicologist and student of Arnold Schoenberg (1974), Swedish jazz composer Jan Johansson (1968), composer Frederick Preston Search (1957), Broadway and film composer Sigmund Romberg, best known for "Lover Come Back to Me" performed by Billie Holliday (1951), Mannheim composer Carl Philipp Stamitz, son of famous composer Johann Stamitz (1801)
Carole lays down the beat ... Jones buys the farm ... Australia invades USA ...
Week In Review
November 10, 2011
1958, 2 classic vocalists live to sing another day when Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls survive an automobile accident near Marion, Arkansas . . . the driver of the car is killed, however . . .
1960, The Shirelles release "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" with songwriter Carole King on drums . . .
1965, Velvet Underground makes its performance debut at a high school dance in Summit, NJ . . .
1968, Brian Jones purchases Cotchford Farm in Sussex, once owned by A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh . . .
1969, Jim Morrison gets blotto on a plane trip from L.A. to Phoenix to see The Stones . . . he's such a royal pain that he's arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with the flight and public drunkenness, having harassed a stewardess who apparently didn't appreciate a drunk Morrison jumping in her game . . . the charges are eventually dropped . . . Janis Joplin is arrested in her dressing room at a concert in Tampa for cussing at the man . . . earlier, in the auditorium, a cop is screaming through a bullhorn at her fans to sit down and 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 disrespectful addressing police backstage when they insist that SHE tell the audience to sit down . . . she gets out on a $50 bond and the charges of "vulgar and indecent language" are eventually dropped . . .
1970, Jim Morrison closes the door on his bandmates, playing his last concert with The Doors in New Orleans . . . After the band records the L.A. Woman album, Morrison moves to Paris, where he will soon pass away . . . his grave site becomes a destination for Morrison fans the world over . . .
1972, featuring fiery guitarist Jan Akkerman, the album Moving Waves by Dutch prog-rock band Focus arrives on the LP chart in the U.K. . . . thanks to popular song "Hocus Pocus," Focus achieves notoriety in the U.S., but in a short while it's hocus pocus and Focus disappears . . . 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 site and goes home only to die of a brain hemorrhage later that night in the hospital . . .
1978, Queen plays Madison Square Garden . . . during their hit number "Fat Bottomed Girls," they are accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles . . .
1981, Australia invades the U.S. . . . the U.S. airwaves, that is, when Olivia Newton-John, Little River Band, Air Supply, and Rick Springfield all register hit singles . . .
1984, Madonna's album Like a Virgin is released, leaving listeners wondering in what way she is . . . popular theories include the possibility that Madonna is encouraging people to like virgins . . . sort of like a "take a virgin to lunch" campaign . . . a bit redundant, but good-hearted nonetheless . . . however, some detractors claim that the material girl, who launched herself to stardom by wearing her underwear on the outside, is like a virgin in much the same way that balloons are like safety pins . . .
1987, "a day late and a dollar short" seems to typify the career of Sly Stone, who turns up an hour late for an L.A. comeback concert and is promptly arrested for failing to pay child support . . . when it comes to beats, Bo Diddley's got the "Bo Diddley beat," and Sly's got the deadbeat . . . lateness aside, in his self-shortened heyday, Stone quickly fell out of favor with promoters for consistently not showing up for concerts at all . . .
1988, Whitney Houston's debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold . . . only Boston has ever matched this performance with a debut LP . . . 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 . . .
2000, 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 . . .
2003, Kid Rock announces plans for a continuing creative collaboration with Sheryl Crow . . . the collaboration has thus far resulted in the hit duet "Picture," and they plan more writing and recording together in the future . . . looks like The Kid is growing up . . . perhaps a name-change to Man Rock is in order …
2004, going postal takes on new meaning when the group Postal Service settles with The United States Postal Service following more than a year of legal maneuvering over the band's name . . . in the creative compromise, the duo comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and to refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs . . . the musicians also agree to perform at the postmaster general's National Executive Conference in Washington . . . 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 that has the band performing its new single "Vertigo" . . . finally jumping on the bandwagon of mega-rockers who've cashed in on cross-promotion, it's the first time in the band's 25-year career that it's licensed music for commercial purposes . . . other than selling records, of course . . . the New York Post reports that former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth, 50, is training to become an emergency medical technician . . . the girls may not be swooning like they once did, but it never hurts to know a little CPR . . . according to his tutor, Linda Reissman, "His commitment is really touching. He wants to help people." . . . funny, we always knew that Diamond Dave's commitment was touching . . . only we thought it was California girls . . . Jamaican reggae star Sizzla is denied a British visa based on complaints by gay-rights groups that the lyrics in his songs "incite racist and homophobic violence" . . . something about Sizzla and flank steaks comes to mind . . . perhaps he doth protest too much . . .
2005, Elton John and partner David Furnish set a date to wed . . . keyboard legend Bill Preston is hospitalized in Arizona for an inflammation of the heart . . . no, the two are not related . . .
2006, former Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher appears in a British court to pursue a claim against former bandmate Gary Brooker, 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 . . . some critics claim that perhaps Fisher should pay royalties to J.S. Bach, whose melody he allegedly appropriated, but according to an in-depth musical analysis, while influenced by Bach, Fisher's creation is original . . . 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 . . .
2007, Donovan announces plans to open a Transcendental Meditation college in Scotland . . . it will be called the Invincible Donovan University . . . apparently a great deal of thought went into the name . . . rumors say that the order of the name, "Invincible Donovan University" was originally The Invincible University of Donovan, until deep meditation revealed to the former '60s flower child that its college sweatshirts would bear the initials, IUD . . . so much for free love …
2009, The Faces gear up for a reunion tour with or without original frontman Rod Stewart . . . keyboardist Ian McLagan intimates that the band has grown weary of waiting for Stewart to commit to a reunion . . . says McLagan, "If we don't do it very soon, one of us is gonna check out. I'm 64, for chrissakes!" . . . unfortunately, our Faces are red as Stewart opts out and is replaced by Simply Red's Mick Hucknall . . .
Arrivals:
November 10: singer-songwriter-musician Dave Loggins, cousin of Kenny Loggins (1947), country singer-songwriter Donna Fargo born Yvonne Vaughan (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), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), West Coast rapper Warren G, born Warren Griffin III (1970), Eve, rapper-singer-actress-musician (1978)
November 11: jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1920), jazz pianist-singer Mose Allison (1927), R&B singer LaVern Baker (1929), David Lastle, New Orleans session sax man (1934), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), singer-songwriter-guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956)
November 12: Ruby Nash Curtis of Ruby & The Romantics (1939), Arthur Tavares of disco singing group Tavares (1943), pop singer Brian Hyland of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" fame (1943), godfather of grunge Neil Young (1945), Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser of Blue Öyster Cult (1947), Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate (1948), Leslie McKeown of The Bay City Rollers (1955), David Ellefson of Megadeth (1964), R&B singer Tevin Campbell (1978)
November 13: R&B singer Justine "Baby" Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1940), R&B singer and producer Timmy Thomas (1944), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken (1953), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964), The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture (1978)
November 14: composer Aaron Copland (1900), Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI Records (1904), Gene Krupa Band vocalist Johnny Desmond (1921), Chicago harp man Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), accordionist-zydeco performer Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer and guitarist Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1951), Alec John Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joe "Run" Simmons of Run-D.M.C. (1964), Brian Yale of matchbox twenty (1968), R&B singer Adina Howard (1974), Travis Barker of blink-182 (1975)
November 15: elevator-music maestro Mantovani (1905), Ike Turner's pianist Clayton Love (1927), R&B singer Clyde McPhatter (1932), pop singer Petula Clark (1932), vocalist Little Willie John born William J. Woods (1937), Memphis producer and musician Jim Dickinson (1941), Frida of ABBA (1945), bassist Steve Fossen of Heart (1949), Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun (1952), R&B singer Alexander O'Neal (1953), Tony Thompson of Chic (1954), Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks (1957), Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins (1957), Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (1968)
November 16: "Father of the Blues" W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records artist-producer-arranger Jesse Stone (1901), Atlantic Records cofounder and producer Herb Abramson (1916), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin' Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), R&B singer Garnett Mimms (1933), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), James Brown band guitarist Troy Seals (1938), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), Winfred "Blue" Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), acoustic guitarist-composer Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It's a Beautiful Day (1949), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1958), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), jazz singer Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)
Departures:
November 10: Miriam Makeba (2008), Kanye West’s mother and manager, Donda West (2007), R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006), pop and jazz session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), jazz singer-pianist-composer-actress Carmen McRae (1994), blueswoman Ida Cox (1967)
November 11: Beau Brummels drummer John Peterson (2007), Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley (1972)
November 12: former Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (2008), drummer Tony Thompson of Chic (2003), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1998), slide guitar and dobro player Rainer Ptacek (1997) Cause and Effect keyboard player and vocalist Sean Rowley (1992)
November 13: Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (2004), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), R&B pianist Bill Doggett (1996), Ronnie Bond of The Troggs (1992), drummer Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1973)
November 14: John Mellencamp keyboardist John Cascella (1992), singer Dallas Taylor of The Danderliers and The Dells (1986), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984), country bluesman Rube Lacy (1969)
November 15: composer-arranger Saul Chaplin (1997), disco producer Jacques Morali (1991)
November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)
Week In Review
November 10, 2011
1958, 2 classic vocalists live to sing another day when Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls survive an automobile accident near Marion, Arkansas . . . the driver of the car is killed, however . . .
1960, The Shirelles release "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" with songwriter Carole King on drums . . .
1965, Velvet Underground makes its performance debut at a high school dance in Summit, NJ . . .
1968, Brian Jones purchases Cotchford Farm in Sussex, once owned by A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh . . .
1969, Jim Morrison gets blotto on a plane trip from L.A. to Phoenix to see The Stones . . . he's such a royal pain that he's arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with the flight and public drunkenness, having harassed a stewardess who apparently didn't appreciate a drunk Morrison jumping in her game . . . the charges are eventually dropped . . . Janis Joplin is arrested in her dressing room at a concert in Tampa for cussing at the man . . . earlier, in the auditorium, a cop is screaming through a bullhorn at her fans to sit down and 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 disrespectful addressing police backstage when they insist that SHE tell the audience to sit down . . . she gets out on a $50 bond and the charges of "vulgar and indecent language" are eventually dropped . . .
1970, Jim Morrison closes the door on his bandmates, playing his last concert with The Doors in New Orleans . . . After the band records the L.A. Woman album, Morrison moves to Paris, where he will soon pass away . . . his grave site becomes a destination for Morrison fans the world over . . .
1972, featuring fiery guitarist Jan Akkerman, the album Moving Waves by Dutch prog-rock band Focus arrives on the LP chart in the U.K. . . . thanks to popular song "Hocus Pocus," Focus achieves notoriety in the U.S., but in a short while it's hocus pocus and Focus disappears . . . 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 site and goes home only to die of a brain hemorrhage later that night in the hospital . . .
1978, Queen plays Madison Square Garden . . . during their hit number "Fat Bottomed Girls," they are accompanied by semi-nude women riding bicycles . . .
1981, Australia invades the U.S. . . . the U.S. airwaves, that is, when Olivia Newton-John, Little River Band, Air Supply, and Rick Springfield all register hit singles . . .
1984, Madonna's album Like a Virgin is released, leaving listeners wondering in what way she is . . . popular theories include the possibility that Madonna is encouraging people to like virgins . . . sort of like a "take a virgin to lunch" campaign . . . a bit redundant, but good-hearted nonetheless . . . however, some detractors claim that the material girl, who launched herself to stardom by wearing her underwear on the outside, is like a virgin in much the same way that balloons are like safety pins . . .
1987, "a day late and a dollar short" seems to typify the career of Sly Stone, who turns up an hour late for an L.A. comeback concert and is promptly arrested for failing to pay child support . . . when it comes to beats, Bo Diddley's got the "Bo Diddley beat," and Sly's got the deadbeat . . . lateness aside, in his self-shortened heyday, Stone quickly fell out of favor with promoters for consistently not showing up for concerts at all . . .
1988, Whitney Houston's debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold . . . only Boston has ever matched this performance with a debut LP . . . 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 . . .
2000, 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 . . .
2003, Kid Rock announces plans for a continuing creative collaboration with Sheryl Crow . . . the collaboration has thus far resulted in the hit duet "Picture," and they plan more writing and recording together in the future . . . looks like The Kid is growing up . . . perhaps a name-change to Man Rock is in order …
2004, going postal takes on new meaning when the group Postal Service settles with The United States Postal Service following more than a year of legal maneuvering over the band's name . . . in the creative compromise, the duo comprised of Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello agree to let the Postal Service use their music to promote the use of snail mail and to refer to the USPS deal in Postal Service CDs . . . the musicians also agree to perform at the postmaster general's National Executive Conference in Washington . . . 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 that has the band performing its new single "Vertigo" . . . finally jumping on the bandwagon of mega-rockers who've cashed in on cross-promotion, it's the first time in the band's 25-year career that it's licensed music for commercial purposes . . . other than selling records, of course . . . the New York Post reports that former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth, 50, is training to become an emergency medical technician . . . the girls may not be swooning like they once did, but it never hurts to know a little CPR . . . according to his tutor, Linda Reissman, "His commitment is really touching. He wants to help people." . . . funny, we always knew that Diamond Dave's commitment was touching . . . only we thought it was California girls . . . Jamaican reggae star Sizzla is denied a British visa based on complaints by gay-rights groups that the lyrics in his songs "incite racist and homophobic violence" . . . something about Sizzla and flank steaks comes to mind . . . perhaps he doth protest too much . . .
2005, Elton John and partner David Furnish set a date to wed . . . keyboard legend Bill Preston is hospitalized in Arizona for an inflammation of the heart . . . no, the two are not related . . .
2006, former Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher appears in a British court to pursue a claim against former bandmate Gary Brooker, 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 . . . some critics claim that perhaps Fisher should pay royalties to J.S. Bach, whose melody he allegedly appropriated, but according to an in-depth musical analysis, while influenced by Bach, Fisher's creation is original . . . 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 . . .
2007, Donovan announces plans to open a Transcendental Meditation college in Scotland . . . it will be called the Invincible Donovan University . . . apparently a great deal of thought went into the name . . . rumors say that the order of the name, "Invincible Donovan University" was originally The Invincible University of Donovan, until deep meditation revealed to the former '60s flower child that its college sweatshirts would bear the initials, IUD . . . so much for free love …
2009, The Faces gear up for a reunion tour with or without original frontman Rod Stewart . . . keyboardist Ian McLagan intimates that the band has grown weary of waiting for Stewart to commit to a reunion . . . says McLagan, "If we don't do it very soon, one of us is gonna check out. I'm 64, for chrissakes!" . . . unfortunately, our Faces are red as Stewart opts out and is replaced by Simply Red's Mick Hucknall . . .
Arrivals:
November 10: singer-songwriter-musician Dave Loggins, cousin of Kenny Loggins (1947), country singer-songwriter Donna Fargo born Yvonne Vaughan (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), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), West Coast rapper Warren G, born Warren Griffin III (1970), Eve, rapper-singer-actress-musician (1978)
November 11: jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1920), jazz pianist-singer Mose Allison (1927), R&B singer LaVern Baker (1929), David Lastle, New Orleans session sax man (1934), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), singer-songwriter-guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956)
November 12: Ruby Nash Curtis of Ruby & The Romantics (1939), Arthur Tavares of disco singing group Tavares (1943), pop singer Brian Hyland of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" fame (1943), godfather of grunge Neil Young (1945), Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser of Blue Öyster Cult (1947), Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate (1948), Leslie McKeown of The Bay City Rollers (1955), David Ellefson of Megadeth (1964), R&B singer Tevin Campbell (1978)
November 13: R&B singer Justine "Baby" Washington (1940), Annette Kleinbard of The Teddy Bears (1940), R&B singer and producer Timmy Thomas (1944), Bill Gibson of Huey Lewis and the News (1951), Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken (1953), Walter Kibby of Fishbone (1964), The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture (1978)
November 14: composer Aaron Copland (1900), Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI Records (1904), Gene Krupa Band vocalist Johnny Desmond (1921), Chicago harp man Carey Bell (1936), Cornell Gunter of The Coasters (1938), Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers (1940), accordionist-zydeco performer Buckwheat Zydeco (1947), James Young of Styx (1948), singer and guitarist Stephen Bishop (1951), Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot (1951), Alec John Such of Bon Jovi (1956), rapper Joe "Run" Simmons of Run-D.M.C. (1964), Brian Yale of matchbox twenty (1968), R&B singer Adina Howard (1974), Travis Barker of blink-182 (1975)
November 15: elevator-music maestro Mantovani (1905), Ike Turner's pianist Clayton Love (1927), R&B singer Clyde McPhatter (1932), pop singer Petula Clark (1932), vocalist Little Willie John born William J. Woods (1937), Memphis producer and musician Jim Dickinson (1941), Frida of ABBA (1945), bassist Steve Fossen of Heart (1949), Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun (1952), R&B singer Alexander O'Neal (1953), Tony Thompson of Chic (1954), Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks (1957), Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins (1957), Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (1968)
November 16: "Father of the Blues" W.C. Handy (1873), Atlantic Records artist-producer-arranger Jesse Stone (1901), Atlantic Records cofounder and producer Herb Abramson (1916), Toni Brown of Joy of Cooking (1928), folksinger Bob Gibson (1931), long-time Howlin' Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931), R&B singer Garnett Mimms (1933), Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1934), James Brown band guitarist Troy Seals (1938), John Ryanes of The Monotones (1940), Winfred "Blue" Lovett of The Manhattans (1943), acoustic guitarist-composer Will Ackerman (1949), Patti Santos of It's a Beautiful Day (1949), Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde (1958), Mani of The Stone Roses (1962), jazz singer Diana Krall (1964), Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd (1969), Trevor Penick of O-Town (1979)
Departures:
November 10: Miriam Makeba (2008), Kanye West’s mother and manager, Donda West (2007), R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006), pop and jazz session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), jazz singer-pianist-composer-actress Carmen McRae (1994), blueswoman Ida Cox (1967)
November 11: Beau Brummels drummer John Peterson (2007), Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley (1972)
November 12: former Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (2008), drummer Tony Thompson of Chic (2003), jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland (1998), slide guitar and dobro player Rainer Ptacek (1997) Cause and Effect keyboard player and vocalist Sean Rowley (1992)
November 13: Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA Russell Jones of Wu-Tang Clan (2004), Donald Mills of The Mills Brothers (1999), R.J. Vealey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section (1999), R&B pianist Bill Doggett (1996), Ronnie Bond of The Troggs (1992), drummer Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1973)
November 14: John Mellencamp keyboardist John Cascella (1992), singer Dallas Taylor of The Danderliers and The Dells (1986), dub pioneer Keith Hudson (1984), country bluesman Rube Lacy (1969)
November 15: composer-arranger Saul Chaplin (1997), disco producer Jacques Morali (1991)
November 16: British pop pianist Russ Conway (2000), Kid Rock sideman Joe C. AKA Joseph Calleja (2000), Gospel Music Hall of Fame member J.D. Sumner (1998), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1994), Francis Donia of Tavares (1984), raw-voiced soulman O.V. Wright (1980), music journalist Mike Leadbitter (1974)
The King Makes His Comeback ... Tragedy Strikes Rock Shows ... Annie Lennox Loses Her Shirt ...
Week In Review
December 1, 2011
1842, formed by a group of local musicians, the New York Philharmonic gives its first concert …
1877, the world's first record-and-playback machine is completed … designed by Thomas Alva Edison, the phonograph picks up sound through a mouthpiece connected to a diaphragm and a stylus that etches the vibrations onto a tinfoil-covered cylinder that is hand-cranked … playback is achieved by placing the stylus at the beginning of the cylinder where it reproduces the etchings into vibrations via the diaphragm and out through the mouthpiece … Edison's first recording is a recitation of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" … the inventor files for a patent on Christmas Eve … 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 …
1965, the infamous blue flame strikes down Keith Richards in Sacramento when he grabs an ungrounded mic … the indestructible Stone is on his feet and performing again inside of seven minutes …
1968, Elvis' "comeback" TV special, titled simply Elvis, airs on NBC … Colonel Tom Parker wanted Elvis to do the usual smaltzy cornball Christmas special, but Elvis, who could see his musical legacy slipping away, wanted to let fans know he was still raw and vital, and he delivers … leather-suited and sweaty on a small stage in front of adoring fans, Elvis shows everyone he's still the … well, you know … unhappy with plans to record an all-Dylan album, Graham Nash quits the Hollies … three days later he announces the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash …
1969, this week sees the infamous Altamont Speedway concert with The Rolling Stones; Jefferson Airplane; Santana; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on the playbill … violence erupts and four people are killed, at least two in deliberate, bloody assaults … one of those killed is Meredith Hunter … he is stabbed and beaten to death by Hell's Angels, who had unwisely been hired as security for the show … many consider the concert the end of the Summer of Love …
1970, a gold record goes to Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Steve Stills for Supersession, a July 1968 rock-blues album they expressly recorded as studio jam sessions … the documentary film Gimme Shelter, chronicling the 1969 Stones tour and the Altamont debacle, is released on the occasion of the concert's one-year anniversary … one scene shows a somber Mick Jagger watching the film of Meredith Hunter's stabbing …
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 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 …
1976, during a Battersea Power Station 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 finally touching down in Kent … Bob Marley and the Wailers are rehearsing at Marley's house in Kingston, Jamaica, 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 seriously injured … the band plays a gig two nights later …
1979, 11 fans are trampled to death at a Who show in Cincinnati …
1986, Annie Lennox gets so carried away during a Eurythmics concert in Birmingham, England she rips off her bra, which is the only thing covering her breasts … this does not cause a national scandal … Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic to treat an addiction to painkillers …
1993, revered rock weirdo, musical wizard, and spokesman for lyrical freedom Frank Zappa meets his demise from pancreatic cancer at the age of 53 … Guns 'N' Roses announce they will keep the Charles Manson-penned song "Look At Your Game, Girl" on their album The Spaghetti Incident? … the band decides to leave the song on the album when they learn the royalties will go to the son of one of Manson's victims …
1998, Cuban-born jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States after a six-year struggle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service …
2005, in an unlikely coupling, Mary J. Blige's new album Reminisce features the hip-hopper singing a duet with U2's Bono … the pair had gone public with the U2 song "One" during a New York show by the band in October … Brian May is presented with the insignia of the Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II …
2006, the handwritten lyrics for The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" fetch $192,000 at auction in New York … Christie's also gets $168,000 for a former Hendrix Strat while a collection of memorabilia belonging to former Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo garners $116,640 … Oklahoma City honors the Flaming Lips by naming an alley after the homegrown alt band … Flaming Lips Alley is in Bricktown, the city's entertainment district … previous recipients of the honor include Vince Gill and Charlie Christian … 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 …
2008, Rolling Stone magazine names Aretha Franklin the greatest singer of all time …
2010, the blue denim jumpsuit worn by Johnny Cash during rehearsal at San Quentin prison in 1969 fetches $50,000 at auction … the suit was immortalized when during the rehearsal, Cash grew annoyed with photographer Jim Marshall and flipped him the bird …
Arrivals
December 1: British crooner Matt Monro (1930), the legendary Lou Rawls (1933), soul singer Billy Paul of "Me and Mrs. Jones" fame (1934), Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom (1944), Doors drummer John Densmore (1944), the multi-talented Bette Midler (1945), the inimitable Jaco Pastorius (1951), jazz/fusion/metal guitarist Chris Poland (1957), Japan's Steve Jansen (1959), Brad Delson of Linkin Park (1977)
December 2: Tom McGuinness of Manfred Mann (1941), Joe Henry (1960), Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle born Nicholas Dingley (1960), Belizean musician Andy Palacio (1960), Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel (1968), Nelly Furtado (1978), Britney Spears (1981)
December 3: DJ William "Hoss" Allen (1922), pop crooner Andy Williams (1927), Capitol Records producer Nik Venet (1936), Ralph McTell (1944), Commander Cody's "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow (1948), the Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne (1948), Mickey Thomas of Starship (1949), Molly Hatchet's Duane Roland (1952), Montell Jordan (1968)
December 4: film singer Deanna Durbin (1921), jazz drummer Denis "Jazz" Charles (1933), KC blues guitarist Larry Davis (1936), Freddy Cannon aka Anthony Picariello (1939), Bob Mosley of Moby Grape (1942), Chris Hillman of The Byrds (1944), Beach Boy Dennis Wilson (1944), Southside Johnny (1948), Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1951), Bob Griffin of The BoDeans (1959), Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge (1962), Jay-Z born Shawn Corey Carter (1969)
December 5: Sonny Boy Williamson II (1899), sax man Alvin "Red" Tyler (1925), gospel singer Reverend James (1931), the Real King of Rock 'n' Roll Little Richard (1932), jazz bassist Art Davis (1934), J.J. Cale (1938), Jim Messina (1947), Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown (1947), Canadian pop singer-songwriter Andy Kim (1952), Jack Russell of Great White (1960), Johnny Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls (1965)
December 6: Broadway lyricist Ira Gershwin (1896), Hugo Peretti (1916), Dave Brubeck (1920), Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five (1943), Joe X. Dube of Looking Glass (1955), Jam's Rick Butler (1955), Peter Buck of R.E.M. (1956), Randy Rhoads (1956), Dave Lovering of Pixies (1961), Everything But The Girl's Ben Watt (1962), Ulf Ekberg of Ace of Base (1970)
December 7: Harry Chapin (1942), Tom Waits (1949), Carlos Vega (1956), Tim Butler of The Psychedelic Furs (1958), Barbara Weathers of Atlantic Starr (1963), Oasis guitarist Gem Arthur (1966), All Saints' Nicole Appleton (1974), Aaron Carter (1987)
Departures
December 1: bluegrass guitarist Carter Stanley (1966), Magic Sam (1969), singer Ray Gillen (1993), jazz songwriter Irving Gordon (1996), jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli (1997)
December 2: folk singer David Blue (1982), Lee Dorsey (1986), Aaron Copland (1990), jazz pianist Mal Waldron (2002), singer-songwriter Kevin Coyne (2004), singer Mariska Veres (2006), American folk music legend Odetta (2008), songwriter-publisher Aaron Schroeder (2009)
December 3: songwriter Phil Medley (1997), Whiskey A Go Go founder Elmer Valentine (2008)
December 4: Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin (1976), the one and only Frank Zappa (1993), Wall of Voodoo's Joe Nanini (2000), rapper Pimp C. (2007), Cuban percussionist Carlos "Patato" Valdez (2007), Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers (2009)
December 5: multi-instrumentalist jazz behemoth Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1977), New Orleans sax man David Lastie (1987), Doug Hopkins of the Gin Blossoms (1993), jazz/rock tenor sax player Bob Berg (2002), German avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (2007)
December 6: Lead Belly (1949), Roy Orbison (1988), Memphis bassist Busta Jones (1995)
December 7: Germs singer Darby Crash (1980), New Riders of the Purple Sage bassist Dave Torbert (1982), Manhattans singer Richard Taylor (1987), R&B singer Dee Clark (1990), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1997), composer John Addison (1998), British jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker (1999), Jerry Scoggins (2004), Classics IV singer Dennis Yost (2008)
Week In Review
December 1, 2011
1842, formed by a group of local musicians, the New York Philharmonic gives its first concert …
1877, the world's first record-and-playback machine is completed … designed by Thomas Alva Edison, the phonograph picks up sound through a mouthpiece connected to a diaphragm and a stylus that etches the vibrations onto a tinfoil-covered cylinder that is hand-cranked … playback is achieved by placing the stylus at the beginning of the cylinder where it reproduces the etchings into vibrations via the diaphragm and out through the mouthpiece … Edison's first recording is a recitation of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" … the inventor files for a patent on Christmas Eve … 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 …
1965, the infamous blue flame strikes down Keith Richards in Sacramento when he grabs an ungrounded mic … the indestructible Stone is on his feet and performing again inside of seven minutes …
1968, Elvis' "comeback" TV special, titled simply Elvis, airs on NBC … Colonel Tom Parker wanted Elvis to do the usual smaltzy cornball Christmas special, but Elvis, who could see his musical legacy slipping away, wanted to let fans know he was still raw and vital, and he delivers … leather-suited and sweaty on a small stage in front of adoring fans, Elvis shows everyone he's still the … well, you know … unhappy with plans to record an all-Dylan album, Graham Nash quits the Hollies … three days later he announces the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash …
1969, this week sees the infamous Altamont Speedway concert with The Rolling Stones; Jefferson Airplane; Santana; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on the playbill … violence erupts and four people are killed, at least two in deliberate, bloody assaults … one of those killed is Meredith Hunter … he is stabbed and beaten to death by Hell's Angels, who had unwisely been hired as security for the show … many consider the concert the end of the Summer of Love …
1970, a gold record goes to Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Steve Stills for Supersession, a July 1968 rock-blues album they expressly recorded as studio jam sessions … the documentary film Gimme Shelter, chronicling the 1969 Stones tour and the Altamont debacle, is released on the occasion of the concert's one-year anniversary … one scene shows a somber Mick Jagger watching the film of Meredith Hunter's stabbing …
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 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 …
1976, during a Battersea Power Station 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 finally touching down in Kent … Bob Marley and the Wailers are rehearsing at Marley's house in Kingston, Jamaica, 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 seriously injured … the band plays a gig two nights later …
1979, 11 fans are trampled to death at a Who show in Cincinnati …
1986, Annie Lennox gets so carried away during a Eurythmics concert in Birmingham, England she rips off her bra, which is the only thing covering her breasts … this does not cause a national scandal … Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic to treat an addiction to painkillers …
1993, revered rock weirdo, musical wizard, and spokesman for lyrical freedom Frank Zappa meets his demise from pancreatic cancer at the age of 53 … Guns 'N' Roses announce they will keep the Charles Manson-penned song "Look At Your Game, Girl" on their album The Spaghetti Incident? … the band decides to leave the song on the album when they learn the royalties will go to the son of one of Manson's victims …
1998, Cuban-born jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States after a six-year struggle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service …
2005, in an unlikely coupling, Mary J. Blige's new album Reminisce features the hip-hopper singing a duet with U2's Bono … the pair had gone public with the U2 song "One" during a New York show by the band in October … Brian May is presented with the insignia of the Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II …
2006, the handwritten lyrics for The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" fetch $192,000 at auction in New York … Christie's also gets $168,000 for a former Hendrix Strat while a collection of memorabilia belonging to former Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo garners $116,640 … Oklahoma City honors the Flaming Lips by naming an alley after the homegrown alt band … Flaming Lips Alley is in Bricktown, the city's entertainment district … previous recipients of the honor include Vince Gill and Charlie Christian … 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 …
2008, Rolling Stone magazine names Aretha Franklin the greatest singer of all time …
2010, the blue denim jumpsuit worn by Johnny Cash during rehearsal at San Quentin prison in 1969 fetches $50,000 at auction … the suit was immortalized when during the rehearsal, Cash grew annoyed with photographer Jim Marshall and flipped him the bird …
Arrivals
December 1: British crooner Matt Monro (1930), the legendary Lou Rawls (1933), soul singer Billy Paul of "Me and Mrs. Jones" fame (1934), Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom (1944), Doors drummer John Densmore (1944), the multi-talented Bette Midler (1945), the inimitable Jaco Pastorius (1951), jazz/fusion/metal guitarist Chris Poland (1957), Japan's Steve Jansen (1959), Brad Delson of Linkin Park (1977)
December 2: Tom McGuinness of Manfred Mann (1941), Joe Henry (1960), Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle born Nicholas Dingley (1960), Belizean musician Andy Palacio (1960), Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel (1968), Nelly Furtado (1978), Britney Spears (1981)
December 3: DJ William "Hoss" Allen (1922), pop crooner Andy Williams (1927), Capitol Records producer Nik Venet (1936), Ralph McTell (1944), Commander Cody's "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow (1948), the Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne (1948), Mickey Thomas of Starship (1949), Molly Hatchet's Duane Roland (1952), Montell Jordan (1968)
December 4: film singer Deanna Durbin (1921), jazz drummer Denis "Jazz" Charles (1933), KC blues guitarist Larry Davis (1936), Freddy Cannon aka Anthony Picariello (1939), Bob Mosley of Moby Grape (1942), Chris Hillman of The Byrds (1944), Beach Boy Dennis Wilson (1944), Southside Johnny (1948), Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1951), Bob Griffin of The BoDeans (1959), Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge (1962), Jay-Z born Shawn Corey Carter (1969)
December 5: Sonny Boy Williamson II (1899), sax man Alvin "Red" Tyler (1925), gospel singer Reverend James (1931), the Real King of Rock 'n' Roll Little Richard (1932), jazz bassist Art Davis (1934), J.J. Cale (1938), Jim Messina (1947), Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown (1947), Canadian pop singer-songwriter Andy Kim (1952), Jack Russell of Great White (1960), Johnny Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls (1965)
December 6: Broadway lyricist Ira Gershwin (1896), Hugo Peretti (1916), Dave Brubeck (1920), Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five (1943), Joe X. Dube of Looking Glass (1955), Jam's Rick Butler (1955), Peter Buck of R.E.M. (1956), Randy Rhoads (1956), Dave Lovering of Pixies (1961), Everything But The Girl's Ben Watt (1962), Ulf Ekberg of Ace of Base (1970)
December 7: Harry Chapin (1942), Tom Waits (1949), Carlos Vega (1956), Tim Butler of The Psychedelic Furs (1958), Barbara Weathers of Atlantic Starr (1963), Oasis guitarist Gem Arthur (1966), All Saints' Nicole Appleton (1974), Aaron Carter (1987)
Departures
December 1: bluegrass guitarist Carter Stanley (1966), Magic Sam (1969), singer Ray Gillen (1993), jazz songwriter Irving Gordon (1996), jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli (1997)
December 2: folk singer David Blue (1982), Lee Dorsey (1986), Aaron Copland (1990), jazz pianist Mal Waldron (2002), singer-songwriter Kevin Coyne (2004), singer Mariska Veres (2006), American folk music legend Odetta (2008), songwriter-publisher Aaron Schroeder (2009)
December 3: songwriter Phil Medley (1997), Whiskey A Go Go founder Elmer Valentine (2008)
December 4: Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin (1976), the one and only Frank Zappa (1993), Wall of Voodoo's Joe Nanini (2000), rapper Pimp C. (2007), Cuban percussionist Carlos "Patato" Valdez (2007), Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers (2009)
December 5: multi-instrumentalist jazz behemoth Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1977), New Orleans sax man David Lastie (1987), Doug Hopkins of the Gin Blossoms (1993), jazz/rock tenor sax player Bob Berg (2002), German avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (2007)
December 6: Lead Belly (1949), Roy Orbison (1988), Memphis bassist Busta Jones (1995)
December 7: Germs singer Darby Crash (1980), New Riders of the Purple Sage bassist Dave Torbert (1982), Manhattans singer Richard Taylor (1987), R&B singer Dee Clark (1990), songwriter Carol Joyner Gourley (1997), composer John Addison (1998), British jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker (1999), Jerry Scoggins (2004), Classics IV singer Dennis Yost (2008)
Phil's Hanky-Panky ... Frank's Fight File ... Ozzy's Senseless Spill ...
Week In Review With a Difference
December 8, 2011
1952, “Stormy Weather” by The Five Sharps is issued this week … it has become known as the rarest of all R&B records and only three 78rpm and no 45rpm copies are known to exist … at auction the record is worth an estimated $20,000 …
1957, Al Priddy, a disc jockey at station KEX in Portland, Oregon, is fired for playing Elvis Presley's version of "White Christmas" … the station instituted a ban of the song due to a behind-the-scenes deal with original song composer Irving Berlin, who detested The King’s version of his tune … KEX management releases a statement which states the song is “not in the spirit we associate with Christmas” … whatever that means … Jerry Lee Lewis weds Myra Gale Brown … she is his third wife, his third cousin, and 13 years old …
1961, The Beatles sign with manager Brian Epstein …
1964, 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 pursuit Cooke broke 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 … John Coltrane records "A Love Supreme" with his quartet … original blue-eyed soul singers The Righteous Brothers release the Phil Spector-produced mega-hit “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin’”… besides being deliriously catchy with an instantly memorable melody, the song records several firsts … it is the first four-minute single to hit number one in the U.S. and the first tune produced by Spector to top the charts in England … Spector refused to cut the song to the under three-minute time required for radio … instead the last two digits of the running time were reversed to appear as 3:05 … it takes programming directors weeks to discover why shows were suddenly running long … the trick works, though, as “Lovin’ Feelin’” is already a hit and in demand …
1965, Bill Graham promotes his first concert at the Fillmore Auditorium as a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe … performers include a very early Jefferson Airplane, and The Great Society with vocalist Grace Slick … Graham rents the venue from leaseholder Charles Sullivan, an African-American man who, during the 1950s and 1960s, is the largest promoter of black music west of the Mississippi … 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 … Ray Charles charts his 44th song this week when “Crying Time” enters the Hot 100 …
1966, “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by the Electric Prunes is released …
1967, Jim Morrison, who is famous for legal troubles over dropped trousers, is arrested for breach of peace … Morrison, hacked at getting maced earlier for mouthing off to a policeman, goes into a rant about the incident in the middle of “Back Door Man” … the cops grab him right off the stage … Byrds drummer Michael Clarke quits within a month of Byrds’ leader Jim McGuinn firing David Crosby … 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 … Cream’s Disraeli Gears enters the U.S. album charts … Otis Redding finishes recording “Dock of the Bay” … three days later he is killed when his tour plane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin … the “Love Man” is 26 … killed with Redding are the pilot and four members of his backup group, the Bar-Kays … the scheduled opening band for Redding’s show that evening is a group called The Grim Reaper …
1968, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is filmed in front of a live audience in London … the music performers include The Stones, The Who, Marianne Faithful, Jethro Tull, and temporary rock supergroup Dirty Mac, consisting of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards … Yoko Ono makes an appearance on one Dirty Mac tune … the rock-concert extravaganza is intended for broadcast as a television special, but never made it … the film would not see release until 1996 … Graham Nash quits The Hollies and says he’s going to form a group with David Crosby and Stephen Stills …
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, Pink Floyd are touring the U.K. in support of their latest album Atom Heart Mother …
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 …
1972, Frank Zappa advertises in Variety, offering instruction in how to win at craps, roulette, and blackjack using mathematics … the Zappa placing the ad is Frank Zappa’s father, Frank (but not Senior, dad was named Francesco, his son was named Frank) …
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 …
1976, KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is electrocuted onstage during a concert in Florida when he touches a light fixture that has shorted … he has to be carried from the stage but collects himself and returns to finish the performance …
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 …
1978, The Blues Brothers release their version of Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” …
1979, The Clash release what many feel is their best album London Calling, a two-record set that could be called their version of The Beatles so-called “White Album” in the way it embraces so many musical genres … on the initial release, the track “Train In Vain” is not listed, an Easter egg … it would then be released as a single becoming a #4 hit in England and #23 in the States …
1980, John Lennon is shot to death in New York City on the street outside his apartment … he Clash release the sprawling three-record set Sandinista … The Minutemen live up to their name with a seven-song EP, five of them clocking in at under a minute …
1982, actress-choreographer-one-hit-wonder Toni Basil hits number one on the BillBoard pop chart with “Mickey” …
1984, various popular artists, who are part of Bob Geldof’s Band-Aid rock charity, release the well-intentioned, but campy, single “Do They Know It's Christmas?” … performers include Phil Collins, Simon Le Bon, Bono, Paul Weller, Mark Knopfler, George Michael, and Sting … David Bowie and Paul McCartney were not at the recording session but mailed in their vocal contributions …
1991, Rita Marley is finally awarded Bob Marley’s contested estate after years of legal wrangling … as a result of the verdict famous Marley son Ziggy names his daughter Justice …
1995, the surviving members of The Grateful Dead disband in the wake of Jerry Garcia’s death in August …
1998, Frank Sinatra’s FBI file is released to the public by the bureau … it contains 2,403 pages documenting assorted sordid Sinatra facts like his close connections with organized crime and well-hidden arrest records … Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs is injured in a brawl outside the Liberty Lunch nightclub … the band has just finished a show inside the Austin, Texas, club when the singer gets into a fight with one of the club's security guards … Dulli ends up in the hospital for a few days with a fractured skull …
1999, rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s second posthumous album, Born Again, sells nearly a half million copies in its first week … it bumps Celine Dion out of the top spot with national retailers …
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 collarbone, 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 … Damageplan had just started their show when a crazed fan runs onstage and shoots Dimebag … the shooter then kills a band roadie and two fans … a hostage situation is ended when a local police officer enters the backstage area and shoots the assailant, killing him … in the weeks leading up to the holidays, new releases by such luminaries as Britney Spears, U2, Eminem, and Destiny’s Child are leaked to the internet … record labels attribute the illicit releases to thefts from studios and distributors … Def Jam Recordings announces that Jay-Z will assume duties as the president of the record label on January 3, 2005 … the announcement coincides with his Linkin Park collaboration Collision Course arriving at #1 on the Billboard chart … James Brown announces that he will be operated on for prostate cancer … 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 has grown to over 35 million units … his estate has 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 VH1 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, Led Zeppelin 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 represented 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 … 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 … a half dozen tracks posted online by garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs get heightened attention when word leaks that the songs are actually the work of pop punksters Green Day … a full-length album, Stop Drop and Roll containing the singles, will be released the following April …
2008, Coldplay’s Chris Martin says “Viva La Vida” is not copied from Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” … Sir Elton John loses libel case … according to the U.K.’s Guardian, a high court judge rules the singer's sense of humor failure over a satirical piece by a Guardian columnist is a tantrum too far, that "irony" and "teasing" do not amount to defamation …
Make up your own mind
2009, just before boarding a plane at LAX headed for the first of Guns N’ Roses’ Asian tour dates, frontman Axl Rose Rose is captured on video punching a photographer …
Arrivals:
December 8: Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865), Sammy Davis Jr. (1925), master of the B3 Jimmy Smith (1925), soul singer Jerry Butler (1939), flutist James Galway (1939), The Hollies' Bobby Elliot (1942), Jim Morrison (1943), Gregg Allman (1947), Warren Cuccurullo of Duran Duran (1956), Phil Collen of Def Leppard (1957), Paul Rutherford of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1959), Marty Friedman of Megadeth (1962), Sinead O'Connor (1966), Bushwick Bill of The Geto Boys (1966), Ryan Newell of Sister Hazel (1972)
December 9: blues singer-harpist Junior Wells (1934), Rick Danko of The Band (1943), Shirley Brickley of The Orlons (1944), Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (1944), The Commodores' Walter Orange (1946), Candy Givens of Zephyr (1946), Joan Armatrading (1950), Randy Murray of BTO (1955), Donny Osmond (1957), Crowded House's Nick Seymour (1958), Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan (1970), Geoff Barrow of Portishead (1971), Green Day's Tre Cool (1972), rapper Canibus (1974)
December 10: jazz bandleader Jerry Blaine (1910), Guitar Slim, born Eddie Jones (1926), Ralph Tavares of Tavares (1948), J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., born Joseph Donald Mascis (1965), Timothy Christian Riley of Tony! Toni! Tone! (1966), Scot Alexander of Dishwalla (1971), Meg White of The White Stripes (1974)
December 11: Yodeling Slim Clark (1917), Big Mama Thornton aka Willie Mae Thornton (1926), Buddy Ace aka the Root Doctor (1936), David Gates of Bread (1940), Booker T. Jones of Booker T and The MGs (1944), Brenda Lee (1944), Jermaine Jackson (1954), Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens (1958), Nikki Sixx (1958), Justin Curie of Del Amitri (1964)
December 12: Frank Sinatra (1915), big–band singer Joe Williams (1918), Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (1923), jazz guitarist Jim Hall (1930), Connie Francis (1938), Dionne Warwick (1941), Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers (1943), Motor City 5 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), Don Baird of The Georgia Satellites (1953), Cy Curnin of The Fixx (1957), Sheila E. (1959), Eric Schenkman of Spin Doctors (1963), Grant Young of Soul Asylum (1964), Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson (1965), Nick Dimichino of Nine Days (1967), Danny Boy of House Of Pain (1968), Marilyn Manson (1969), Dino Meneghin of The Calling (1977)
December 13: one-man blues band Wayne "Duster" Bennett (1932), blues singer Robert Covington (1941), Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1948), Ted Nugent (1948), Randy Owen of Alabama (1949), Television's Tom Verlaine (1949), country star John Anderson (1954), Berton Averre of The Knack (1954), Tom DeLonge of blink–182 (1975)
December 14: Spike Jones (1911), country star Charlie Rich (1932), Warren Ryanes of The Monotones (1937), pop singer Don Addrisi (1938), surf music producer Gary Usher (1938), Joyce Vincent Wilson of Dawn (1946), Cliff Williams of AC/DC (1949), singer Tamara Daanz (1952), The Waterboys' Mike Scott (1958), Peter Stacy of The Pogues (1958), Brian Dalyrimple of Soul for Real (1975)
Departures:
December 8: Dimebag Darrell Abbott (2004), Antonio Carlos Jobim (1994), jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton (1991), Herbert "Toubo" Rhoad of The Persuasions (1988), Howlin' Wolf drummer Willie Williams (1988), blues guitarist Hollywood Fats born Michael Mann (1986), Marty Robbins (1982), harp maestro Walter "Shakey" Horton (1981), John Lennon (1980), Gary Thain of Uriah Heep (1975)
December 9: drummer Freddie Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers (2006), pop singer Georgia Gibbs (2006), Mike Botts of Bread (2005), Mary Hansen of Stereolab (2002), Waitresses singer Patti Donahue (1996), Orioles vocalist Sonny Til (1981)
December 10: fingerpickin’ Delta blues legend Jerry Ricks (2007), Rick Danko of The Band (1999), lyricist Buddy Feyne (1998), Jake Carey, bass singer with The Flamingos (1997), country singer Faron Young (1996), rapper Darren Robinson of The Fat Boys (1995), Willie Harris of the Clovers (1988), Otis Redding, Bar–Kays guitarist Jimmy King, Bar–Kays sax player Phalin Jones, Bar–Kays drummer Carl Cunningham, Bar–Kays organ player Ronnie Caldwell (all 1967)
December 11: Snot member Lynn Strait (1998), Sam Cooke (1964)
December 12: Elvis impersonator Orion (1998), king of zydeco accordion Clifton Chenier (1987), session pianist and founding member of The Rolling Stones Ian Stewart (1985)
December 13: Yvonne King Burch of the singing King Sisters (2009), slide guitarist "Homesick" James Williamson (2006), children's composer Larry Troxel (1998)
December 14: legendary record label honcho Ahmet Ertegun (2006), Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful (2002), jazz trumpeter Conte Condoli (2001), Kurt Winter of The Guess Who? (1997), Pattie Santos of It’s A Beautiful Day (1989), Dinah Washington (1963)
Week In Review With a Difference
December 8, 2011
1952, “Stormy Weather” by The Five Sharps is issued this week … it has become known as the rarest of all R&B records and only three 78rpm and no 45rpm copies are known to exist … at auction the record is worth an estimated $20,000 …
1957, Al Priddy, a disc jockey at station KEX in Portland, Oregon, is fired for playing Elvis Presley's version of "White Christmas" … the station instituted a ban of the song due to a behind-the-scenes deal with original song composer Irving Berlin, who detested The King’s version of his tune … KEX management releases a statement which states the song is “not in the spirit we associate with Christmas” … whatever that means … Jerry Lee Lewis weds Myra Gale Brown … she is his third wife, his third cousin, and 13 years old …
1961, The Beatles sign with manager Brian Epstein …
1964, 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 pursuit Cooke broke 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 … John Coltrane records "A Love Supreme" with his quartet … original blue-eyed soul singers The Righteous Brothers release the Phil Spector-produced mega-hit “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin’”… besides being deliriously catchy with an instantly memorable melody, the song records several firsts … it is the first four-minute single to hit number one in the U.S. and the first tune produced by Spector to top the charts in England … Spector refused to cut the song to the under three-minute time required for radio … instead the last two digits of the running time were reversed to appear as 3:05 … it takes programming directors weeks to discover why shows were suddenly running long … the trick works, though, as “Lovin’ Feelin’” is already a hit and in demand …
1965, Bill Graham promotes his first concert at the Fillmore Auditorium as a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe … performers include a very early Jefferson Airplane, and The Great Society with vocalist Grace Slick … Graham rents the venue from leaseholder Charles Sullivan, an African-American man who, during the 1950s and 1960s, is the largest promoter of black music west of the Mississippi … 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 … Ray Charles charts his 44th song this week when “Crying Time” enters the Hot 100 …
1966, “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by the Electric Prunes is released …
1967, Jim Morrison, who is famous for legal troubles over dropped trousers, is arrested for breach of peace … Morrison, hacked at getting maced earlier for mouthing off to a policeman, goes into a rant about the incident in the middle of “Back Door Man” … the cops grab him right off the stage … Byrds drummer Michael Clarke quits within a month of Byrds’ leader Jim McGuinn firing David Crosby … 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 … Cream’s Disraeli Gears enters the U.S. album charts … Otis Redding finishes recording “Dock of the Bay” … three days later he is killed when his tour plane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin … the “Love Man” is 26 … killed with Redding are the pilot and four members of his backup group, the Bar-Kays … the scheduled opening band for Redding’s show that evening is a group called The Grim Reaper …
1968, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is filmed in front of a live audience in London … the music performers include The Stones, The Who, Marianne Faithful, Jethro Tull, and temporary rock supergroup Dirty Mac, consisting of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards … Yoko Ono makes an appearance on one Dirty Mac tune … the rock-concert extravaganza is intended for broadcast as a television special, but never made it … the film would not see release until 1996 … Graham Nash quits The Hollies and says he’s going to form a group with David Crosby and Stephen Stills …
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, Pink Floyd are touring the U.K. in support of their latest album Atom Heart Mother …
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 …
1972, Frank Zappa advertises in Variety, offering instruction in how to win at craps, roulette, and blackjack using mathematics … the Zappa placing the ad is Frank Zappa’s father, Frank (but not Senior, dad was named Francesco, his son was named Frank) …
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 …
1976, KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is electrocuted onstage during a concert in Florida when he touches a light fixture that has shorted … he has to be carried from the stage but collects himself and returns to finish the performance …
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 …
1978, The Blues Brothers release their version of Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” …
1979, The Clash release what many feel is their best album London Calling, a two-record set that could be called their version of The Beatles so-called “White Album” in the way it embraces so many musical genres … on the initial release, the track “Train In Vain” is not listed, an Easter egg … it would then be released as a single becoming a #4 hit in England and #23 in the States …
1980, John Lennon is shot to death in New York City on the street outside his apartment … he Clash release the sprawling three-record set Sandinista … The Minutemen live up to their name with a seven-song EP, five of them clocking in at under a minute …
1982, actress-choreographer-one-hit-wonder Toni Basil hits number one on the BillBoard pop chart with “Mickey” …
1984, various popular artists, who are part of Bob Geldof’s Band-Aid rock charity, release the well-intentioned, but campy, single “Do They Know It's Christmas?” … performers include Phil Collins, Simon Le Bon, Bono, Paul Weller, Mark Knopfler, George Michael, and Sting … David Bowie and Paul McCartney were not at the recording session but mailed in their vocal contributions …
1991, Rita Marley is finally awarded Bob Marley’s contested estate after years of legal wrangling … as a result of the verdict famous Marley son Ziggy names his daughter Justice …
1995, the surviving members of The Grateful Dead disband in the wake of Jerry Garcia’s death in August …
1998, Frank Sinatra’s FBI file is released to the public by the bureau … it contains 2,403 pages documenting assorted sordid Sinatra facts like his close connections with organized crime and well-hidden arrest records … Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs is injured in a brawl outside the Liberty Lunch nightclub … the band has just finished a show inside the Austin, Texas, club when the singer gets into a fight with one of the club's security guards … Dulli ends up in the hospital for a few days with a fractured skull …
1999, rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s second posthumous album, Born Again, sells nearly a half million copies in its first week … it bumps Celine Dion out of the top spot with national retailers …
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 collarbone, 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 … Damageplan had just started their show when a crazed fan runs onstage and shoots Dimebag … the shooter then kills a band roadie and two fans … a hostage situation is ended when a local police officer enters the backstage area and shoots the assailant, killing him … in the weeks leading up to the holidays, new releases by such luminaries as Britney Spears, U2, Eminem, and Destiny’s Child are leaked to the internet … record labels attribute the illicit releases to thefts from studios and distributors … Def Jam Recordings announces that Jay-Z will assume duties as the president of the record label on January 3, 2005 … the announcement coincides with his Linkin Park collaboration Collision Course arriving at #1 on the Billboard chart … James Brown announces that he will be operated on for prostate cancer … 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 has grown to over 35 million units … his estate has 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 VH1 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, Led Zeppelin 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 represented 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 … 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 … a half dozen tracks posted online by garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs get heightened attention when word leaks that the songs are actually the work of pop punksters Green Day … a full-length album, Stop Drop and Roll containing the singles, will be released the following April …
2008, Coldplay’s Chris Martin says “Viva La Vida” is not copied from Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” … Sir Elton John loses libel case … according to the U.K.’s Guardian, a high court judge rules the singer's sense of humor failure over a satirical piece by a Guardian columnist is a tantrum too far, that "irony" and "teasing" do not amount to defamation …
Make up your own mind
2009, just before boarding a plane at LAX headed for the first of Guns N’ Roses’ Asian tour dates, frontman Axl Rose Rose is captured on video punching a photographer …
Arrivals:
December 8: Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865), Sammy Davis Jr. (1925), master of the B3 Jimmy Smith (1925), soul singer Jerry Butler (1939), flutist James Galway (1939), The Hollies' Bobby Elliot (1942), Jim Morrison (1943), Gregg Allman (1947), Warren Cuccurullo of Duran Duran (1956), Phil Collen of Def Leppard (1957), Paul Rutherford of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1959), Marty Friedman of Megadeth (1962), Sinead O'Connor (1966), Bushwick Bill of The Geto Boys (1966), Ryan Newell of Sister Hazel (1972)
December 9: blues singer-harpist Junior Wells (1934), Rick Danko of The Band (1943), Shirley Brickley of The Orlons (1944), Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (1944), The Commodores' Walter Orange (1946), Candy Givens of Zephyr (1946), Joan Armatrading (1950), Randy Murray of BTO (1955), Donny Osmond (1957), Crowded House's Nick Seymour (1958), Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan (1970), Geoff Barrow of Portishead (1971), Green Day's Tre Cool (1972), rapper Canibus (1974)
December 10: jazz bandleader Jerry Blaine (1910), Guitar Slim, born Eddie Jones (1926), Ralph Tavares of Tavares (1948), J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., born Joseph Donald Mascis (1965), Timothy Christian Riley of Tony! Toni! Tone! (1966), Scot Alexander of Dishwalla (1971), Meg White of The White Stripes (1974)
December 11: Yodeling Slim Clark (1917), Big Mama Thornton aka Willie Mae Thornton (1926), Buddy Ace aka the Root Doctor (1936), David Gates of Bread (1940), Booker T. Jones of Booker T and The MGs (1944), Brenda Lee (1944), Jermaine Jackson (1954), Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens (1958), Nikki Sixx (1958), Justin Curie of Del Amitri (1964)
December 12: Frank Sinatra (1915), big–band singer Joe Williams (1918), Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (1923), jazz guitarist Jim Hall (1930), Connie Francis (1938), Dionne Warwick (1941), Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers (1943), Motor City 5 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), Don Baird of The Georgia Satellites (1953), Cy Curnin of The Fixx (1957), Sheila E. (1959), Eric Schenkman of Spin Doctors (1963), Grant Young of Soul Asylum (1964), Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson (1965), Nick Dimichino of Nine Days (1967), Danny Boy of House Of Pain (1968), Marilyn Manson (1969), Dino Meneghin of The Calling (1977)
December 13: one-man blues band Wayne "Duster" Bennett (1932), blues singer Robert Covington (1941), Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1948), Ted Nugent (1948), Randy Owen of Alabama (1949), Television's Tom Verlaine (1949), country star John Anderson (1954), Berton Averre of The Knack (1954), Tom DeLonge of blink–182 (1975)
December 14: Spike Jones (1911), country star Charlie Rich (1932), Warren Ryanes of The Monotones (1937), pop singer Don Addrisi (1938), surf music producer Gary Usher (1938), Joyce Vincent Wilson of Dawn (1946), Cliff Williams of AC/DC (1949), singer Tamara Daanz (1952), The Waterboys' Mike Scott (1958), Peter Stacy of The Pogues (1958), Brian Dalyrimple of Soul for Real (1975)
Departures:
December 8: Dimebag Darrell Abbott (2004), Antonio Carlos Jobim (1994), jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton (1991), Herbert "Toubo" Rhoad of The Persuasions (1988), Howlin' Wolf drummer Willie Williams (1988), blues guitarist Hollywood Fats born Michael Mann (1986), Marty Robbins (1982), harp maestro Walter "Shakey" Horton (1981), John Lennon (1980), Gary Thain of Uriah Heep (1975)
December 9: drummer Freddie Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers (2006), pop singer Georgia Gibbs (2006), Mike Botts of Bread (2005), Mary Hansen of Stereolab (2002), Waitresses singer Patti Donahue (1996), Orioles vocalist Sonny Til (1981)
December 10: fingerpickin’ Delta blues legend Jerry Ricks (2007), Rick Danko of The Band (1999), lyricist Buddy Feyne (1998), Jake Carey, bass singer with The Flamingos (1997), country singer Faron Young (1996), rapper Darren Robinson of The Fat Boys (1995), Willie Harris of the Clovers (1988), Otis Redding, Bar–Kays guitarist Jimmy King, Bar–Kays sax player Phalin Jones, Bar–Kays drummer Carl Cunningham, Bar–Kays organ player Ronnie Caldwell (all 1967)
December 11: Snot member Lynn Strait (1998), Sam Cooke (1964)
December 12: Elvis impersonator Orion (1998), king of zydeco accordion Clifton Chenier (1987), session pianist and founding member of The Rolling Stones Ian Stewart (1985)
December 13: Yvonne King Burch of the singing King Sisters (2009), slide guitarist "Homesick" James Williamson (2006), children's composer Larry Troxel (1998)
December 14: legendary record label honcho Ahmet Ertegun (2006), Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful (2002), jazz trumpeter Conte Condoli (2001), Kurt Winter of The Guess Who? (1997), Pattie Santos of It’s A Beautiful Day (1989), Dinah Washington (1963)