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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:00:40 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1842, formed by a group of local musicians, the New York Philharmonic gives its first concert …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 … see video above …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

… and that was the week that was.

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)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:00:37 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

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)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:00:35 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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 …

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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. …

… and that was the week that was.

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)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:43:28 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:00:40 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

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)

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)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:00:25 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1958, Eddie Cochran’s biggest hit, “Summertime Blues,” enters Billboard magazine’s Top 100, where it will peak at #18 and sell over a million copies … it will later be covered by such groups as Blue Cheer and The Who …

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1963, “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes hits the charts … the song will later be cited as the perfect pop song by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys … one can maybe hear a touch of it in Brian’s own “Good Vibrations” …

1968, The Beatles release the single “Hey Jude” that eclipses Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” as the longest single to receive Top 40 airplay by nearly a minute at 7:06 … it is the first release from newly formed Apple Records and becomes The Beatles’ biggest hit, going to number one around the world … the recording took two days and involved a 36-piece orchestra who also clapped and sang the na-na-nahs on the fadeout … the epic ballad begins with Paul playing the piano and ends with 50 layered instruments … “Piece of My Heart” by Big Brother & The Holding Company with Janis Joplin singing lead enters the charts … it is Joplin’s and the band’s first hit …

1970, Duane Allman begins sessions as a member of Derek & The Dominos … Eric Clapton praises Allman as the catalyst in a double-album project, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, that is completed in only 10 days … The Kinks’ transvestite-themed single “Lola” is released … the song, which revived the band’s flagging popularity, was inspired by their manager’s drunken club experience unknowingly dancing with a she-man … Ray Davies had to re-record the line “You drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry cola” at the last minute because the BBC refused to play the song with its original, “it tastes just like Coca-Cola,” line fearing repercussions from the beverage maker … Lola reappears in “Paranoia,” a later Kinks tune …

1971, Paul McCartney’s jaunty single “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” is the number one pop hit of the week … the former Beatle reveals that he actually had an Uncle Albert who used to get drunk and quote the Bible …

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1976, Boston releases their self-titled debut album … it spawns three hit singles and shoots to the top of the charts … one of the fastest-selling debut albums of all time, it’s finally unseated by Whitney Houston’s debut in 1986 … ironically, this is the same year Boston finally releases their third album, their release cycle slowed by guitarist Tom Scholz’s momentum-killing perfectionist leanings … by this time most of the band, including Sib Hashian and his afro, have left the band in frustration …

1977, three people are nabbed in Memphis for attempting to steal the remains of Elvis … to prevent such thievery, Elvis is moved from the cemetery to a more secure resting place at Graceland …

1978, art-punk practitioners Television break up just a month after returning to New York from a West Coast tour … their proto-New Wave approach and unique guitar style sets aside nearly every accepted rule of rock guitar, making them guitar heroes to a legion of young rockers …

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1989, Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses is arrested in Phoenix for causing an in-flight public disturbance … he verbally abuses a flight attendant, urinates on the floor, and smokes in the non-smoking section of the plane … Izzy is apparently upset about the potty queue … the flight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis makes an unscheduled landing in Phoenix to dump him off …

1993, Snoop Dogg is arrested in connection with the death of Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang who was fired at and killed in a gang fight … Snoop and his bodyguard McKinley Lee are ultimately acquitted but the rapper will remain entangled in legal battles surrounding the case for three years … his video “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” with Tupac Shakur chronicles the difficulties each rapper faced as a result of their unrelated criminal prosecutions …

1995, in a landmark rock ‘n’ roll event, veteran rocker Neil Young headlines the Reading Festival with Seattle’s Pearl Jam backing him up …

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1996, Isaac Hayes, co-writer of the song “Soul Man,” writes a letter to senator Bob Dole protesting his use of the song in his presidential campaign that had changed the chorus to “I’m A Dole Man” …

2002, Eminem draws boos at the MTV Video Music Awards after he calls Moby a girl and tries to pick a fight with the diminutive techno popper … Moby had called the rapper’s music misogynistic and homophobic … Em also mixes it up with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog after Triumph tells the crowd “Eminem should lighten up. I mean, my mom was a bitch too, but I don’t go writing songs about it.” … this portion is removed from repeat broadcasts …

2003, 200 fans are ejected from the Charlotte, North Carolina, stop of the Ozzfest tour for alcohol and drug use … the show started at around 10 a.m. and the first group of partied-out attendees was ushered out just after noon, proving Ozzy Osbourne fans are not into pacing themselves …

2006, Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton undergoes treatment for throat cancer, forcing him to sit out the first half of the band’s Route of All Evil Tour, the first time he has missed any shows in the band’s history … longtime band friend David Hull fills in until his return … one of the last iTunes holdouts, Linkin Park reverses their position and Apple begins selling all three of their studio albums along with bonus cuts and videos …

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2007, The Stones wrap their Bigger Bang tour having grossed $558 million, eclipsing the record formerly held by U2′s 2005 Vertigo tour that brought in a paltry $389 million … commenting on the end of the long-running tour, Mick Jagger acknowledges, “I’m sort of glad it’s done. I need to do some resting.” … rock pioneer Bo Diddley suffers a heart attack …

2008, a blogger who posted nine unreleased songs from the forthcoming Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy is arrested for violating a three-year-old law that prohibits such leaks … according to Kevin Cogill’s girlfriend, the cops “let me get him a shirt and shoes without laces before they took him away” … Cogill is a former employee of Universal Records’ distribution department …

2009, Noel Gallagher announces he’s leaving Oasis …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 25: Charlie Burse of The Memphis Jug Band (1901), composer Leonard Bernstein (1918), jazz reedman Wayne Shorter (1933), Walter Williams of The O’Jays (1942), jazz guitar phenom Pat Martino (1944), Tavares drummer Francis A. Donia (1945), Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz (1949), Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford (1951), Elvis Costello, born Declan McManus (1954), Billy Ray Cyrus (1961), Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard (1962), Mia Zapata of The Gits (1965), DJ Terminator X of Public Enemy (1966), country chirper Jo Dee Messina (1969)

August 26: jazz and blues shouter Jimmy “Mr. Five by Five” Rushing (1903), Chris Curtis of The Searchers (1941), Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson (1948), Bill Rush of The Asbury Dukes (1952), Branford Marsalis (1960), Shirley Manson of Garbage (1966), Dan Vickrey of Counting Crows (1966), Adrian Young of No Doubt (1969)

August 27: bluegrass guitarist Carter Stanley (1925), harpist-keyboardist Alice Coltrane (1937), avant-garde guitarist Sonny Sharrock (1940), Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille (1942), Jeff Cook of Alabama (1949), Simon Kirke of Free and Bad Company (1949), Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson (1953), Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols (1956), gospel powerhouse Yolanda Adams (1962), Tony Kanal of No Doubt (1970), rapper Ma$e (1977), John Siebles of Eve 6 (1979), Mario (1986)

August 28: John Perkins of The Crew Cuts (1931), David Soul (1943), Daniel Seraphine of Chicago (1948), Wayne Osmond (1951), Shania Twain (1965), LeAnn Rimes (1982)

August 29: bluesman Jimmy Bell (1910), bebop innovator Charlie “Yardbird” Parker (1920), versatile jazz and blues chanteuse Dinah Washington (1924), gospel singer Marion Williams (1927), Dick Halligan of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1943), Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground (1944), Chris Copping of Procol Harum (1945), Stone Canyon Band bassist Patrick Woodward (1948), Dave Jenkins of Pablo Cruise (1949), Rick Downey of Blue Oyster Cult (1953), punk rocker G.G. Allin (1956), Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Frazer (1958), Michael Jackson (1958), singer-bassist Me’shell NdegeOcello (1969), Carl Martin of Shai (1970), Kyle Cook of Matchbox 20 (1975), David Desrosiers of Simple Plan (1980)

August 30: blues pianist Mercy Dee Walton (1915), Kitty Wells (1919), vaudeville-blues singer Olive Brown (1922), John McNally of The Searchers (1931), bluesman Luther “Georgia Snake Boy” Johnson (1934), John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas (1935), Mick Moody of Whitesnake (1950), Horace Panter of General Public aka Sir Horace Gentleman of The Specials (1953), Martin Jackson of Swing Out Sister (1958), drummer Nicky Hammerhead (1960), Rich Cronan of LFO (1974)

August 31: jazz pianist Todd Rhodes (1900), tunesmith Alan Jay Lerner (1918), “Spider” John Koerner (1938), Jerry Allison of The Crickets (1939), Wilton Felder of The Crusaders (1940), Van Morrison (1945), Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions (1948), Gina Schock of The Go-Go’s (1957), Squeeze singer-songwriter Glenn Tilbrook (1957), Tony DeFranco (1959), Chris Whitley (1960), Debbie Gibson (1970)

Departures:

August 25: R&B star Aaliyah (2001), bandleader Stan Kenton (1979)

August 26: songwriter Ellie Greenwich (2009), Laura Branigan (2004), Ronnie White of The Miracles (1995), zydeco squeezebox star Rockin’ Dopsie (1993), “Professor” Eddie Lusk (1992), honking sax man Jimmy Forrest (1980), Lee Hays of The Weavers (1981)

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August 27: Stevie Ray Vaughan (1990), KRS-One rapper Scott LaRock (1987), Bob Scholl of The MelloKings (1975), Beatles manager Brian Epstein (1967)

August 28: DJ AM (2009), CBGB founder Hilly Kristal (2007), Sun Records rockabilly and songwriter Ronnie Self (1981)

August 29: rockabilly pioneer Ervin L. “Wee Willie” Williams (1999), rockabilly singer-songwriter Charlie Feathers (1998), record store mogul “Waxie Maxie” Silverman (1989), country star Archie Campbell (1987), eccentric DJ and Clash producer Guy Stevens (1981), blues legend Jimmy Reed (1976)

August 30: jazz vocalist Chris Conner (2009), trumpeter-bandleader Maynard Ferguson (2006), Swedish producer Denniz Pop aka Dag Volle (1998), Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground (1995), Thomas Sylvester aka “Papa” Dee Allen of War (1988)

August 31: Carl Wayne, singer for The Move (2004), Cajun artist Joe Berry (2004), jazz vibes man and bandleader Lionel Hampton (2002), rocker Vince Taylor (1991), bluesman Son Bonds (1947)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:00:22 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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1962, Ringo Starr joins the Beatles after former drummer Pete Best is let go … Ringo’s performing debut is at the Horticultural Society Dance in Birkenhead … The personnel change is not popular with many … When the remodeled Beatles appear at the Cavern, irate fans of Pete Best attack the band, giving George Harrison a nasty black eye that barely goes away in time for the band’s first photo shoot …

1967, The Doors begin laying tracks for their second album at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California.

1968, down and out in Chicago, a broke and destitute Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company reconsider an earlier offer they had initially passed on, signing on with Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records. Shad refuses to let the band in the studio during their album’s final mix … The record is not released until the band’s successful performance at the Montery Pop Festival the following year …

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1969, The Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York … nearly half a million gather to celebrate “3 Days of Peace and Music” (and mud, lots of mud) and enjoy performances by a Who’s Who of rock-and-roll, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ten Years After, and Jefferson Airplane … Joni Mitchell misses Woodstock when her manager books her on Dick Cavett’s TV show … The Canadian-born singer goes on to pen the seminal song about the festival, “Woodstock” … Mick Jagger is accidentally shot in the hand during the filming of Ned Kelly in Australia … his wound is not serious … Miles Davis goes into the studio in New York for the first sessions of the landmark album, Bitches Brew with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Benny Maupin, John McLaughlin, Larry Young, Harvey Brooks, Lenny White, Don Alias, and Jumma Santos …

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1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival starts a nine-week run at No.1 on the U.S. album chart with their fifth studio release Cosmo’s Factory. The name of the album stems from the warehouse in Berkeley where the band practiced. Bandleader John Fogerty’s insistence on constant rehearsals leads drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford to start referring to the place as “the factory.”

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1970, Derek and the Dominoes perform at the Van Dike in Plymouth, England …

1972, Chicago starts a nine-week run at No.1 on the U.S. album charts with Chicago V … David Bowie plays the first of two nights at the Rainbow Theatre in England on his current 182-date Ziggy Stardust world tour …

1974, Led Zeppelin begin a 2-night stand at Pirates World in Dania, Florida. Also on the bill are The Royal Ascots, Brimstone and The Echo …

1980, Queen appears at The Spectrum in Philly …

1988, “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” are announced as the most played jukebox songs of the first hundred years. The jukebox has been around since 1906, but earlier models had been first seen in 1889 … “Crazy” is recorded during this week in 1961 by Cline, who tracked the Willie Nelson gem while on crutches due to injuries from a car crash in which she was thrown through the window …

1990, Garth Brook’s “Friends in Low Places” soars toward the #1 spot on the charts … the song will eventually receive the Country Music Association (CMA) Single of the Year Award

1997, U2 plays the first of two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium, London, England, on their Pop Mart tour …

2003, Norwegian Elvis Presley impersonator Kjell Henning Bjoernestad sets a world record by singing the King’s hits nonstop for over 26 hours. The previous mark was set by British Elvis fan Gary Jay who sang for 25 hours 33 minutes and 30 seconds.

2006, a man in America looking at a webcam located in England foils three men who are breaking into a shop in Liverpool. The man is logged onto a site streaming live footage of Mathew Street, the site of an upcoming Beatles festival, when he sees the men smashing a shop window and climbing inside. He phones the Merseyside police who arrest the men.

2011, hot summer concert tickets include Lady Gaga, Kid Rock, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, and Jimmy Buffet …

… and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 18: lyricist Otto Harbach (1873), folk singer Cisco Houston (1918), pop singer Johnny Preston (1939), Dennis Elliot of Foreigner (1950), Ron Stryker of Men at Work (1957), rapper-singer-songwriter Everlast, born Erik Schrody (1969)

August 19: jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles (1918), Cream drummer Ginger Baker (1939), singer Johnny Nash of “I Can See Clearly Now” fame (1940), vocalist Billy J. Kramer of the Dakotas (1943), Ian Gillan of Deep Purple (1945), Queen’s John Deacon (1951), country singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack (1966)

August 20: jazz trombonist-vocalist Jack Teagarden (1905), country singer Jim Reeves (1924), jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney (1927), Paul Robi of The Platters (1931), bluesman J.J. Malone (1935), country singer-songwriter Justin Tubb (1935), Isaac Hayes (1942), John Povey of The Pretty Things (1942), James Pankow of Chicago (1947), Robert Plant (1948), Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy (1951), Rudy Gatlin of The Gatlin Brothers (1952), Doug Fieger of The Knack (1952), singer-songwriter John Hiatt (1952), Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit (1970)

August 21: William “Count” Basie (1904), big-band singer Savannah Churchill (1920), gospel singer Clara Ward (1924), songwriter Carolyn Leigh (1926), Kenny Rogers (1938), country picker James Burton (1939), Tom Coster of Santana (1941), Harold W. Reid of The Statler Brothers (1939), Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple (1952), Steve Smith of Journey (1954), Joe Strummer of The Clash (1955), Budgie—born Pete Clark—of Siouxsie and the Banshees (1957), Kim Sledge of Sister Sledge (1958), Liam Howlett of Prodigy (1971)

August 22: Claude Debussy (1862), classic blues singer Addie “Sweet Peas” Spivey (1910), pianist and bandleader Sonny Thompson (1916), John Lee Hooker (1917), Carolina Slim, born Edward P. Harris (1923), Bob Flanigan of The Four Freshmen (1926), producer Jerry Capehart (1928), Freddie Milano of The Belmonts (1939), Jackie De Shannon (1944), Donna Godchaux of The Grateful Dead (1947), Teresa Davis of The Emotions (1950), country chirper and writer Holly Dunn (1957), Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid (1958), Debbi Peterson of The Bangles (1961), Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears (1961), Tori Amos (1963), James DeBarge of DeBarge (1963), Layne Staley of Alice in Chains (1967), Matchbox 20′s Paul Douchette (1972), Howie Dorough of Backstreet Boys (1973)

August 23: dancer Gene Kelly (1912), country star Tex Williams (1917), The Drifters’ Rudy Lewis (1936), Jamaican producer Bunny Lee (1941), Ramon Phillips of The Nashville Teens (1941), Keith Moon (1947), Rick Springfield (1949), Shadows of Knight’s Jim Sohns (1949), Jim Jamison of Survivor (1951), Steve Clark of Def Leppard (1960), Dean DeLeo of the Stone Temple Pilots (1961), Colin Angus of The Shamen (1961), The Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder (1962)

August 24: bluesman and Elvis influence Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (1905), jump-blues shouter Wynonie Harris (1915), country songwriter Fred Rose (1917), William Winfield of The Harptones (1929), David Frieberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1938), Mason “Classical Gas” Williams (1938), Ernest Wright of Little Anthony and the Imperials (1939), Procol Harum manager and pirate radio operator Tony Secunda (1940), Joe Chambers of The Chambers Brothers (1942), soul singer Fontella Bass (1942), Jimmy Soul, born James McCleese (1942), John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1943), Jim Capaldi of Traffic (1944), Malcolm Duncan of Average White Band (1945), Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep (1945), Heart’s Mike DeRosier (1951), Juan Nelson (1958), Mark Bedford of Madness (1961), Pebbles, born Perri McKissack (1964)

Departures:

August 18: Pervis Jackson, founding member of the Spinners (2008), film composer Elmer Bernstein (2004), founder of the Country Gentlemen, bluegrass picker Charlie Waller (2004), Leonard “Chick” Carbo, lead singer of The Spiders (1998), Belgian impresario and concert promoter Freddy Cousaert (1998), highly regarded R&B and funk session pianist Richard Tee, born Richjard Ten Ryk (1993), psychedelic concert poster artist Rick Griffin (1991)

August 19: LeRoi Moore, saxophonist with The Dave Matthews Band (2008), Joseph Hill, lead singer and founder of reggae band Culture (2006), Dorsey Burnette, bass player of rockabilly institution The Rock and Roll Trio (1979), 12-string guitarist Blind Willie McTell, composer of “Statesboro Blues” (1959)

August 20: Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan (1999), singer Rio Reiser (1996), masterful steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe of Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys (1988), jazz trumpeter Thad Jones (1986)

August 21: producer Jerry Finn (2008), Nashville session drummer Buddy Harman (2008), Robert Moog (2005), Tarheel Slim, born Alden Bunn (1977), country guitarist Sam McGee (1975)

August 22: singer Ralph Young (2008), honky-tonk legend Floyd Tillman (2003), blues pianist Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston (1987), bluesman John Lee Granderson (1979)

August 23: high-note jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (2006), Eleanor O. Guest, one of Gladys Knight’s Pips (1997), Skinny Puppy drummer Dwayne Goettel (1995), Broadway songwriter-director Oscar Hammerstein II (1960)

August 24: producer-arranger Gene Page (1998), Doug Stegmeyer, bassist for Billy Joel (1995), Jesse Bolian of The Artistics (1994), Gene Knight of The Showmen (1992), Motown drummer Larrie Londin (1992), bluesman L.C. Greene (1985), trumpeter-pop singer Louis Prima (1978)

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It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:00:15 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

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1937, George Beauchamp is granted patent #2,089,171 by the U.S. Patent Office for an “Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument” … the original “frying pan” electric guitar … George was a Hawaiian musician living in Los Angeles … Bunny Berigan and his orchestra record the jazz standard “I Can’t Get Started” … the chord changes from this oft-covered tune become a staple for bebop musicians a decade later …

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1949, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five record “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” an influential proto-rock song …

1957, John Lennon and his band The Quarry Men play their debut date at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a venue devoted to jazz and skiffle … after the band performs “Come Go With Me,” “Hound Dog,” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” irate club owner Alan Sytner sends a note up to the stage reading, “Cut out the bloody rock!” … so it was back to standard skiffle fare such as “Rock Island Line” and “Midnight Special” …

1960, 25,000 copies of the death-rock single “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson are destroyed by Decca Records after a critic deems the song “too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility” … it is interesting to speculate what that critic may have made of Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols a little later on …

1964, Rod Stewart makes his television debut singing with the Hootchie Coochie Men on the British show The Beat Room … The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago’s Chess studios … the band’s name resulted from a tune by Muddy …

1965, singer-organist Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …

1967, Beatle George Harrison hangs out at a love-in in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … he’s less than enchanted recalling It was full of hideous, spotty little teenagers. It turned me off to the whole thing … a fan stows away on The Monkees’ tour plane … the girl’s father vows to have charges brought against the band for transporting a minor across state lines …

1968, performing at England’s National Jazz and Blues Festival, Jerry Lee Lewis whips the crowd into a frenzy that begins to turn violent … three rockers leave with bleeding mouths, a stage assistant loses four teeth, and thanks to a six-inch scaffold coupling pin being thrown through the bass drum of Andrew Steele, his band The Herd, doesn’t get heard … fearing a full-scale riot, officials ask Lewis to leave the stage … I don’t care about you all dancing on the stage, Lewis tells his fans, but some of these people do. … interestingly, The Herd’s lead guitarist is none other than a young Peter Frampton, who later splits from the band after a long hitless spell to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott …

1969, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of London’s Abbey Road to snap The Beatles as they stride across the zebra crossing … several crossings and six pictures later, the session is over … Paul picks the best one, which ends up as the cover for Abbey Road … because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, no other graphics are used …

1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols … four days later she makes her last concert performance at Harvard Stadium …

1972, Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for pot possession following a Wings show in Gothenburg, Sweden … the couple is fined and released

1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured in North Carolina when the auto in which he’s riding is hit by logs rolling off a truck … he emerges from a coma after four days sans his sense of smell …

1975, Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries he will resume his career … Robert Plant and his family are injured in an auto wreck on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes …

1978, Muddy Waters plays for President Jimmy Carter at the White House …

1984, David Crosby gets a wakeup-call when he is sentenced to five years in prison on cocaine and firearms charges … he had dozed through much of the trial … “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr. is the Billboard #1 pop hit … Parker is later sued by Huey Lewis who claims the tune is a ripoff of his “I Want a New Drug”… the case is settled out of court with the proviso neither party talks about the deal … in 2001, during an episode of VH1′s Behind the Music, Lewis reveals that Parker paid up to settle the case … Parker then sues Lewis for violating the settlement terms …

1985, introduced to the benefits of owning publishing rights by friend Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson purchases the ATV music catalog that includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs at auction for $47.5 million … McCartney and Yoko Ono had attempted to purchase the songs only to be outbid by Jackson … McCartney and Jackson’s friendship ends promptly as a result …

1986, David Crosby is released from prison after doing time on drug and weapon charges …

1990, during a New Kids on the Block concert in Montreal, armed robbers make off with souvenir stand proceeds totaling $260,000 …

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1992, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set in Montreal … many of the 55,000 fans in attendance riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica also cuts their set short after singer James Hetfield suffers third-degree burns from a pyro effect … Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro dies from cardiac arrest triggered by an allergic reaction to an insecticide he is spraying in his garden

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1996, Oasis roadie James Hunter is crushed to death when he’s caught between a forklift and truck … former Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil runs into trouble at an Indiana club date … after starting the show four hours late, Neil pulls the plug after just three songs saying he is feeling ill and suggesting that the audience of “rednecks” doesn’t appreciate his talent … a riot by 500 surly ticket holders is narrowly averted by the prompt arrival of the cops … After touring as part of the sixth annual Lollapalooza festival, the Ramones perform their 2,263rd and final show in Los Angeles …

1999, after running into legal roadblocks, the leading record labels drop their suit against Diamond Multimedia, makers of the Rio MP3 music player … they had charged that the device would encourage online piracy …

2000, the Jimi Hendrix estate successfully evicts the holder of the web domain jimihendrix.com …

2004, The Dave Matthews Band is sued for dumping waste from its tour bus into the Chicago River and onto a sightseeing boat … a number of passengers report seeing a long, black tour bus on the bridge when the waste drenched them, according to news reports … that waste splashes onto approximately 109 tour boat passengers, including disabled people, senior citizens, a pregnant woman, a small child, and an infant, the suit states … bus driver Stefan Wohl pleads guilty to dumping the waste, and is sentenced to 18 months probation and 150 hours of community service …

2005, Leonard Cohen files a suit against his former business manager charging that Kelley Lynch ripped him off for $5 million from 1994 through 1999 while Cohen was chilling in a Buddhist center … FCC chairman Kevin Martin announces that his agency is investigating payola by record labels in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s settlement of $10 million with New York over charges that the company plied key radio stations with lavish gifts and money to get its releases played … the list of artists who benefitted from Sony’s generosity include Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson, Audioslave, and Celine Dion … Marc Cohn, the singer-songwriter who struck gold in 1991 with his hit “Walking in Memphis” is shot in the head during a carjacking in Denver … amazingly he survives the injury and is expected to make a full recovery …

2007, during Pearl Jam’s set at Lollapalooza Eddie Vedder sings, George Bush, leave this world alone to rousing cheers from the crowd … however the audience viewing at home on AT&T’s Blue Room website are treated to 16 seconds of silence when the company providing AT&T’s feed pulls the plug on the audio stream … later AT&T is apologetic … commenting on the censorship, guitarist Mike McReady writes, When one person or company decides what others can hear, that is totalitarian thinking… DNA testing on a dozen people who claim they were fathered by the late James Brown reveals two who are legitimate offspring …

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2008, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, files suit against presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” without permission … The Police cap their 150-show world tour with a two-hour tour de force at Madison Square Garden … the first Police tour in 20 years, it started shakily and gained momentum as it went along … reflecting on the early shows, drummer Stewart Copeland is brutally frank, At the beginning, we were crap. Each one of us had our own opinion of what was wrong … which could be summed up as ‘the other two guys’ …

2009, rock legend Steven Tyler of Aerosmith falls onto a couple of fans in the crowd of thousands from the stage at a South Dakota concert … security rushes to help him and the crowd cheers when Tyler gets back up and is taken backstage, where a physician attends to him … Tyler suffers head, neck, and shoulder injuries in the tumble but jokes about the fall as he is loaded into the helicopter to be taken to a hospital …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

August 4: Louis Armstrong (1901), Frankie Ford (1939), David Carr of The Fortunes (1940), Timi Yuro (1940), Klaus Schultze of Tangerine Dream (1947), Paul Layton of The New Seekers (1947), Clannad’s Máire Ní Bhraonáin (1952), Paul Reynolds of A Flock of Seagulls (1962), Jody Turner of Rock Goddess (1963), Immature’s Marques Houston (1981)

August 5: jazz singer Jeri Southern (1926), Vern Gosdin (1934), R&B vocalist Damita Jo (1940), guitarist Lenny Breau (1941), percussionist Airto Moreira (1941), sax player Rick Huxley of The Dave Clark Five (1942), country star Sammi Smith (1943), Rick Derringer of The McCoys (1947), Gregory Leskew of Guess Who (1947), Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister (1955), Pat Smear of Foo Fighters (1959), Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive (1959), Mark O’Connor (1961), Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys (1964)

August 6: Delta bluesman Willie Brown (1900), The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1946), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), singer-songwriter Elliot Smith (1969), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972)

August 7: multi-instrumentalist jazz bandleader Benny Carter (1907), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1910), pianist Mose Vinson (1917), lyricist Felice Bryant (1925), The Platters’ Herb Reed (1931), multi-instrumentalist jazz titan Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936), Magic Slim—born Morris Holt (1937), pop vocalist Ron Holden (1939), B.J. Thomas (1942), Rodney Crowell (1950), Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden—not THE Bruce Dickinson (1958), Jacqui O’Sullivan of Bananarama (1960), Ian Dench of EMF (1964), Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses (1966), Toxic (19??)

August 8: bandleader Lucky Millinder (1900), honky-tonk vocalist Webb Pierce (1921), blues and jazz singer Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), Sonny Til of The Orioles (1925), Mel Tillis (1932), Joe Tex (1933), pop singer Connie Stevens (1938), Philip E. Balsley of the Statler Brothers (1939), John “Jay” David of Dr. Hook (1942), English guitar virtuoso John Renbourn (1944), Airrion Love of The Stylistics (1949), Stax-Volt drummer Willie Hall (1950), Madness guitarist Chris Foreman (1955), Ali Score of Flock of Seagulls (1956), Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (1957), Ricki Rockett of Poison (1959), U2′s The Edge a.k.a. David Evans (1961), Kool Moe Dee (1962), Aaron Abeyta of NOFX (1965), Creed singer Scott Stapp (1973), JC Chasez of *NSYNC (1976), Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (1976)

August 9: barrelhouse pianist Robert Shaw (1908), string band musician Odell Thompson (1911), Bill Henderson of The Spinners (1939), jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette (1942), Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring (1946), Barbara Mason (1947), Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (1955), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), Whitney Houston (1963), Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind (1970)

August 10: Leo Fender (1909), country singer-sausage king Jimmy Dean (1928), bluegrass ace Jimmy Martin (1927), country-pop entertainer Larry Finnegan (1938), Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (1940), Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes (1943), Ian Anderson (1947), Patti Austin (1950), INXS drummer Jon Farriss (1961), singer Neneh Cherry (1964), Todd Nichols of Toad The Wet Sprocket (1967), Michael Bivins of New Edition (1968), Aaron Kamin of The Calling (1977)

Departures:

August 4: Lee Hazlewood (2007), classical and rock violinist Monroe Clark (2006), R&B/blues singer-guitarist “Little” Milton Campbell (2005), jazz singer Jeri Southern (1991), pop impresario Larry Parnes (1989)

August 5: Robert Hazard, singer-songwriter who wrote Cyndi Lauper’s smash “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (2008), bassist Randy Hobbs of The McCoys and Johnny Winter (1993), drummer Jeff Porcaro of Toto (1992), N’awlins bluesman Isidore “Tuts” Washington (1984), avant-garde bassist George Scott (1980), country guitarist Luther Perkins (1968), one-man blues band Joe Hill Louis (1957)

August 6: Bootsy’s brother Phelps ‘Catfish’ Collins (2010), Willy DeVille, founder of Mink DeVille (2009), Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), guitarist Tommy Mottola (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), blueswoman Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)

August 7: folk musician/folklorist Mike Seeger (2009), country guitarist William “Billy” Byrd (2001), harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (2001), record store mogul Sam Goody (1991), R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips (1984), Homer a.k.a. Henry Haynes of Homer & Jethro (1971)

August 8: pianist Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (2006), alto sax man Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1975)

August 9: composer David Raskin (2004), producer Bob Herbert (1999), Jerry Garcia (1995), New Orleans session sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Brandon Mitchell, rapper with Wreckx-N-Effects (1990), trumpet player Bill Chase (1974), Joe Gilbert of Joe and Eddie (1966)

August 10: singer-songwriter-soul man Isaac Hayes (2008), Widespread Panic guitarist Mikey Houser (2002), Bill Baker of The Five Satins (1994), New Orleans sax man Clarence Ford (1994), Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics (1993), jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1992), Lillian Roxon, one of rock’s first music critics (1973), swing bandleader Freddie Slack (1965), blues diva Lucille Bogan of “Shave ‘em Dry” infamy (1948)

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:00:20 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1955, Ted McCarty of Gibson is given patent #2,714,326 by the U.S. Patent Office for his design for “Stringed Musical Instrument Of The Guitar Type And Combined Bridge And Tailpiece Therefor,” the one-piece adjustable bridge/tailpiece for the Gibson Les Paul solidbody guitar …

1956, the Platters become the first black group to have a number-one pop hit when “My Prayer” reaches the top spot on the Billboard chart …

1958, The Teddy Bears’ aching teen ballad “To Know Him is To Love Him” is released … a singer in the group, Phil Spector produces the session … the song title is reportedly taken from his late father’s headstone … Billboard publishes its first Hot 100 chart …

1959, Seth Lover, working for Gibson guitars, is granted patent #2,896,491 by the U.S. Patent Office for his “magnetic pickup for stringed musical instrument,” better known as the humbucker pickup … the patent was applied for on June 22, 1955 … Gibson added the new pickups to its electric solidbody and archtop guitars in 1957, including the Les Paul … during late 1957, a small black decal with gold lettering was added to the underside of the pickup that read “Patent Applied For” … (today, PAF pickups are the most collectible and desirable pickups, fetching upwards of $1,000 each among vintage guitar collectors) … by mid-to-late 1962, Gibson changed the pickup decal to read “Patent No. 2,737,842″ … interestingly enough, the patent number listed on the decal was not for Seth’s pickup design but was for Les Paul’s trapeze tailpiece … not one to raise a legal fuss, apparently Seth really is a Lover, not a fighter …

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1960, when the scheduled vocalist fails to show for a recording session, producer Ike Turner presses his wife Tina into service on the track, “A Fool in Love” … much sampled by modern hip-hop and R&B acts, the single will be the first of 20 Hot 100 hits produced by the contentious couple … this same day future soul star Aretha Franklin cuts her first secular sides …

1965, The Beatles’ second feature film, Help, debuts in London with that pretty nice girl Queen Elizabeth in attendance …

1966, Bob Dylan suffers major injuries when the brakes on his Triumph motorcycle lock up near his home in Woodstock, New York … though the exact nature of his injuries are never disclosed, it is clear that he suffered a broken neck and used his lengthy convalescence to marshal his artistic resources … reflecting on the wreck later, Dylan says, When I had that motorcycle accident … I woke up and caught my senses, I realized that I was just workin’ for all these leeches. And I really didn’t want to do that. …

1967, Pandora’s Box, the hippie nightspot on the Sunset Strip, feels the wrath of the wrecking ball in the wake of teenage riots the previous year … local politicos say the club played a big role in turning West Hollywood into a teenage wasteland …

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1968, The Beatles enter the studio to cut “Hey Jude” … the song will top the Hot 100 Chart for nine weeks and become The Beatles’ biggest hit …

1969, Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys is indicted for draft dodging after he fails to show up for work as a hospital orderly in lieu of military service …

1971, George Harrison organizes the Concert for Bangladesh to help war victims of the South Asian country … the stellar lineup includes Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, and members of Badfinger …

1980, the FBI arrests John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas on cocaine charges … he is later sentenced to five years hard time but dodges prison by delivering 250 hours of anti-drug lectures as an alternative sentence …

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1981, MTV bursts onto the airwaves by broadcasting The Buggles’ somewhat prophetic “Video Killed the Radio Star” … of course, that job was later completed by file sharing …

1992, in Warwick, Rhode Island, Patti Labelle abruptly pulls the plug on her concert there after complaining that the food backstage isn’t up to snuff … after all, it’s common knowledge that you can’t sing unless the stomach is full …

1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce they were secretly married in the Dominican Republic 11 weeks earlier … the union will last for 21 months …

1996, Aerosmith cans their manager Tim Collins saying they’re tired of constant pressure to get involved in social causes he’s committed to … like the “Let’s Buy Tim Collins a Ferrari” fund perhaps? …

1998, in San Fernando, California, Grammy-winning gospel singer Sandra Crouch is ordained as a minister of the Christ Memorial Church … ordained by her twin brother Andrae, also a gospel star, the pair defy Church of God in Christ rules that forbid female ministers … after 12 years and six albums, Toad The Wet Sprocket finally croaks …

2001, rap group D12 executes a brutal attack on Detroit rap rivals Esham and T.N.T. during a Warped Tour stop in Camden, New Jersey … T.N.T. is bruised and cut while Esham suffers a broken nose, ruptured eyeball, concussion, and hearing damage … D12 is promptly kicked off the tour … that same day in L.A., 300 fortunate Foo Fighters fans are treated to a rare club gig when the band plays the legendary Troubador … attendees are chosen from entries emailed to the Fighters’ website …

2004, Simon and Garfunkel play a free concert in Rome for 600,000 lucky Italians …

2005, newly-unearthed documents relating to Mick Jagger’s drug bust in 1969 reveal that the Stones singer had alleged he was framed and that a cop planted heroin in his home offering to quash the charges if Jagger paid £1,000 … at the time his allegations were swept aside and he was ultimately fined £200 for pot possession … an unnamed bidder coughs up $1.1 million for a scrap of paper on which John Lennon had scrawled the lyrics for “All You Need is Love” in preparation of the Beatles’ 1966 BBC satellite broadcast … the paper, tossed by Lennon after the show, was retrieved by a BBC employee … during the same auction a pair of Lennon’s specs go for $98,000 …

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2006, a court awards Jimi Hendrix’s stepsister control of the late great guitarist’s estate, cutting out his brother Leon … this comes after years of legal wrangling between the family members … Bono, along with five partners, buys a 40-percent stake in Forbes magazine for a reported $250-300 million … A 30-year-old man is beaten to death at the Atlanta stop of the ironically titled Family Values tour led by Korn … the victim was attempting to protect a pregnant friend from two unruly fans … a suspect is arrested a week later … in England the long-running Brit TV pop music show Top of the Pops breathes its last gasp … the show had aired on the BBC continuously since 1964 … on the domestic dissolution front, Travis Barker files a divorce suit against Shanna Moakler, his wife of two years and former Miss USA … and keeping up with the Barkers, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and his missus, actress Kate Hudson, file for divorce … Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen fire off a letter to actor Luke Wilson charging that his brother, director Owen Wilson has misappropriated the name of a character from their song “Cousin Dupree” for the movie You, Me, and Dupree, in which Luke Wilson’s Dupree character is a couch-hopping loser … the letter, posted on the Steely Dan website warns Wilson that, There are some pretty heavy people who are upset about this whole thing and we can’t guarantee what kind of heat little Owen may be bringing down on himself … the letter goes on to suggest that Wilson should make an appearance at a Dan concert and apologize to their fans … the tongue-in-cheek feud continues when Wilson fires back, Cousin Dupree and I don’t even know who this gentleman, Mr. Steely Dan, is. I hope this helps to clear things up and I can get back to concentrating on my new movie, HEY 19. …

2007, when a ballsy female concertgoer reaches out and grabs Tim McGraw’s nether regions at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, his missus, Faith Hill, tells the errant fan in no uncertain terms that that sort of behavior is frowned upon in them there parts … well, depending on who’s doing the grabbing … Berlin names Street 13 in former communist East Germany Frank-Zappa-Strasse or Frank Zappa Street to honor Frank Zappa … in a letter of thanks, Zappa’s brother Bobby says the Grammy-winning rocker, who died in 1993, would have been pleased …

2008, a funeral is held in the Midtown offices of Hachette, the book publisher, to mourn the passing of what it called a dear friend, the cassette tape … long abandoned by the music industry, cassettes lived on in audio books … R.I.P. cassettes …

… and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

July 28: singer, actor, bandleader Rudy Vallée (1901), flamenco and Andalusian copla singer Dolores Jiménez Alcántara (1909), Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough (1930), George Cummings of Dr. Hook (1938), Michael Bloomfield, guitarist with Al Kooper and Electric Flag (1943), keyboardist Richard “Rick” Wright of Pink Floyd (1943), singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards (1946), guitarist Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs and Deep Purple (1954)

July 29: revolutionary jazz guitarist Charlie Christian (1916), guitar amp maker Jim Marshall (1923), Neal Doughty of REO Speedwagon (1946), Geddy Lee (1953), Patti Scialfa of the E Street Band (1953), John Sykes of Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy (1959), country singer Martina McBride (1966), Chris Gorman of Belly (1967), Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men (1973)

July 30: blues guitarist Buddy Guy (1936), Paul Anka (1941), saxophonist David Sanborn (1945), Jethro Tull bassist Jeffrey Hammond (1946), guitarist Hughie Nicholson of Blue (1949), Rat Scabies of The Damned, born Chris Miller (1957), singer-songwriter Kate Bush (1958), Craig Gannon, guitarist with The Smiths (1966), Manic Street Preachers drummer Sean Moore (1968), Brad Hargraves of Third Eye Blind (1971)

July 31: R&B singer-drummer-bandleader Roy Milton (1907), producer and founder of Atlantic records Ahmet Ertegun (1923), singer and son of Jerry, Gary Lewis (1946), Karl Green of Herman’s Hermits (1947), ELO’s Hugh MacDowell (1953), Daniel Ash of Love and Rockets (1957), Bill Berry of R.E.M. (1958), Norman Quentin Cook, aka Fatboy Slim of The Housemartins (1963), John 5, born John William Lowery, guitarist with Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie (1971), Coldplay’s Will Champion (1978)

August 1: Francis Scott Key (1779), Piano Slim, born Robert T. Smith (1928), folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, born Elliott Charles Adnopoz (1931), Jerry Garcia (1942), Geoff Britton of Wings (1943), Boz Burrell of Bad Company (1946), Rick Coonce of The Grass Roots (1946), Rick Anderson of The Tubes (1947), Tommy Bolin, guitarist with Zephyr, The James Gang, and Deep Purple (1951), BTO’s Tim Bachman (1951), bluesman Robert Cray (1953), Joe Elliott of Def Leppard (1959), Public Enemy’s Chuck D, born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (1960), rapper Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. (1963), Adam Duritz of Counting Crows (1964), Ashley Angel of O-Town (1981)

August 2: big band singer Helen Morgan (1900), blues singer-pianist “Big” Walter Price, born Walter Travis Price (1914), country singer Hank Walters (1933), country star Hank Cochran (1935), Garth Hudson of The Band (1937), Doris Coley Kenner of The Shirelles (1941), steel guitarist-songwriter Hank DeVito (1948), guitarist Andy Fairweather-Low (1948), funk bandleader “Fat” Larry James (1949), Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash (1950), singer-songwriter Andrew Gold (1951), Clive Wright of Cock Robin (1953), singer-actress Apollonia Kotero, born Patricia Kotero (1959), Pete De Freitas of Echo and the Bunnymen (1961), Zelma Davis of C+C Music Factory (1970)

August 3: Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence (1910), Tony Bennett (1926), blues harp player Alex Randall (1934), Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires (1935), Roscoe Mitchell of The Art Ensemble of Chicago (1940), Beverly Lee of The Shirelles (1941), B. B. Dickerson of War (1949), John Graham of Earth, Wind & Fire (1951) guitarist Steve Hillage (1951), Andrew Gold (1951), James Hetfield of Metallica (1963), Ed Roland of Collective Soul (1963), Shirley Manson of Garbage (1966)

Departures:

July 28: cassette tapes (2008) Marguerite “Marge” Ganser of The Shangri-Las (1996), Muscle Shoals guitarist Eddie Hinton (1995), Johann Sebastian Bach (1750)

July 29: jazz bassist Art Davis (2007), Al McKibbon, jazz bassist with Dizzy Gillespie (2005), Anita Carter of the Carter Sisters (1999), Rare Earth percussionist Eddie Guzman (1993), pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake (1988), Gordon Mills, manager and songwriter for Tom Jones (1986), singer Cass Elliot of The Mamas & The Papas (1974), guitarist and vocalist Glenn Goins (1978)

July 30: swing & bebop saxophonist Eli “Lucky” Thompson (2005), Sun Studios founder Sam Phillips (2003), sax man Donald Myrick (1993)

July 31: Rob Jones of Wonder Stuff (1993), blues singer-saxophonist Benjamin Clarence “Bull Moose” Jackson (1989), Bob Horn, original host of TV’s Bandstand (1966), country singer-songwriter Jim Reeves (1964), Jim Reeves’ pianist-manager Dean Manuel (1964)

August 1: Irish singer Tommy Makem of The Clancy Brothers (2007), pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1997)

August 2: Ron Towson of The 5th Dimension (2001), Afrobeat star Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1997), Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs bassist David Martin (1987), Motown bassist James Jamerson (1983), former Pink Floyd road manager Peter “Puddy” Watts (1976), Brian Cole of The Association (1972)

August 3: Arthur Lee (2006), reedman Bob Tate (1993), Don Lang of The Frantic Five (1992), Richard Nickens of The Eldorados (1991)

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

It happened this week…

Toxic Web — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:00:06 +0000

This is the week that was in matters musical…

1888, the first noted use of mobile recording equipment occurs at the Crystal Palace in London, when a recording machine is set up in the press gallery to record a performance of “Israel in Egypt” during a Handel Festival …

1967, a worldwide audience of 40 million witnesses a satellite broadcast of The Beatles performing “All You Need is Love” … chiming in on backing vocals are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, and Keith Moon …

1968, the Small Faces album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake hits #1 on the U.K. album chart … the original album comes in a circular sleeve that is a parody of “Ogdens’ Nut-brown Flake” a brand of tobacco produced in Liverpool … the B-side features an original fairy tale about a boy called Happiness Stan, with narration in “Unwinese,” by gobbledygook expert Stan Unwin, who incorporates modern slang into his surreal narrative … this proves to be the group’s last album with Steve Marriott, who quits to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton …

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1969, The Jimi Hendrix Experience plays at the Denver Pop Festival, after which Hendrix makes the infamous announcement: “This is the last gig we’ll be playing together” … bassist Noel Redding quits the band … Mick Taylor makes his stage debut with The Rolling Stones at a concert in Rome … replaced by Ron Wood after his retirement in 1975, he holds the distinction of being the only Stones guitarist to quit the band and live …

1970, the cops in Niagara Falls discover Chubby Checker packing pot and some other illegal substances …

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1977, Elvis makes his last public appearance at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis … “Can’t Help Falling In Love” is the last song he sings … Elton John achieves a lifelong ambition when he becomes Chairman of the Watford Football Club …

1978, Peter Frampton suffers a broken arm and cracked ribs in a Bahamian auto wreck … perhaps this provided the inspiration for the lyric, “Oh won’t you show me the way” …

1985, John Lennon’s 1965 Rolls Phantom V limo, sporting a psychedelic paint job, fetches $3,006,385 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York … U.S. patent granted to Seymour Duncan for stacked single-coil humbucker pickup design … Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M.’s third album, enters Billboard‘s album chart, where it will peak at #28 …

1993, in what could easily be construed as a mercy marriage, the very beautiful Julia Roberts marries the not-quite-so-beautiful Lyle Lovett … like Cher and Greg Allman’s marriage, this one also tanks after two years … perhaps a pattern is emerging …

1994, five fans are shot and injured by a crazed gunman at the Glastonbury Festival …

1995, Pearl Jam pulls the plug on its current tour saying they don’t want to cooperate with monopolistic Ticketmaster…

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1998, Johnny Cash returns to the stage for the first time since being diagnosed with Shy-Drager Syndrome months earlier … he walks onstage surprising Kris Kristofferson who is singing “Sunday Morning Coming Down” at a Cash and Waylon Jennings tribute concert at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville … the song was the one a young and unknown Kristofferson had hand-delivered to Cash after landing a helicopter on his lawn in a creative attempt to get his music into the hands of someone who could help him gain recognition as a songwriter …

1999, Eric Clapton auctions off 100 of his guitars to raise funds for his Crossroads Center, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center in Antigua … among the guitars sold is his famous “Brownie,” which fetches a cool $497,500 …

2000, Michael Jackson is slapped with a lawsuit by German promoter Marcel Avram … the suit alleges that Jackson refused to perform two scheduled events … it is a small problem for Jackson compared with future trials he will face … nine people die and 24 are injured at a Pearl Jam concert at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival … but this time it’s not the fault of the band … the fatalities occur as the crowd surges toward the stage because the PA isn’t getting enough sound to the back …

2001, Liverpool renames the city’s airport after John Lennon … it’s the first time in U.K. history that an airport is named after a famous person … the new logo for the airport included the famous self-portrait by John Lennon and the strapline “above us only sky,” taken from the lyrics of Lennon’s “Imagine,” one of the most popular songs of all time …

2004, pop vixen Britney Spears and her boyfriend, dancer Kevin Federline, announce their engagement … the engagement comes about six months after Spears is granted an annulment to dissolve her Las Vegas marriage to a childhood friend … following the tradition established by Cher, Spears and Federline untie the knot after two years … rapper turned actor DMX is arrested at New York’s Kennedy Airport for allegedly attempting to steal a car and identifying himself as a federal agent … he is charged with possession of a weapon and crack … it must be some sort of misunderstanding … he was probably just researching a part where he plays a crack federal agent commandeering a vehicle …

2005, former guitarist for Static-X, Tripp Eisen, pleads guilty in an Orange County, California, court to having sex with a minor … the following October 7 he is arraigned on charges involving a 14 year-old girl that include among other things kidnapping and enticing a minor in New Jersey … he enters a not-guilty plea and is sprung on bail …

2007, James Blunt’s multimillion-selling ballad “You’re Beautiful” is voted the most irritating song of all time … Despite reaching number one in 11 countries and making the singer a star around the world, the track polled more votes than “Axel F” by Crazy Frog … other tracks in the top 10 included “Mmm Bop” by Hanson, “Mr. Blobby” by Mr. Blobby, and “The Birdie Song” by the Tweets … Hollywood music emporium Amoeba Music is paid a visit by none other than Sir Paul McCartney … the legendary former Beatle makes a rare appearance at the shop to play an intimate live gig … flying in from as far away as Japan to attend the free “secret” show, diehard Macca-maniacs camp out on Sunset Boulevard for three days… Sir Paul rewards their devotion with 90 minutes of Fab Four classics, songs off his hot-selling new Memory Almost Full album, and plenty of amusing stage banter and audience interaction … the Spice Girls, following a calculated publicity buildup, announce an agreement to get together for 11 concerts around the world … the shows will be their first concerts since breaking up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career … two stage hands die after part of the set from a Rolling Stones concert collapses on top of them while dismantling it …

2008, Celine Dion’s rendition of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” is given the dubious distinction of being the “Worst Ever Cover Song” in a Total Guitar magazine survey … editor Steven Lawson decries Dion’s version as “sacrilege” … the Canadian singer’s never released the song as a single, but performed it as a duet with Anastacia during the Live Divas Las Vegas concert six years ago … DO NOT WATCH THE SECOND VIDEO BELOW! …

2009, guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen is no longer a solo act … he marries Janie Liszewski, his girlfriend of three years … the 54-year-old groom’s 18-year-old son Wolfgang serves as best man, while brother Alex Van Halen, an ordained minister, officiates at the 20-minute, nondenominational service … among the 100 guests is Van Halen’s ex-wife, Valerie Bertinelli, whom he divorced after 25 years of marriage …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

June 23: June Carter, singer-songwriter, actor, comedienne, and wife of Johnny Cash (1929), British singer and actor, Adam Faith (1940), Stu Sutcliffe, original bassist in The Beatles (1940), Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter (1941), Paul Goddard of Atlanta Rhythm Section (1945), Steve Shelley, drummer with Sonic Youth (1962)

June 24: jazz and R&B sax player Jimmy Forest (1920), theatrical rocker Arthur Brown (1942), multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood of Traffic (1944), Jeff Beck (1944), Colin Blunstone of The Zombies (1945), Mick Fleetwood born Michael John Kells Fleetwood (1947), Dire Straits bassist John Illsley (1949), Terry Wilson AKA Astro of UB40 (1957), Curt Smith of Tears for Fears (1961), pop singer Glenn Medeiros (1970), Mario Calires of The Wallflowers (1973)

June 25: Clifton Chenier, king of zydeco accordion (1925), soul singer Eddie Floyd of “Knock on Wood” fame (1935), Harold Melvin of The Blue Notes (1939), Clint Warwick of The Moody Blues (1940), Johnnie Richardson, female half of R&B duo Johnnie & Joe (1940), Harry Womack of The Valentinos (1945), singer-songwriter Carly Simon (1945), Ian McDonald, founding member of King Crimson and Foreigner (1946), Allen Lanier of Blue Oyster Cult (1946), multi-instrumentalist Brian Macleod of Chilliwack (1952), Tim Finn of Split Enz (1952), David Paich of Toto (1954), George Michael (1963)

June 26: influential and prolific bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1898), Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, born Andreas Cornelius Van Kuijk (1909), The 5th Dimension’s Billy Davis Jr. (1938), Canned Heat’s Larry Taylor (1942), keyboardist-singer Georgie Fame, born Clive Powell (1943), Rindy Ross of Quarterflash (1951), The Clash’s Mick Jones (1955), singer-songwriter Chris Isaak (1956), Patty Smyth, lead singer of Scandal (1957), Terri Nunn of Berlin (1959), Colin Greenwood of Radiohead (1969), EMF drummer Mark Decloedt (1969), country singer Gretchen Wilson (1973)

June 27: hit songwriter Doc Pomus, born Jerome Solon Felder (1925), Squeeze drummer Gilson Lavis (1951), Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club (1958), country singer Lorrie Morgan (1959), Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies (1961), vocalist Ray Slijngaard (1971)

June 28: pianist-writer Arnold Shaw (1909), bluegrass guitarist Lester Flatt of The Foggy Mountain Boys AKA Flatt and Scruggs (1914), bassist Andy Couson of All About Eve (1963), pop singer Beverly Craven (1963)

June 29: Frank Kirkland, drummer with Bo Diddley (1927), Leonard Lee, of the pop duo Shirley and Lee (1936), singer Little Eva, born Eva Narcissus Boyd (1943), twins Derv and Lincoln Gordon of The Equals (1948), Ian Paice, drummer Deep Purple / Whitesnake (1948), Colin Hay, lead singer of Men at Work (1954), Five Star singer Stedman Pearson (1964), Nicole Scherzinger of Eden’s Crush (1978)

Departures:

June 23: bassist Pete Quaife of The Kinks (2010), John Novarese, owner of Hi Records (1996), Tony Romeo, producer of the Cowsills and Partridge Family (1995)

June 24: Ira Tucker Sr., lead singer of The Dixie Hummingbirds (2008), Hank Medress, lead singer of The Tokens (2007), Carlos “The King of Tango” Gardel (1935), opera singer Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones AKA “Black Patti” (1933)

June 25: Michael Jackson (2009), Sky Saxon, lead singer and founder of The Seeds, born Richard Marsh (2009), legendary producer Arif Mardin (2006), guitarist Bob Sanderson of The Royaltones (1994), Jimmy Soul, born James McCleese, of “If You Want To Be Happy” fame (1988), Hillel Slovak, original guitarist of The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1988), songwriter Boudleaux Bryant (1987), blues guitarist Pee Wee Crayton (1985), lyricist-composer-singer Johnny Mercer (1976)

June 26: songwriter Brandon Chase (1996), Pink Fairies guitarist Mick Wayne (1994), bebop trumpeter Clifford Brown (1956)

June 27: singer-actress Gale Storm (2009), bassist John Entwistle of The Who (2002), blues singer/guitarist Prez “Kidd” Kenneth (1995), Steve Peregrin Took, percussionist T-Rex (1980), guitarist Stefanie Sargent of 7 Year Bitch (1992), opera diva Carlotta Patti (1889)

June 28: Bill Aucoin, manager who discovered KISS (2009), American punk rocker G.G. Allin (1993), punk rocker Rob Graves (1990), Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers (1982)

June 29: jazz-blues organist Richard “Groove” Holmes (1991), Lowell George, slide guitarist and founder of Little Feat (1979), C&W singer Johnny Bond (1978), American singer/songwriter Tim Buckley (1975), pianist Shorty Long of The Ink Spots (1969), revolutionary alto sax and bass clarinet player Eric Dolphy (1964)

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