It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1878, seminal turntablist Thomas Edison receives a patent for the phonograph …

1958, the first Flying V is shipped from Gibson’s factory in Kalamazoo …

1963, teen idol Paul Anka, marries fashion model Anne de Zogheb in Paris … Anka’s “Having My Baby” would later earn the distinction of number 1 worst song of all time (as voted by CNN.com users) … Anka, who has five daughters with Anne, apparently had the good sense not to sing it in the delivery room while she was in labor … hence his name does not appear on our “Departures” list below …

1965, Keith Moon of The Who, former plaster salesman who upon hitting the big time spent the rest of his days plastered, breaks his manager’s dishwasher when he uses it to wash fruit … don’t ask …

1968, Pink Floyd cofounder, the oft confounded but brilliant Syd Barrett succumbs to mental illness and is replaced on guitar by David Gilmour …

1969, singer Vicky Jones is arrested on fraud charges after impersonating Aretha Franklin at a concert in Fort Meyers, Florida … apparently the charade was impressive … no one in the audience asked for their money back …

1972, preceding a very bright future, Pink Floyd premieres the album Dark Side of the Moon live in London during a four-day gig a full year prior to the album’s release …

1980, soon after reaching stardom, Bon Scott of AC/DC bites it in the back of a friend’s car after a long night of very heavy drinking … in a classic, if not clichéd rock ‘n’ roll crash-and-burn, the 33-year-old singer passes out and dies by choking on his own vomit …

1981, in one of the most absurd events in the history of music, George Harrison is ruled to be liable for “subconscious plagiarism” in a civil case regarding his 1970 song “My Sweet Lord,” and the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine” … the judge orders that $587,000 be paid to ABKCO Music …

1987, illicit substances take Sly Stone higher but his different strokes turn into three strikes when police bring him down … two outstanding warrants on drug charges land him in the pokey in LA … by the end of the year he’ll be doing hard time on cocaine charges …

1995, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee puts his 1986 marriage with the lovely Heather Locklear behind him and marries Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson on a beach in Cancun … according to onlookers, Anderson, clad only in a formal white bikini, could barely contain her increasingly buoyant spirits … Diane Warren receives the Voice of Music Award, one of the American Society of Composers and Performers’ (ASCAP) highest honors … Warren has written songs for Whitney Houston, Elton John, Diana Ross, Ace of Bass, and Ziggy Marley, among a hundred others …

1996, Barry Manilow is involved in a five-car collision on the I-10 freeway in Los Angeles … Manilow, who never actually penned the hit “I Write the Songs” for which he won a Grammy 19 years earlier to the day, found more immediate use for his writing skills by signing autographs for police, accident victims, and fans … apparently Dianne Warren writes the songs while Barry’s out cruising in his Land Rover …

1998, country singer Lorrie Morgan issues a strongly worded statement over an article in the tabloid Star magazine that claims she had a “wild ride” in the back seat of a limousine with President Bill Clinton … Morgan retorts, “The only accurate information in regard to my relationship with President Clinton was that I joined him onstage for the Christmas tree lighting in Washington – I have never met him in a private situation” … at the BRIT Awards in London, Danber Nobacon of Chumbawamba dumps a bucket of ice water on U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott … Nobacon later claims he was making a political statement but nobody is quite able to decipher what the statement is … in retrospect, perhaps the non-statement could have been issued in a more tuxedo-friendly fashion with a Chumbawamba performance of “Ice Ice Baby,” which certainly would have been equally chilling … no, theirs goes ding, ding, ding, dingy ding-ding; ours goes ding, ding, ding, ding, dingy Danber …

1999, In response to a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by former Spin magazine editor Craig Marks charging that he was beaten by two of Marilyn Manson’s bodyguards, Marilyn Manson files a countersuit for defamation of character … apparently a legal menu choice since defining “character” might prove a tad difficult for the alleged devil-worshipping Goth rocker who takes his last name from mass-murderer Charles Manson … rumor has it that in an effort to promote a more benign image for judge and jury, Manson, whose first name honors Marilyn Monroe, is considering changing his last name to Mansfield thus evoking the image of both of Hollywood’s favorite blond bombshells of yesterday … after all, he’s got the lips for it, and the rest is just an implant or two away … number one with a bullet must have taken on new meaning for Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who, in an apparent attempt to prevent his initials changing from ODB to DOA, is arrested for wearing body armor … a forbidden garment thanks to his previous arrest record … fortunately for the hip-hop community, monitors with Kevlar speaker cones are not on ODB’s forbidden list … though they are difficult to hide behind … Aretha Franklin issues a statement taking responsibility for a “handful of suits … (she has) paid responsibly and in a timely way.” She attacks as “malicious and vicious” a story in the Detroit Free Press saying that 30 lawsuits have been filed against her since 1988 by creditors seeking payment … where’s Vicky Jones’ Aretha impersonation now, when the queen of soul could really use a stand-in? …

2003, a crowded nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, at which Great White is performing, goes up in flames, ignited by onstage pyrotechnics … 100 are killed and nearly 200 are injured … it’s the worst concert tragedy in rock history …

2005, finding a new way to crank out the hits after a lull in his career, Kid Rock is arrested for punching a DJ at a Nashville strip club and is released on $3,000 bail … DJ Jerry Campos reports the assault after Kid Rock (in town to perform the song “I Saw the Light” at a memorial service for songwriter Merle Kilgore), tried to punch out Campos’ lights, hitting him twice in the face and breaking his glasses … “Everything is wonderful. It was a beautiful night,” is the Kid’s response as he leaves the justice center in Music City … we hear that Kid Rocky is in training for his next tour … hey, don’t laugh, some of those strip club DJs are pretty tough …

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

Arrivals:
February 15: Mick Avory of the Kinks (1944), Denny Zager of Zager & Evans (1944), John Helliwell of Supertramp (1945), David Brown of Santana (1947), Melissa Manchester (1951), Mikey Craig of Culture Club (1960), Ali Campbell of UB40 (1969), Brandon Boyd of Incubus (1976)

February 16: Bill Doggett (1916), Sonny Bono (1935), James Ingram (1956), Andy Taylor of Duran Duran (1961)

February 17: Bobby “Tossin’ and Turnin'” Lewis (1933), Gene Pitney (1941), Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (1972)

February 18: Yoko Ono (1933), Herman Santiago of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (1941), Dennis DeYoung of Styx (1947), Mark Andes of Spirit (1948), Juice Newton (1952), Robbie Bachman of BTO (1953), Dr. Dre (1965)

February 19: Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers, both of the Miracles (1940), Tommie Iommi (1948), Francis Buckholz of the Scorpions (1950), Seal aka Sealhenry Samuel (1963), Phish drummer John “Fish” Fishman (1965)

February 20: pianist Jimmy Yancey (1898), jazz songstress Nancy Wilson (1937), Barbara Ellis of The Fleetwoods (1939), Buffy Sainte-Marie (1941), Lew Soloff of Blood, Sweat, and Tears (1944), Alan Hull of Lindisfarne (1945), Jerome “J.” Geils (1946), Walter Becker of Steely Dan (1950), Randy California of Spirit (1951), Jon Brant of Cheap Trick (1954), Ian Brown of The Stone Roses (1963), Kurt Cobain (1967), Brian Littrell of Backstreet Boys (1975)

February 21: Andres Segovia (1893), Guy Mitchell aka Al Cernik (1927), Nina Simone (1933), Bobby Charles (1938), David Geffen (1943), Talking Head Jerry Harrison (1949), Mary Chapin Carpenter (1958), Ranking Roger aka Roger Charlery of The English Beat (1961), Sublime’s Eric Wilson (1970), Charlotte Church (1986)

Departures:
February 15: George Suranovich, drummer for LA rock band Love (1990), Jimmy Holiday, singer and songwriter for Ray Charles (1987), Ethel Merman (1984), Mike Bloomfield (1981), blues harp player Little Walter (1968), Nat “King” Cole (1965)

February 16: Sid Feller, producer-arranger with Ray Charles (2006), soul singer Doris Troy (2004), folk-blues guitarist Walter “Brownie” McGhee (1996), Hombres drummer John Hunter (1976)

February 17: percussionist and bandleader Ray Barretto (2006), Bill Cowsill, lead singer of the Cowsills (2005), Thelonious Monk (1982), Zenon DeFleur guitarist with punk group Count Bishops (1979)

February 18: Miss Toni Fisher (1999), Eddie Williams, bassist for Johnny Moore and The Three Blazers (1995), Bob Stinson of The Replacements (1995) Ollie McLaughlin, producer for Del Shannon (1984)

February 19: Ty Longley of Great White (2003), Hee-Haw’s Grandpa Jones (1998), Bon Scott of AC/DC (1980)

February 20: Lighthouse vocalist Bob McBride (1998), composer Toru Takemitsu (1996), Hal Worthington, leader of the soul band The Unifics (1990), Cornelius “Tenoo” Coleman, drummer for Fats Domino (1973)

February 21: Mud singer Les Gray (2004), rockabilly singer Malcolm Yelvington (2001), English vocalist Ronnie Hilton (2001), Musical Youth bassist Patrick Waite (1993), DJ Murray “The K” Kaufman (1982), reggae singer Jacob Miller (1980), Janet Vogel, singer with The Skyliners (1980), Nolan Strong of The Diablos (1977)