This is the week that was in matters musical …
1937, the legendary Golden Gate Quartet cuts a mind-blowing 14 gospel tracks in two hours during a Charlotte, North Carolina, recording session …
1955, Ted McCarty, working for 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 …
1957, ABC TV’s American Bandstand with its forever-young DJ Dick Clark makes its national TV debut …
1958, Billboard publishes its first Hot 100 chart … Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” nails the top spot …
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 …
1965, Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five suffers two fractured ribs when he’s pulled off the stage by an enthusiastic fan …
1968, from the One Hit Wonders Department, Mason Williams reaches #2 on the pop chart with his guitar instrumental “Classical Gas” … a well-traveled folksinger from the Southwest, Williams becomes a back-up musician and later Emmy-winning comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers … Williams describes “Classical Gas” as “half flamenco, half Flatt & Scruggs, and half classical” … one TV performance of his hit has Williams playing a see-through Plexiglas guitar with goldfish swimming in it … The Doors hit #1 with the pop-esque “Hello, I Love You,” which causes critics to accuse Morrison & Co. of selling out … not only that, but the tune sounds a lot like The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night” …
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 … meanwhile in London, photographer Ian Macmillan gets on a stepladder in the middle of 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 that ends up as the cover for Abbey Road, which, because The Fabs (as George called them) are so famous, has no other graphics … The Newport Pop Festival features The Byrds, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, The Chambers Brothers, and two acts from the previous year’s Monterey International Pop Festival – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Quicksilver Messenger Service …
1970, Janis Joplin springs for a headstone to mark Bessie Smith’s grave … the blues singer was one of her idols …
1972, Derek & The Dominos reach #10 on the charts with “Layla” … their only hit, it qualifies Eric Clapton (in his guise as Derek) as a bonafide member of the One Hit Wonders club … co-written by Clapton, “Layla” is one of the all-time classic rock favorites and features the slide guitar playing of Duane Allman and a wonderful piano-led coda written by Dominos drummer Jim Gordon … the group was ill-fated: Clapton slides into heroin addiction, bassist Carl Radle dies from a drug overdose, and Gordon is serving a life prison sentence for murdering his mother … keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Whitlock came through relatively unscathed, although he had to watch a terrific group fall apart while recording an unfinished second album …
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, Robert Plant and his family are injured in an auto wreck on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes … meanwhile Hank Williams Jr. tumbles 500 feet down a Montana mountain … after two year’s worth of surgeries, he resumes his career …
1984, “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 …
1986, David Crosby is released from prison after doing time on drug and weapon charges …
1992, Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro dies from cardiac arrest triggered by an allergic reaction to an insecticide he is spraying in his garden … meanwhile at a Montreal concert, citing a sore throat, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses cuts short the band’s set causing many of the 55,000 fans in attendance to riot … this is a fitting end to a concert in which Metallica had also cut short their set after singer James Hetfield suffered third-degree burns from a pyro effect …
1996, former Motley Crue 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 …
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 …
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, the Illinois Attorney General’s office files suit against the Dave Matthews Band for dumping human waste from a tour bus into the Chicago River and onto a tour boat passing below … it’s later determined that the band wasn’t directly involved, the foul act having been committed by a tour bus driver … “Super Freak” singer Rick James dies of a heart attack in his sleep … an autopsy reveals that there were at least nine drugs in his system including cocaine, valium, vicodin, and methamphetamine … because none of the substances were found in lethal quantities, his death is ruled as accidental …
2006, former Love guitarist-leader Arthur Lee dies from leukemia … The Love album Forever Changes from 1967 is consistently voted one of the 100 best rock albums of all time in surveys of critics and listeners … though much respected by fellow musicians, his career never flourished largely due to personal eccentricities … following his release from prison in 2001 after serving six years on weapons charge, Lee began touring to much acclaim … a CD and DVD of the complete performance of Forever Changes was released in 2003 … current artists such as Yo La Tengo and Brian Jonestown Massacre point to Arthur Lee’s music as being a significant influence …
2007, when a ballsy female concertgoer reaches out and grabs Tim McGraw’s nether regions at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, his missus tells the errant fan in no uncertain terms that that sort of behavior is frowned upon in them there parts (no pun intended) … also this week, 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” …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals: July 31: Bob Welch of Fleetwood Mac (1946), Karl Green of Herman’s Hermits (1946), singer Gary Lewis (1946), ELO’s Hugh MacDowell (1953), Daniel Ash of Love and Rockets (1957), Bill Berry of R.E.M. (1958) Norman Cook of The Housemartins (1963), Fatboy Slim (1963), Coldplay’s Will Champion (1978) August 1: Francis Scott Key (1778), Piano Slim aka Robert T. Smith (1928), Ramblin’ Jack Elliot born Elliott Charles Adnopoz (1931), Jerry Garcia (1942), Geoff Britton of Wings (1943), Boz Burrell of Bad Company (1946), Rick Anderson of The Tubes (1947), Rick Coonce of The Grass Roots (1947), Tommy Bolin (1951), Andrew Gold (1951), BTO’s Tim Bachman (1951), bluesman Robert Cray (1953), Joe Elliott of Def Leppard (1960), Public Enemy’s Chuck D (1960), Coolio (1963), Adam Duritz of Counting Crows (1964), Ashley Angel of O-Town (1981) August 2: big band singer Helen Morgan (1900), “Big” Walter Price (1917), country singer Hank Walters (1933), country star Hank Cochran (1935), Garth Hudson of The Band (1937), Edward Patten of Gladys Knight & The Pips (1939), Doris Coley Kenner of The Shirelles (1941), guitarist Larry Coryell (1943), steel guitarist Hank DeVito (1948), guitarist Andy Fairweather-Low (1948) Fat Larry (1949), Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash (1950), Clive Wright of Cock Robin (1953), Apollonia born Patricia Kotero (1961), 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) 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 Maire Ni Bhraonian (1952), Mark O’Connor (1962), 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 (1954), Pat Smear of Foo Fighters (1959), Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive (1959), Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys (1964) August 6: The Ravens’ Jimmy Ricks (1924), jazz bassist Charlie Haden (1937), Isaac Hayes (1938), Judy Craig of The Chiffons (1946), guitarist Allan Holdsworth (1948), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1951), Randy DeBarge (1958), Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (1972) Departures: July 31: Jim Reeves (1964), Jim Reeves’ pianist-manager Dean Manuel (1964) August 1: Irish singer Tommy Makem of The Clancy Brothers (2007), pianist Svyatoslav Richter (1997), Joe “The Honeydripper” Liggins (1987), rockabilly pioneer Johnny Burnette (1964) August 2: Ron Towson of The 5th Dimension (2001), Afrobeat star Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1997), 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) 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: 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), The Who’s first manager Pete Meadon (1978), country guitarist Luther Perkins (1968), one-man blues band Joe Hill Louis (1957) August 6: Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti (2007), jazz bassist Keter Betts (2005), Cuban legend Ibrahim Ferrer (2005), Rick James (2004), the U.K.’s answer to Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella (1998), new wave singer Klaus Nomi (1983), Memphis Minnie (1973), trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (1931)