It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical…

1933, knowing he will soon die of tuberculosis and wanting to provide for his family, Jimmy Rodgers, aka the Singing Brakeman and the Blue Yodeler, begins his final recording sessions with Peer records … Rodgers is accompanied by a nurse throughout the sessions and rests on a cot between songs … he dies two days after laying down his last tracks…

1955, on the second night of a back-to-back at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, Elvis Presley sparks the first riot of his burgeoning career with the phrase, “Girls, I’ll see you backstage” … the female portion of the 14,000 strong audience goes into such a frenzy that the once-and-future-King’s clothes and shoes are torn from his body as he tries to escape … after witnessing the event Colonel Tom Parker is convinced of Elvis’ marketability…

1956, Buddy Holly gets fitted for his first pair of contact lenses … as fate would have it, the creator of the Elvis Costello look can’t stand the eye irritation and sticks with his trademark spectacles…

1958, Jerry Lee Lewis is granted a divorce from his second wife … six months after marrying his third wife, and second cousin, Myra Gale Brown…

1969, a fire breaks out in a grocery store next to the Fillmore East while the Who are playing there … one of New York’s finest in plain clothes mounts the stage with the intent of grabbing the mike and warning the crowd of impending flames … Pete Townshend mistakes the cop for an over-enthusiastic fan and aggressively ejects him from the stage … when the word finally gets out over the P.A., the crowd thinks it’s a hoax until the cops forcibly remove Townshend from the stage … Townshend spends the night in an NYC pokey for his mistake…

1980, a Memphis court indicts Dr. George C. Nichopoulos on 14 counts of overprescribing drugs to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, plus nine other patients … in 1977 alone, Dr. Nick prescribed 10,000 hits of amphetamines, barbiturates, narcotics, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, laxatives, and hormones for Presley … as Elvis’ tour physician, Dr. Nick would leave home with three locked suitcases full of prescription drugs … the physician claims that he has struggled mightily to control the King’s drug intake, and even contracted with Knoll, the manufacturers of Dilaudid, to manufacture a thousand inactive pills to fool Presley … nonetheless, the indictment results in 22 years of legal wrangling and, ultimately, the end of Dr. Nick’s medical career…

1986, Elvis Costello and Pogues singer-bassist Cait O’Riordan take the matrimonial plunge … their marriage comes on the heels of “Rum Sodomy & the Lash,” the Pogues’ latest release…

1993, Barry White, Bette Midler, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers all appear as guest voices for their respective cartoon counterparts on the season finale of The Simpsons…

2000, The Artist announces that he will reclaim the name Prince, ending a seven-year period during which his legal name was an unpronouncable symbol … he originally changed his name June 7, 1993, as a legal means of escaping the reaches of a too-controlling record and publishing contract … the contract with Warner-Chappel (Time Warner) expired on December 31, 1999, freeing him to use his real name again … the symbol, which is an amalgam of the male, female, and soapstone alchemy symbols, is retained as a logo…

2002, Dionne Warwick is arrested at Miami International Airport when she attempts to smuggle eleven joints aboard the plane in her lipstick case…

2004, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco completes a stint in rehab to kick an addiction to painkillers he developed while battling migraines … Tweedy’s stay had forced the band to cancel a handful of tour dates, including a stop at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California … two weeks after he checks out of the Chicago-area treatment center the band will hit the road to tour behind the album A Ghost Is Born–its fifth…

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals
May 11: Irving Berlin (1888), Who manager Kit Lambert (1935), jazz pianist-composer Carla Bley (1938), Eric Burdon (1941), Les Chadwick of Gerry and the Pacemakers (1943), Art of Noise’s Jonathan Jeczalik (1955)

May 12: Burt Bacharach (1928), singer-songwriter Billy Swan (1942), Ian Dury (1942), Ian McLagan of Small Faces (1945), Steve Winwood (1948), Billy Squier (1950), Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn (1955), Billy Duffy of The Cult (1959), Ray Gillen (1959)

May 13: Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips (1926), Ritchie Valens (1941), Mary Wells (1943), “Magic” Dick Salwitz of The J.Geils Band (1945), Peter “Overend” Watts of Mott the Hoople (1947), Stevie Wonder born Steveland Morris (1950), Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac (1950), Paul Thompson of Roxy Music (1951), Darius Carlos Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish (1966)

May 14: Bobby Darin born Walden Robert Cassotto (1936), Jack Bruce (1943), Derek Leckenby of Herman’s Hermits (1943), David Byrne (1952), Ian Astbury of The Cult (1962), C.C. DeVille of Poison (1962), Fabrice Morvan of Milli Vanilli (1966), Mike Inez of Alice in Chains (1966), Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block (1969), Freaky Tah born Raymond Rogers (1971), Natalie Appleton of All Saints (1973), Shanice (1973)

May 15: Eddy Arnold (1918), Trini Lopez (1937), K.T. Oslin (1942), Graham Goble of the Little River Band (1947), Brian Eno born Brian Peter St. George De La Salle Eno (1948), Dennis Fredericksen of Toto (1951), Mike Oldfield (1953), Prince Be of PM Dawn (1970), Ahmet Zappa (1974)

May 16: Liberace born Wladziu Valentino Liberace (1919), Betty Carter born Lillie Mae Jones (1930), Billy Cobham (1944), Robert Fripp (1946), The Chiffons’ Barbara Lee (1947), Nazareth’s Darrell Sweet (1947), Iron Maiden’s Paul Di’anno (1959), Krist Novoselic (1965), Janet Jackson (1966), New Edition’s Ralph Tresvant 1968)

May 17: Taj Mahal (1942), Jesse Winchester (1944), Bill Bruford (1949), George Johnson of The Brothers Johnson (1953), Paul D’Anno of Iron Maiden (1959), Enya (1961), Page McConnell of Phish (1963), Dave Abbruzzese (1964), Trent Reznor (1965), Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block (1970)

Departures
May 11: singer-songwriter John Whitehead (2004), Robert Nesta Marley (1981)

May 12: Perry Como (2001)

May 13: Bob Wills (1975)

May 14: Frank Sinatra (1998), Keith Relf of the Yardbirds (1976), Martin Lamble of Fairport Convention (1969)

May 16: Sammy Davis Jr. (1990)

May 17: Bruce Fairbairn (1999), Johnny “Guitar” Watson (1996), Lawrence Welk (1992)