This is the week that was in matters musical…
Another two blues greats, Jimmy Reed and Stevie Ray Vaughan passed away this week.
1968, The Who drummer Keith Moon caps a truly bacchanalian 21st birthday bash by driving a Lincoln Continental into the pool at a Holiday Inn in Flint, MI … also this week, The Beatles release the single “Hey Jude” which eclipses “Like a Rolling Stone” as the longest single to receive 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 in over 12 countries … the recording took two days and involved a 36-piece orchestra that 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, including the symphony…
1970, 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 … also this week, Duane Allman begins sessions as a member of Derek & The Dominos … Eric Clapton praises Allman as the catalyst in a double-album project that is completed in only 10 days…
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…
1981, some simpering loser whose name we won’t mention is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of John Lennon…
1986, Paul Simon releases his landmark Graceland album…
1989, Izzy Stradlin is arrested in Phoenix for causing a public disturbance … he was on a flight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis when the plane made an unscheduled landing in Phoenix just to dump him off … he verbally abused a flight attendant, urinated on the floor, and smoked in the non-smoking section of the plane … Izzy was apparently angry about the potty queue…
1994, Dave Abruzzese quits Pearl Jam … d’oh!…
1994, Jimmy Buffett loses control of his plane on takeoff from Nantucket, MA … it flips and splashes down in the cold North Atlantic but Buffett is able to swim to safety … parrot heads everywhere breathe a sigh of relief…
1995, in a landmark rock ‘n’ roll event, veteran rocker Neil Young headlines the Reading Festival with Seattle’s Pearl Jam backing him up….
1996, Issac 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”…
1998, the little sister John Lennon had been told of but was never able to find, materializes in the person of 53-year-old Ingrid Pedersen … she has been waiting for the death of her adoptive mother before coming forward…
2003, 200 fans are ejected from the Charlotte, North Carolina, Ozzfest for alcohol and drug use … the show started at around 10AM and the first group of partied-out attendees was ushered out just after noon, proving Ozzy Osbourne fans are not into pacing themselves…
2004, Queen becomes the first Western rock act to have their music officially released in Iran … the record is a hits collection carefully combed over by authorities … the band gets the seal of approval from Iran despite the fact that singer Freddie Mercury was gay and homosexuality is deemed a crime by the Islamic government … Mercury was of Iranian descent and prior to this release Queen’s music was surreptitiously and rampantly bootlegged … the government-edited album booklet describes “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the story of a young man who accidentally kills someone and sells his soul to the devil to escape punishment, but on the night before his execution he calls out to God in Arabic and so regains his soul from Satan … riiight…
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals
August 24: Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (1905), 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), Joe Chambers of The Chambers Brothers (1942), 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)
August 25: Charlie Burse of The Memphis Jug Band (1901), Leonard Bernstein (1918), Wayne Shorter (1933), Walter Williams of The O’Jays (1942), jazz guitar phenom Pat Martino (1944), 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), Jo Dee Messina (1969)
August 26: Jimmy 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), 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), Yolanda Adams (1962), Tony Kanal of No Doubt (1970), Mase (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), Charlie Parker (1920), Dinah Washington (1924), 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), G.G. Allin (1956), Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Frazer (1958), Michael Jackson (1958), 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 (1953), Sir Horace Gentleman of The Specials (1954), Martin Jackson of Swing Out Sister (1958), drummer Nicky Hammerhead (1960), Rich Cronan of LFO (1974)
Departures
August 24: Gene Page (1998), Doug Stegmeyer (1995), Jesse Bolian (1994), Larry Londin (1992), bluesman L.C. Greene (1985), Louis Prima (1978)
August 25: Aaliyah (2001), Ronnie White of The Miracles (1995), DJ and rapper Scott LaRock (1987), Lee Hays of The Weavers (1981), bandleader Stan Kenton (1979)
August 26: Laura Branigan (2004), Ronnie White of The Miracles (1995), zydeco squeezebox star Rockin’ Dopsie (1993), “Professor” Eddie Lusk (1992), Lee Hays of The Weavers, Jimmy Forrest (1980)
August 27: Stevie Ray Vaughan (1990), Bob School (1975), Brian Epstein (1967)
August 28: Gene Knight (1992), Ronnie Self (1981)
August 29: Wee Willie Williams (1999), Charlie Feathers (1998), “Waxie Maxie” Silverman (1989), country star Archie Campbell (1987), Guy Stevens (1981), blues legend Jimmy Reed (1976)
August 30: Joe Berry (2004), Swedish producer Denniz Pop aka Dag Volle (1998), Dwayne Goettel (1995), Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground (1995), Thomas Sylvester aka “Papa” Dee Allen of War (1988)