This is the week that was in matters musical…
1814, Francis Scott Key pens the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” … the song will be adopted as the U.S. national anthem over 100 years later on March 3, 1931, and continues to be among the most badly butchered vocal exercises to this day…
1970, 27-year-old Jimi Hendrix dies in a basement bedroom at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill Gate, London … the room is rented to Monika Danneman who later claims that she and Jimi were to be married … he has taken about nine hits of quinalbarbitone and is already quite dead when the medics arrive, despite Danneman’s later claims that he had been alive at that time … the coroner’s report cites “inhalation of vomit due to barbiturate intoxication” as the cause of death … in 1993 the investigation into Hendrix’s death is reopened by Scotland Yard in order to clear up discrepancies as to how and when the ambulance was called … Danneman is vilified in books and other media and in 1996 commits suicide after losing a libel case brought by Kathy Etchingham, who originally reopened the Hendrix case…
1973, Gram Parsons of the Byrds dies after a fatal combination of alcohol and morphine in Joshua Tree, California … his coffin is stolen from the airport by his manager, Phil Kaufman, and a former Byrds roadie before it can be sent to New Orleans for a family burial … according to Kaufman, he and Parsons had made a pact months earlier that when one of them died “the survivor would take the other guy’s body out to Joshua Tree, have a few drinks, and burn it” … the two make their way into the desert night after toasting their departed friend at a local bar, pour five gallons of gasoline onto the body, and light it … the fire is spotted quickly, before the cremation is complete … Kaufman will be found and charged with stealing a coffin days later, and sentenced to pay $750 for the casket…
1973, Jim Croce, who made his big break with machismo songs “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” and “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” meets his fate in a twin-engine prop plane when it hits a tree on takeoff, killing everyone aboard…
1977, Marc Bolan of T. Rex is killed outside of London when his intoxicated wife crashes their mini-GT into a tree…
1978, The Grateful Dead do a three-night stand at the Son Et Lumiere Theater in Giza, Egypt, with the Great Pyramids as a backdrop…
1981, Pink Floyd begin production on the film version of The Wall…
1983, the members of KISS appear on MTV sans their trademark makeup … the band had already lost original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and sought to reinvent themselves for the ’80s … the ploy seemed to work, as their next release Lick it Up became their first platinum album in four years…
1984, the burgeoning MTV network holds its first Video Music Awards ceremony at New York’s Radio City Music Hall … the show is co-hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd and honors the top music videos of the year … the event is conceived as a hip alternative to the Grammys … winners are awarded “Moonman” trophies that depict an astronaut with an American flag, one of the network’s earliest icons…
1990, the Department of Labor slaps Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park with a $20,000 fine … the singer–whose hit song “9 to 5” complained of an overbearing boss–had been overworking teenage staff members of the park…
1991, Guns ‘n Roses release Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II … the albums are at times a departure from the raw, riff-laden rock of the band’s debut, Appetite for Destruction, with songs like the epic ballad “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry” showing the band’s softer side … the albums will both go platinum within two months, and secure Guns’ place as the biggest rock band on the planet until Nirvana arrives the following year…
1995, Paul McCartney’s hand-written lyrics to The Beatles’ classic “Getting Better” sell for a cool quarter-million dollars at a Sotheby’s auction…
1998, for the first time in 24 years, the members of ’70s British rock band Mott The Hoople get back together to perform at the Virgin Megastore in London … also this week in ’98, an airliner is forced to make an unscheduled landing in Denver as an extremely intoxicated passenger goes berserk after meeting Hootie and the Blowfish … the man had been pestering the band for autographs and advice, and blew up after being removed from the first-class area where the band was seated…
2001, McFarlane Toys, the brainchild of the Spawn comic book’s creator Todd McFarlane, continues its line of rock star toys with the release of Metallica action figures…
2003, the ever-dramatic Billy Corgan announces that his latest band Zwan is no more … “I really enjoyed my experience with Zwan, but at the end of the day, without that sense of deeper family loyalty, it just becomes like anything else”…
2004, police in Denver, Colorado arrest a man for criminal impersonation and theft after he walked into a local bank claiming to be Mike McCready of Pearl Jam … he went on to tell patrons that Pearl Jam would be playing a benefit concert nearby that weekend, and that he would sell them fictional $1,000 tickets for a mere 20 bucks … a female employee of the bank called her husband, a big fan of the band, to tell him about the tickets … the savvy fan had heard of the scam, and had his wife promptly notify the police … the man had apparently pulled the scam in Vegas, New York, Miami, and New Mexico despite looking nothing like McCready … also this week in 2004, Johnny Ramone dies in his his Los Angeles home after five years battling prostate cancer … Ramone passes surrounded by his wife Linda Cummings and friends Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, singer Rob Zombie and his wife Sherrie Zombie, Lisa Marie Presley, Pete Yorn, Vincent Gallo, and Talia Shire…
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals
September 14: composer Johann Michael Haydn (1737), Archibald born Leon T. Gross (1912), “Heartbreak Hotel” writer Mae Boren Axton (1914), Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Free’s Paul Kossoff (1950), Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (1955), Kay Gee of Naughty by Nature (1970), Everclear’s Craig Montoya (1970)
September 15: Roy Acuff (1903), Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1928), Vic Venus (1928), Les Braid of The Swinging Blue Jeans (1941), Lee Dorman of Iron Butterfly (1942), George Howard of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes (1957), Mitch Dorge of Crash Test Dummies (1960)
September 16: Florence Greenberg (1913), B. B. King (1925), Bernard Calvert of The Hollies (1943), Betty Kelly of Martha and The Vandellas (1944), Kenny Jones of The Small Faces and The Who (1948), Wire’s Colin Newman (1954), Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones (1956), Richard Marx (1963), Marc Anthony (1968)
September 17: composer Gustav Holst of The Planets fame (1874), Hank Williams (1923), Bill Black (1926), LaMonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension (1940), Steely Dan drummer Jimmy Hodder (1947), Fee Waybill of The Tubes (1950), Chrissie Hynde (1951), BeBe Winans (1962), Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian (1968), Vinnie Brown of Naughty By Nature (1970), Maile Misajoin of Eden’s Crush (1976), Chuck Comeau of Simple Plan (1979)
September 18: pop singer Jimmie Rodgers (1933), Frankie Avalon (1939), Kerry Livgren of Kansas (1949), Dee Dee Ramone (1952), Joanne Catherall of Human League (1962), Ian Spice of Breathe (1966), Ricky Bell of Bell Biv Devoe (1967)
September 19: Brook Benton (1931), Beatles manager Brian Epstein (1934), Nick Massi of The Four Seasons (1935), Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers (1940), songwriter Paul Williams (1940), Mama Cass Elliot (1943), Freda Payne (1945), David Bromberg (1945), Lol Creme of 10cc (1947), Daniel Lanois (1951), Nile Rodgers of Chic (1952), Trisha Yearwood (1964)
September 20: Gogi Grant (1924), Eric Gale (1939), John Panozzo of Styx (1948), Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins (1959), Cowboy of the Furious Five (1960), Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme (1966), Matthew and Gunnar Nelson – twin sons of Ricky Nelson (1967), Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden (1968), Rick Woolstenhulme of Lifehouse (1979)
Departures
September 14: crooner-actor Anthony Newley (1999), R&B vocalist Johnny Adams (1998), bluesman Walter “Furry” Lewis (1981)
September 15: jazz pianist Bill Evans (1980)
September 16: the legendary Johnny Ramone (2004), Izadora Rhodes of Weather Girls (2004), CBS producer Tom Wilson (1978), Marc Bolan of T-Rex (1977), opera diva Maria Callas (1977), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1966)
September 17: Rob Tyner of MC5 (1991), Dave Patillo of The Red Caps (1967)
September 18: Charlie Fox (1998), Jimmy Witherspoon (1997), Roy Milton (1983), Jimi Hendrix (1970)
September 19: Skeeter Davis (2004), Australian folkie Slim Dusty (2003), Rich Mullins (1997), Motown arranger and keyboardist Earl Van Dyke (1992), Gram Parsons (1973)
September 20: Nick Traina (1997), Steve Goodman (1984), Jim Croce (1973), Maury Muehleisen of Jim Croce’s band (1973), Red Foley (1968)