It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical…

1954, Elvis Presley officially ends his career as a truck driver when he signs his first record contract with Sun Records…

1955, “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets becomes the first rock-and-roll record to hit #1 on the national pop chart…

1956, Johnny Cash appears for the first time on the Grand Ole Opry…

1957, setting off a chain of events that will change the face of modern music, John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time … the encounter takes place at the Woolton Parish Church Garden show at Liverpool’s St. Peter’s Church … recalling the meeting years later, McCartney will say Lennon was drunk…

1962, the Rolling Stones play out for the first time at the Marquee Club in London … Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Mick Avery, and Dick Taylor constitute the lineup…

1967, in one of the strangest rock-and-roll pairings ever, the Jimi Hendrix Experience joins The Monkees’ North American tour in Jacksonville, FL … the teenybopper crowds don’t know what to make of Hendrix’s wild performances, resulting in the Experience leaving the tour after only a few dates…

1968, following a concert in New York, the Yardbirds break up … it won’t be long until Jimmy Page forms The New Yardbirds, which after fulfiling the final Yardbirds tour dates will change its name to Led Zeppelin…

1969, Eric Clapton’s new band Blind Faith makes its American concert debut at Madison Square Garden in New York City…

1976, pioneering punk outfit The Damned makes its live debut at London’s 100 Club…

1979, Chuck Berry is sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service after pleading guilty to tax evasion … Berry will perform benefit concerts as part of his community service…

1980, Led Zeppelin plays the last show of its European tour at the Eissporthalle in West Berlin … the show turns out to be the band’s swan song when a couple of months later John Bonham will be found dead … the band had planned to tour North America next…

1995, Jerry Garcia plays his final show with The Grateful Dead … the guitarist, vocalist, and founder of the band will die of a heart attack a month later while in a California rehab center…

1998, a Los Angeles judge issues a bench warrant for Scott Weiland when the Stone Temple Pilots singer fails to appear in court for a second time on drug possession charges … in what’s becoming a bad week for Weiland, he’s sentenced to three years probation and a stint in rehab in 2004 for a DUI arrest the previous October…

1999, Limp Bizkit leader Fred Durst is arrested in St. Paul, MN, for suspicion of aggravated assault following the band’s show at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium … during the performance, Durst’s bodyguard was attempting to remove a fan who had jumped onstage … venue security mistook the bodyguard for an unruly fan and attempted to remove him from the stage … at this point Durst allegedly kicked one of the guards in the head…

2002, the surviving members of The Doors announce that they will be joined by The Cult singer Ian Astbury at an upcoming concert at the California Motor Speedway…

2003, Jack White of the White Stripes breaks his finger in a car wreck in his hometown of Detroit … as a result of the injury, the band must cancel two European performances and reschedule their North American tour … White spends his recuperation time producing an album for country star Loretta Lynn, and posts a video clip of his finger surgery on the band’s website to prove the injury’s not a publicity stunt…

2004, in an interview with MTV.com, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor explains his penchant for incorporating big words into his lyrics … “I’m sorry, but there aren’t a lot of smart people out there … I try to throw in as many polysyllabic words as possible … it’s very cool to be able to do that and pass down the knowledge” … Slipknot fans run to the nearest dictionary to look up “polysyllabic”…

and that was the week that was.

Arrivals

July 6: Bill Haley (1925), Della Reese (1932), Gene Chandler of “Duke of Earl” fame (1937), Rik Elswit of Dr. Hook (1945), Nanci Griffith (1953), 50 Cent (1976)

July 7: Gustav Mahler (1860), blues pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins (1913), Tiny Grimes (1916), Doc Severinsen (1927), Mary Ford (1928), Joe Zawinul (1932), Ringo Starr (1940), David Hodo of the Village People (1947), Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt of Iron Butterfly (1948), Mark White of Spin Doctors (1962)

July 8: Louis Jordan (1908), Billy Eckstein (1914), pioneering rock ‘n roll pianist Johnnie Jones (1924), Earl Van Dyke (1930), Big Dee Irwin of The Pastels (1939), Jai Johnny Johanson of the Allman Brothers Band (1944), Prince (1958), Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode (1961), Toby Keith (1961), Joan Osborne (1962), Beck (1970)

July 9: jump blues singer Joe Liggins (1916), producer Lee Hazelwood (1929), Donald McPherson of the Main Ingredient (1941), Mitch Mitchell (1946), Bon Scott of AC/DC (1946), Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge (1954), Soft Cell’s Marc Almond (1959), Jim Kerr of Simple Minds (1959), Courtney Love (1964)

July 10: Carl Orff (1895), Ronnie James Dio (1940), Jerry Miller of Moby Grape (1943), Arlo Guthrie (1947), Dave Smalley of The Raspberries (1949), Greg Kihn (1950), Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys (1954), Bela Fleck (1958), Peter DiStefano of Porno for Pyros (1965), Jessica Simpson (1980)

July 11: Tab Hunter (1931), Thurston Harris (1931), Jeff Hanna of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1947), Bonnie Pointer (1950), Suzanne Vega (1959), Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi (1960), Li’l Kim (1975)

July 12: Oscar Hammerstein II (1895), Barbara Cowsill (1928), Van Cliburn (1934), blues guitarist Sammy Lawhorne (1935), Christine McVie (1943), John Wetton of Asia (1949), Eric Carr of KISS (1950), Liz Mitchell of Boney M (1952), Sandi Patti (1956), Soul Asylum’s Dan Murphy (1962), UB40’s Alan Duval (1963), John Petrucci of Dream Theater (1967)

Departures

July 6: Byrds bassist Clyde “Skip” Batten (2003), Roy Rogers (1998), “The Hustle” composer Van McCoy (1979), Louis Armstrong (1971), jazz bassist Scott LaFaro (1961)

July 7: folk singer Fred Neil (2001), Mia Zapata of The Gits (1993)

July 8: drummer Chaino (1999), Shiva singer Louise Dean (1995), Nico of The Velvet Underground (1988)

July 10: John Hammond Sr. (1987), Arthur Fiedler (1979), “Jelly Roll” Morton born Ferdinand Joseph Lemott (1941)

July 11: James Hill of The Fairfield Four (2000), Helen Forrest (1999), Louis Gottlieb (1996), Afro-Cuban jazz maestro Mario Bauza (1993), Hubert Johnson of The Contours (1981), George Gershwin (1937)

July 12: Sandy y Papo’s Luis “Papo” Deschamps (1999), Jimmie Driftwood (1998)