This is the week that was in matters musical …
1935, musical chameleon Johnny “Guitar” Watson is born in Houston, Texas … throughout his career the monstrously talented singer, guitarist, and keyboardist constantly reinvents his persona … in 1952 he cuts a reverb-drenched instrumental called “Space Guitar” that anticipates psychedelic guitar by 15 years … as a West Coast bluesman he is known as a blazing, inventive soloist with a stinging tone and a penchant for double-entendre lyrics … his “Gangster of Love” will be covered by Steve Miller … in the 1970s Watson recasts himself as a pimped-out hipster waxing smash disco hits like “A Real Mother for Ya” … after dropping out sight in the late ’80s, Watson makes a triumphant return with his 1994 album, Bow Wow … in 1996 he dies onstage during a Japanese tour …
1958, 14-year-old George Harrison demonstrates his guitar prowess by playing the Bill Justus instrumental “Raunchy” for an impressed John Lennon and Paul McCartney while the three are riding a Liverpool bus … he’s invited to join their group, The Quarrymen, thus forming the front line of what will become The Beatles … 30 years to the day later, Harrison’s last American chart single “When We Was Fab,” a remembrance of the Beatles era, enters the Top 100 …
1959, the world of pop music takes a big hit when a small plane crashes into an Iowa cornfield killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.J. “The Big Bopper” Richardson … the three pop stars, who were in the midst of a tour dubbed the Winter Dance Party, had chartered the plane to get to their next gig in Fargo, North Dakota, as an alternative to making the long haul in their tour bus with its defective heater …
1960, “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Barrett Strong enters the Billboard Pop Chart and ultimately rises to #23 … the song will be covered successfully by The Beatles, The Kingsmen, Junior Walker and the Allstars, The Flying Lizards, and badly, in countless karaoke bars worldwide …
1967, British pop producer Joe Meek, who developed many innovative recording techniques, fatally shotguns his landlady following an argument, then turns the gun on himself with equally deadly results … a British tabloid, News of the World, publishes a breathless account of drug use among the day’s rockers under the headline, “Pop Stars and Drugs – Facts that Will Shock You” … the article reports on LSD parties hosted by The Moody Blues and attended by Pete Townshend, Ginger Baker, and other rock luminaries … the story quotes Mick Jagger as admitting to the use of LSD and Benzedrine and claims the Stones singer had shown the reporter a chunk of hash … it is later revealed that the reporter wrote his story after overhearing Brian Jones talking about drugs in a London disco and mistaking him for Jagger … a couple of Stones drug busts are later attributed to continued hostilities between the scandal sheet and the band …
1973, working those good old rock ‘n’ roll changes, Elton John scores his first #1 hit in the U.S. with the infectiously hook-laden “Crocodile Rock” …
1975, Louis Jordan dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles … the alto sax-playing singer and band leader cut a series of novelty jump blues in the 1940s including “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” and “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t (My Baby)” … a decade later Jordan’s highly swinging syncopated style is married to hillbilly music and spawns the rock ‘n’ roll revolution … Jordan still holds the record for having occupied the #1 slot on the Billboard R&B Chart for a total of 113 weeks …
1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is released … the LP races to the #1 slot on the album chart where it remains for 31 weeks … it ultimately moves over 17 million platters … 1977, ABC-TV’s American Bandstand celebrates its 25th birthday with a TV special hosted by Dick Clark … a strangely constituted all-star band that includes Chuck Berry, Gregg Allman, Johnny Rivers, Donald Byrd, Chuck Mangione, Seals & Crofts, Junior Walker, The Pointer Sisters, Charlie Daniels, Doc Severenson, Les McCann, and three-quarters of Booker T and the MGs plays “Roll Over Beethoven” …
1979, Stephen Stills is the first rock act to record on digital gear at L.A.’s Record Plant … the tracks are never released however and guitarist Ry Cooder’s rockabilly-inflected album Bop ’til You Drop becomes the first ones-and-zeroes pop record …
1980, commemorating the first anniversary of Sid Vicious’ death, 1,000 punks stage a march in London … the dead Sex Pistol’s mother, Ann Beverly, had been slated to head the parade, but she’s in hospital recovering from a drug overdose …
1999, breaking with other record companies, Rykodisk endorses distribution of music via MP3s …
2000, ABBA spurns a $100 million offer to reunite for a world tour …
2003, noted child-rearing authority Ozzy Osbourne, reacting to reports that Michael Jackson was beaten as a child by his father, observes, “If he’d been my kid, I would have whacked him too. Because he’s nuts.” … meanwhile in L.A., producer Phil Spector is arrested in connection with the murder of starlet Lana Clarkson … meanwhile somewhere over the Atlantic, Courtney Love raises a ruckus on a Virgin Air flight by refusing to sit down and fasten her seatbelt … she is arrested upon touchdown in London …
2005, Peter Yarrow, formerly of Peter, Paul and Mary is reunited with his Larrivee acoustic guitar that went missing on a flight in December 2000 … an instrument looking much like Yarrow’s missing axe turns up for sale on eBay … the FBI investigates and restores the guitar to its rightful owner … “I’m very delighted, and so is Puff the Magic Dragon,” Yarrow says … this same week, Emmy-winning makeup artist Kylie Bell files suit against Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and ABC-TV owner Walt Disney, seeking $25 million in damages stemming from an alleged rape by the rapper and four members of his entourage following the taping of the talk show in 2003 … the case will later be settled “amicably” out of court … also this week, it is announced that Guns n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has entered into a publishing deal with Sanctuary Music Group worth $20 million … former band members Slash and Duff McKagan argue through their attorneys that Rose had no right to cut the deal … meanwhile there is still no sign of Chinese Democracy, the comeback album Axl has been threatening to release for more than seven years …
2006, the management firm representing singer Avril Lavigne provides defense money for an Arlington, TX, man who has been sued by the recording industry for sharing downloaded music … Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” is among the songs he is charged with stealing …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
February 1: rock journalist Lillian Roxon (1932), Bob Shane of The Kingston Trio (1934), Don Everly (1937), Dr. Hook’s Ray Sawyer (1937), Jimmy Carl Black of The Mothers of Invention (1938), Rick James (1952), Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1954), Dwayne Goettal of Skinny Puppy (1964), Lisa Marie Presley (1968), Patrick Wilson of Weezer (1969), Outkast’s Big Boi (1975)
February 2: saxophonist Red Prysock (1926), Stan Getz (1927), Skip Battin of The Byrds (1934), Clarence Quick of the Dell Vikings (1937), Graham Nash (1942), Ronnie Goodson (1945), Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers (1946), Peter Lucia of Tommy James and The Shondells (1947), Alan McKay of Earth Wind & Fire (1948), Journey’s Ross Valory (1949), jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson (1951), Jeff Healy Band drummer Tom Stephen (1955), Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots (1966), Ben Mize of Counting Crows (1971), Shakira (1977)
February 3: Felix Mendelssohn (1809), jazz saxophonist John Handy (1933), Varetta Dillard (1933), Johnny “Guitar” Watson (1935), David Lerchey of the Dell Vikings (1937), Angelo D’Aleo of Dion & The Belmonts (1940), Neil Bogart (1941), Eric Haydock of the Hollies (1943), Dennis Edwards of The Temptations (1943), Johnny Cymbal (1945), Dave Davies of The Kinks (1947), pop singer Melanie (1947), Lee Renaldo (1956), Tony Butler of Big Country (1957), Lol Tolhurst of The Cure (1959)
February 4: Bernie West of the Five Keys (1930), The Animals’ John Steel (1941), Florence LaRue of the Fifth Dimension (1944), sax man John Stubblefield (1945), Alice Cooper aka Vincent Furnier (1948), Phil Ehart of Kansas (1951), Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley (1952), Clint Black (1962), Natalie Imbruglia (1975), Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World (1975), Cam’ron (1976)
February 5: session drummer Samie “Sticks” Evans (1923), rockabilly Jackie Lee Cochran (1934), Alex Harvey (1935), soul singer-songwriter Barrett Strong (1941), country singer Henson Cargill (1941), Cory Wells of Three Dog Night (1942), Chuck Winfield of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1943), Al Kooper (1944), J.R. Cobb of Atlanta Rhythm Section (1944), Dave Denny of the Steve Miller Band (1948), Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver (1964), Chris Barron of Spin Doctors (1968), Bobby Brown (1969)
February 6: songwriter Leon Rene (1902), sax honker Bill Doggett (1916), teen idol Fabiano Forte AKA Fabian (1943), Bob Marley (1945), Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (1946), Natalie Cole (1950), Axl Rose born William Bruce Rose (1962), Rick Astley (1966)
February 7: Eubie Blake (1883), bluegrass singer Wilma Lee Cooper (1921), Sun Records artist Warren Smith (1932), king of soul sax King Curtis born Curtis Ousley (1934), Donna Stoneman (1934), Earl King (1934), singer Sammy Johns (1946), Jimmy Greenspoon of Three Dog Night (1948), Alan Lancaster of Status Quo (1949), Brian Travers of UB40 (1959), Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat (1960), David Bryan of Bon Jovi (1962), Garth Brooks (1962)
Departures:
February 1: songwriter John Jarrad (2001), Julius Wechter of The Tijuana Brass (1999), slide guitarist Johnny Littlejohn (1994), Paul Robi of The Platters (1989), British music publisher Dick James (1986), Ulysses “Ronnie” Hicks of The Five Keys (1955)
February 2: songwriter Hal Blair (2001), David McComb of The Triffids (1999), jazz drummer and bandleader Mel Lewis (1990), Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion (1987), Sid Vicious (1979)
February 3: sax man Cornelius Bumpus (2004), gospel star James Blackwood (2002), jazz trombonist James Louis “J.J.” Johnson (2001), R&B legend Gwen Guthrie (1999), blues guitarist “Wild” Jimmy Spruill (1996), Alex Harvey (1982), producer Joe Meek (1967), Buddy Holly (1959), Ritchie Valens (1959), “The Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson (1959)
February 4: composer Iannis Xenaxis (2001), dancer and R&B singer Gwen Guthrie (1999), Trevor Lucas (1989), mandolinist Jethro Burns of Homer and Jethro (1989), Atomic Rooster’s Vincent Crane (1989), Liberace (1987), Paul Gardiner of The Tubeway Army (1984), Karen Carpenter (1983), Louis Jordan (1975), Cecil Gant (1951), saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax (1894)
February 5: Slaughter’s Tim Kelly (1998), Rudy Pompilli of Bill Haley’s Comets (1976)
February 6: Japanese indie scene singer Mitsumi Fukuhara (1999), Beach Boy Carl Wilson (1998), technopop artist Falco (1998), elevator-music conductor Hugo Montenegro (1981), R&B singer-songwriter Jesse Belvin (1960)
February 7: Brit reed player Elton Dean (2006), Real Kids bassist Allen “Alpo” Paulino of (2006), “Ring of Fire” co-writer Merle Kilgore (2005), Dale Evans (2001), Dave Peverett of Foghat (2000), songwriter Bobby Troup of “(Get Your Kicks) On Route 66” fame (1999), crooner Matt Munro (1985), Chicago blues bassist and producer Al Smith (1974), Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones (1959)